Transportation Commons^™

Fast Tracks In The Golden State: On California High-Speed Rail, Mti Report S-02-02, Mineta Transportation Institute

Mineta Transportation Institute

Two educational symposia on the future of high-speed rail in California were co-sponsored by the Mineta Transportation Institute, The Commonwealth Club of California, Town Hall-Los Angeles, and the California State Automobile Association. The events were held on July 17, 2003, in San Francisco and on July 18, 2003, in Los Angeles, California, USA. The primary goal of the symposia was to introduce the general public to the California High-Speed Rail Project. A presentation on the project alternatives, costs, and revenues was followed by a panel discussion on the issues and questions from the audience. The Secretary of the California Business, …

A Framework For Evaluating Supply Chain Performance, Terrance L. Pohlen

Journal of Transportation Management

Managers require measures spanning multiple enterprises to increase supply chain competitiveness and to increase the value delivered to the end-customer. Despite the need for supply chain metrics, there is little evidence that any firms are successfully measuring and evaluating interfirm performance. Existing measures continue to capture intrafirm performance and focus on traditional measures. The lack of a framework to simultaneously measure and translate interfirm performance into value creation has largely contributed to this situation. This article presents a framework that overcomes these shortcomings by measuring performance across multiple firms and translating supply chain performance into shareholder value.

Balancing The Logistics Cost-Of-Service Equation In An Increasingly Uncertain Business Environment, Kay Dobie, Jerry Wilson

Journal of Transportation Management

The emphasis in the press, trade publications, and even academic publications is increasingly on supply chain operations, collaboration, and software. There is no argument that these are important considerations as companies struggle to compete in highly competitive markets and an economically difficult environment. This emphasis on “lean” or “JIT” operations presupposes the ability of the firm to operate on a minimum level of inventory and deliver a high level of service. Too often, the basic and vital interdependency between transportation and inventory, necessary to support this objective, is forgotten in the emphasis on the total picture as embodied by the …

Benchmarking The Operational Efficiency Of Major U.S. Trucking Firms Using Data Envelopment Analysis, Hokey Min, Seong Jong Joo

Journal of Transportation Management

In an era of downsizing and financial cutbacks, the operational efficiency of trucking firms dictates their competitiveness and survival. In an effort to help trucking firms develop a winning formula in the fiercely competitive logistics industry, this research aims to develop a meaningful set of benchmarks that will set the tone for best practices. In particular, a data envelopment analysis (DEA) is described. DEA has proven to be useful for measuring the operational efficiency of various profit or non-profit organizations. Using the examples of major trucking businesses in the United States, the usefulness of data envelopment analysis for the continuous …

Price Negotiation Strategies Adopted By Shippers Of International Air And Ocean Transportation, Padmapriya Baboo, Evelyn Thomchick

Journal of Transportation Management

Government regulations in the international air and ocean shipping industry have undergone a wide range of new developments geared towards deregulation. These changes, coupled with the emergence of new technologies, have facilitated foreign trade operations leading to a substantial increase in international air and ocean cargo traffic in recent years. This study investigates the regulation reforms that have affected pricing techniques in both industries and their implications on the negotiation strategies adopted by shippers and carriers. The survey results identified that each shipping firm negotiated on a variety of issues and employed more than one strategy for negotiating price.

Drivers Of Logistics Excellence: Implications For Carriers, Karl B. Manrodt

Journal of Transportation Management

Technological advances have increased customer expectations during an era of increasing cost controls. Shippers are becoming more demanding as technologies being developed offer greater visibility and control in the supply chain. The question remains, however, as to what are the key drivers of this technological change, and where is the market headed. Will these changes merely add cost or will they enable carriers to compete effectively in the market? The purpose of this article is to highlight six major drivers of logistics excellence, and to provide the carrier community with some thoughts as to how to respond to these emerging …

Saving City Lifelines: Lessons Learned In The 9-11 Terrorist Attacks, Mti Report 02-06, Brian M. Jenkins

