Transport for suburbia : beyond the automobile age [book]
Author: Paul Mees
The need for effective public transport is greater than ever in the 21st century. With countries like China and India moving towards mass-automobility, we face the prospects of an environmental and urban health disaster unless alternatives are found. It is time to move beyond the automobile age. But while public transport has worked well in the dense cores of some big cities, the problem is that most residents of developed countries now live in dispersed suburbs and smaller cities and towns. These places usually have little or no public transport, and most transport commentators have given up on the task of changing this: it all seems too hard.

This book argues that the secret of 'European-style' public transport lies in a generalizable model of network planning that has worked in places as diverse as rural Switzerland, the Brazilian city of Curitiba and the Canadian cities of Toronto and Vancouver. It shows how this model can be adapted to suburban, exurban and even rural areas to provide a genuine alternative to the car, and outlines the governance, funding and service planning policies that underpin the success of the world's best public transport systems.

Find it at: 388.4 TRA 2009 or Click here, and request a copy from the library!

The 200 km city: Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast (journal article)
by Peter Spearritt
from Australian Economic History Review, Vol 49 No 1 March 209, pp. 87-106
"Since the 1970s, several Southeast Queensland coastal towns in areas marketed as the 'Gold Coast' and the 'Sunshine Coast' have merged with each other and joined with Brisbane to become one of the world's longest urban coastal strips. The population of this 200 km long city is fast approaching three million. This urban pattern reflects the preferences of many Australians about where and in what type of housing they would like to live. The unplanned nature of this growth raises several policy challenges relating to resource use and traffic congestion."

Delivering Transportation Infrastructure Through Public-Private Partnerships: Planning Concerns. (journal article)
by Matti Siemiatycki
from Journal of the American Planning Association; Winter2010, Vol. 76 Issue 1, p43-58, 16p
"The types of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in which private sector partners take on increased responsibility for project design, construction, financing, and operation have become popular in the United States and around the world as means of delivering large-scale transportation infrastructure. However, it is unclear what implications this model of project delivery has for planning theory and practice as distinct from public policy more generally.
This research identifies the need for new ex ante evaluation tools, risk transfer mechanisms, community engagement processes, and data tracking and performance monitoring procedures, to prevent negative consequences from transportation PPPs. "

Has Anyone Told The Transport Planners About Climate Change? (article)
by Elliot Fishman
from New Matilda, 22 January 2010
"Government investment in transport and land-use planning needs to reflect the new reality of oil depletion and climate change. Outer suburbs without rail lines and streets without bicycle lanes need to become a thing of the past. Without a change in mindset and investment, by 2030 we might just be left with empty freeways, perhaps better described as gigantic bike lanes, several bankrupt toll road operators and a number of energy analysts saying "I told you so". Let's make 2010 the year in which we confront the reality of peak oil and climate change. "

Total quality in the construction supply chain [book]

Authors: John Oakland & Morton Marosszeky

"Organizations in the construction industry struggle with three key issues: quality management or better meeting customer expectations, supply chain management or more effectively working with suppliers to provide a seamless service to customers, and knowledge management, the challenge of learning between collaborating organisations and between people working on similar projects around the world. Excellence in these key aspects of business is the hallmark of great companies. This book tackles each of these themes, demonstrating their significance as strategic concepts for the construction sector and illustrating how development goals in each of the areas can be met." - cover.

Want to read this book? Click here, & request a loan through your library.

Investigating the Ipswich to Brisbane commuting pattern: a quantitative approach (journal article)
by Jonathan Corcoran et al.
from Australian Planner, Vol 46 No 2 2009
"Through a quantitative analysis of JTW data available in the Census of Population and Households we add to the current planning debate on traffic congestion in the Ipswich·Brisbane corridor. The analysis of JTW data enables investigation of the notion that there are high levels of leakage of Ipswich's residents commuting from Ipswich to the neighbouring Brisbane Local Government Area (LGA). In doing so we use quantitative methods to firstly calculate the degree of self containment (i.e. the proportion of people living and working within an area) within the Ipswich sub-region and secondly to map the mean direction of commuting. More specifically, the policy problem addressed in this paper is to determine the extent to which commuters living in Ipswich have a tendency for an easterly direction of JTW travel (i.e. towards Brisbane City and Brisbane's CBD using the main east-west corridor). We suggest
that the visual exploration of the JTW data can enhance the analytical capability through the integration of statistical and cartographic measures to assist in transport planning."

