No description available.

Value for money (VFM) assessment has been adopted worldwide as a public private partnership (PPP) decision methodology. In terms of quantitative assessment, this method considers only the public sector cost, assuming completion delay does not occur between delivery alternatives, so it is difficult to use where systematic completion delays in the conventional delivery are expected to occur like in Korea. Therefore, in this research a Modified VFM methodology was developed to consider completion delay as well as public sector cost, using the VFM assessment and the Net Present Value (NPV) technique. In addition, various risks including transferable risks (completion delay, construction cost and traffic volume risk) were quantified in order to examine the impact of the transferable risks on PPP decisions, through historical observations and a literature review. In total six case studies (2 National Highways, 2 National Expressways and 2 National Railways) were conducted, reflecting Build-Transfer-Operate (BTO) and Build- Transfer Lease (BTL), the most popular PPP options in Korea. The biggest difference between the BTO and the BTL options is that the private sector makes a profit from end users’ tariffs in the BTO option, whereas it makes a profit using the annual lease fee from the government in the BTL option. The most important finding is that a completion delay in the conventional delivery can be a decisive factor on the quantitative PPP decisions because of the resulting benefit difference between conventional delivery and PPP options. As this completion delay for conventional delivery becomes longer, the probability that PPP schemes are favourable increases. In addition, the critical completion delay, making the Modified VFM zero, varies depending on not only whether to include the construction cost risk and the traffic volume risk, but also on the PPP options considered. Another important finding is that, when including construction cost risk, the viability of PPP options in roads increases, whereas that in railways decreases. This is because the average winning bid ratio (winner’s price divided by estimated price) of turnkey/ alternative bids in roads, used in the calculation of the asset cost of the public sector comparator (PSC) according to the BTL guidelines of Korea, is higher than historical observations that include construction cost risk, whereas in railways it is lower than historical observations that include construction cost risk. This difference between roads and railways seems to arise from the fact that railways are usually delivered separately using six major work element contracts, while roads are usually delivered by a single contract, suggesting that separate contracts lead to greater cost overruns than a single contract. In addition, when reflecting traffic volume risk, the most appropriate delivery option, from a Government perspective, for road/railway cases with tariffs changes from the BTL to the BTO option. This is because traffic volume risk directly results in a shortfall in revenue, which makes the BTO option more favourable to the public sector. However, in the case of railways, the BTL option seems to be practically adopted because the revenue stream is so small that the BTO option is not affordable for the private sector, even considering the maximum governmental subsidy condition. For the success of a BTO project in Korea, a new traffic volume risk sharing scheme is also suggested, sharing revenue shortfall or excess according to the investment of each participant. Overall, this research suggests that, considering the transferable risks and the revenue stream size of each transport programme, the BTL option is the most appropriate for the National Railways, whereas the BTO is the most appropriate option for the National Expressways, provided that the BTO viability can be achieved in terms of the internal rate of return. With respect to the National Highway programme, the BTL option can be considered as an alternative to conventional delivery on a case by case basis. Finally, considering the land transport programme (roads and railways) of Korea, a meta-analysis indicates that the Modified VFM is positively influenced by project size, completion delay, benefit cost ratio, discount rate and consumer price index, whereas it is negatively influenced by the five year exchequer bond interest rate. In addition, the BTO option and Gyeonggi province (surrounding Seoul) respectively have a bigger positive influence on the Modified VFM than the BTL option and Gyungnam province (adjacent to Busan).

This thesis documents new research into the modelling of driver vision and the integration of a new vision model into a microscopic traffic simulation tool. It is proposed and demonstrated that modelling of driver vision enhances the realism of simulated driver decision-making and behaviour, in turn, leading to improved simulation of driver interactions and traffic flow. Driving and traffic related research has traditionally fallen into the three distinct areas of driver psychology, traffic and highway engineering and vehicle dynamics, with modelling or experimentation in any of these areas supported by significant approximation in the others. In contrast to this, the vision research discussed here has been carried out in a context that aims to integrate all of these areas equally. This has been realised through the implementation of a new modelling environment, Synthetic Driving SIMulation, SD-SIM.

No description available.

An essential assumption for the usefulness of near miss reporting is the common cause hypothesis: the causal pathways of near misses are supposed to be similar to those of actual accidents (such as injuries and damages). The common cause hypothesis was originally proposed by Heinrich (1931) in his seminal book "Industrial Accident Prevention". Since then, the hypothesis has been alternately supported and rejected based on a confounded view of the interdependence of severity, frequency and causation. The evidence from various studies is examined and it is concluded that the hypothesis has not been properly tested. Thus this thesis tests the validity of the common cause hypothesis. In order to develop the methodology to test the ommon cause hypothesis analytical work in the area of incident analysis and reporting was required. Thus this thesis also outlines the approaches to accident and incident analysis and makes several recommendations regarding the use of taxonomies and reporting systems. A reporting and analysis system (CIRAS) for the collection and analysis of near misses and unsafe acts and practices was developed and implemented for use in the UK railway industry. This reporting and analysis system formed the basis for the test of the common cause hypothesis. Data used to empirically test the common cause hypothesis come from one company of the UK railway industry. Three types of data were used: incidents resulting in 'fatality & injury', 'damage' or 'near miss''. A total of 240 incidents were collected via management reports and a voluntary reporting system. All incidents were coded for causal factors according to the CIRAS (Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis System) taxonomy. A total of 750 causal factors were assigned to the 240 incidents. Analysis was performed on a comparison of the proportion of codes occurring at all three consequence levels using Chi-square analysis. Results : The CIRAS taxonomy consists of 21 individual causal factors. Only three of these factors (knowledge based, training and procedures) were significantly different across the three severity levels. It is therefore concluded that this research provides qualified support for the common cause hypothesis.