Mineta Transportation Institute

This case study of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks examines how the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York City Transit, Port Authority, and other transit systems responded to the events of 9-11, and how the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) worked to coordinate response and recovery operations; it also seeks to identify those lessons that can be captured before participants rotate or retire, memories dim, and what was learned is lost. The scope is limited to the evaluation of transit response, not other surface transportation elements such as bridges and tunnels, which seemed to function quite well and could be …

No Road, No Rage: A Forum On Expanding Bay Area Ferry Service, Mti Report F-02-01, Mineta Transportation Institute

Mineta Transportation Institute

As part of the Mineta Transportation Institute's ongoing efforts to promote dialogue addressing surface transportation issues, it is my pleasure to share this edited transcript of No Road, No Rage: A Forum on Expanding Bay Area Ferry Service . As the title suggests, expanding water transit services has been proposed as one way to ease congestion on the roads. The San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Authority is seeking to expand ferry service for the Bay Area, and this forum offered an opportunity for interested citizens to hear more about the proposal, ask questions, and share their concerns and hopes. …

Research Note: Determinants Of Bus Dwell Time, Kenneth Dueker, Thomas J. Kimpel, James G. Strathman, Steve Callas

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This research note reports an analysis of dwell times at bus stops using archived Automatic Vehicle Location/ Automatic Passenger Counter (AVL/APC) data reported at the level of the individual bus stop. The data provide a large number of observations that serve to better understand the determinants of dwells, including analysis of rare events, such as lift operations. The analysis of bus dwell times at bus stops is applicable to TriMet, the transit provider for the Portland metropolitan area, and transit agencies in general. The determinants of dwell time include passenger activity, lift operations and other effects: low floor bus, time …

Transportation Costs And The American Dream: Why A Lack Of Transportation Choices Strains The Family Budget And Hinders Home Ownership, Surface Transportation Policy Project

Portland Regional Planning History

This report focuses on the relationship between the rising cost of transportation and family budgets

The Conference Proceedings Of The 2003 Air Transport Research Society (Atrs) World Conference, Vol. 2, Brent Bowen, Sveinn Gudmundsson, Tae Hoon Oum, Uno Aviation Institute

Faculty Books and Monographs

UNOAI Report 03-6

The Conference Proceedings Of The 2003 Air Transport Research Society (Atrs) World Conference, Volume 3, Brent D. Bowen, Sveinn Gudmundsson, Tae Hoon Oum, Uno Aviation Institute

Faculty Books and Monographs

UNOAI Report 03-7

The Conference Proceedings Of The 2003 Air Transport Research Society (Atrs) World Conference, Volume 5, Brent Bowen, Sveinn Gudmundsson, Tae Hoon Oum, Uno Aviation Institute

Faculty Books and Monographs

UNOAI Report 03-9

The Conference Proceedings Of The 2003 Air Transport Research Society (Atrs) World Conference, Volume 1, Brent Bowen, Sveinn Gudmundsson, Tae Hoon Oum, Uno Aviation Institute

Faculty Books and Monographs

UNOAI Report 03-5

Best Practices In Shared-Use High-Speed Rail Systems, Mti Report 02-02, Andrew Nash

Mineta Transportation Institute

A high-speed rail system is intercity passenger ground transportation that is time-competitive with air and/or auto for travel markets in the approximate range of 100 to 500 miles, and these systems are increasingly gaining attention in the United States. Many states are developing proposals for new HSR systems designed to solve critical transportation problems, especially the growing congestion on our highway and airport systems. Highspeed rail is also viewed as a way to focus growth and development around stations as well as to serve as a catalyst for economic growth. There is significant international experience in building and operating HSR …

National Symposium And Videoconference On Sustainable Transportation, Mti Report S-01-01, Mineta Transportation Institute

Mineta Transportation Institute

In June 2001, the Mineta Transportation Institute joined several schools nationwide, as well as authorities in transportation, to discuss sustainable transportation. The purpose was to expose children to the opportunities available in transportation-related careers and to discuss utilizing natural resources to develop alternatives to current modes of transportation. Each school presented a short project on sustainable transportation. The keynote speaker was Secretary Norman Mineta. The moderators were Rod Diridon and Trixie Johnson from MTI. The organizer of the event was Dr. D.K. Kung, Professor at San José State University. Participating in the event were: Secretary Norman Mineta, Secretary of Transportation, …

