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Urban Transport and the Environment for the 21st Century III
Journal of Tmnspon Geqyaphy Vol. 6. No. 4. pp. 309-315, 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. Printed in Great Britain 0966.6923/98/$-see front matter
Pergamon
Book reviews PII: SO966-6923(98)00031-3 Urban ‘Ransport and the Environment for the 21st Century III Sucharov, L. J. and Bidini, G. (Eds)
Computational Mechanics Publications Southampton (1997) f195.00 This edited work is a collection of the papers presented at the Third, International Conference on Urban Transport and the Environment, held in Italy in 1997. As such, the book tends to reflect the strengths and weaknesses of edited collections. There are forty one papers in all, grouped within eight themes: Rail; Bus and Freight; Private vehicles; General transportation; Residential and pedestrian; User choice; Future vision; and Environmental aspects. Inevitably, the content and quality of the papers is as is the breadth of their uneven, appeal. Overall, the papers are firmly within the empirical modelling tradition, although there are some more qualitative and reflective pieces, and show that this tradition certainly has contributions to make on understanding transport systems in urban areas. The modelling of environmental impacts is a particularly fruitful and useful area of research at present, with many governments and urban regulatory authorities interested in policy formulation with a firm empirical base. Many of the papers are policy orientated, with applications to a range of stakeholders in urban transport systems. One of the strengths of the book is the diversity of the contributions, there is at least something for planners, economic geographers, transport specialists, urban sociologists, policy makers and private companies involved in transport provision. However, the book must be understood as reflecting only one of the contemporary discourses on urban transport and the environment. Some of the value of this book is undermined by the relatively weak
contribution of the editors. Apart from a one page preface, there is no attempt to put the contributions into a broader context, either with an overall introduction or with introductions to the main sections. Neither do the editors actually have a paper in the body of the text. This would have been useful, especially as in many of the papers the relevance of the contribution in terms of environmental issues is at best oblique. Furthermore, there is no overall index of contents -which reduces the usefulness of the book. The book has been produced very quickly, and this is itself commendable in a fast-moving and expanding area of research, but the price is paid in terms of inconsistencies in style, layout, referencing, proof reading, etc. between the various contributions. The overall tone is Eurocentric, though there are a few contributions from Japan, the USA and elsewhere. Many of the papers are highly specific case studies which will be of interest mainly to others working within these highly specialised areas. It is useful, especially for more junior researchers, to have a platform for the dissemination of such projects. At the same time, ther are some gaps - most obviously there is no separate treatment of bicycles. Again, this is a reflection of publishing conference contents rather than seeking to commission pieces of work to cover all the desired areas. Presumably, no papers on bicycles were offered to the conference. The latter sections of the book, dealing with visions for the future and general environmental aspects of transportation, more closely reflect the title and have a wider relevance both to active researchers and those teaching courses which cover transport, the environment, and urban systems. To a degree, the definition of ‘environment’ is quite narrow. The papers in this area mainly deal with fuel consumption and 309
emissions from transportation systems, apart from one contribution on in-vehicle noise and one on accidents. It is perhaps unfair to highlight favourite contributions, but some were certainly more thought provoking than others. The paper by Hayashi and Anurakamonkul for example provides an interesting analysis on the environmental burden of motorisation in urban areas, supporting the arguments put forward by Kenworthy et al (1997) in their report to the World Bank on indicators of transport efficiency in major cities around the globe. The analysis of Rienstra, Bisschop and Nijkamp on the relationship between electric vehicle use, urban form, and external policy influences for the case of Amsterdam reinforces the transporturban prosperity relationship and uses scenarios to speculate on possible A particularly revealing outcomes. paper is that by Vlieger, with an evaluation of the impact of traffic conditions on real world car emissions. Bearing in mind that the European Commission target for CO, emissions is 120g/km the actual performance of the cars used in the study was very poor, especially durng peak hour travel (in one case a figure of 522 gikm was recorded). The various contributions on freight transport are also useful, especially as freight tends to be neglected in favour of the transportation of people within urban areas. As the paper by Singh, Micallef and Colls shows, cars, light commercial vehicles and heavy commercial vehicles show very different fuel consumption and emissions patterns as they move through the urban transport infrastructure - in particular the heavy trucks showed a dramatic leap in fuel consumption at the approach to intersections. In summary, this is a book for academic libraries perhaps, as any one individual is unlikely to have an interest in all of its contents. The expense of the
310 book, at least partly attributable to the widespread use of formulae in the text, almost ensures that the market will be institutional. Of course, the cost is still less than attending the conference itself, and to this extent the book offers reasonable value for money. The editors could however, at least for future editions, devote more attention to framing the contents and providing an index these steps alone would greatly enhance the value of the book as a work of reference. Dr Peter Wells Centre for Automotive Industry Research Cardiff Business School Cardiff CFl 3EU, UK
Reference Kenworthy, J, Laube, F, Newman, P and Barter, P (1997) Indicators of transport ejjkiency in 37 global cities, Report for the World Bank. Perth, Murdoch University.
