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This paper proposes a general conceptual framework which aims to integrate the concept of network resilience within that of transport security. In particular, methodological reflections on the role of resilience vs vulnerability in connectivity network structures, such as scale-free networks, are highlighted. Operational measures of resilience are also outlined, in order to enhance resilience in transport and communication networks. Current policy strategies which focus on resilience show the relevance of this issue and the need for continuing research on the links between complex transport networks and resilience, mostly by exploring this relationship at different scale levels and its impact on the whole network.

The aim of the present chapter is to provide an accurate description of the distribution of people in space, taking into account the demographic differences between people. To provide this analysis, we focus on both population (in terms of place of residence) and employment (in terms of place of work) data: we use annual observations regarding population and employment for all German towns and cities in the period 2001–2011. So, the questions we want to answer are the following: does the growth rate of employment/population depend on the size of the cohort? What is the level of employment and population concentration/deconcentration?Are there any differences between these two variables? Are there any differences if we differentiate for age cohorts?In answering all these questions, we will first show the results of the analysis of Zipf’s law and then those of the analysis of Gibrat’s law. The main idea is to verify whether the size of a city (measured by population and employment) and its growth rate are independent for 5-year age groups. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study which attempts to introduce demographic characteristics (and, in particular, age structure) into an analysis of Zipf’s and Gibrat’s law.

In most studies of economic resilience, much effort is attributed to the development of factors and measures representing economic and related resilience. In this context, a great deal of attention is devoted to the role of regions and to their abilities to withstand an economic shock. Usually, however, less attention is given to the size, distribution and interaction of the regions containing the underlying statistics used in the calculation of resilience factors. In this article, we argue that more attention should be devoted to choosing spatial units to increase the potential of resilience measures. In particular, we consider a smaller spatial unit, such as the municipality level, to better visualize resilience’s variations. In addition, by complementing measures of resilience with a measure of accessibility, we try to depict the municipality’s economic functioning. We have carried out experiments with reference to the system of the 290 municipalities in Sweden. Our municipality-level analyses reveal that (a) proxies of resilience and accessibility, in general, are positively and significantly correlated and that the municipalities estimated to be most resilient and accessible are also the major economic centers in Sweden, and (b) classifying the municipality position in ranks of proxies for resilience and accessibility is more useful for the classification of municipalities with differential resilience than classifying municipalities using proxies for resilience alone. For example, whereas high proxy values for resilience and high accessibility municipalities often are both job- and population-rich, municipalities with low resilience estimates and high accessibility indices can typically be depicted as suburban and commuting municipalities in metropolitan areas. While municipalities with estimates of poor resilience and poor accessibility can in general be used to categorize remote municipalities experiencing population loss, estimated low resilience and high accessibility are characteristics of municipalities increasing in population. This analysis combining estimates of resilience and accessibility can be considered a suitable tool for providing a more complete insight into the economic investigation and measurement of resilience.

An avalanche of empirical studies has addressed the validity of the rank-size rule (or Zipf's law) in a multicity context in many countries. Under which conditions (eg, sample size, spatial scale) this ‘law’ holds remains as yet largely underinvestigated, while spatial network constellations also deserve more attention. Against this background, we investigate the relationship between network connectivity and the rank-size rule (or Zipf's law) in an urban economic network constellation. In particular, we address the following methodological issues: (i) the (aggregate) behavioural foundation underlying the rank-size rule (Zipf's law) in the light of spatial-economic network theories (eg, entropy maximization, spatial interaction theory); (ii) the nature of the analytical relationship between social-spatial network analysis and the rank-size rule (Zipf's law). We argue that the rank-size rule is compatible with conventional economic foundations of spatial network models. We test the sensitivity of rank-size rules for changes in scale, functional forms, time periods, and connectivity structures. Our application uses an extensive spatiotemporal panel database on the evolution of the urban population in Germany. We test the relevance of the rank-size rule (Zipf's law), and—in parallel—the related ‘socioeconomic’ connectivity in these urban networks. In particular, we will show that Zipf's law (ie, with the rank-size coefficient equal to 1) is only valid under particular conditions of the sample size.

The ‘network embedding’ implications for complexity theory raise the issue of the search for a ‘hidden’ order/simplicity (Reggiani and Nijkamp, 2009). In this context, a dual analysis (Spatial Economic Science vs. Network Science) seems essential. This will be briefly reviewed in this chapter, by focusing on the role of accessibility. In particular we will show how accessibility can be the ‘simplest’ model which – by embedding connectivity – can link network science and spatial-economic science, and thus capture the homogeneity/heterogeneity of the spatial system concerned from both the methodological and the empirical viewpoint . Starting from these considerations, we will then explore the relationships between accessibility and an interesting concept linked to the robustness of the network: i.e. the resilience. Some reflections and suggestions for future research will be finally provided.

This chapter discusses the changes in the patterns of interaction that may point to important changes in the effects of barriers in the different parts of the studied area. On a generalized level, the changing patterns of interaction in the Baltic Sea Area should primarily be viewed as a process of internationalization. Baltic integration is here viewed as a process connecting the major city regions in the Baltic Sea Area, by means of interaction. When discussing interaction between city regions in a transborder environment such as the Baltic Sea Area, two major concepts come naturally in focus: systems of cities, and barriers. The chapter describes the traffic in terms of potential flows: the highest possible number of passengers to fly during a week. This can also be described as number of seats flown per week. These figures are taken from the international aviation timetables, from which it is possible to draw information about flight frequency and types of aircraft used.

