Sustainable Transportation and Traffic Engineering Solutions

for Local Authorities, Road Controlling Authorities,  Central Government Agencies,  Private Developers,   Consultants,  Schools,   Businesses, Residents Groups      

   Traffic engineering investigations and conceptual planning

   Transportation Planning

   Road Safety Engineering and Planning

   Project Coordination and Management

   Travel Plans for Organisations

 

Sustainability and Systems Engineering

Sustainability is a word being used more commonly these days and the concepts of sustainability are being discussed more within communities.  There are individuals, groups, and organisations devising and implementing innovative methods and projects that protect and promote a higher quality of life while ensuring resources are not unneccessarily wasted.

Examples of this are waste recycling, reduction of pollutants in air and water, use of renewable energy resources and better health through active transportation (walking and cycling).

Systems Engineering requires Systems Thinking

Systems thinking is about gaining insights into the whole by understanding the linkages and interactions between the elements that comprise the whole "system", consistent with systems philosophy. It recognizes that all human activity systems are open systems; therefore, they are affected by the environment in which they exist.

Systems thinking often involves considering a "system" in different ways, for example: Rather than trying to improve the braking system on a car by looking in great detail at the composition of the brake pads, the boundary of the braking system may be extended to include not only the components of the car, but the driver, the road and the weather, and considering the interactions between them.

Transportation planning or traffic engineering involves working with such an open 'human' system that has many factors and interdependancies.  Systems thinking is the discipline that considers the effects on all these factors and interdependancies and formulating solution options that are feasible and that do not introduce any imbalance into the system.

The main factors in the Transportation System are:

   People - users and stakeholders

   Vehicles - catering for all modes of transport including walking

   Transportation environment - greenfields or built environment, landuse types

   Economic cost and benefit - direct cost, indirect costs, intangible costs

   Sustainability - effects on environment, future-proofing, efficient use of resources