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Transportation 8 (1979) 189-196 © Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam - Printed in the Netherlands

BOOK REVIEWS

Ralph Gakenheimer (Editor), The Automobile and the Environment: An International Perspective. Prepared by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Boston: MIT Press, (1978), xiii + 494 pp., US$35.00.

This is a well-organized collection of five separate articles, four by individuals and one by a committee. The title is considerably broader than the articles themselves, which focus on reducing auto travel in cities. The book is the first in a new series of transporta- tion studies from the MIT Press.

The first article, by Robert A. Burco, deals with urban public transport. Its hundred pages offer perceptive and comprehensive descriptions of improvements in transit opera- tions, technology, and planning. Though Burco sees the potential for major improvements in transit, he does not consider it likely to challenge the automobile on any broad basis. Moreover, he is driven to conclude that we have but "dim prospects" of major transit innovations due to institutional factors affecting our governmental agencies.

The second article, by J. Michael Thomson, treats methods of traffic limitation in cities. It is a thorough and orderly exposition, well supported with experimental results which may be of particular interest to readers in the USA because of their preponderantly European origins. Thirty-five methods are considered in three categories: traffic restric- tion, which prevents auto travel; traffic restraint, which discourages auto travel; and traffic avoidance, which reduces auto trip generation by rearrangement of the city.

The third article, by Marvin L. Manheim and John Suhrbier, investigates transporta- tion planning in these times of growing controversy. Its findings and consequent recom- mendations are clear, orderly, and convincing, but they often border on the obvious (the three key findings: the planning process is critical, issues of social equity must be con- sidered, and different groups have different interests and priorities).

The fourth article, by Wilfred Owen, addresses strategies for developing countries. It presents an abundance of useful quantitative data and it conscientiously addresses factors for as well as against increasing automotive use. Unqualified statements such as "cars are generally incompatible with big cities" put the reader on guard, however, against accepting everything without reflection. If cars and cities are incompatible, how can Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Denver, and a host of other newer cities con- tinue to grow and prosper with over half as many autos as people?

The final article, by an Ad Hoc Group of the Environment Committee of OECD, addresses automotive air pollution and noise. Far more than the other articles, it con- forms with the title of the book, but even so, one of its five sections is devoted to strategies for limiting auto use (one of the few points in the book at which there is substantial overlap between articles). This last article is also the only one which seems dated; its information on pollutant emissions and pollution levels no longer seems timely in view of the drastic reductions in automotive exhaust emissions which have been achieved since 1970.

Overall, the book effectively explains how to suppress and supplant auto travel in

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cities. By its own standards, however, it fails to guide us very far towards the proper role of automobiles in urban transport. The Manheim-Suhrbier article teaches that we must explicitly consider social equity, carefully describe the effects of alternative future trans- portation, and clarify the issues of choice. But in the end, the book tells us very little about the price motorists will pay in extra travel time and reduced access to urban opportunities if existing roads are blocked, and new transit is built instead of new high- ways. It does not tell us how the speed, cost, comfort, and convenience of trips will change as transit replaces auto travel. Nor does it tell us, really, how to ensure the final magic sought in the Manheim-Suhrbier planning process: "to achieve substantial, effective community agreement on a course of action that is feasible, equitable, and desirable."

One leaves this volume more than a little sad. Its authors are persuasively pessimistic about any major innovation, technological or otherwise, in urban transport. Their "inter- national perspective" on autos and the environment is more nearly a handbook for suppressing autos - which people overwhelmingly prefer - and substituting transit - which people historically have abandoned at their earliest opportunity. In the short run, it is surely desirable to limit automotive emissions and restrain automotive use. But what of the long run? What if travel demand grows even as the supply shrinks? Does anyone believe that demand is falling? That people will find buses as satisfactory as cars?

Apparently the urban transportation problem is going to get worse before it gets better.

William Hamilton General Research Corporation, Santa Barbara

William E. O'Connor, An Introduction to AMine Economics. New York: Praeger, (1978), 254 pp., £8.50.

This book is a welcome addition to the relatively small number of basic texts on the economics and regulation of the airline industry. However, given that it was written at a time when reforms were being set in motion which were to alter radically the ground rules for airline operations, certainly in the United States, perhaps more emphasis might have been placed on economics and less on regulations which were likely to be overtaken by events.

