A Review of Literature on Urban Land Use and Rapid Rail TransitZhang Yunquan Xu Xueqiang and Yan Xiaopei(Center for Urban and Regional Studies, ZhongShan University ,Guangzhou 510275,P.R China)
AbstractThe paper briefly reviews the literatures dealing with urban land use and rapid rail transit. About four aspects are presented, 1) the characteristics of rail rapid transit; 2)historical studies; 3)theoretical fundamentals and models; 4)methodology. Next work to be done is also put forward.
Keywords: rail transit; land use; transportation; bibliographyIntroductionA philosopher once said“transportation is civilization”, perhaps you think the saying is somewhat exaggerated, but it is substanTIAlly right. At least, modern transportation is a symbol of civilization and progress of human kind. It is well known that the most fundamental needs of human being-food, clothing, residence and travel, are closed lied to transport modes, directly or indirectly.In long agricultural society, there were vast amount of land and less population in the world. The relationship between man and environment is coordinated each other. The travel modes are restrained by underdeveloped technology, mainly dependent on an animal-drawn or natura1wind pattern. Human activities were coincided with lower traffic demand, at that time specialization of production had not occurred. Average trip radius from urban center were 3-5 miles, within walking distance of about 30-60 miles.In the early 1800s, industrial revolution broke out with invention of steam engine. European Clipps sailship was completely replaced by steamboats, urban transit began with private omnibus offering a limited service to the rich. Competition at time came from a taxi-like hackney cab. The tractive effort limitations of horses led to urban railway with iron wheels on iron rails. Technical advances of 1870s-1880s *Supported by Guangdong Provincial Natural Foundation (980268).The authors would like to thank comments on early draft by Dr C. Comtois from Universite de Montreal.Presented to'99 International Conference on Review and Prospect of Chinese Cities for Half century, ZhongShan City, Guangdong, PRC.
produced the electric streetcar and initiated the destruction of the old urban order. By 1950s, the trolleys or motorbuses replaced streetcar transit as the principal mode of urban transport.In 1903,the first airplane was made by Wright brothers, and started the era of air transportation. Modern Jet airplane, such as Boeing 747and 757,makes possible to reach anyplace where the aircraft can land around the world within a day.Advanced transportation promotes integration of world economy, as well as specialization of production on the comparative advantage basis, due to overcoming threshold of territorial space barriers. A great deal of economic activities has taken place in city, intercity, interregional or international scales. International trade, foreign directs investment and transnational corporation are their main types. With the high-speed development of economic activities, urban land use is not compatible to urban transit. Traffic congestion has become a global issue confronting most of cities in the world. There are increasing concerns about impacts of transportation on population,resource, environment and sustainable development. Coordination and development of urban transit and land use is of significance and urgency.From the experiences and lessons in many countries, 1t is necessary to recognize and rethink the future and orientation of urban transit. In developed countries, traffic congest1on not only arises in urban areas, but infreeways and suburbia. In developing countries ,the situations in urban areasare being worse. Revitalization of urban transit and intensive utilization of land use is accepted as coincident awareness by public and foresighted personnel .Rapid rail transit is an important component of urban transit, it will contribute to benefITS for mankind, however, due to its cost, construction communication and automatic signal controls, many issues and impacts are worth studying and approaching. The findings will be very useful for decision making and construction of rail transit in China and other countries.1.Characteristics of rapid rail transitRapid rail transit system is main part of urban transit systems, which include bus transit, light rail systems, rapid rail transit (metro, or U-Bhn in Germany), and suburban rails or commuter train. In boarder sense, rail transit systems involve metro, 1ight rai1 transit (LRT) suburban rail and trolley ways or streetcars. The rapid rail transit (RRT) in the paper refers to so called metro, subways or underground railways. RRT invariably operateson completely exclusive rights-of-way, which may be underground, elevated or in cutting, and at high speeds up to 120 km/h. Average operating speed between two stops is 30--35kw/h,it can provide the highest capacity of 70,OOO passengers per hour per direction. The train typically carried about 750 passengers, and station spacing is l km or less in the urban areas, not more than 2km in