Tag Archives: transport books

Book reviews of transportation books

Book Review: The Geography of Transport Systems

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Revised on: 2015-09-23

This is a book I’ve wanted to lay my hands on for a long time. The Geography of Transport Systems by Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Claude Comtois and Brian Slack is a book that every geographer with an interest in transportation should read. It is also a book that every transportationist with a sense for geography should read. Even if your main focus is just transportation and nowhere near geography, this book will fascinate, because it so brilliantly explains, explores, researches and reviews the spatial impact of transportation systems and how they have shaped the world that surrounds us. It is not often that I fall in love with textbooks at first sight, and this is a book that will not spend much time collecting dust in my bookshelf, as I will read and use it again and again…

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Transportation Hazards

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Revised on: 2015-09-11

This is an updated and extended review of  the Handbook of Transportation Engineering by Myer Kutz (editor) which I have reviewed in a previous post 4 years ago:  Book Review: The Handbook of Tranportation Engineering. While rummaging through references for a journal article I came across an old copy of the chapter on Transportation Engineering in the above book and to my surprise I discovered a recent acquaintance I had forgotten that I already had met 4 years ago: The risk definition by Kaplan & Garrick (1981). For supply chain risk researchers, this risk definition has it all.

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Book Review: The Full Costs and Benefits of Transportation

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Revised on: 2011-06-13

This book, The Full Costs and Benefits of Transportation: Contributions to Theory, Method and Measurement, edited by David L. Greene, Donald W. Jones, and Mark A. Delucchi is a welcome addition to the field of cost-benefit analysis in transportation, albeit first published more than 10 years ago. It contains individual contributions from 20 or so respected academics, each describing a separate field of study. I have seldom seen a fuller and more holistic approach to cost and benefits in transportation research. But is it really worth buying? I borrowed it from my library and I’m not so sure I would recommend you to put it in your shopping cart. It IS a good book, that is for sure, but at what cost?

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Book Review: Transportation Security

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Revised on: 2011-06-13

Instead of Transportation Systems Security, which I reviewed in an earlier post, I should have settled for this book, I realize that now. Transportation Security by Clifford Bragdon has all the stuff that I was looking for in Transportation Systems Security. Where that book fails, this book succeeds. Why? Because this book, unlike  the other mentioned, gives a holistic view of our world’s transportation security processes and operations, in all modes. Although at times heavily US and homeland security oriented, this book still manages to capture me, the international audience, to the full. As editor, Clifford Bragdon has managed to put together an excellent book and I can only commend him on his achievement.

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Book Review: Transportation Systems Security

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Revised on: 2015-09-09

This book, Transportation Systems Security by by Allan McDougall and Robert Radvanovsky is not what I thought it would be, but it’s not the books fault, I have to admit that much. It’s the classic misunderstanding of the difference of the terms “safety” and “security”. In English, these terms are distinctively different, in my language, Norwegian, there is only one word, “sikkerhet”, and sometimes this can be very confusing. So, what I thought was “safety” (which was what I was looking for) was in fact “security” (which was what I was NOT looking for). Nonetheless, personal disappointments aside, this book has some valid and interesting points, primarily in the introductory and theoretical parts in the beginning.

The strong side

The best chapter of the book, as far as I am concerned, is chapter 2: The Transportation System Topography, building the theoretical base for most of the book. The authors demonstrate a solid knowledge and understanding and manage to convey it in a clear and precise manner.

The weak side

The front cover gives the impression that this book deals with all transportation modes, or at least with air, sea and rail. It does not. And it is not so hands-on as I thought it would be. At times it seems to be  just meandering along without getting anywhere. I can understand that there is a lot of ground to cover, but do you really have to cover it all?

Conclusion

It is not a NO-buy, but also not a YES-buy, rather a MAYBE-buy. If you’re looking for a book on transportation vulnerability or transportation risks, this is probably not the book for you. However, if you are a transportation systems manager who wants to secure your transportation system against malicious attacks, yes, this book could be very helpful, albeit it will probably not be the one you will be using as a reference more than a few times.