There is a well established body of research that deals with how accessibility affects land use planning and spatial interaction. Hansen (1959) is usually cited as the father of this “scientific term”. In his seminal work, he defines accessibility as “the potential of opportunities for interaction” (p.73). Since then, the interest of how transport systems and spatial interaction are related has grown exponentially and accessibility analysis has played for more than five decades a central role in the agenda of regional and transport research. The concept of accessibility is open to different areas of study regarding the activities that can be carried out, to multiple transport systems and to different individuals or groups, so it is not surprising that in the literature we can find many different definitions (Geurs and van Wee 2004; Bruinsma and Rietveld 1998; Reggiani 1998; Vickerman 1995; and Morris et al. 1979). Handy and Niemeier (1997) showed that different types of accessibility measures exist according to particular criteria, and it is difficult to suggest the best approach to measure accessibility because different situations and purposes demand different approaches. This comment is quite pertinent at the light of the articles included in our special issue. We will see that four of them analyze accessibility in commuting and the authors use different methods, demarcation areas and opportunities are in some cases aggregated at the level of areas or individuals. In the last decade with the continuing development and deployment of geographic information systems (GIS) and other geospatial technologies that have greatly enhanced the ability to collect and analyse data relevant to accessibility analysis, researchers, in some cases, have changed from place-based measures of accessibility Netw Spat Econ (2011) 11:577–580 DOI 10.1007/s11067-011-9155-x

Information, communication and transport networks have always been in a state of flux, while they also influence each other. Extensive research efforts have been made to investigate the dynamics in the structure and use of networks, e.g., by means of network geometries, small-world effects and scale-free phenomena. We will illustrate these new developments on the basis of airline network evolution. The present paper provides a new contribution to the analysis of topological properties of complex airline networks. Using Lufthansa's networks as an example, this paper aims to show the empirical relevance of various network indicators - such as connectivity and concentration - for understanding changing patterns in airline network configurations. After an extensive discussion of various statistical results, a decision-aid method, viz. multi-criteria analysis, is used to investigate the robustness of our findings. The results highlight the actual strategic choices made by Lufthansa for its own network, as well in combination with its partners in Star Alliance.

This paper develops and applies neural network (NN) models to forecast regional employment patterns in Germany. Computer-aided optimization tools that imitate natural biological evolution to find the solution that best fits the given case (namely, genetic algorithms, GAs) are also used to detect the best NN structure. GA techniques are compared with more ‘traditional’ techniques which require the supervision of experienced analysts. We test the performance of these techniques on a panel of 439 districts in West and East Germany. Since the West and East datasets have different time spans, the models are estimated separately for West and East Germany. The results show that the West and East NN models perform with different degrees of precision, mainly because of the different time spans of the two datasets. Automatic techniques for the choice of the NN architecture do not seem to outperform selection procedures based on the supervision of expert analysts.

The paper aims to analyse and compare synthetic indices of accessibility in order to measure the impact of high‐speed trains on European cities. In particular, it considers the data and results concerning two previous articles by Gutierrez et al. and Martin et al. that analyse the accessibility gains produced by the construction of Trans‐European Transport Networks (TEN‐Ts). In these two papers, accessibility is studied using, first, a partial approach with three different indicators: location, potential market, and daily accessibility; and, second, data envelopment analysis (DEA) to calculate a synthetic index of global accessibility. The present paper extends these studies by applying principal component analysis (PCA) to obtain a new synthetic accessibility index. DEA and PCA are two good candidates to synthesize the partial information provided by different methods that have been employed in the previous literature that studies accessibility. It is shown that DEA and PCA methodologies yield a...

Accessibility has been the focus of many studies in recent decades. The widespread adoption of the accessibility concept demonstrates the originality of Hansen’s (1959) and Weibull’s (1976) vision. They were the first to define accessibility systematically. In essence, these two authors interpreted and modeled accessibility as the potential opportunities which can be reached from a given place by paying a certain generalized and space/time based cost. It is worth saying that the vast number of authors that have so far adopted – and still adopt potential accessibility is the best proof of the efficacy and elegance of this approach. Many review studies emphasize the relevance of this definition of accessibility from both the theoretical and empirical viewpoint (see inter alia Baradaran & Ramjerdi, 2001; De Montis & Reggiani, in press; Geurs, Krizek, & Reggiani, 2012; Geurs & Wee, 2004; Handy & Niemeier, 1997; Jones, 1981; Reggiani & Martin, 2011; and Wu & Hine, 2003). Thus accessibility appears to be a useful tool for best practice and planning (Geurs et al ., 2012). In this context, a line of research is clearly devoted to the accessibility of urban systems. There is interesting specialization in the scientific literature on accessibility in an urban setting. Lau and Chiu (2004) study the influences of land-use policy and public transport system development on their accessibility to workers. Many investigations relate accessibility to the following urban public goods: public spaces (Lotfi & Koohsari, 2009; Pasaogullari & Doratli, 2004), opportunities of access to space and time for one or multiple persons (Neutens, Versichele, & Schwanen, 2010), metro systems (Prasertsubpakij & Nitivattananon, in press), labor markets (Reggiani, Bucci, Russo, Haas, & Nijkamp, 2011), streets (Travencolo & Costa, 2008), services (Vasconcelos & Farias, 2012), and green spaces (Wright Wendel, Zarger, & Mihelcic, 2012). Starting from the above considerations, reflections on the role of accessibility in the analysis and planning of urban settlements certainly remain valid arguments that are worth exploring. This is the rationale which characterizes the articles included in this Special Section. To be more precise, Caschili and De Montis (2013) analyze accessibility in the US commuter system; Monzon, Ortega, and Lopez (2013) analyse accessibility in terms of the impact of the Spanish high speed rail system on urban areas; Ratner and Goetz (2013) study the accessibility of transit-oriented development, as well as its impact on urban morphology and land use; Bentlage, Luthi, and Thierstein (2013) consider the accessibility of German agglomerations with respect to physical and non-physical connectivity; and, finally, Tranos, Reggiani, and Nijkamp (2013) construct an index of digital accessibility to European cities. These contributions have been originally selected from among the papers presented in a ERSA-NECTAR1 Special Session on Accessibility and Spatial Patterns organized by Andrea De Montis and Aura Reggiani under the aegis of the ERSA 50th Conference held in Jonkoping (Sweden) on 19–23 August, 2010. Table 1 can be used to link the five articles collected in this Special Section. In detail, in Table 1, the papers collected in this Special Section are classified according to the following main features: 1. Transportation system indicates to which transportation context the authors are referring. 2. Country elucidates the national context under analysis. 3. Socio-economic variable refers to the categories of people that are analyzed in their mobility/accessibility choices. 4. Spatial context explains the level of spatial organization of the data. 5. Time period reports the time span when the data were collected. 6. Methodology indicates the analytical tool(s) adopted for constructing the accessibility measures. 7. Accessibility measurements/proxy reports on the measurements used to calculate the level of accessibility.