the suburbs.Construction of metro is a difficult work, there are several types of building subways, such as ‘cut-and cover’, deep-level boring by shield, ‘umbrella’, or laying pre-cast concrete tunnel underwater. Due to high passenger volumes, RRT systems usually require sophisticated signaling and control devices. The stations are built with wide, high-level platforms facilitating rapid loading and unloading, and usually equipped with escalators. Underground RRT needs comprehensive ventilation, paIticular1y in hard climate to keep comfortable in train cars. Meanwhile, the systems require advanced technology in vehicles, civil construction and operating management.The disadvantages of the systems are costly in construction. The investment of US$120 million/km or above, operating cost US $0.10-0.15 per passenger-km may be needed. It is mainly dependent on constructing methods, geological and hydrological conditions. The systems lack more flexibility than bus modes, needing be supplemented by buses to provide feeder services for rail stations. If whole public transit systems are involved in diversified ownership, such as public and private sectors ,there usually exist in difficulty of how to share operational revenues. In addition ,the construction of rapid rail system would take longer-at least five years, which obviously would affect urban surface transit to a larger extent. Furthermore, the costs of modifying original routes arc likely to be enormous, but it is permitted to extend rail routes from terminal. The advantages of RRT can provide passengers with quickness, comfort, safety and reliability. Using clean energy--electricity, leads to no pollution to atmosphere. Its operating cost is relatively lower than that of other modes. RRT can increase modal choice and business efficiency for passengers ,promoting urban and regional development ,upgrading urban image and amenity of communities.2.Historical studies of rail transit1863,the Erst subway in the world was opened in London, and then it was the biggest city around the world. The event remarked the beginning of raid rail transit. In fact, RRT is a kind of application of conventional railways or railroads in urban areas. Hence, telling of the history of rail transit? it is reasonable to date back history of railway advances.Unlike shipping, road and water transport with a history of several centuries, railways have a relatively recent history of about 150 years (Simon P.Vine.1990). The context, iron rail and the steam locomotive were separately developed. The earliest railways or wagonways, were simple wooden tracks with lower frictional resistance. In 18th century, wooden tracks were used in transporting coal to riverside staiths. Then the tracks were replaced by iron because of its greater durability and lower friction. In 1821,Jokn Birkinshow patented of rolling wrought iron for rails. In the second half of 19th century, steel rails replaced iron. In 1804, Richard Trevithick developed a high-pressure steam engine; later Stephenson innovated the engine into useful locomotive called ‘Rocket’, which 1829 were applied to route from Liverpool to Machester, the lst steam-driven passenger railway in the world. Britain led the world in the construction of railway system, then transferred to other countries in Europe. By 1850,nearly 10,000 km (9797km) of railways had been built, German and France ranked the 2nd and 3rd , 5856km and 2915km respectively. By 1910, total railways in Europe reached 307,535km. Most European railway systems had been completed in 1914(Simon, 1990). In l869, the transcontinental railways between New York and San Francisco were opened. In 1881, another great railway, Montreal to Vancouver in Canada was completed. In 1964, high-speed trains were produced in France, then in Japan, at operating speed of more than 200km/h(Rodrigue,1998). Nowadays, supertrain TGV is able to run up to 500km/h, becoming effective rivalry to expressway and airlines for intercity or interregional services. In April, 1998, the SNCF company in France launched a new package of easier fares for rail passengers, in last 3 years there have occurred in strong increase of international rail passengers, SNCF expected a good return of profitability for the year of 2000 (Peppy,1998).On the other hand, rapid rail transit almost kept pace with development of mainline railways. In fact, underground railways may be of same loading gauge as surface railways. It is the power supply that may be different from surface railways. The current supply in underground is usually made with the 3rd rail pickup. After 1860 in London, some main line railways developed commuter traffic, and acute traffic congestion led to the construction of worlds first underground railway, and in 1863 the 1st phase was opened. Then the lst deep-level tube was completed in 1890. From then on, construction of RRT was quickly widespread to Europe, North America, later Latin America and Asia.Light rail transit (LRT) can be considered as an advanced development of the conventional streetcar, which can be dated back 1890-1910.Urban