This research examines the impact of bus degregulation at the level of the company. It follows a case study approach. The findings are analysed in the context of contestability theory and organisation theories, as well as empirical evidence. The first part of this research views the bus industry in terms of the effects that the regulatory system has had on the industry's suppliers, and examines the roots of the legal provisions of the 1985 Transport Act. The second part focuses on the organisational context. It establishes the challenges that bus companies face by reference to the pre-1985 situation, and provides an interpretation of strategic responses in the early post-1985 era. In addition, it introduces the type of strategic options open to companies operating in declining markets, and outlines a theoretical organisational framework within which this case's organisational changes are to be analysed. Finally, the research design and research methods are presented. The third part consists of a detailed analysis of the selected case study company: Midland Fox Limited. It introduces the local market structure and basic data on the company. The major patterns of corporate strategy are presented and analysed, and key areas of managerial activity studied. The competitive behaviour of the company is then discussed in the context of competitive events that have occurred in the market. The fourth and concluding part of this case study research discusses the most significant issues arising from this investigation in terms of their implications for future developments in the bus industry.

A methodology is presented herewith to assist in the systematic evaluation of operational conditions of the vital and dynamic processing facilities of airport terminals, which could enhance planning and management practices adopted for airports. The methodology focusses on the relation between capacity of individual facilities and levels of service that passengers experience in them, whereby important operational aspects of those facilities are examined and analysed. The developed methodology consists of two main parts: Capacity procedure, and Level of Service procedure. The first establishes the relations (Performance models) between demand levels (flows) that may possibly be accommodated by individual facilities, and some service measures of particular relevance to passengers that could be used to assess the performance of facilities when subjected to various demand levels. To accomplish this, simulation techniques are utilized to synthesize required information. In the second, the way by which a framework of service standards could be established is presented. Levels of service are derived by asking passengers (through appropriate surveys) to assess service standards based upon their perception to service conditions at a particular time, and their response to different variations of service resulting at different demand levels. Through this method, Perception-Response models are derived, where they are used in the case studies conducted, to delineate the levels of service for processing facilities of the airport terminal considered.

No description available.

The aims of the thesis are to find out the causal mechanism of city farming and to examine the hypothesis that city farming conforms to the conditions of sustainable urban development. As far as methodology is concerned, the thesis employs a realist approach. In the realist methodology, to understand what is as significant as to know why. Therefore, the thesis pays much attention to the conceptualisation of city farming and sustainable urban development. Vacant land in Seoul, the precondition of city farming, occurred basically through the natural process of urban expansion, but most importantly due to the growth-oriented land development policies. City farming is at the moment an opportunistic and illegal use of vacant land under the negligence of planning control. Led by a leading agent, the city farmers on each case site have colonised vacant land through the reality and practice learning. However, city farmers' egoistic action has an unintended consequence of making vacant land an unofficial open space. The thesis also identifies that city farming on the case sites conforms to the elements of sustainable urban development. The elements developed in the thesis are future, nature, participation, equity, and selfreliance. The thesis suggests three criteria for each element with which the hypothesis is examined. The thesis concludes that the modern planning system in South Korea has failed to take into consideration the socio-economic and environmental aspects of city farming. It, therefore, suggests that future planning system promote activities or projects which comply with the principles of sustainable urban development. Although the modern planning system in Seoul has failed to cope with the rapid land use change shown in the case studies, the thesis proposes that the planner's role has become more important than ever before in this age of environmental concerns.

Road development in Saudi Arabia is considered one of the major products of the social and economic development that the country has witnessed in the last two decades. In the last decade, motorways were built to connect major population centres in the Kingdom using high international standards (Figure 1.1). However, the motorway service areas which took place along these motorways sides were incompatible with the motorway system. This disparity in standards between the motorways and the motorway services is related to the planning, design, development, and facilities outcome in these service areas in contrast to similar services provided in more developed countries. Many factors have definitely contributed to the formation of the existing services, because they were the outcome of a set of planning and development procedures which involves different interests from different contributors such as the governmental controlling authorities, the operators of the service areas, and the users themselves.