The concept of resilience has been receiving both theoretical and empirical attention in recent years, from different disciplinary fields, including spatial economics where resilience is becoming a ‘popular’ term. In particular, the concept of spatial economic resilience seems to assume slightly different interpretations. Starting from the basic definitions of resilience, which stem from ecology, this paper aims to highlight the similarities and the differences in the various analyses of resilience, in order to offer some insights into its use in the spatial economics literature.

According to the Annual Disaster Statistical Review of 2012, the average number ofnaturally-triggered disasters occurring within a period of 1 year is about 300 events, inwhich over 100,000 people are killed as a consequence of their impacts. The statisticsofdisastersshedlightonimportanttrendsarising,ofwhichthetwomostsalientarethatdeveloping and emerging economies suffer the most from human losses, and that thecosts of natural disasters are escalating over time. In 2012 the Hurricane Sandy, one ofthe most ever expensive natural disasters in the United States, created damages forapproximately US$ 50.0 billion (Guha-Sapir et al. 2013). Both natural and man-madedisasters may have various spatial effects (from local to global scales) which reverber-ate for hours and even years when the damages affect the backbone of a system. Thusinvestigating these phenomena represent a complex but compelling issue. In the aim topredict and minimise the substantial economic losses generated by disruptive events,the attention of scholars, practitioners and policy makers is nowadays turning squarelytoward such concepts as resilience, vulnerability, robustness, and reliability of econom-ic spatial systems (Rose 2009).In essence, resilience refers to the capacity of a network: a) to retain its organiza-tional structure following the perturbation of some state variable from a given value; b)to adapt itself to new states; thus evolution is formed by the switch of these resilientnetworks from one equilibrium state to another. These definitions stem from ecology(for a review, Reggiani et al. 2002). The main question is then how fast and efficientlythe network returns/shifts to steady states. Vulnerability research stems, by contrast,from hazard studies in geophysical/social sciences and in political economy/ecology.

This paper aims to adopt a critical stance on the relevance and interpretation of the recently emerging concepts of resilience and vulnerability in transportation studies. It makes a clear distinction between engineering and ecological interpretations of these concepts and offers a systematic typology of various studies in this field. A core element in the study is the linkage between the aforementioned concepts and connectivity/accessibility in transport networks. The methodological findings in the study are put in perspective by addressing also such concepts as robustness, reliability and friability of transport systems.

Contents: 1. Accessibility and Spatial Interaction: An Introduction Ana Condeco-Melhorado, Aura Reggiani, Javier Gutierrez PART I: ADVANCES IN MODELING ACCESSIBILITY AND SPATIAL INTERACTION 2. Novel Methods for the Estimation of Cost/Distance Decay in Potential Accessibility Models John Osth, Aura Reggiani, Giacomo Galiazzo 3. Transport Networks and Accessibility: Complex Spatial Interactions David Philip Mcarthur, Inge Thorsen, Jan Uboe 4. High Resolution Accessibility Computations Thomas W. Nicolai, Kai Nagel 5. Sensing 'Socio-Spatio' Interaction and Accessibility from Location-Sharing Services Data Laurie A. Schintler, Rajendra Kulkarni, Kingsley Haynes, Roger Stough PART 2: THE SOCIAL AND SPATIAL DIMENSION OF ACCESSIBILITY 6. Spatial Organisation and Accessibility: A Study of US Counties Andrea De Montis, Simone Caschili And Daniele Trogu 7. Border Effect and Market Potential: The Case of the European Union Maria Henar Salas-Olmedo, Ana Condeco-Melhorado, Javier Gutierrez 8. Mapping Transport Disadvantages of Elderly People in Relation to the Health Services: Contribution of Geographic Information Systems Vitor Ribeiro, Paula Remoaldo, Javier Gutierrez PART 3: ACCESSIBILITY AS A DRIVER OF SPATIAL INTERACTION 9. Productivity and Accessibility of Road Transportation Infrastructure in Spain. A Spatial Econometric Approach Pelayo Arbues, Matias Mayor, Jose Banos 10. Location, Accessibility and Firm-Level Productivity in Spain Adelheid Holl 11. Accessibility: An Underused Analytical and Empirical Tool in Spatial Economics. Urban Grasjo, Charlie Karlsson

