| University Research
Transport Watch will sponsor and encourage research into transport
issues at a range of universities. E.g:
1. To Cranfield
(a) |
Development of an airport land productivity
index: Namely passenger-km and tonne-km per
hectare of land. Land to include surrounding areas suitably
weighted.
The project would provide a data base for UK airports
enabling the user to find the productivity index for
any airport or for any subset of airports or trips,
e.g. domestic and European as opposed to trans-continental.
In the longer term it may be possibly to establish a
relationship with those producing the source data so
as to enable rapid updating. The indecies could be compared
with corresponding indecies for road and rail travel.
The project could start as a pilot study aimed at a
particular airport and end with a saleable database
of national interest.
Preliminary estimates for the indecies for road and
rail could be made fairly easily since network lengths
are already known along with usage. |
(b) |
Evaluation: How should the time lost
by people disturbed by aircraft noise be included when
evaluating new airport proposals? E.g. if 300 people save
6 hours by air but disturb as few as 55,000 people on
the ground for 2 minutes then the time lost will exceed
the time gained. Should, or do, such calculations form
part of the decision process? If so what is the value
of time for air passengers and what is the value for those
disturbed by the aircraft. |
(c) |
Joint use: The extent to which military
airports in the UK could be used for joint military and
civilian use and comparison with European practice. |
2. To Portsmouth and Southampton Universities
We have proposed dissertations comparing the use made of
the South Coast Railway with that made of the parallel road
system. The project would include the dimensions of the rights
of way, the passenger and freight flows and the fuel consumptions,
and costs etc.
Additionally we have proposed a study of the use made of
the rail terminals in Portsmouth and Southampton for comparison
with bus or coach stations.
3. To University College London
We have proposed studies of main-line London rail terminals
and their approaches to find the use made of the land compared
with that possible from road transport.
4. To Napier University
We have proposed a study of the Forth road and rail bridges
to find the comparative use and dimensions made of those great
works.
5. Other
We plan to offer small grants to other universities prepared
to undertake comparative studies particularly of road and
rail infrastructure.
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