Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Publication
    Commuting economy : an alternative approach for assessing regional commuting efficiency
    This paper revisits the notion of random commuting within the excess commuting framework. In doing so, it argues that the average random commute, is a more appropriate basis for measuring the efficiency of urban commuting patterns. Using this as a base, the paper introduces two new measures of commuting efficiency based on measuring the collective commuting economy of individuals for the journey to work: commuting economy and normalised commuting economy. It is argued that because the average random commute has an intrinsically behavioural interpretation, the measures introduced yield more explicit explanations of the overall nature of travel behaviour within the constraints set by land use geography and the spatial distribution of the transport network. The framework is applied for two different years, 1991 and 2001, and for different modes of transport. The results show that the average actual commute has moved further away from the average random commute, implying that greater intermixing of residential and employment functions has led to more efficient commuting behaviour.
    Scopus© Citations 65  554
  • Publication
    Transportation accessibility issues and the location of a national facility : the case of a new paediatric hospital to serve the Republic of Ireland
    (Taylor and Francis, 2007) ;
    This study considers the accessibility of three locations that were identified for consideration by the Health Services Executive for locating a new national children’s hospital: The Mater, St. James’s and Tallaght. Accessibility to each of these sites is considered first within the context of the Dublin region and then with respect to the area outside that region. For the Dublin region, a Dublin Transportation Office data set that gives travel times in the peak and off-peak periods is used along with small area population statistics derived from the 2002 census to identify the proportion of the total population, of the population aged 0 to15 years and of the female population aged 15 to 35 years that are nearest each of the three hospital sites. A similar analysis is conducted for the rest of the country using where appropriate published public transport schedules. The results suggest that in choosing a location for a single facility that is to serve the Dublin region only and where accessibility interpreted as minimisation of travel time is of over-riding importance, a city centre location is best; however, where the facility is to serve the national population and where the bulk of journeys to it will be by car, the results suggest that a strategic location to the west of the city will maximise accessibility.
    Scopus© Citations 3  470
  • Publication
    Communications
    (Cork University Press, 2011-11) ;
    Communications are an outstanding feature of Ireland's rural landscape. Some roads date from early times, but a network of roads and lanes, much denser than in most of Europe, developed strongly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to link the diffuse pattern of small single farms, provide access to peat bogs and hill grazing, and serve a population substantially larger than the present. The expansion of roads had profound consequences in pre-industrial Ireland, ending isolation, altering rural settlement patterns and facilitating the erosion of native culture and the process of emigration. During the same period, and encouraged by central Ireland's low relief, canals were constructed, running in a predominantly east-west direction and serving the ports on the eastern seaboard with produce from an expanding rural hinterland. Unable to compete with the later railways, the canals fell into disuse in the early twentieth century, but have experienced a revival in recent years with the development of waterways for leisure pursuits. Although relatively underdeveloped, Ireland generated an impressive rail network in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Like the canals, railways were optimistically perceived as instruments of economic development and were extended into remote rural areas to encourage commercial farm production, trade and tourism; in reality, railways facilitated the importation of foreign goods and emigration. With the arrival of motorised road transport after World War II and upgrading of the roads, the railways appeared uncompetitive and a strategy of closure was implemented. Much reduced, the railway system has left a considerable legacy in the Irish rural landscape, including abandoned stations, bridges and embankments. Thinning of the communications network in the twentieth century, in particular railways and rural roads, was paralleled by the development of air travel and telecommunications and increasing investment in major roadways and by-passes. In the early years of the twenty-first century, rapid economic growth has meant that the development of major roadways and by-passes has assumed even greater importance. The role of the railway as a passenger oriented service has increased also. New technologies associated with mobile telecommunications and new forms of energy generation have become conspicuous in the rural landscape. While these latter impacts are likely to increase in future years, the full extent of the impact of the technological revolution on the rural landscape remains to be seen.
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