The chapter on costs, for example, is too brief and dwells on the system of accounts prescribed under section 407 of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (reproduced in full at the end of the book) by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), whose authority ceases in this respect at the end of 1982. More space might have been given to the input markets for fuel, labour, aircraft and airport services, showing their relative importance in total costs, recent price trends and degree of competition. No mention is made of the method by which air travel is sold, whether direct, via agents or wholesalers. Furthermore, it is important to point out even at an introductory level that it is difficult to define the supply and cost of airline service in a particular market, especially in the US where the majority of routes are multi-stop.

Treatment of the international aspects of the industry, however, benefits from the author's considerable experience both in the State Department and the CAB's Bureau of International Affairs, and here the book would appeal to a wider readership than the

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initially intended American college student. The new Bermuda agreement is included, as well as a balanced discussion of the role of IATA in the determination of international

fares and rates. One notable omission, however, is a discussion of the so-called "Sixth Freedom"

traffic, defined as those passengers (or cargo) which are carried between third countries via the home country of the airline carrying the traffic. Airlines such as Singapore Airlines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines have developed and tapped many of these markets, which are now threatened by a recent development in low fares, conditional on no stop-overs and travel only on Third/Fourth Freedom carriers.

Entry and exit by way of merger is a topic currently in vogue, and although Dr. O'Conner presents the majority of arguments for and against, he only touches on one of the possible consequences of regulatory reform - namely a reduction in choice of airline through mergers. For example, Pan American's motive in bidding for National Airlines was both to acquire the number and types of aircraft it required for its domestic network quickly (the earliest delivery position it could obtain for Boeing 727s was the fourth quarter of 1981) and cheaply, and also to buy existing staff and ground facilities which would otherwise take time and be more costly to assemble.

The self-testing questions at the end of the text include lists of terminology, topics for discussion, and - unfortunately for air cargo only - some figures to remember. The author suggests we should remember that air cargo accounts for only 10% of total airline revenues, although he himself allocates a good third of his text to cargo.

Whether the CAB, Department of Transportation or Department of Justice is regulating the industry, Dr. O'Connor has provided the newcomer with a very readable, balanced introduction to a very complex subject.

Peter Morrell Alistair Tucker and Associates, London

Harvey A. Levine, National Transportation Policy. A Study of Studies. Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath and Company, (1978), xii + 187 pp., $16.95.

This volume is the byproduct of a consultation at R. L. Banks and Associates, which was engaged under the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1976 to produce an historical study of research on transportation policy. Harvey A. Levine, a scholar with an academic background in transportation faculties of business schools, was project director. After termination of the project, he produced this book on the basis of his research.

Although a critical enquiry into studies of transportation policy is justifiable, the present volume is flawed in a variety of respects. Several major studies are not covered, from the ICindom Report of 1874 to Improving Railroad Produetivity of 1973. The study includes private research as well as governmental studies, but the criteria for inclusion are wondrous. Hugh S. Norton's textbook National Transportation Policy is listed in a chronology of major studies as "Noted book by Norton" (p. 7), whereas Meyer, Peck, Stenason and Zwick's The Economics of Competition in the Transportation Industries, the foundation of modern analytical transport economics, enters only in a footnote to the sentence, "Also, two studies by different faculty members at Harvard University

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aided the acceptance of transportation as a subject worthy of investigation by prominent members of academia" (p. 20). Meyer, Kain and Wohl's The Urban Transportation Problem, which bore an equally seminal role in urban transport economics, is not men- tioned. In a less outrageous example, James C. Nelson's analytical Brookings study of two decades ago, Railroad Transportation and Public Policy, is lumped in a footnote with the Irwin textbooks on air and motor transport by John H. Frederick and Charles A. Taft, respectively. The author's command of his sources is at best questionable: D. P. Locklin's "Regulation of Water Carriers by Interstate Commerce Commission" is described as "Locklin's study of motor-carrier regulation" (p. 18).