This paper discusses analytical advances in evolutionary methods with a view towards their possible applications in the space-economy. For this purpose, we present a brief overview and illustration of models actually available in the spatial sciences which attempt to map the complex patterns of spatial/social networks. Particular attention is given to new emerging tools, such as neural networks (NNs) and evolutionary algorithms (EAs), belonging to the field of neurocomputing. The main part of the paper focuses specifically on EAs, in order to better comprehend the potentiality and applicability of this new methodological tool, also in comparison with “conventional” approaches (like logit and spatial interaction models). A historical review of EAs, together with an exposition of their theoretical structure, is offered. Moreover, an empirical application related to the modal split analysis in the European freight transport network shows the potential of EAs in this particular context of analysis. The final section concludes and points to new research directions. It is mainly based on the idea that, since EAs are optimising techniques generating mechanisms of natural selection and genetics, it is methodologically interesting to investigate their compatibility with the rational behavioural paradigm underlying conventional logit and spatial interaction models (and thus also the potential compatibility between natural selection and economic choice).

This paper presents an overview of European policy on the interconnected cross-border transport networks as well as severe problems in estimating empirically the avalanche of goods movements in the European Union (EU). In particular, it deals with the Transalpine freight transport case, which represents one of the most challenging operational and policy issues of the present and future – both international (EU) and national (the Alpine countries) – freight transport development. The paper is organised to briefly describe the main objectives of EU transport policy, to generally introduce the concept of intermodal transport with particular emphasis on intermodal freight transport and to describe past, present and future development of Trans-Alpine intermodal transport. The scenarios of future development of Trans-Alpine intermodal transport have been particularly analysed.

In the present paper a modal split problem is analysed by means of two competing statistical models, the traditional logit model and the new technique for information processing, viz. the feedforward neural network model. This study aims to explore the modal split between rail and road transport modes in Italy in relation to the introduction of a new technological innovation, the new High-Speed Train. The paper is sub-divided into two major parts. The first part offers some general considerations on the use of neural networks in the light of the increasing number of empirical applications in the specific area of transport economics. The second part describes the Italian case study by using the two above mentioned statistical models. The results highlights the fact that the two adopted models, although methodologically different, are both able to provide a reasonable spatial forecasting of the phenomenon studied. In particular, the neural network model turns out to have a slightly better performance, even though there are still critical problems inherent in its application.

See also the article in Cities (2013). Volume 30, pages 59-67. This paper introduces a new measure to approach the accessibility of places in the frame of the digital economy. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the Internet are not equally spread around places and this heterogeneity affects spatial configuration. Despite the wide societal changes due to ICTs and the extensive interest in accessibility studies, these two themes have not yet come together in order to study the digital accessibility (DA) of places. Adopting an infrastructural perspective and a potential accessibility framework, a DA measure – embedding different types of impedance distance functions – is calculated for cities in Europe. Spatial Interaction Model and Complex Network Analysis are employed to calibrate and validate the DA results. The outcome of this approach is a new urban hierarchy which reveals a core-periphery pattern in Europe owing to digital accessibility.

In recent years there has been a growing awareness that advanced transport telematics (ATT) may offer a significant contribution to the solution of problems in European transport corridors. Such problems include congestion, lack of safety and environmental decay. However, the use of road transport informatics is not justified under all conditions and on all European roads. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a priority scheme of roads (links and corridors) that lend themselves in particular to the application of ATT. The present paper develops a practical typology of European inter-urban road corridors aimed at tracing the effects of ATT applications on constituent road links. In this study the identification of typologies is based on relevant attributes of a set of European transport corridors by gathering all appropriate information on region-specific and site-specific links of these corridors in order to determine in a systematic way the potential of these connections for ATT introduction and application. Furthermore, ranking(s) of corridors according to the needs of ATT are developed by means of multi-criteria analysis. Various results on European transport axes are shown as well.

Spatial labour markets are subjected to the forces of regional economic activity and competing network effects. Commuting is, therefore, an important equilibrating vehicle in a City Network constellation. Cities act as attractors of commuters, as most economic activity occurs in cities, thus providing a high share of attractive workplaces. Cities that are centrally connected in a network may act as both centripetal and centrifugal forces in the whole system. The present paper focuses on what is named the City Network (CN) approach. A central idea is the accessibility concept, which is interpreted here as the potential of opportunity for interaction, which has a positive impact on economic growth. In our paper, the accessibility concept and the CN concept are linked together by positioning accessibility in the CN system. Since accessibility measures give geographical insights into the distribution of economic activities and the related (dis)equilibrium of regional development patterns, the connection with the labour market is evident, and, therefore, a second focus of our analysis. In an applied setting, our paper aims to investigate spatial accessibility patterns in the main CN in Germany. The 17 districts which belong to the country's CN were chosen from the 439 German labour market districts on the basis of three criteria: (a) their connection to the high speed railway network; (b) the most accessible districts according to previous results (2002); (c) relevant districts for the German economy. Our applied modelling research concerns home-to-work commuters travelling between the selected districts belonging to the German CN, for both 2003 and 2007. Here, a comparative analysis of the ranking of the most accessible districts - also for different intra-zonal travel times - is carried out in order to map out the changes in accessibility between 2003 and 2007, especially in the light of new high speed connections and commuting flow dynamics. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

In this paper, we present a review of various computational experiments concerning neural network (NN) models developed for regional employment forecasting. NNs are nowadays widely used in several fields because of their flexible specification structure. A series of NN experiments is presented in the paper, using two data sets on German NUTS-3 districts. Individual forecasts are computed by our models for each district in order to answer the following question: How relevant are NN parameters in comparison to NN structure? Comprehensive testing of these parameters is limited in the literature. Building on different specifications of NN models-in terms of explanatory variables and NN structures-we propose a systematic choice of NN learning parameters and internal functions by means of a sensitivity analysis. Our results show that different combinations of NN parameters provide significantly varying statistical performance and forecasting power. Finally, we note that the sets of parameters chosen for a given model specification cannot be light-heartedly applied to different or more complex models. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.

