National Planning Models and Instruments

INFOR, Nov 2008 by Crainic, Teodor Gabriel, Florian, Michael

Abstract-

This paper focuses on the analysis and planning of multimodal, multiproduct transportation systems at the international, national, and regional levels, where the movements of several commodities through the transportation networks and services of several carriers are considered simultaneously. The main questions relate to the evolution of a given transportation system and its response to various modifications of its socio-economic, regulatory, and technological environment. These questions are often part of cost-benefit analyses and comparative studies of policy and investment alternatives with broad and significant impact, not only on the transportation system but also on the economy and society as a whole. Canadian researchers have contributed significantly to this field. They have not only developed models and methods to perform national planning activities, but also transferred these results to practice through decision-support software commercially distributed worldwide. This paper presents an overview of national planning issues together with the main methodological approaches proposed in the literature, reviews the contribution of Canadian researchers to the science and practice in this field, and examines current challenges and research trends.

Keywords National and regional planning, multimodal and multiproduct transportation.

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1. INTRODUCTION

Transportation is a vital activity for the development, organization, and operations of society. One is not overstating the case by claiming that the development of transportation, in terms of geographic coverage, technology, efficiency, structure, and organizational principles, is closely related to the development of society and civilizations throughout history. There is hardly any social or economic activity that does not involve transportation and is not tributary to the efficient, smooth, and timely movement of people, goods, and information.

It is thus not surprising that significant research efforts have been and continue to be dedicated to issues related to the analysis, planning, management, and operations of transportation systems. The Canadian operations research community is at the forefront of these efforts and its contributions are many, varied, and important. Applications relate to passenger and freight transportation systems, ranging in scope from a local neighbourhood to an entire city or region, from a given pick-up and delivery zone to a specific inter-city corridor, from the transportation system of a country to that of a continent. Applications cover all modes of transportation and all planning levels, from the long term strategic view of the system, through tactical planning and allocation of resources, to short term planning of operations and their real-time dynamic management and control. Significant Canadian contributions have been made to the fundamental models and algorithms supporting all these activities and many of these contributions have been transferred to practice through decision-support systems.

This paper focuses on the analysis and planning of multimodal, multiproduct transportation systems. The focus of these models and methods is broad: they apply to strategic planning issues at the international, national, and regional levels, where the movements of several commodities through the transportation networks and services of several carriers are considered simultaneously. The main questions address the evolution of a given transportation system and its response to various modifications in its environment, e.g., transportation infrastructure, population distribution, patterns and volumes of production, consumption, and trade, policies and legislation, technology, and so on and so forth. These questions are often part of cost-benefit analyses and comparative studies of policy and investment alternatives with broad and significant impact not only on the transportation system but also on the economy and society as a whole.

Canadian researchers have contributed significantly to this field. They have not only developed models and methods to perform national planning activities, but also transferred diese results to practice through decision-support software commercially distributed worldwide. The objective of the paper is therefore to present an overview of national planning issues together with the main methodological approaches proposed in the literature, to review the contribution of Canadian researchers to the science and practice in this field, and to discuss current challenges and research trends.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 briefly reviews a number of fundamental concepts related to transportation systems and planning (for more detailed presentations, one may consult Crainic, 2003; Crainic and Kim, 2007; and Macharis and Bontekoning, 2004). Section 3 is dedicated to the description of national planning scope, goals, and main activities, as well as to a succinct review of the associated literature. The STAN model, planning method, and software system is described in Section 4, and we conclude in Section S.