No description available.

Whilst transport has repeatedly been identified as an integral component in the tourism system, the relationship between urban public transport networks and visitor behaviour at urban destinations remains largely unexplored. Furthermore, tourist transport is rarely the subject of the same quality benchmarking techniques that are applied to other elements of the tourism product. The thesis reviews the use of service quality and customer satisfaction measures in urban tourism and urban public transport, highlighting dimensions of urban public transport quality which may be of particular relevance to overseas visitors at urban destinations. The results of a survey of overseas visitors to Greater Manchester, employing both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques, are subsequently presented, identifying factors affecting the use of public transport by overseas visitors to Greater Manchester. Attributes of public transport service quality, revealed by the research to be of importance in measuring overseas visitors’ satisfaction with urban public transport performance in Greater Manchester, are reduced by means of principal components analysis to reveal the underlying dimensions of overseas visitors’ satisfaction with Manchester’s public transport system. An ensuing regression analysis reveals the relationships between the dimensions of public transport performance, overall satisfaction with public transport and satisfaction with Manchester as a visitor destination. Additionally, an importance-performance analysis is employed to uncover the strengths and weaknesses of public transport service in Manchester from an overseas visitor perspective. The implications for destination management are discussed.

Η Μεσόγειος αντιπροσωπεύει µια από τις περιοχές “κλειδί” στις παλαιοωκεανογραφικές µελέτες από τη στιγµή που οι υδρογραφικές και ιζηµατογενείς διαδικασίες είναι ευαίσθητες στις κλιµατολογικές αλλαγές των παρακείµενων ηπείρων. Οι περισσότερες δηµοσιευµένες µελέτες εξέταζαν τις διαδικασίες που είναι υπεύθυνες για την απόθεση σαπροπηλών στην Ανατολική Μεσόγειο κατά τη διάρκεια του Πλειστοκαίνου. Η µελέτη αυτή βασίζεται στην µικροπαλαιοντολογική ανάλυση βενθονικών τρηµατοφόρων του πυρήνα ΤΙ13, ο οποίος συλλέχθηκε από το Ανατολικό Κρητικό Πέλαγος και υπάγεται στο βάθος απόθεσης του σαπριπηλού S1. / -

Air transport is an important part of any major domestic transport system. Consequently significant insight, analysis and methodological effort is necessary to devise an analytical model of a domestic air transport network with a view to the optimisation. Since the advent of airline deregulation in the US in 1978, most domestic airlines have adopted a routing and scheduling strategy known as hub and spoke. The adoption of this system presents a major change to network planning and operations for most airlines. The hub and spoke system proposed in this dissertation is for developing countries and based on the domestic Iranian air transport network. The aim of the research is to devise a practical domestic air transport network system, capable of dealing with strategic aspects of network planning and evaluation.

Transport projects are complex; the interface with different policy areas can often lead to significant challenges to ensuring that long-term value outcomes are achieved. This thesis seeks to explore the challenges associated with the effective provision of transport services from a social exclusion perspective. It uncovers a number of key factors that can affect the successful delivery and provision of such schemes by examining the consequence of the decisions and actions taken by service providers and commissioners. Using a case study approach conducted on three local authority projects across the United Kingdom, the study is exploratory in nature through an in-depth qualitative data analysis. In order to address the aim of the thesis, six key objectives are defined: to understand how transport projects may act as a vehicle for delivering policy aimed at addressing social exclusion in the United Kingdom; to understand and investigate the impact of deregulation of the bus industry on the provision of transport services, particularly for the socially excluded; to critically examine the process underpinning decisions that guide the provision of transport schemes to address social exclusion; to examine the propensity for service users to be actively involved in the decision making process; to conduct a case study research in order to explore the challenges to the successful provision and delivery of the transport services to the socially excluded as a consequence of the decisions and actions taken by the service providers in the case study areas; and to characterise the factors that should be considered in the provision and delivery of transport services, particularly for the socially excluded.Semi structured interviews were carried out with the service providers in three locations– West Midlands, Sheffield, and Manchester. These interviews seek to determine the challenges to the effective provision and delivery of transport services as a consequence of the decisions and actions of the service providers. Overall, some challenges that could inhibit the provision and delivery of transport services were identified. These include constraint on the provision and delivery of transport services for the socially excluded due to the Competition Act, lack of accessible information, lack of close working relationship between service providers, lack of trust and mutual respect between service providers, too much focus in reducing the number of benefits claimant, service accessibility – inflexible access criteria, lack of support for bus drivers, lack of cultural diversity in the workforce and marketing of services, resource constraints on scheme performance, tendency on the service providers to focus getting output rather than outcomes, partnership issues - lack of commitment, poor communication, lack of common understanding of social exclusion, tendency on the service providers to focus on economic aspect, and lack of willingness to fully engage with citizens in the delivery and provision of transport services.These challenges identified were then further analysed in order to examine the underlying reasons why those challenges existed. Having identified and examined the challenges that could hinder the provision and delivery of the transport services, particularly for the socially excluded, some recommendations were made based on the identified issues that should be considered in the provision and delivery of transport services, particularly for the socially excluded.The findings that emerged contribute toward the social exclusion and transport provision domain in four areas:• Highlighted and provided an understanding of the difficulties surrounding the role of bus drivers and how it affects transport provision for the socially excluded;• The importance and the need to have the local knowledge in delivering transport service;• Understanding service provider’s attitude towards engaging with the community in the provision of transport services; and, • Inadequate funding and the impacts on transport provision for the socially excluded.