Forum for Science, Industry and Business

Delft researcher develops design-rules for transport networks

Large changes unnecessary for multimodal transport

Multimodal transport is not in need of redesigned networks, rather of well designed ones. This is one of the conclusions from the PhD research of Rob van Nes, who will defend his thesis on Wednesday 25 September at TU Delft. “A highway with too many on and off ramps actually becomes a main road. This might be handy, but it is not effective.” Van Nes, who carried out his research at TRAIL research school, laid the theoretical foundation for something which many people already suspected.

Multimodal transport is often seen as an interesting possibility to solve the current traffic problems such as traffic jams, unreachable areas and negative environmental effects. Combining the use of, for example, cars, trains and buses on certain routes, could emphasise the strengths and diminish the weaknesses of the network. Van Nes: “Multimodal transport is very useful, but the important question is actually: what exactly does an effective multimodal network look like? Is a different from the networks that we have at the moment, or are the connections between the networks more important?” According to Van Nes, two points are of great importance for an effective multimodal network: hierarchy and concentration in space.

Maarten van der Sanden | alfa
Further information:
http://www.tudelft.nl

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