rails are relatively recent. In Germany, LRT is called Stadtbahn or S-bahn. with modem, medium-capacity vehicles operating on streets in mixed traffic, in reserved street lanes and highway medians, in activity center mall and rights-of-way shared with other rail transit modes and in subways, it represents a mode of transportation between us, streetcar and rapid transit. It operates usually in tunnel in congested city core areas.Rapidly increasing cost in heavy rail development and uncertainty regarding new transit technology served as an incentive to search for a different rail technology. The research led to Europe and especially West Germany, where the use of LRT was widely used. In 1960s-1970s, many of cities, such as Cologne, Bonn, Bielefeld and Frankfurt in Germany provided a few example of how LRT can be integrated into existing urban environments and multimodal transportation systems. Meanwhile, the research also led to Boston, San Francisco Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Buffalo, Denver, Dayton, Detroit, San Diego, Cincinnati, Portland, Mexico and Philadelphia for making use of existing electric lines and urban facilities, revitalizing in light rail transit.LRT currently demonstrates its effectiveness as a part of the total urban transport system in more than 300 cities of the world. There have been 2800 new light rail vehicles (LRVs) put in service. But it is not being advocated as a replacement for all bus, all private cars or heavy rapid transit system. The characteristics of LRT approximately are technical simplicity; medium capacity (maximum 30,000 passengers per hour); medium cost and speed. (TRB Report 161,1975; TRB Report l82,1978; Alan l986)By 1980, miles of line of grade-separated rail transit (including LRT) in the world were 2175 miles (3500 km), and 498 miles (800km) were under construction, as shown table 2. Table 1.The distribution of rail transits in the world (1980)
region rail network length(miles) %of total lengthUSSR 223 10.2Asia 273 12.6Latin America 92 4.2North America 658 30.2Europe 965 44.4Total 2175 100.0Source: adapted from Pushkarev,B.S.,1982 3. 3.The theoretical fundamentals of urban transit and land use 3.1 Relationship between transportation and land use Urban rail transit is a part of public transportation. Generally speaking, the relationship between land use and transportation is based on the location theory which employs land models to explain the spatial structure of locations (Giampietro,1989).Land development can not without transportation, transportation facilities serve no economic purpose without development (Stover, 1988)Transportation can be regarded as supply factor, land use as a demand factor; their relations are mutually interdependent. Moore and Thorsnes(1994) concluded that ‘ you can start with land use, or you can start with transportation; in either case, the basic feedback leads inevitably to a hierarchy of central places and transportation; in either case, the basic inevitably to a hierarchy of central places and transportation links connecting them’. The efficient provision of public transit depends to a large extent on density and arrangement of land, the design of subdivisions, and the overall planning of urban areas. The land use pattern determines the magnitude, direction purpose and spatial structure of travel to be accommodated by the overall transportation system. In turn, the transportation system is an important determinant of the pattern and intensity of land use emerges. Although these relationships have been recognized theoretically and historically, the development and implementation of a coordination of land use and transportation have usually been ignored (CUTA,1985).The research showed that, under most circumstances, land use changes result in fairly predictable on impacts on transport demand. In particular, new low-density development generates more traffic, which translates into prerequisites for additional transport supply, especially for additional road capacity. The impacts of transportation on land use activities, however, are much more difficult to predict. Several rapid transit impact studies have also completed (Knight,1977;Hamer,1976;Green 1993).The BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit, at San Francisco) impact program studies, the surveys by Knight and Trig, the extensive literature on business location decision making bring home the fact, that development around station areas is not likely to emerge strictly in response to the improved accessibility brought by rapid transit. The web of factors leading to development is complex and hence must be accompanied by complex planning processes. In particular, joint development--the public and private partnership in planning, is needed of the community desires to focus development around station areas.Pessoa,J and Andrey, J (1995) reported by case study of Southern Ontario over past 40 years, that the policy level as the vision of society had effects on the interactions between transportation and land use. The relationships can be expressed by following.