Commuting is, therefore, an important equilibrating vehicle in a city network constellation. Cities act as attractors of commuters, as most economic activity occurs in cities, thus providing a high share of attractive workplaces. Cities that are centrally connected in a network may act as both centripetal and centrifugal forces in the whole system. The present paper focuses on what is named the City Network (CN) approach. A central idea is the accessibility concept, which is interpreted here as the potential of opportunity for interaction, which has a positive impact on economic growth. In our paper, the accessibility concept and the CN concept are linked together by positioning accessibility in the CN system. Since accessibility measures give geographical insights into the distribution of economic activities and the related (dis)equilibrium of regional development patterns, the connection with the labour market is evident, and, therefore, a second focus of our analysis. In an applied setting, our paper aims to investigate spatial accessibility patterns in the main CN in Germany. The 17 districts which belong to the country's CN were chosen from the 439 German labour market districts on the basis of three criteria: (a) their connection to the high speed railway network; (b) the most accessible districts according to previous results (2002); (c) relevant districts for the German economy. Our applied modelling research concerns home-to-work commuters traveling between the selected districts belonging to the German CN, for both 2003 and 2007. Here, a comparative analysis of the ranking of the most accessible districts - also for different intra-zonal travel times - is carried out in order to map out the changes in accessibility between 2003 and 2007, especially in the light of new high speed connections and commuting flow dynamics.

1. The Need for Integration in Transport Policy and Practice Moshe Givoni and David Banister Section 1: The Main Issues in Integrated Transport 2. Integrated Transport Policy: A Conceptual Analysis Dominic Stead 3. Planning For a Sustainable Travel: Integrating Spatial Planning and Transport Robin Hickman, Catherine Seaborn, Peter Headicar and David Banister 4. The Need for Integrated Institutions and Organisations in Transport Policy - the Case of Transport and Climate Change Karen Anderton 5. Integrated-Transport Policy in Freight Transport Julian Allen, Michael Browne and Allan Woodburn 6.The Value of Reliability and its Relevance in Transport Networks Luca Zamparini and Aura Reggiani 7. Appraisal of Integrated Transport Policies Peter Bakker, Carl Koopmans and Peter Nijkamp Section 2: Application of Integrated Transport Policy 8. Integrating Individual Travel Desires in Transport Planning: What is Too Far and What is Too Close? Yusak O. Susilo 9. Planning Walking Networks and Cycling Networks John Parkin 10. The Role of ICT in Achieving Integrated-Transport Networks Neil Hoose 11. Developing the Rail Network through Better Access to Railway Stations - the Need for Integration Moshe Givoni and Piet Rietveld Section 3: Assessing the Potential Benefits of Integrated Transport Polices 12. Measuring the Costs and Benefits of Integrated Transport Policies and Schemes John Preston 13. A Decision Analysis Framework for Intermodal Transport: Evaluating Different Policy Measures to Stimulate the Market Cathy Macharis, Ethem Pekin and Tom van Lier 14. Integrating the Railways - Key Assessment Issues Torben Holvad 15. Assessing Iintermodal Re-Balance and Integration in Urban Transportation Planning: An Illustration on the Basis of a Sub-Lagoon Tube Plan for Venice Vincenzo Punzo, Vincenzo Torrieri, Maria Teresa Borzacchiello, Biagio Ciuffo and Peter Nijkamp 16. The Effects of Weather and Individual Characteristics on the Speed of Public Transport Trips: An Empirical Study Muhammad Sabir, Jos van Ommeren, Mark Koetse, Piet Rietveld Section 4: The Challenges in Achieving Integrated Transport at National, Regional and City Levels 17. Impediments to Integrative Transport Policies: Lessons from the Case of Modiin Eran Feitelson and Josef Gamlieli 18. Integrating Public Transport Management in France: How to Manage Gaps Between Mono-Scale Policies Pierre Zembri 19. Intermodalism in the U.S.: Issues and Prospects Joseph S. Szyliowicz 20. The Pursuit of Integration: How Far and What Next? David Banister and Moshe Givoni

This article introduces a special issue on networks, commuting, and spatial structures. The author focuses on the interaction between home and workplace as a central component in the travel behavior of commuting. The relation between land use (residential and employment location) and commuting is complex and is worth ongoing exploration, even though there is already a wealth of research on this issue. The author provides a brief historical overview of the literature from the 1960s to the present, covering topics including the relationship between population growth and commuting time, the size distribution of cities, commuting costs, the network concept, the relevance of dynamic data provision, and commuter preferences. The author defines the network concept as the idea that many spatial economic phenomena can be described by a network of interactions among agents, where interconnectivity and interoperability between the systems play important roles. The articles in this issue were selected with two goals in mind: to provide new analytical insights into the modeling and analysis of (complex) transportation networks, as well as into the behavioral preferences of users; and to constitute a methodological platform from which to identify novel research directions. This Special Issue originates from a Euro-NECTAR (Network for European Communication and Transport Activities Research) Conference, organized in Porto, Portugal, in May 2007. The introduction concludes with an acknowledgment of the researchers at that conference and a chart that summarizes the six papers in the special issue.

