Reliability of Transport Network

Studies the robustness of the whole transport network. Includes contributions from leading international experts. High profile traffic accidents have highlighted the susceptibility of transport networks to severe dislocation from time to time. This is more than just an inconvenience, as the emergency services depend on the residual transport network to ferry in help and ferry out the wounded. Spurred on by the catastrophic effects on the transport network of the Kobe earthquake, 17 January 1995, Yasunori Iida of Kyoto University, Japan, brought together a small group of international experts to work on the topic of network reliability. The objective of the work is to provide the tools necessary for designing more reliable transport networks. As part of the work, an international seminar was convened in July 1999. This book contains the edited contributions to the seminar. The issue addressed in the book is not the reliability of individual network components, like bridges or tunnels, which is of course an interesting topic in its own right, but rather the reliability of the network as a whole when parts of it are not performing well. The transport networks of large conurbations are constantly subjected to disruptions due to accidents, road or rail works, adverse weather, building works, demonstrations, terrorist incidents, etc. The book deals with crucial issues relating to the measurement of reliability, traveller decision-making under uncertainty, the provision of information to travellers, and the design of transport networks.