Verifying The Accuracy Of Regional Models Used In Transportation And Air Quality Planning, Mti 02-03, Caroline Rodier

Mineta Transportation Institute

Communities with air quality problems in California and across the nation are proposing major beltway and highway projects to address roadway congestion problems. However, the travel and emissions models used in conformity analyses and environmental impact statements have low accuracy. Travel demand models are typically estimated on and calibrated to observed data, but rarely validated against observed data not used in their estimation and calibration. Validation of a model is critical to determining the degree of precision to which it can be reasonably applied. In this historical forecasting case study in the Sacramento, California region, the original version of the …

Trucks, Traffic, And Timely Transport: A Regional Freight Logistics Profile, John Niles

Mineta Transportation Institute

This report justifies and designs a comprehensive tool for describing intraurban trucking, which is the bulk of truck movement in an urban area but typically is unexamined in regional transportation planning. We begin by reviewing literature describing the characteristics and policy issues bearing on freight. We extract from that literature a structure for describing those policy issues, and then go on to design a series of map displays and quantitative measures that provide a linkage between the characteristics of local delivery trucking and the public policy issues that stem from and influence these characteristics. The Regional Freight Logistics Profile (RFLP) …

Risk Of Radiation Exposure From The Transportation Of High-Level Nuclear Waste, Lawrence Banks

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Transportation of high-level nuclear waste poses a potential risk of exposure from radiation to people of Las Vegas and the surrounding environment. 77,000 metric tons of waste is scheduled to start arriving at Yucca Mountain in 2010. For 24 years legal weight trucks will transport high-level nuclear waste through 109 cities with populations over 100,000. The population of Las Vegas is over 400,000 people. In all, legal weight trucks will cross 43 states traveling millions of highway miles (see appendix B). The U. S. Department of Energy estimates expected radiological risk from accidents would be no higher than 0.003 latent …

Third National Garrett Morgan Sustainable Transportation Symposium, Mti Report S-02-01, Mineta Transportation Institute

Mineta Transportation Institute

On May 2, 2003, the Mineta Transportation Institute joined numerous authorities in the surface transportation industry with several middle and elementary schools to discuss the topic of sustainable transportation. The purpose of this forum was to expose the students (from Maryland, Virginia, and California) to the many opportunities available to them in transportation-related careers, and to discuss the utilization of many natural resources to develop alternatives to current modes of transportation. Each of the schools participated in a videoconference to present projects for sustainable transportation options for the future. Their ideas included powering buses, cars, light rail, and ultra-light rail …

Making Growth Work For California’S Communities, Kenneth R. Schreiber

Mineta Transportation Institute

If the State of California government is to become a stronger advocate for transportation and land use policies that address growth patterns and related issues associated with community planning and development, it will be helpful for state policymakers, concerned professionals, and others involved in shaping California’s land use policies to have the clearest and most up-to-date understanding of existing efforts by local governments to improve and update planning methods; the status of, and attitude toward, innovation and change in the planning and community development profession; the extent to which local governments are incorporating new ideas and concepts into local plans …

Industry-Wide Response To Terror: A Political Economy Analysis Of The Owner/Operator Sector Of The U.S. Motorcoach Industry Post 9-11, Kathryn J. Ready, Drew Stapleton, Milorad Novicevic, Tom Kuffel

Journal of Transportation Management

The authors develop a political economy framework to study the post- September 11th environmental changes and firm responses in the owner/operator sector of the U.S. motorcoach industry. Based on a comprehensive analysis of both evolutionary and revolutionary changes in the competitive and regulatory environments faced by the firms in this industry, their policy and strategic responses to the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, on U.S. soil are examined. The industry’s response is captured (i.e., collective action response) by surveying 163 firms operating and competing in the owner/operator sector of the U.S. motorcoach industry. Several descriptive statistics are synthesized and …

The Airline Quality Rating 2003, Brent D. Bowen, Dean Headley, Uno Aviation Institute

Faculty Books and Monographs

UNOAI Report 03-1

The Airline Quality Rating (AQR) was developed and first announced in early 1991 as an objective method of comparing airline quality on combined multiple performance criteria. This current report, the Airline Quality Rating 2003, reflects monthly Airline Quality Rating scores for 2002. AQR scores for the calendar year 2002 are based on 15 elements that focus on airline performance areas important to air travel consumers.