PII: S-0966-6923(98)00022-2 Airline Finance Peter S. Morrell Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot (1997) 221 PP ISBN O-291-39845-6 The general aim of this book is to provide a broad understanding of all areas of airline finance and their management. Thus it addresses topics that include: airline financial statements and ratios; the valuation of an airline; privatization; financial planning and appraisal; sources of airline finance; and aircraft leasing and securitization. As this list suggests, the book is concerned with finance per se - with the specific financial management of everyday airline operation. An introductory chapter apart, Peter Morrell consciously eschews any attempt to relate airline finance to the wider political economy, a constraint - albeit understandable in terms of the provenance of the book (a Cranfield University course) - that effectively limits its wider application and interest. While the text contains much valuable detail, any reader approaching it from a
Book reviews perspective not quite so centrally concerned with airline financial management is likely to be frustrated by the absence of political, economic and, above all, critical, context. In addition, its textbook provenance means that the book functions primarily as a reference source; the layout and excessive number of subheadings militate against any concept of flow or progressive argument in the content. Even by normal standards of capitalist business practice, the economics of air transport are notably bizarre. This book is published at a time when an increasingly (some might say incurably) optimistic industry - lost billions of US dollars in the early 1990s - is making increased operating profits (although these singularly are when unimpressive compared to turnover and to the past losses), and as in the 1980s ordering large numbers of aircraft while claiming projected growth figures that are clearly unsustainable by any measure of airport, airspace and environmental capacity. The industry is again behaving as if the capitalist cycle was something akin to socialist economics, a spectre that can now be consigned to the past. The ways in which airlines behave financially and their remarkable capacity for creative (optimistic) accountancy are all well explained by Morrell, and the strengths of the book are to be found in its careful and detailed explanations of the often arcane details of airline finances. British Airways (BA) is used as an accounting example of what is still a relatively labour-intensive but also capital-intensive industry. Indeed, it is veering ever increasingly towards the latter as increasingly expensive and ever more capable aircraft and technological equipment of all forms replace labour. Given the widespread belief that its current management is intent on turning BA into a ‘virtual airline’, one might have hoped that Morrell would engage rather more critically with this example but it is not to be. Again, he does not explore the competitive advantages that accrue to a large airline such as BA, which possesses the financial capability to invest heavily in computer technology, particularly for yield management, a crucial topic in airline economics but one that is inexplicably marginal to this text. Nor at any point does Morrell address the more interesting questions
that lurk behind the prosaic accounting details. Where did all the losses from the early 1990s go? Why would any sane investor put money into an industry with such miserly margins? The recovery may be under way (even peaked) but for how long? Given Morrell’s remarkably disciplined exclusion of such topics of broader interest, what does the book offer to a wider audience? Three topics in particular stand out. There is an excellent discussion of route rights and slots, intangible assets which are essentially public properties but are treated by airlines as if they were privately-owned assets. Again, the book contains notably useful reviews of the various mechanisms of airline privatization, and the increasingly important role of leasing in aircraft acquisition. The discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the various types of lease arrangements is particularly clear. To conclude, however, this book seems an opportunity missed. The author could rightly argue that the wide issues lie beyond the specific remit of the book, but it is their studied neglect which detracts from the usefulness of the text. In sticking so determinedly to the precise parameters of finance, and in largely addressing this material without the inclusion of contextual material relating to the political economy as a whole, Morrell apparently views airline financial management almost as a self-contained ‘black box’, thereby emulating the way in which the air transport industry is more widely inclined to view itself. Its practitioners are too often prone to delusions of grandeur as to their importance to society in general, often arrogantly dismissive of justifiable criticisms of their actions (especially environmental), and abjectly uncritical in their insistence on the primacy of their industry’s demands (particularly making money) to the exclusion of all else. While there is much of merit in this book, it too is remarkably undiscriminating in terms of its perspective upon this curious world and, in the end, one is left with the impression of an author who is too close to his subject - or perhaps to the industry that is his subject.