On a more subjective level, the book gives one the impression of having been written by an author without strong ideological conviction. This might appear desirable for the author of an essentially bibliographical work, but it proves to give the text a wishy-washy quality, leaving readers wondering what they have retained from the book. The intellectual movement for transport deregulation, which the author dates mainly from Ann Friedlaender's The Dilemma of Freight Transport Regulation (Transportation in Levine) of 1969 is treated neutrally, rather than as an intellectual advance. The author treats deregulation as unlikely to occur, and devotes a long passage to the product of some earlier research of his own on motor carriers' needs for revenue which appears to accept the general outlines of the present cartelization. The essential acceptance of regulation combined with a variety of specific and general policy recommendations reminds me of the Doyle Report of 1961, which has also given me the mercury-through- the-fingers feeling whenever I have tried to use it. Consistently, Levine gives the Doyle Report the highest marks of any of the reports he treats, rather to the extent of losing interest in subsequent studies.

In sum, the book gives one the impression of being a study that was short of the quality of a book, but which was rushed into hard covers before its time. D. C. Heath should have required more completeness in research, more articulation in the argument, and more thoroughness in the proofreading. I doubt the author really thought the National Road dates from 1906. Finally, D. C. Heath should have provided an index, especially since the book ends with seven blank pages. Complaint of lack of an index is a standard passing observation of reviewers, but in this instance the absence is a serious limitation of such usefulness as the volume might have. Given the weakness of the argument, the book is inevitably of greatest potential use as a pure bibliography, but the absence of an index makes it very difficult to use as such. I have had to pour over the chapter endnotes to assure that my statement concerning the lack of reference to Meyer, Kain and Wohl is accurate. I think it is, but I 'm not sure. On one level or another, this volume is likely to leave most who attempt to use it with just such feelings.

George W. Hilton UCLA

Jack H. Irving (Editor and Principal Author), Fundamentals of Personal Rapid Transit. Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath and Company, (1978), xviii + 332 pp., $11.00/£9.75.

This book would have been better titled "Personalized Rapid Transit: A Case Study in Transportation Systems Planning." There is certainly nothing "fundamental" in the

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ideas and concepts presented in the book. The book represents a good example of the issues involved in the development of a transportation system but is far too specific to be used as a text.

The book is organized so that each chapter addresses a particular issue. Thus a wide range of ideas is presented and few readers will be expert in all of them. Those chapters dealing with the more technical matters, such as Chapters 6 and 7, do require a familiarity with engineering subjects but do not require an extensive knowledge of mathematics. The content and quality of the chapters do vary considerably. In those chapters dealing with subjects with which I am familiar, there are errors and omissions (discussed below): the reader is cautioned to take this into account when evaluating stated conclusions.

Typical of books of this genre, it suffers somewhat from an advocacy approach. Thus, according to the authors, the suburbanite who commutes to the central business district by bus, "must first walk to the closest bus stop, let us say a five or ten minute walk" and then "may have to wait up to another ten minutes, possibly in inclement weather," etc. On the other hand, the typical Personalized Rapid Transit (PRT) user going from his home to work "may walk about two city blocks to the nearest PRT station," presumably under sunny skies. There is no reason to surmize that PRT stations in the suburbs will be located closer to residences than are current bus stops.

Chapter 1, entitled "Service Concepts" has a good discussion of the general class of Automated Guideway Transit (AGT) systems of which the PRT concept is a subclass. The PRT system is characterized by: small vehicles (maximum 6 seated passengers); extensive and complex network necessitating switching; short headways (3 seconds or less); speeds up to 100 km/h (60 mph); elevated guideways in urban areas. It is unfortunate that the book focuses specifically on the PRT. The more general approach dealing with AGT systems would seem a more appropriate topic for a book and one which would generate more interest. A major advantage of AGT systems is their flexibility to provide intermediate capacity transit (levels of service between 5 and 20 thousand passengers per hour, i.e., capacities between bus and rapid rail); this flexibility is potentially a valuable option for many cities.

In addition, Chapter 1 does not convincingly resolve the problem of PRT in com- petition with the automobile. That is, the major advantage of the automobile is the perceived door-to-door service and it will in fact not be feasible for PRTs to have the kind of station density in the suburbs that is implied in some of the Chapter 1 narrative. Chapters 10 and 11 on Patronage Estimation and PRT Economics and Benefits do appear more realistic in this regard.