The Airline Quality Rating 2003 is a summary of month-by-month quality ratings for the 10 largest U.S. airlines operating during 2002. Using the Airline Quality Rating system of weighted averages and monthly …

Global Order Status Process Of Hi-Tech Companies, Jatinder S. Chahal, Evelyn Thomchick

Journal of Transportation Management

This paper focuses on the global order status process of high-tech companies. An effort has been made to understand how these companies approach their global order status process. Similarities and differences in their order status process are given. A brief history of tracking and tracing capabilities is also presented, highlighting FedEx and UPS. Some new trends in track and trace are also discussed.

Surface Freight Transportation In Mexico Post Nafta, Richard L. Clarke

Journal of Transportation Management

One of the significant expressed objectives of NAFTA was the improvement of cross-border transportation to enable a more efficient and cost effective flow of goods among Mexico, Canada and the United States. This article examines the changes that have taken place in surface freight transportation between Mexico and the U.S. since NAFTA was signed in 1993.

Shippers Usage Of The Internet Including E-Marketplaces In The Trucking Industry, John L. Kent, R Stephen Parker, Allen D. Schaefer

Journal of Transportation Management

The research reported in this manuscript provides insights regarding trucking related e-marketplaces and web-based offerings by truckers. Over 2,000 shippers were surveyed with 420 total responses. Overall, only 7% of shippers were currently utilizing e-marketplaces; however, those that are appear to be satisfied. Shippers ranked tracking, freight posting, and pricing, in that order of importance for trucking web sites.

Logistics Education At Historically Black Colleges And Universities, Abdussalam A. Addus, Anwar S. Kahn, David Chen

Journal of Transportation Management

A review of research literature on logistics education reveals disparities between demand for and supply of logistics management skills. Racial minorities are relatively underrepresented in logistics education and professional careers. In order to meet the rising demand for college graduates and mitigate racial disparities in the field, a need arises to enhance logistics education at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s). HBCU’s are known to have a high rate of success in retaining and graduating African American students. Yet, only a few of these institutions offer logistics degree programs or concentrations within the business and social science majors. This article …

Regional Transportation Hot Spot Forum Marin/Sonoma 101 Corridor, Mti Report F-01-02, Mineta Transportation Institute

Mineta Transportation Institute

The entire Hwy. 101 corridor in Marin County and 10 miles in Sonoma County were at F service level as early as 1995. Tourists and recreational destinations make this a seven-day-a-week traffic hot spot. Three failed elections in the past revealed an electorate divided and unable to reach consensus on solutions. Recent work by public and private leaders in both counties was leading toward an election in November 2004. On April 11, 2002, the Mineta Transportation Institute cosponsored a regional transportation forum with The Commonwealth Club of California in Marin County, California. Several representatives from key Marin County and Sonoma …

California Transportation Security Summits, Mti Report S-01-04, Mti

Mineta Transportation Institute

In the aftermath of September 11, it became undeniably clear that terrorists target civil transport systems and are willing to use transport systems as weapons of mass destruction as well as targets. In response to this threat, America ’s transportation community must adopt more effective measures to insure the safety of the millions of passengers and employees who use or work in transit facilities every day. To meet this heightened responsibility, leaders of the transportation community need high-quality information and appropriate policy guidance. To help meet this need, the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI)—a leader in transportation terrorism research since the …

Beyond The Big Dig, Robert Turner

New England Journal of Public Policy

For more than a decade, from the day that the decision was made to put Boston’s Central Artery underground, many forward-looking planners and designers have been conjuring up visions of the mile-long street-level corridor that would replace the elevated highway, reshaping the heart of downtown. By the end of 2001, the corridor had acquired a name, the Rose Kennedy Greenway, but work was far more advanced on the traffic tunnel underground than on the open space above. These precious twenty-seven acres had the potential to flower into a magnificent, vibrant urban oasis that would become known the world over. But …