URBAN TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION Aishwarya

Tyagi

The interconnection between urban centres like in most transport

applications is achieved through a series of nodes and links.
- Nodes: these can be termed as either a spatial accumulation of
economic activities or the accessibility to the transport system. Such
transport nodes include:
rail stations, ports, air ports or bus stations.
-Linkages are the infrastructure supporting movements. These linkages
vary from footpaths to roads and railways.
Urban transport systems can be structured in three broad categories,
collective, individual and freight transport. In most cases they can be
complementary to each other, however they may be competing against
each other for land.
- Collective Transportation (public transport): The purpose of
collective transportation is to provide publicly accessible mobility over
specific parts of a city. Its efficiency is based upon transporting large
numbers of people and achieving economies of scale. It includes modes
such as light rail, buses, metro etc.
- Individual Transportation. Includes any mode where mobility is the
outcome of a personal choice and means such as the automobile,
walking, cycling and the motorcycle. The majority of people walk to
satisfy their basic mobility, but this number varies according to the city
considered. For instance, walking account for 88% of all movements
inside Tokyo while this figure is only 3% for Los Angeles.
-Freight Transportation. As cities are dominant centres of production
and consumption, urban activities are accompanied by large movements
of freight.These movements are mostly characterised by delivery trucks

URBAN TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION Aishwarya

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moving between industries, distribution centres, warehouses and retail
activities as well as from major terminals such as ports, rail yards,
distribution centres and airports.
Urban transportation is thus associated with a spatial form which varies
according to the models being used. What has not changed much is that
cities tend to opt for a grid street pattern. This was the case for many
Roman cities as it is for American
cities.
The reasons behind this permanence are relatively simple; a grid pattern
jointly optimise accessibility and available real estate. In an age of
motorisation and personal mobility, an increasing number of cities are
developing a spatial structure that increases reliance on motorised
transportation, particularly the privately owned automobile.
Dispersion, or urban sprawl, is taking place in many different types of
cities, from dense, centralised European metropolises such as Madrid,
Paris, London and Dublin, to rapidly industrialising metropolises such as
Seoul, Shanghai, and Buenos Aires, to those experiencing recent, fast
and uncontrolled urban growth, such as Bombay and Lagos.

Walking. The space / time relationship of such a commute would be a

circle of 10 km of diameter.

URBAN TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION Aishwarya

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Public transport. In this case, the space / time relationship would be
star shaped to reflect walking to the public transport service and of 15
km of diameter along the lines.
Cycling. With approximately the same speed of public transport , but
with no fixed line limitations, the space / time relationship of commuting
by bicycle would be a circle of 15 km of diameter.
Driving (no freeways). With a driving speed of about 30 km per hour
(taking into account of stops, lights, congestion and parking), an
automobile creates a spherical space / time relationship of about 30 km
in diameter.
Driving (with freeways). Along a freeway, a fixed infrastructure, the
driving speed is doubled to 60 km per hour. The space / time relationship
is then star shaped with 60 km of diameter along its axis.
The relationship between Transportation and Urban Form
The evolution of transportation has generally led to changes in urban
form. The
more radical the changes in transport technology, the more the urban
form has been altered.
Among the most fundamental changes in urban form is the emergence
of new clusters expressing new urban activities and new relationships
between elements of the urban system.

URBAN TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION Aishwarya

Tyagi