Sustainable development for public administration [book]

Authors: Deniz Zeynep Leuenberger and John R. Bartle

"Focuses on the application of sustainability and sustainable development theories to public administration practice. It's designed to guide planning, resource management, and outcomes measurement for future and current non-profit and public managers. ... Introduces sustainable development and related theories; ties these theories to public administration practice; and elaborates on applications to specific PA specializations including energy management, transportation, water, waste management, urban development, wildlife conservation, and higher education. It also includes a chapter specifically geared to outcome measurement of sustainability goals in public and non-profit agencies." - from publisher.

Want to borrow a copy from the library? Click here to email through your request.

Welcome to the City Planning Blog
Brisbane is a growing city which, according to the State’s SEQ Regional Plan, must accommodate 138,000 additional dwellings through in-fill development, by 2031.
Brisbane City Council’s City Planning branch is working hard to plan for our City’s heart, inner city and outer suburbs so they remain places in which people love to live, work and play.
The City Planning Blog was established to enable us to provide Brisbane residents and the development community with regular updates as to the latest planning news and information. Not only will it provide urban planning news, but will showcase landscape architecture and interesting developments from around the world.

Transport, Housing and Urban Form: The Life Cycle Energy Consumption and Emissions of City Centre Apartments Compared with Suburban Dwellings (journal article)
by Alan Perkins et al.
from Urban Policy and Research, Vol 27 No 4 December 2009, pp.377-396
"Buildings in cities and the activities carried out therein use a significant proportion of a nation's energy consumption and produce substantial quantities of greenhouse gases in the process. Residential buildings are a large contributor, partially as a result of the transport and housing activities of households. In this study, life cycle analysis is used to calculate the total transport and housing energy and emissions from a sample of 41 households in apartment buildings in the city centre of Adelaide, Australia and compare them with suburban households. The purpose of this is to determine whether the urban density option of higher rise dwellings offers a lower environmental impact than conventional housing. The analysis includes delivered energy and greenhouse gas emissions generated by motorised travel and activities within the dwellings, and the energy and emissions embodied in household motor vehicles and the apartment buildings. The total delivered energy consumption of apartment households was found to be lower than suburban households due mainly to higher car usage, particularly in the outer suburbs. However, the analysis of total greenhouse gas emissions provided a somewhat different comparison especially when they were considered on a per capita basis. The total per capita emissions for apartment households varied considerably but, on average, exceeded those of both the inner and outer suburban households. This resulted from lower occupancy rates and higher emissions arising from higher dwelling operational and embodied energy consumption. Overall, it cannot be assumed that centralised, higher density living will deliver per capita emission reductions for residents, once the combined per capita life cycle emissions from housing and transport have been accounted for. A more vigorous educational, promotional and regulatory approach is required to achieve greater operational and embodied energy efficiency in apartment buildings to fully realise the emissions-reducing potential of such buildings in centralised locations. "

Urban Form and Housing Density, Australian Cities and European Models: Copenhagen and Stockholm Reconsidered (journal article)
by Greg Bamford
from Urban Policy and Research, Vol 27 No 4 December 2009, pp. 337-356
"Stockholm and Copenhagen have been widely regarded in English-speaking countries as exemplifying aspects of the compact city—from well planned, mixed use, higher density, transit-oriented development to sociable urban spaces. So how is it that the development of these two cities has also been located in the garden city tradition? This article tackles this question in the context of the implications European cities are often thought to have for low-density Australian cities. Comparisons of the urban form of Stockholm and Brisbane and of higher density housing in Copenhagen and Brisbane emphasise that the 'Scandinavian model' is as much about the role of open space in shaping urban form and in housing design as our current preoccupation with density"

New urbanism : best practices guide [book]

Authors: Robert Steuteville & Philip Langdon

"Helps architects, planners, urban designers, landscape architects, builders, developers, public officials, students, and citizens understand one of the most vital planning movements of our time - a movement that is reshaping cities, suburbs, small towns, and neighborhoods." Chapters include: Architectural styles and building types; Land development; Health and aging; Shaping the region; Revitalizing cities and towns; Urban retail; The Human-scale workplace; Planning and transit; Civic buildings and spaces; Affordable placemaking; and Building community.

Want to borrow a copy from the library? Click here to email through your request.