The current basis of school transport provision by the Local Education Authorities was introduced during the 1940s with the role of facilitating the attendance of pupils at the nearest appropriate school and ensuring that access to education was not based upon a child's place of residence or upon parental means. To meet this objective, the provision of free school transport was considered necessary if a child lived beyond the minimum walking distances, established as two miles for pupils of under eight years of age (eleven years in the case of Northern Ireland) and three miles for older pupils. In addition, Local Education Authorities have wide discretionary powers to provide school transport to pupils not statutorily entitled. During the past twenty years, this basis of provision has received repeated criticism for failing to address the issues of rising expenditure on school transport, equity, road safety and parental choice of school. This thesis, therefore, examines the long term demographic and social trends affecting the provision of school transport services by the Local Education Authorities and the institutional responses to these trends. It also examines the current provision of school transport at individual authority level and the recent changes to both public transport and education legislation, to establish whether there is a case for changing the basis of provision to address these issues. Having established that there is a case for changing the basis of provision, recent proposals for change are reviewed and alternative bases of provision, including the system of school transportation in the USA, are discussed in the context of the issues on which criticism has focussed. This shows that the three alternative bases of provision with the scope to address these issues to the greatest extent are: widening the availability of free school transport to all pupils; reducing the minimum walking distances; and flat-fare charging. These three alternatives are then evaluated, with the economic implications of their introduction, not only for the Local Education Authorities, but also parents and society in general, being assessed. From this, it is concluded that the introduction of a flat-fare charging policy could address all the issues to the greatest extent, whilst offering the most economically feasible alternative basis for the provision of school transport provision by the Local Education Authorities in the UK.

The rapidly increasing worldwide usage of the Internet and the World Wide Web since the second half of the 1990s has affected the way geographers, built environment scholars and commentators look at concepts like space, distance, and the city itself. The possibility for real-world functions such as gathering, informing, communicating, taking decisions and performing economic transactions to be hosted by a new type of electronic, virtual space, has opened up new opportunities together with many new questions for those who are involved in planning urban spaces. One of the most interesting phenomena related to the emergence of 'urban' Internet functions is the creation - started around 1993-94 - of local public information systems called 'digital cities'. These systems were hailed as highly valuable 'cyber' additions to urban space and to the public sphere of Western cities. This thesis has constituted one of the first, systematic attempts to observe and analyse the 'digital city' phenomenon within the boundaries of the European Union. It has contributed to the creation of a much-needed typology of digital cities by surveying and analysing the contents of over two hundred early developments across Europe. Another important contribution has been going beyond the observation of the contents of the initiatives and, through in-depth case studies, analysing how a couple of advanced and exemplar experiments were being socially shaped, concentrating on the important - and often overlooked - processes behind the design and deployment of technology. Information and Communication Technologies are in constant - and rapid - evolution, and so are IT-based systems used to run several aspects of urban life. However, as the early phaseso f the developmenta nd acceptanceo f new technologiesa re crucial and able to influence later ideas and initiatives, the results and recommendations from this thesis can be seen as a valuable contribution to the study of urban technology in general.

Urban Development Corporations (UDCs) are perhaps the most outstanding examples of government action in the field of urban regeneration in the last twenty years. In order to promote regeneration UDCs were given development control powers over Urban Development Areas (UDAs). These powers were taken from local government and this caused well-documented resentment in many cases. However, local government retained all development plan-making powers. Following two town planning acts (in 1990 and 1991) central government gave the development plan more power in the development control process (through Section 54A). This created a situation in an UDA where, in relation to development control, the UDC had to have regard to a development plan that had been written by a local authority; often a local authority with which it had not seen eye to eye in planning matters. Thus there was a potential for conflict between an UDC and a local authority in both strategic and specific planning issues. There was possible tension between regulation (the development plan) and regeneration (the strategy and aims of the UDC). Most local authorities in urban areas were replacing old style development plans with new Unitary Development Plans which further complicated the issue. It became vitally important for UDCs to have an input to these emerging plans that the local authorities were preparing, in order to ensure that their aims and objectives for the UDAs would not be hindered by the new UDPs, which were to play a greater role in the development control process. This research firstly examines the concept of both the development plan and urban regeneration. It then presents the important links between the two in relation to the experience of UDCs. A series of questions are generated through the literature review which are answered in the final part of the work. Using these theoretical and practical standpoints as a basis, a conceptual framework for the study of the UDP preparation process, content and relationship between the local authorities and the UDCs with regard to the emerging plans is produced. It is formulated through theoretical study of literature concerning policy analysis and organisational relationships. In order to examine what occurred in the real world, this framework is then applied two case study areas - Tyne / Wear and London Docklands. Each area had a designated UDC over parts of composite unitary local authorities. The respective UDAs spread across a total of seven local authorities. The conceptual framework for this study was applied to the situation between the UDC and each of the seven local authorities in order to examine differences in working practices, differences in policy process and content, and differences in the relationships between the two organisations. UDCs were finally wound up in April 1998, and in the current climate it is unlikely that urban regeneration will ever be promoted in such a way again. However there are many important lessons to be learnt from the experience of UDCs and the development planning system. These are particularly pertinent to existing urban regeneration authorities such as English Partnerships and also to any possible citywide or regional development agencies. This study presents the range of practices that were evident in the case studies and examines what structured them. It concludes by outlining the most appropriate and relevant methods that were employed and making suggestions for better working practices in the future.