Brian Graham School of Environmental Studies University of Ulster at Coleraine, UK
Pergamon
Book reviews PII: SO966-6923(98)00031-3 Urban ‘Ransport and the Environment for the 21st Century III Sucharov, L. J. and Bidini, G. (Eds)
Computational Mechanics Publications Southampton (1997) f195.00 This edited work is a collection of the papers presented at the Third, International Conference on Urban Transport and the Environment, held in Italy in 1997. As such, the book tends to reflect the strengths and weaknesses of edited collections. There are forty one papers in all, grouped within eight themes: Rail; Bus and Freight; Private vehicles; General transportation; Residential and pedestrian; User choice; Future vision; and Environmental aspects. Inevitably, the content and quality of the papers is as is the breadth of their uneven, appeal. Overall, the papers are firmly within the empirical modelling tradition, although there are some more qualitative and reflective pieces, and show that this tradition certainly has contributions to make on understanding transport systems in urban areas. The modelling of environmental impacts is a particularly fruitful and useful area of research at present, with many governments and urban regulatory authorities interested in policy formulation with a firm empirical base. Many of the papers are policy orientated, with applications to a range of stakeholders in urban transport systems. One of the strengths of the book is the diversity of the contributions, there is at least something for planners, economic geographers, transport specialists, urban sociologists, policy makers and private companies involved in transport provision. However, the book must be understood as reflecting only one of the contemporary discourses on urban transport and the environment. Some of the value of this book is undermined by the relatively weak
contribution of the editors. Apart from a one page preface, there is no attempt to put the contributions into a broader context, either with an overall introduction or with introductions to the main sections. Neither do the editors actually have a paper in the body of the text. This would have been useful, especially as in many of the papers the relevance of the contribution in terms of environmental issues is at best oblique. Furthermore, there is no overall index of contents -which reduces the usefulness of the book. The book has been produced very quickly, and this is itself commendable in a fast-moving and expanding area of research, but the price is paid in terms of inconsistencies in style, layout, referencing, proof reading, etc. between the various contributions. The overall tone is Eurocentric, though there are a few contributions from Japan, the USA and elsewhere. Many of the papers are highly specific case studies which will be of interest mainly to others working within these highly specialised areas. It is useful, especially for more junior researchers, to have a platform for the dissemination of such projects. At the same time, ther are some gaps - most obviously there is no separate treatment of bicycles. Again, this is a reflection of publishing conference contents rather than seeking to commission pieces of work to cover all the desired areas. Presumably, no papers on bicycles were offered to the conference. The latter sections of the book, dealing with visions for the future and general environmental aspects of transportation, more closely reflect the title and have a wider relevance both to active researchers and those teaching courses which cover transport, the environment, and urban systems. To a degree, the definition of ‘environment’ is quite narrow. The papers in this area mainly deal with fuel consumption and 309
emissions from transportation systems, apart from one contribution on in-vehicle noise and one on accidents. It is perhaps unfair to highlight favourite contributions, but some were certainly more thought provoking than others. The paper by Hayashi and Anurakamonkul for example provides an interesting analysis on the environmental burden of motorisation in urban areas, supporting the arguments put forward by Kenworthy et al (1997) in their report to the World Bank on indicators of transport efficiency in major cities around the globe. The analysis of Rienstra, Bisschop and Nijkamp on the relationship between electric vehicle use, urban form, and external policy influences for the case of Amsterdam reinforces the transporturban prosperity relationship and uses scenarios to speculate on possible A particularly revealing outcomes. paper is that by Vlieger, with an evaluation of the impact of traffic conditions on real world car emissions. Bearing in mind that the European Commission target for CO, emissions is 120g/km the actual performance of the cars used in the study was very poor, especially durng peak hour travel (in one case a figure of 522 gikm was recorded). The various contributions on freight transport are also useful, especially as freight tends to be neglected in favour of the transportation of people within urban areas. As the paper by Singh, Micallef and Colls shows, cars, light commercial vehicles and heavy commercial vehicles show very different fuel consumption and emissions patterns as they move through the urban transport infrastructure - in particular the heavy trucks showed a dramatic leap in fuel consumption at the approach to intersections. In summary, this is a book for academic libraries perhaps, as any one individual is unlikely to have an interest in all of its contents. The expense of the
310 book, at least partly attributable to the widespread use of formulae in the text, almost ensures that the market will be institutional. Of course, the cost is still less than attending the conference itself, and to this extent the book offers reasonable value for money. The editors could however, at least for future editions, devote more attention to framing the contents and providing an index these steps alone would greatly enhance the value of the book as a work of reference. Dr Peter Wells Centre for Automotive Industry Research Cardiff Business School Cardiff CFl 3EU, UK
Reference Kenworthy, J, Laube, F, Newman, P and Barter, P (1997) Indicators of transport ejjkiency in 37 global cities, Report for the World Bank. Perth, Murdoch University.