What Local Policy Makers Should Know about Urban Road Charging: Lessons from Worldwide Experience (journal article)
By Daniel Albalate and Germè Bel
from Public Administration Review Vol 69 No 5 2009, pp. 962 - 974
"Congestion costs are emerging as one of the most important challenges faced by metropolitan planners and transport authorities in developed economies. In the United States, these costs were as high as $78 billion in 2005 and are growing as a result of rapid increases in travel delays. In order to solve the current and severe levels of congestion, the U.S. Department of Transportation has recently started a program to initiate congestion pricing in five metropolitan areas. In this context, it is important to identify factors that influence successful implementation, as well as the problems or difficulties associated with charging projects. The authors review, synthesize, and analyze worldwide experience with urban road charging in order to extract lessons for policy makers who are considering the implementation of congestion pricing projects and for those who are interested in the introduction of traffic management tools to regulate entrance to city centers. "

Kings of the road go green
by Phil McKenna
from New Scientist, Vol. 203, Issue 2721
"A concept vehicle called the Innovation Truck unveiled in April by Daimler Trucks North America is designed to show what is possible by tweaking a vehicle's aerodynamics. In wind tunnel tests it used 3 per cent less fuel than an unmodified truck - which rolled out across the entire US truck fleet would save about 4.3 billion litres of fuel annually. This translates into an annual cut in CO2 emissions of over 11 million tonnes.
More ambitious plans are afoot. Engineers and industry leaders at an RMI conference on freight-vehicle efficiency in April concluded that readily available and inexpensive technologies could boost efficiency by up to 23 per cent, and even doubling or tripling fuel efficiency might be within reach."

Urban Structure and Commuting in Australian Cities (journal article)
by Peter Rickwood and Garry Glazebrook
from Urban Policy and Research, Volume 27, No 2 June 2009, pp. 171-188
"Studies looking at the relationship between urban form and travel behaviour have generally considered spatial information at coarse metropolitan or local government area scales. We analyse ABS census data at the Collection District level for the metropolitan areas of the mainland Australian state capital cities, and at various spatial scales for an in-depth analysis of commuting in Sydney. The analyses suggest that the relationship between travel behaviour and urban form is complex, and that simple analyses of density alone are likely to overstate the effect of both metropolitan and neighbourhood scale population density on mode choice, but that these variables serve as useful proxies for more complex measures of urban structure."

Transitions : pathways towards sustainable urban development in Australia [book]

Editor: Peter W. Newton

Sections include: Global and local forces re-shaping cities -- Demographic and settlement transitions -- Transitioning to resilient cities -- Transition to renewable energy -- Transition to integrated urban water systems -- Transitioning waste to resources -- Infrastructure and urban planning transitions -- Transitioning attitudes to sustainability -- Scenarios for the future.

Click here to request a copy through your library.

Intelligent cities and globalisation of innovation networks [book]

Author: Nicos Komninos

"Asks key questions of the movement towards intelligent environments and cities, such as: What makes an intelligent city and how do we define it? What makes some cities and regions more efficient in developing knowledge, technologies and innovations? How important is the external under environment to the innovation performance of an organisation? How is innovation changing along with digitalisation and globalisation?" - cover.

Click here to request a copy through your library.

Alternative Energy for Transportation (journal article)
By Koji Omi
from Issues in Science and Technology Vol. 25 Issue 4 Summer 2009, pp. 31-34
"The worlds citizens and governments must accept that Earths resources are finite and commit themselves to the development of new power sources for automobiles."

Infrastructure finance : trends and techniques [book]

Edited by Henry A. Davis

"Gives a broad view of trends and techniques in infrastructure financing around the world today. The title considers a wide range of projets including transport, water systems, power and toll road privatisation. Themes include the rising need for infrastructure investment, the quality of country infrastructure, government budget limitations and benefits and risks of investment." - publisher’s website.

Want to borrow a copy from the library? Click here to email through your request.

Futurama: transportation in transition (journal article)
By Ruth Eckdish Knack
From Planning, May 2009, pp. 34-37
"Transportation prognosticators generally fall into two groups: those who believe that the car will always be with us, and those who see bikes and buses—not Fords—in our future. In line with this issue's theme of looking forward, we asked representatives of both groups (and some in between) to consider what modes will be dominant in 2050 and beyond, what technological breakthroughs are on the horizon, and what the communities of tbe future will look like."

Urban structures and commuting in Australian cities (journal article)
by Peter Rickwood and Garry Glazebrook
from Urban Policy and Research, March 2009
"Studies looking at the relationship between urban form and travel behaviour have generally considered spatial information at coarse metropolitan or local government area scales. We analyse ABS census data at the Collection District level for the metropolitan areas of the mainland Australian state capital cities, and at various spatial scales for an in-depth analysis of commuting in Sydney. The analyses suggest that the relationship between travel behaviour and urban form is complex, and that simple analyses of density alone are likely to overstate the effect of both metropolitan and neighbourhood scale population density on mode choice, but that these variables serve as useful proxies for more complex measures of urban structure. "