Network analysis has already a long history in operations research and quantitative social science research. In the past, much attention has been paid to shortest-route algorithms (for example, the travelling salesman problem), where the spatial configuration of networks was put in the centre of empirical investigation. Integer programming, linear and nonlinear programming turned out to offer a proper analytical toolbox. In recent years, we have seen several new trends, in particular, the rise of hub-and-spoke systems in liberalized networks, the emergence of dynamic adjustments to new competitive conditions and the increase in complexity in international networks. Furthermore, it appears that in the past decades many social, spatial and economic systems show an organized pattern characterized by network features, such as transportation, telecommunication, information or energy systems. As a consequence, much attention has recently been paid to the study of network properties emerging in many social, spatial and economic fields, as witnessed by the vast amount of literature published in the past years. Air transport is a prominent example of modern network constellations and will be addressed in this paper from a connectivity perspective. Air transport shows indeed clear network features, which impact on the way single airline carriers operate. The abundant scientific literature on airline networks has addressed this topic in terms of theoretical modelling and empirical measurements on different typologies of airline network configurations. This strand of recent research aimed to measure the network structure in relation to the effects of: (a) the market deregulation in United States in 1978 and in the European Union in the 1990s, (b) new trends in recent airline business strategies denoted as ‘low cost’ principles. Low cost carriers developed rather fast after the deregulation policy, by acquiring a competitive network advantage on traditional airlines, which consequently seemed to reorganise rapidly their airline network to respond to the new market dynamics. In this context, interesting research has emerged that mainly addressed the issue of describing and classifying networks by means of geographical concentration indices of traffic or flight frequency. These measures, such as the Gini concentration index or the Theil index, provide a proper measure of frequency or traffic concentration of the main airports in a simple, well-organized network. However, if a real-world network structure is complex, including multi-hub or mixed point-to-point and hub-spokes connections, the concentration indices may record high values for all types of structure, but fail to clearly discriminate between different network shapes. There is a need for a more appropriate measurement of connectivity structures in complex networks. Starting from the above considerations and research challenges, the present paper aims to investigate the scientific potential and applicability of a series of network connectivity/concentration indices, in order to properly typify and map out complex airline network configurations. Specifically, these various network indicators will be adopted and tested to describe the main properties – in terms of the network connectivity and configuration – of Lufthansa’s airline system.

Contents: Preface New trends in policy making for transport and regional network integration, Marina van Geenhuizen, Aura Reggiani and Piet Rietveld. Part I Policy Analysis in the Transport Field: Equity issues in the evaluation of transport policies and transport infrastructure projects, Piet Rietveld, Jan Rouwendal and Arno van der Vlist Economic impact assessment for analysing the viability of regional airports in Norway, Svein Brathen and Knut S. Eriksen Modelling the short-term impacts of a nuclear accident on transportation flows, Peder Axensten Models and realities: choosing transit projects for New York City, Robert Paaswell and Joseph Berechman A framework for identifying and qualifying uncertainty in policy making: the case of intelligent transport systems, Marina van Geenhuizen and Wil Thissen An evaluation of benefits from aircraft and high-speed train substitution, Moshe Givoni The value of travel time in passenger and freight transport: an overview, Luca Zamparini and Aura Reggiani. Part II Transport Policies and Regional Network Integration: Less friction and more traffic? Examples of the impact of the fixed links of the Great Belt and Oresund on Danish firms' organization of transport and logistics, Leif Gjesing Hansen Accessibility impacts of the trans-European railway network, J. Carlos Martin, Javier Gutierrez and Conception Roman The role of infrastructure in location preferences of firms: an overview of empirical research for the Netherlands, Frank Bruinsma and Piet Rietveld The spatial consequences of air transport deregulation: an overview of the French case since 1995, Pierre Zembri ICTs and high-order integration of remote regions. Distance as a remaining barrier?, Marina van Geenhuizen Interaction in the Baltic sea area. Patterns from an aviation perspective, Jan Henrik Nilsson Structural convergence of the national economies of Europe, Marco Percoco, Sandy Dall'erba and Geoffrey J. D. Hewings Index.

Simulating the structure and evolution of complex networks is an area that has recently received considerable attention. Most of this research has grown out of the physical sciences, but there is growing interest in their application to the social sciences, especially regional science and transportation. This paper presents a network structure simulation experiment utilizing a gravity model to identify interactions embodied in socio-economic processes. In our empirical case, we consider home-to-work commuting patterns among 439 German labour market districts. Specifically, the paper examines first the connectivity distribution of the German commuting network. The paper next develops a spatial interaction model to estimate the structure and flows in the network concerned. The focus of this paper is to examine how well the spatial interaction model replicates the structure of the German commuting network as compared to complex network models. Finally, the structure of the physical German road network is compared to the spatial flows of commuters across it for a tentative supply-demand comparison.

One of the key features of our modern world is its gradual transition to a network society. Many networks like the Internet have been found to possess scale-free and small-world network properties exhibited by power law distributions. Scale-free properties evolve in large complex networks through self-organizing processes and more specifically, preferential attachment. New nodes tend to attach themselves to other vertices that are already well-connected. Because traffic is routed mainly through a few highly connected vertices, the diameter of the network is small in comparison to other network structures, and movement through the network is therefore efficient. At the same time, this efficiency puts scale-free networks at risk for becoming disconnected or significantly disrupted, when super-connected nodes are removed either intentionally or through a targeted attack. This paper will examine and compare three communication networks: bandwidth capacity between major metropolitan areas within the United States (97-01), interdistrict phone traffic in Italy (1989-1993) and a particular peer-to-peer data exchange network. Each network will be examined in terms of its network topology and specifically whether or not they are evolving into scale-free networks. Finally, the paper will conclude with some preliminary thoughts and reflections aiming at a consolidation and exploration of further comparative studies on communication networks in Europe and North America, in the light of the STELLA objectives. The 43 European Congress of the Regional Science Association. Jyvaskyla, Finland, August 27-3