PII: S-0966-6923(98)00022-2 Airline Finance Peter S. Morrell Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot (1997) 221 PP ISBN O-291-39845-6 The general aim of this book is to provide a broad understanding of all areas of airline finance and their management. Thus it addresses topics that include: airline financial statements and ratios; the valuation of an airline; privatization; financial planning and appraisal; sources of airline finance; and aircraft leasing and securitization. As this list suggests, the book is concerned with finance per se - with the specific financial management of everyday airline operation. An introductory chapter apart, Peter Morrell consciously eschews any attempt to relate airline finance to the wider political economy, a constraint - albeit understandable in terms of the provenance of the book (a Cranfield University course) - that effectively limits its wider application and interest. While the text contains much valuable detail, any reader approaching it from a
Book reviews perspective not quite so centrally concerned with airline financial management is likely to be frustrated by the absence of political, economic and, above all, critical, context. In addition, its textbook provenance means that the book functions primarily as a reference source; the layout and excessive number of subheadings militate against any concept of flow or progressive argument in the content. Even by normal standards of capitalist business practice, the economics of air transport are notably bizarre. This book is published at a time when an increasingly (some might say incurably) optimistic industry - lost billions of US dollars in the early 1990s - is making increased operating profits (although these singularly are when unimpressive compared to turnover and to the past losses), and as in the 1980s ordering large numbers of aircraft while claiming projected growth figures that are clearly unsustainable by any measure of airport, airspace and environmental capacity. The industry is again behaving as if the capitalist cycle was something akin to socialist economics, a spectre that can now be consigned to the past. The ways in which airlines behave financially and their remarkable capacity for creative (optimistic) accountancy are all well explained by Morrell, and the strengths of the book are to be found in its careful and detailed explanations of the often arcane details of airline finances. British Airways (BA) is used as an accounting example of what is still a relatively labour-intensive but also capital-intensive industry. Indeed, it is veering ever increasingly towards the latter as increasingly expensive and ever more capable aircraft and technological equipment of all forms replace labour. Given the widespread belief that its current management is intent on turning BA into a ‘virtual airline’, one might have hoped that Morrell would engage rather more critically with this example but it is not to be. Again, he does not explore the competitive advantages that accrue to a large airline such as BA, which possesses the financial capability to invest heavily in computer technology, particularly for yield management, a crucial topic in airline economics but one that is inexplicably marginal to this text. Nor at any point does Morrell address the more interesting questions
that lurk behind the prosaic accounting details. Where did all the losses from the early 1990s go? Why would any sane investor put money into an industry with such miserly margins? The recovery may be under way (even peaked) but for how long? Given Morrell’s remarkably disciplined exclusion of such topics of broader interest, what does the book offer to a wider audience? Three topics in particular stand out. There is an excellent discussion of route rights and slots, intangible assets which are essentially public properties but are treated by airlines as if they were privately-owned assets. Again, the book contains notably useful reviews of the various mechanisms of airline privatization, and the increasingly important role of leasing in aircraft acquisition. The discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the various types of lease arrangements is particularly clear. To conclude, however, this book seems an opportunity missed. The author could rightly argue that the wide issues lie beyond the specific remit of the book, but it is their studied neglect which detracts from the usefulness of the text. In sticking so determinedly to the precise parameters of finance, and in largely addressing this material without the inclusion of contextual material relating to the political economy as a whole, Morrell apparently views airline financial management almost as a self-contained ‘black box’, thereby emulating the way in which the air transport industry is more widely inclined to view itself. Its practitioners are too often prone to delusions of grandeur as to their importance to society in general, often arrogantly dismissive of justifiable criticisms of their actions (especially environmental), and abjectly uncritical in their insistence on the primacy of their industry’s demands (particularly making money) to the exclusion of all else. While there is much of merit in this book, it too is remarkably undiscriminating in terms of its perspective upon this curious world and, in the end, one is left with the impression of an author who is too close to his subject - or perhaps to the industry that is his subject.
Brian Graham School of Environmental Studies University of Ulster at Coleraine, UK