Chapters 6 and 7 on Safety and Emergency Operations, and Design Considerations, respectively, skim the surface of several engineering issues. These chapters contain some omissions, errors, and raise some questions which are not resolved. These are discussed in the following.

In Chapter 6, in-line collisions are discussed. The equations developed (section 6.7.2) assume a completely plastic collision (i.e., the vehicles remain engaged after impact). There is no discussion to indicate that this represents a worst case.

With regard to the propulsion system discussed in Chapter 7, Section 2, the require- ment that the motor develop a thrust "capable of accelerating a 2400 lb. vehicle at a maximum level of 0.25 g up to a speed of 90 ft/sec up a 5% grade into a 67 mph head- wind with 30% gusts" might be unrealistic and uneconomical. In addition, the guideway requirements imposed by tile motor exhibit the complexity (and cost) of an active guide-

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way without eliminating power collection. Further elaboration of these points would have been useful.

The discussion on guideways in Chapter 7, Section 6 is weak. First, there is no discussion at all of torsional deflections in the guideway, both from the structural and dynamic stability viewpoints. For thin-walled, open-section beams, torsional behavior is equally as important as vertical behavior, particularly on curved segments. Second, the calculations on guideway stiffness/comfort criterion (7.6.1.C) assume that the vehicles are rigidly attached to the guideway; that is the vehicles are assumed to have no primary and secondary suspensions. Finally, the statement in Section 7.6.1.D that, when cal- culating the fundamental frequency of the guideway (for dynamic stability determina- tion), the distributed weight of the vehicles must be added to the distributed weight of the guideway is in general wrong. This statement ignores the fact that the loading elements (vehicles), which have primary and secondary suspensions, undergo dynamic motions which are independent of the load bearing guideway.

In summary, the book does achieve the objective of informing transportation specialists and other interested laymen on the characteristics of and issues related to the development of a PRT system. Nevertheless, given the book's advocacy role, an overall impression exists that many of the e'stimates (e.g., system cost, reliability etc.) exhibit a degree of optimism that is not supported by recent experiences in new system implemen- tation. This fact, coupled with some of the identified errors and omissions, counsels caution in the general acceptance of the book's conclusions.

R. J. Ravera U. S. Department of Transportation

Henry Malcolm Steiner, Conflict in Urban Transporation. Lexington, MA.: Lexington Books, (1978), 118 pp., £9.50.

What has happened to the great conflicts over urban transportation facilities that were so topical a few years ago? There are several short answers to that question, and all imply that the study of transportation decision-making is still worthwhile. One answer is that the debate temporarily expanded the domain of transportation planners to include, for example, traffic management, transit systems, and non-incursive facility designs, but then narrowed that domain to a smaller acceptable set of specific options. Radial high- ways might not be built, but a number of other potential solutions are being examined. That is the optimistic interpretation, suggesting that the so-called "highway revolt" has indeed left us a valuable heritage.

The second answer is that an expanded forum for interest group claims has been produced, as well as a federal bureaucracy sensitized to a need to consider all options in the course of examining alternatives. These in turn have created "red tape" through which it is difficult to advance transportation projects, even in the absence of great controversy. Project development is very slow and there is much technical activity.

A third answer is that heated debate still goes on, but over a much narrower span of alternative impacts than before. For example, during the highway revolt any transit solution was regarded as a clean deliverance from an impactful highway option, but it is now discovered that transit has its negative impacts too. In Cambridge (Mass.), for example,

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a subway extension has been vigorously resisted for fear of underground vibrations and surface congestion. But such controversies are essentially local; they do not have the idealogical implications that damaging the natural ecology or displacing low income families do, so they have not reached the national press.

There are null answers as well; most of the Federal highway construction money is gone anyway, and some of the stalemates (like New York's Westway) have just gotten old in a societal environment no longer as receptive to such conflicts as formerly. But in spite of these responses, any of the first three answers suggest that transportation conflict is still a very important topic to consider.