source: adapted from Giuliano,1989
| Transportation facilities |
Source: Lang, R. 1985
| Deterioration in level of service |
| Increased traffic congestion |
| Increased traffic generation |
Source: stove, V.G.19883.2 Models of land use and transportation As early as in 1800s, German Von Thunen (1826) established regional land use model in agricultural communities. This is probably the oldest between transportation, urban areas and regional land use. Christaller(1933) investigated many cities in southern Germany, setting up the theory of central places. He thought that there existed a hierarchical system among cities. The works of Weber (1929)on the location of industries have been important to develop theoretically locational models. Losh(1939) established the model of the location of economic activities or marketing process.In 1925, E.W. Burgess presented an urban land use model, which divided cities into a set of centric circles from the downtown to the suburbia from his surveys of a lot of American cities, especially Chicago. The model is too simple and limited in applications. However, it remains useful for proximity of concentric urban development and as a way to introduce the complexity of urban land use.In 1939,H.Hoyt concluded that the land us pattern was not a random distribution, not sharply defined rectangular areas or concentric circles but rather sectors. The sectoral theory showed that transport has directional effect on land use. Following Hoya's development of sectoral city, C.D. Harris and E.L. Ullmann(1945) introduced a more effective generalization of urban land uses. They considered many towns and nearly all-large cities did not grow from around CBD, but are formed by separate nuclei in the urban fabric. The multinuclear model was the 1st to represent the fragmentation of urban areas, specialized functions as well as sub-urbanization.Land economics was also developed to explain land use as a market where different urban activities are competing. Transportation, through the friction of space, is a strong explanatory factor in the theory of land rent (Rodrigue,1998).Land use models have been employed since the late 1950s to forecast land-use change as an input in transport planning process.Lowery model was one of the 1st transportation and land uses models and was developed in 1964 for the Pittsburgh region. It is based on the principle that regional and urban growth is a function of the expansion of the basic sector, having impacts on two other sectors—retail and residential.Other interesting types of urban models are the ‘game models’, which provide opportunities for education, training, citizen participation and probability research. Some of them are specially conceived for urban transportation planning purpose, and could be seen as operational planning tools (Giampictr0,1989). Obviously, There are tree main types of models in urban land use and transportation: classic locational models, economic equilibrium models and game models.4.Methodology The methods can be grouped into two categories-qualitative and quantitative approaches (Giampiert01989;Rodrigue1998) 4.1The qualitative methods?literature survey, case studies.? descriptive and explanatory? key information appraisals? Delphi techniques ? analysts’ own judgment? control areas, tabulations? environmental impact assessment, policy analysis,?risk assessment 4.2The quantitative methods? input /output or cost/benefit analysis? mathematical programming? network analysis (graph theory)? theoretical (micro-economic )analysis ? economic and statistical techniques ? factor analysis ? dynamic simulation models ? geographical information system(GIS)?modeling (land use/ transportation flow/location allocation model: four--stage urban transportation model)Different methods may be used in research process according to its aimand demand concerned, either qualitatively or quantitatively, or combined techniques. Because urban transportation is a sophisticated relating social, economic, environmental factors, some of which are uncertain and difficult to predict or in data collection. Generally, the combination of qualitative and quantitative is necessary, and is also becoming a trend in scientific methodology.5.coclusion The literature on rail transit and land use is vast in quantities with different languages. Only within shorter time can the author skim up the tiny part of literatures in English version. The author think there are a large amount of work to do, such as case study in selected cities with representatives and utility for the research. The detailed case study should be involved in overview of the cities, the development of subway, regional railways, patronage, cost and funding, operation and management, development and land use, experience and lessons and so on. The entire review of literature should cover wider scope with a series of data.From 4 aspects reviewed in the paper, some conclusions can be simply made as following:1).Rapid rail transit (RRT)systems refer to subways operating underground, elevated or in cutting exclusively rights-of -way. It has highest capacity, speed, safety, cost and non-flexibility. It is suitable to compacted city or populace along rail transit corridors.2).RRT is evolved and developed from omnibus, streetcar, and surface railway, with a history of 135 years since 1863 when London world’s first subway was opened. The wider applications of RRT to dozens of cities in the world showed that the mode is much appealing to urban residents and local municipalities despite its disadvantages of high cost and non-fIexibi1ity.3).The relationships between urban transit and land use are rather interdependent on each other. Intensive land use produces trip generation, while transit modes provide connectivity between aggregates of land uses.4).Their main fundamentals arc location theory, and the theory of supply/demand equilibrium as well as interaction models.5).The methodology can be divided 2 categories—qualitative. The Combined approaches are usually adopted in most circumstances. 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