Reference

McDougall A., & Radvanovsky, R. (2008) Transportation Systems Security. Boca Raton: Taylor and Francis

Author links

amazon.com

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Book review: Cost-Benefit Analysis

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Revised on: 2011-08-04

This book, Cost Benefit Analysis: Concepts and Practice (3rd Edition), by Anthony Boardman et al. is a heavy read. It is not a book you would want to read from A to Z in order to understand Cost-Benefit Analysis or CBA, but it is one of the better reference books I have found. The only downside I found was a very theoretical approach and lack of really useful examples. Nevertheless, not one element of CBA seems to be left untouched. This book is a valuable reference to anyone relying on CBA as a decision-making tool, because it will assist you in understanding what it is that you are analyzing when applying CBA.

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Book Review: Transportation GIS

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Revised on: 2015-09-26

This book showcases many examples of how GIS can be applied in the field of transportation using ArcView GIS, but it doesn’t come with any theory. As such, Transportation GIS more like an overpriced ESRI sales brochure and not a textbook. Nevertheless, the examples are really neat and should inspire any practitioner in the field.

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Book review: The Network Reliability of Transport

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Revised on: 2015-09-09

I guess you would have to have attended the conference yourself or be a researcher in this very field to actually go and buy The Network Reliability of Transport by Michael G. H. Bell (Editor), Yasunori Iida (Editor). It’s definitely worth a read, as it presents a cross-section of the current state of the art knowledge within the field. These are the people you would want to cooperate with in your own research and reading their articles is one way to get to know them. These are the same authors who wrote Transportation Network Analysis, and who I was lucky enough too meet at INSTR 2004, the 2nd International Symposium on Transportation Network Reliability.

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Book review: Handbook of Transportation Engineering

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Revised on: 2011-03-10

Comprehensive and all-encompassing, the Handbook of Transportation Engineering by Myer Kutz (editor) may be way to much if road transportation, like in my case, is all you need. The authors are solid researchers in their field and some even personal acquaintances of mine. My particular interest in this book is the chapter on Transportation Hazards, written by Tom Cova and Steve Conger, a professor and fellow student who I met while studying at the UofU in Salt Lake City, Utah. Is it worth the hefty price? Yes.

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Book review: Transport – Economics and Management

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Revised on: 2015-09-09

Kept at an executive level, Transport: An Economics and Management Perspective by David A. Hensher and Ann M. Brewer delves just deep enough for you to grasp the various concepts of transport planning, where costs occur and how to maximise benefits in both the public and the private transport sector. You will enjoy this book even more if you have some macro-economical background, nevertheless it never goes into complex formulas or calculations.  Continue reading →

Book review: Cost-Benefit Analysis: Theory and Application

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Revised on: 2015-09-09

I really enjoyed reading Cost-Benefit Analysis: Theory and Application by Tefvik Nas.  I used this book to learn more about cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in tranportation planning, and albeit the book does not relate specifically to that field, it worked very well. The nice part is that it first discusses some macro-economical concepts before delving into cost-benefit calculations. This is very useful if you, like me, do not have a background, classes, courses or a degree in economics. As an introductory book this is excellent.

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Book Review: Transportation Network Analysis

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Revised on: 2015-09-09

Transportation Network Analysis by M. G. H. Bell and Yasunori Iida is a book for the expert rather than the novice. Drawing heavily on academic knowledge this book almost requires a degree in civil engineering before you even start reading. On a side note, I was lucky enough to meet up with both Bell and Iida at INSTR 2004 the  Second International Symposium on Transportation Network Reliability. If you’re seriously into transportation planning and analysis this is the book you should not miss. It teaches you all the basic concepts you need to know. For my part, I mostly use only one chapter from the book for my research, others may do the same with different parts of the book. That’s what makes it so useful.

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Book review: GIS for Transportation

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Revised on: 2015-09-30

Having been a student with Harvey Miller at the University of Utah 2000-2002 probably makes my review somewhat biased. Nevertheless, Geographic Information Systems for Transportation: Principles and Applications (Spatial Information Systems) written by Harvey Miller and Shih Lung shaw is an excellent book if you’re a student or professional in the field of GIS and need to know how GIS can be applied to transportation, or vice versa, knowing transportation, this book will tell you what GIS can do for you.

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