One aspect of the new economy is a transition to a networked society, and the emergence of a highly interconnected, interdependent and complex system of networks to move people, goods and information. An example of this is the in creasing reliance of networked systems (e. g. , air transportation networks, electric power grid, maritime transport, etc. ) on telecommunications and information in frastructure. Many of the networks that evolved today have an added complexity in that they have both a spatial structure – i. e. , they are located in physical space but also an a spatial dimension brought on largely by their dependence on infor mation technology. They are also often just one component of a larger system of geographically integrated and overlapping networks operating at different spatial levels. An understanding of these complexities is imperative for the design of plans and policies that can be used to optimize the efficiency, performance and safety of transportation, telecommunications and other networked systems. In one sense, technological advances along with economic forces that encourage the clustering of activities in space to reduce transaction costs have led to more efficient network structures. At the same time the very properties that make these networks more ef ficient have also put them at a greater risk for becoming disconnected or signifi cantly disruptedwh en super connected nodes are removed either intentionally or through a targeted attack.

To tackle ongoing transport problems--both at the urban and inter-urban level--such as sudden traffic growth, congestion, lack of capacity, pollution, road accidents, etc., a great deal of attention has recently been paid to new issues emerging in transport systems analysis. These concern complex networks, dynamic (in)stability, and especially sustainability. As a consequence, innovative models/methodologies have been geared to creating new tools and technologies able to come with these spatio-temporal transport changes (from both the demand and the supply side). This special issue on new approaches/experiments--oriented towards the design and management of transport networks--has therefore, as its first aim, to offer some reflections on these new methodological "challenges" and achievements, by trying to answer some actual and fundamental research questions, like those concerning the modeling of traffic (forecasts) in a network of n dimensions, where n is a large number; the real-time design of network flow dynamics; the prediction of traffic congestion/pollution; the route-choice behavior in the presence of uncertainty in the travel costs, etc.

Many networks such as the Internet have been found to possess scale-free and small-world network properties reflected by so-called power law distributions. Scale-free properties evolve in large complex networks through self-organizing processes and more specifically, preferential attachment. New nodes in a network tend to attach themselves to other vertices that are already well-connected. Because traffic is routed mainly through a few highly connected and concentrated vertices, the diameter of the network is small in comparison to other network structures, and movement through the network is therefore efficient. At the same time, this efficiency feature puts scale-free networks at risk for becoming disconnected or significantly disrupted when super-connected nodes are removed either unintentionally or through a targeted attack or external force. The present paper will examine and compare properties of telecommunications networks for both the United States and Europe. Both types of networks will be examined in terms of their network topology and specifically whether or not they are scale-free networks to be further explored by identifying and plotting power law distributions. Next, economic, political and cultural factors may be used to explain differences in network structures between the United States and Europe. In addition, the paper will identify data and modeling tools that are needed to facilitate further cross-Atlantic comparative studies of communications networks.

The modern spatial economy has a global character that is leading to important socio-economic and political changes. New transport and telecommunications flows and forms play a significant role in this through their dynamic and complex interplay with the economic and political driving forces behind globalization. In analyzing such an impact, operational and measurable indices of transport and communication patterns are necessary to map out and predict emerging trends. It could be useful in this respect to consider tools and models that have also been adopted in other disciplines. Transport and spatial modeling are already closely linked. The most widely used transport models - spatial interaction/entropy models and discrete-choice models (DSMs) - have their roots in regional economics and econometrics, and still remain the fundamental models to plan and predict transport behavior. But these are mainly static models, i.e. their mapping refers to a fixed year, and the related forecast analyses are based on assumptions of constant attitudes in the user’s behavior. However, the rich variety of dynamic behavior in transport and spatial setting calls for a dynamic approach to analyses and models.

Spatial interaction models describe and predict spatial flows of people, commodities, capital and information. They are one of the oldest and most widely used of all social science models. This chapter provides a coherent state-of-the-art overview of the field that has witnessed the progression from gravity models to entropy maximising and random utility maximising models and finally to models based on neurocomputing principles that represent the most recent innovation in the design of spatial interaction models.

The book is describing technological developments as well as urban futures in the information age where development of ICT sets the pace and options. Despite this dynamic development, the book describes how stabile daily travelling still is and highlights the achievable impacts and acceptability of transport policy measures. Freight transport is discussed from the viewpoint of industry. In addition, some innovative approaches in rearranging current freight transport networks are given. Transport future is mapped from various viewpoints. Light-rail is presented as a possible back-bone of urban regions. Methods to evaluate the societal consencus related to the spatial development - linked to tranport infrastructures - are described. Methods to assess spatial planning policies are presented as well as options for brenchmarking local public transport compagnies

The period of the 1980s and 1990s has witnessed a profound interest in innovation research. At first, we have seen much attention for technological innovations as part of a long-term cycle based on Schumpeterian views (see e.g. Kleinknecht, 1988). Later on, the interest shifted from macro-economic analyses to regional and urban economic investigations into the success conditions for new innovations (e.g. incubation theory; see e.g. Davelaar, 1991) as well as to the spatio-temporal diffusion and acceptance patterns of innovations (see e.g. Bertuglia et al., 1997).

The analysis of complex networks has in recent years become an important research issue in spatial economics and regional science. An important methodological step forward in this context has been offered by synergetic theory and the relative dynamics concept of network evolution (see, for a review, Nijkamp and Reggiani 1998). These concepts have intensified the search for universal principles driving non-linear dynamic systems with a particular interest in methodological underpinnings and instruments. In modern research in this field a new class of models, based on bio-computing and artificial intelligence, has recently come to the fore. These new approaches demonstrated a high potential in modelling high-dimensional spatial networks.