With the industrial revolution and huge emigration from villages to cities in developed countries, and later on with the changing balance between the Urban and Rural residents in third world countries, because of the poverty and lack of basic services in rural areas, rural development has become a major problem in the world, especially in third world countries. Iran, as one of such countries, has been faced with this problem, and some reforms for changing the situation and providing more acceptable living conditions for the rural people have been established and implemented. After the Revolution in 1979, the Islamic Government has its roots in the poor people who supported the Revolution in different stages so the effective factors for such improvements in rural condition are included in the revolutionary Constitution and later on in the National Development Programmes. The statements in the Constitution Law and the establishment of two independent agencies, Bonyad-e-Maskan & Jahad-e-Sazandegi, to deal with rural problems, have resulted in the start of Rural Development Planning activities. The national aims developed by the policymaker for development in rural areas in this regard are to: "Create necessary social, cultural and economic conditions necessary for development, and providing necessary possibilities and physical improvements and necessary facilities for improving housing and other environmental basic public services." With this overall policy, development activity has started with the aim of improvement in the standard of life for rural areas. Up to 1997, about 1000 plans have been prepared and 370 have been implemented. This research is looking to investigate the implemented cases, to evaluate the degree of success or failure and to make conclusions and recommendations. With this aim, the research includes a literature review, in the context of development planning, specifically Rural Development Planning, and then an investigation of Iranian Constitutional Law, the National Programmes, the agencies and Iranian planning organisation to be able to make an evaluation framework and design a process for case studies and data collection, in a qualitative approach to the research. With 59 cases which had passed their first five years period of planning, 13 cases have been chosen, of which five have been studied in detail, each with an individual field study report, leading to specific and general conclusions, which are divided into two parts. Firstly from the literature review, which draws the main points to establish the desired achievements for successful development planning in rural areas. Secondly the conclusions apply to all parts of the rural development process in Iran, from policy making to implementation and with recommendations for the overall process in principle and in detail and relating to the agencies and resources involved. The main results from the case studies have identified gaps and weaknesses in the process and therefore have lead to recommendations as to how the process would be more successful. It shows that the rural development planning, as part of the national development programme, needs: i) To have more accurate regional plans in advance in order to define the main potentials in each region, and to provide guidelines appropriate to each, ii) To ensure the correct designation of the villages which are to be planned; iii) To encourage the appointed consultants to follow best practice for plan-preparation; iv) To provide the necessary administrative organisation, with the powers and resources to be able to carry out the process; and v) To improve implementation.

The starting point of this study was the influence of the rapid urban growth that Saudi Arabia has experienced during the last three decades, which has had a negative effect on the environment in general and in particular has led to the loss of the natural resources of the agricultural land of the oasis areas. The study seeks to answer the following questions: How can we sustain development in the oasis ? Are there comprehensive policies in respect of urban development, including infrastructure, agriculture and water, and environmental protection? And what is the impact of these policies on the general environment and on the oases in particular? The research covers a wide range of policies and the National Development Plans, which cover different areas of development such as urban development, infrastructure, agriculture and water, and environment, as well as other government activities within the authority of several agencies and ministries. AI-Qatif oasisi n the EasternP rovinceh asb eens electeda s a cases tudy to illustrate the existing situation and the result of implementing the national policies in terms of physicald evelopmenat nde nvironmentapl rotection,a nd to highlight the factors which haver esultedi n unsustainabled evelopmenitn the Kingdom's oases. The different experiences of other countries in relation to such concerns and the various policies of the Saudi government, such as urban, infrastructure, agriculture and water, and environment policies, are assessed and reviewed in general terms as well as more particularly in relation to the physical development and environmental protection of AI-Qatif oasis. Accounts are given of MEPA and MOMRA as the responsible bodies within the Kingdom for development and environmental protection, and general details of their institutional responsibilities and policies are provided in order to aid the analysis of the research. The researcher adopted a methodology combining both qualitative and quantitative elements, a descriptive approach, a survey type of research design, and an interview data collection technique, in order to gather information for his study. An assessment of the data gathered in relation to the research has helped to illustrate the factors contributing to the existing unsustainable development in AI-Qatif oasis and the loss of the agricultural land of the oasis as a valuable natural resource. The findings show that Saudi Arabia has produced appropriate policies and has established the ministries and agencies to carry out these policies; as a result the people enjoy one of the best standards of living in the world. However, there are still in evidence some factors which cause concern in relation to environmental matters. These include the lack at national level of comprehensive sustainable development policies for the oases, such as would be aided by the utilisation of EA and SEA, the lack at local level of wide-ranging implementation of the existing national policies in relation to the physical development and environmental protection of the natural resources of the oasis, and the lack of a comprehensive institutional framework to implement the policies which exist. Other very important factors are the absence of comprehensive co-operation between government ministries and agencies in relation to the sustainable development of the oases, and the lack of public awareness of, participation in, and education about environment matters, all of which contribute to the existing unsustainable development in the oasis. Finally, the study makes recommendations that would help and guide growth and change in the oases along the way of sustainable development.