TRANSPORTATION DEMAND MANAGEMENT MODELS FOR TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM OF PAKISTAN

Abstract

The ever-increasing transportation demands in major cities of the world caused numerous problems to transportation networks across the globe. The vital problems include fuelwastage, environmental deterioration and transport congestion. These problems can be witnessed throughout the world. Pakistan being a developing country is facing these problems and its allied implications worst. The international experience from developed countries highlighted that the transport infrastructures cannot be expanded indefinitely to accommodate the rising transport needs as expansion is always an expensive option. The alternative of expansion is Transportation Demand Management (TDM) by which available transportation infrastructure is optimized by focusing on the movement of people rather than the transportation modes. Today the TDM has been established as one of the premiere method of transport management across the globe. Most of the developing countries are following TDM to manage their transportation needs. The application of TDM is time consuming and community need to be educated about it through its application models. Once these models are accepted by the public, it will prove to be the best tool in managing the transportation system. TDM has not been adopted yet in Pakistan and there is no start up reference available in community about it. An attempt has been made through this paper to introduce the concept of TDM to community along
with various organizations of Pakistan dealing in transportation management. Moreover, simplified guideline models of TDM applicability for transportation system of Pakistan have been proposed based on guidelines of TDM policy of Victoria transport system of USA. The discussed TDM strategies and their corresponding targets shows that TDM has strong potential to replace conventional transportation system management models adopted in Pakistan.