The Steiner book is a brief general review of the classical issues of conflict over transportation facilities. It begins with a series of case studies, including the historic Overton Park (Memphis) case where the requirement to consider "feasible and prudent" alternatives was defined in a way that substantially expanded the domain of possible solutions to transportation problems. There are also brief case studies of the MOPAC Expressway in Austin, the Los Angeles Airport, and the San Francisco Area BART system. There are also some short case summaries of mass transit extensions in three cities - Seattle, Houston, and Los Angeles showing the different outcomes of local initiative to extend services. These may be the most useful of the cases, since they have sufficient similarities to invite comparisons. The author speculates on the differences in outcome in these communities as consequences of urban form, institutional structures, air quality conditions, and so forth.

In the general chapters that follow, an effort is made to lay out formal decision rules that might be used to decide which impacts are on balance positive; Steiner also discusses the analytical methods used to evaluate those impacts. A variety of environ- mental and social impacts are described, with references to the case studies presented. The author's only strongly personal perspective comes near the end, a very negative con- clusion on the shape of public decision-making. Steiner alleges that the bureaucracy has gained excessive influence over decisions that should be in the hands of elected officials and the public.

The book is not a substantial contribution to the literature, but it does have the virtue of covering the basic story of transport facility decision skeletally in few pages. It should serve to remind us that transport decision-making should continue to receive study, even though it is no longer in the national headlines. Indeed, there is evidence that more analytical work can be done now than when transportation conflicts were a subject of more popular professional discussion.

Ralph Gakenheimer Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

In addition to the books reviewed, the following publications have been received:

The Economics of Freight Car Supply, John Richard Felton, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, (1978), ii + 118 pp., $9.50.

Trade Policy and U. S. Automobile Industry, Eric J. Toder with Nicholas Scott Cardell, Ellen Burton, New York: Praeger Publishers, (1978), xv + 243 pp., price not available.

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Transportation System Safety, Michael Horodniceanu and Edmund J. Cantilli, Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, D. C. Heath, (1979), xxii + 212 pp., $18.95.

Paratransit, ECMT Round Table 40. Paris: European Conference of Ministers of Transport, (1978), 163 pp., $7.50, £3.60.

The Role of Transport in Counter-Cyclical Policy. ECMT Round Table 41. Paris: European Conference of Ministers of Transport, (1978), 60 pp., $3.75, £1.80.

Both of the above publications are available through OECD sales agents.

Transit Service Reliability - Service and Methods Demonstration Program. Mark Abkowitz, Howard Slavin et al. TSC Urban and Regional Research Series. Washington DC: US Department of Transportation, (1978), xii + 180 pp.

A Compendium of Federal Transportation Policies and Programs. NTPSC - Special Report 6. National Transportation Policy Study Commission, 2000 M St NW Suite 3000, Washington DC 20036 (1979) vi + 415 pp.

Planning and Politics: The Metropolitan Toronto Planning Review, Juri Pill. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, (1979), 8 + 230 pp, $19.95.

Personal Travel Expenditure and Transportation Expenditures in Canada, R. Daigle. Ottawa: Canadian Transport Commission, (1978), viii + 143 pp.

The following reports have been received from the Transport and Road Research Labora- tory, Crowthorne, Berkshire, England from which they are available gratis: -

Effect of Car Ownership on Bus Patronage. R. H. Oldfield. Laboratory Report 872, 33 pp. Vehicle Booking at Common-User Deep-Sea Container Terminals. A. C. Bailey and

V. Pridhoe, Laboratory Report 873, 26 pp. Reducing Empty Travel by Goods Vehicles. M. A. Cundill and P. M. Hull. Laboratory

Report 876, 29 pp. The Capacity of Offside Priority Roundabout Entries, M. G. M. Glen, S. L. Sumner and

R. M. Kimber. Supplementary Report 436, 21 pp. Rural Transport Experiments: Blackmount Series. Supplementary Report 446, 23 pp. High Speed Guided Ground Transport of Passengers. D. Linder. Supplementary Report

450, 39 pp. Speed Control Humps in Kensington and Glasgow. R. Sumner and C. Baguley. Sup-

plementary Report 456, 21 pp. Car Pooling: Travel to Work at an Isolated Site. K. Wood. Supplementary Report 462,

17 pp. Regional and National Convergence to Common Car Ownership Levels. S. T. Divey.

Supplementary Report 463, 19 pp. Car Ownership and Public Transport. S. R. Jones and J. C. Tanner. Supplementary

Report 464, 39 pp.