Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
spatial patterns of public bicycle trips in urban areas. A GIS technique
called flow map is developed to explore tempo-spatial patterns of public
bicycle under different calendar event and climatic conditions. The paper
demonstrates how the results from the GIS techniques may form part of
an evidence base for the transport planner with the potential to inform
future development to enhance the efficiency, and how the application of
GIS techniques will enhance the planner's toolbox whilst responding the
transport planning issues.
1.
I
NTRODUCTION
:
T
RANSPORT
A
NALYSIS AT
D
IFFERENT
S
CALES
In transport studies, transport-related activities and processes can be
analysed across a whole range of scales. This may include regional, local and
individual levels. The scale of transport study and analysis is closely related to
the transport phenomenon under investigation and the questions being posed
about it. In general, the transport structure can be broken down into regional,
local and micro levels.
Regional Level
The system-wide transport analysis can be applied to the regional or
national level. At this level, regional researchers and strategic planners account
for the general transport interactions of people in large regions across space,
for example, national migration, freight movement, and inter-state flow and
interactions. Regional transport analysis is fundamental in many strategic
transport planning and policy issues (Miller, 1998). The major outputs of
analysis at this level include the regional economic interactions and population
migration, the transport infrastructure, the processes between industries and
interregional trade, and transport systems.
Since the 1950s and 1960s, various geographers and economists have
developed a suite of analytical approaches. They are typically used to model
structural relationships and spatial interactions between the regional
economies as well as regional mobility of population. Some research methods
are based on the macro-economic theory. Examples are regional economic-
base analysis (Tiebout, 1962) and multi-regional input-output analysis
(Leontief, 1986). These are able to resolve a degree of regional interactions