A great deal of attention has been paid in the scientific literature to Neural Networks (NN) as alternative models of information processing. The principal inspiration of NN is the human brain whose structure is constituted by a large number of connected neurons. This chapter commences with a concise historical overview of NN. It then describes the general architecture of NN and illustrates with some examples of different structures. The chapter also considers some recent applications of NN in the field of urban and regional economics. It seems interesting to investigate indepth NN potential and their ‘hidden’ rules, as well as to look for new hardware technologies able to improve the speediness of execution. In conclusion, NN appear to be a new computational tool offering interesting results in several research areas, as is witnessed by the increasing number of NN applications.

Environmental issues have received a prominent place in transport policies of most European countries. The coordination of such policies however, is fraught with many difficulties. The increasing freight flows after the European integration are a source of concern, but have not yet led to straightforward and effective environmental strategies. The paper focuses on the Trans Alpine freight transport systems in the light of the future integration of single national transport systems into the European transport network. The environmental, social and institutional peculiarities of this ‘region’ have favoured—in the past—the development of strong nationally-oriented policies, partly in contrast with the goals promoted by the European Union. The present analysis aims to highlight opportunities, and limits inherent, in the implementation of various infrastructure projects oriented towards a drastic change of the Alpine transport systems structure. The Alpine countries, viz. Austria and Switzerland, play a central role in the promotion of environmental benign modes of transport of goods, with a clear focus on rail. The route choice and modal split of freight flows in Europe are taking place simultaneously. In this paper the results of European freight flow models (based on logit analysis and neural networks) will be presented. An important exercise is then to assess the consequences of various types of eco-taxes on road transport in Europe. In this context, several policy scenarios will be dealt with.

Neural networks are becoming popular analysis tools in spatial research, as is witnessed by various applications in recent years. The per- formance of neural network analysis needs to be carefully judged, however, since the theoretical underpinning of neuro-computing is still weakly enve- loped. In the present paper we will use the logit model as a benchmark for evaluating the result of neural network models, based on an empirical case study from Italy. The present paper aims to assess the foreseeable impact of the high-speed train in Italy, by investigating competition effects between rail and road transport modes. Two statistical models will then be com- pared, viz. the traditional logit model and a new technique for information processing, viz. the feedforward neural network model. In the study two different cases - corresponding to a different set of attributes - are investi- gated, namely by using only 'time' attributes and by using both 'time' and 'cost' attributes. From an economic viewpoint, both models appear to high- light the advantage of introducing the high-speed train system in that they show high probabilities of choosing the improved rail transport mode. The feedforward neural net model seems to provide reasonable predictions com- pared to those obtained by means of a logit model. An important lesson however, is that it is important to define properly the neural network archi- tecture and to train sufficiently the network during the learning phase.

Connectivity is a basic characteristic of societies and economies all over the world. Communications and transactions cannot take place, unless there is (social or spatial) connectivity between different actors (individuals, firms, regions, countries etc). For example, social contacts presuppose a language which forms the vehicle for verbal or written interactions. International or interregional trade takes for granted the existence of a transportation infrastructure which connects various countries or regions.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between commuting and spatial labour market developments in the framework of sustainability issues. To do so, we propose, first, an exploratory investigation of the effects of inbound commuter flows on employment in regional labour markets in Germany. Next, we address sustainability issues as a common umbrella for the relationship ‘economy-transportation’. In this context, we show that the German production system is faced with negative environmental externalities, which are clearly associated with a specific transport mode, viz. the private car. Negative environmental externalities as a result of modal choices in Germany are confirmed by data from EU-15 countries. Public transport, in particular the train, appears to be more environmentally-benign. Our results bring to light that, on average, commuter flows have a positive and robust effect on employment in the receiving German labour market districts, while, for commuting flows, public transport, especially the train, is a more environmentally-benign mode of transport, compared with the car, in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. In the light of possible policy strategies, the paper argues that sustainability may lead to positive economic effects; in particular, the improvement of the public transport system, which can provide more opportunities for sustainable commuting patterns, may lead to favourable employment perspectives for the local or regional labour force.

The relevance of evolutionary dynamics theories for investigating the development of sociotechnical systems has recently been recognized. In this framework the logistic growth model is considered by many scientists as an extremely appropriate framework that is able to interpret the dynamics of innovation diffusion. Starting from recent results in the literature on technological dynamics, the present paper focuses on backgrounds leading to different shapes of the conventional logistic function. By embedding these motives in the socio-attitudinal context of the system at hand, the present paper tries to give a new interpretation for the rapid/slow “take off” and dynamics of a given innovation in a spatial setting. In particular, a nested logistic dynamic model is developed here, with particular emphasis on the dynamic growth rate of the logistic function expressing—by means of an accessibility cost function—the preference intensity concerning a given innovation for a certain region/country. Finally, various simulation experiments are carried out for the case of both a two-dimensional and a four-dimensional network. The possibility of both stable and unstable diffusion patterns, depending on the parameter values in the nested “attitudinal” dynamic function, is also investigated.

It is hardly surprising that space matters in terms of industrial organization, not only in terms of mere physical distance in relation to accessibility to supplies and markets (Weber 1909), but also in terms of accessibility to general socioeconomic resources (Dicken 1992). Analyses of the spatial organization of industries and networks of firms often focus on production and distribution systems formed by the material flows of production and distribution units. However, the significance of transport operations and activities, connecting the individual production units together in a network of material flows, is often underestimated, and transport seen only as a derived demand activity.