New Approaches to Ownership, Administration and Management of Low Volume Roads (2004)

© Esko Sirvio and Antti Talvitie (2004)

New Approaches to Ownership, Administration and Management of Low Volume Roads

Paper in WCTRS Conference, Istanbul, 2004. (with Esko Sirvio)

Esko Sirvio

President of Sirway Consulting Ltd.

Antti Talvitie
Consultant to the World Bank

aptalvitie(at)gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Low volume roads normally comprise about 80 percent of the total road network, but serve but 20% of the traffic. This has caused a difficult problem in many countries for owning, administering and managing this large road network whose importance is unquestioned but whose maintenance is neglected. This paper explores the various options for approaching these issues from the perspective that the vision is reached gradually through a process of incremental steps. It is taken for granted that the private sector carries out the supplier functions, the road works whether maintenance, rehabilitation, or construction.

Performance Indicators for the Road Sector (1999)

 

©Antti Talvitie, 1999

Performance Indicators for the Road Sector

Transportation 26; 5-30, 1999

Antti Talvitie, Senior Evaluation Officer (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

The World Bank, 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington D.C. 20433, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT

Seeing the trend for public accountability of road administrations and noting the many reform efforts undertaken in transport sectors around the world, the OECD established a Scientific Expert Group on Performance Indicators for the Road Sector in 1996 to provide its member countries a framework for assessing road administrations’ performance.1 The results of the Expert Group's work is presented in this paper.

Fifteen indispensable, forty primary, and thirty-five secondary indicators are proposed to portray the road sector from different perspectives. They are designed to be changed in response to human needs and technological development and supplemented by country specific indicators. In keeping with this approach and in support of one of the maxims of the Expert Group that “useful performance indicators are those which are used”, an application in the form of a Field Test is now in progress by an OECD task force.

Things planners believe in, and things they deny (1997)

©Antti Talvitie, 1997

Things planners believe in, and things they deny

Transportation, No. 24. Vol 1. pp. 1-31. 1997

Antti Talvitie (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

World Bank

ABSTRACT

The paper examines the economic theory of consumer behavior from the Modern Psychoanalytic point of view with a metaphor of (transport) planning as a backdrop. It is claimed that the utility maximization principle of economic theory, no matter how broadly interpreted, does not envelop the motivation of human behavior and that the economic explanation of the aims of human behavior, which disregards the "dark side" of man, will result in narrowly conceived plans and policies.

International Experiences in Restructuring the Road Sector (1996)

©Antti Talvitie, 1996

International Experiences in Restructuring the Road Sector

Transportation Research Record No. 1558, pp. 99-108, 1996.

Antti Talvitie (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

ABSTRACT

The first part of the paper proposes an evolutionary continuum on which a modern and mature Road Administration develops. The paper outlines the five phases that appear necessary in this evolution. These are: (i) the establishment of traditional construction and maintenance organization; (ii) separation of client and producer functions; (iii) separation of client and producer organizations; (iv) corporatization or privatization of the producer organization; and (v) corporatization of the (client) road administration. The second part of the paper addresses the change management process: the framework process and its constituent cores. The framework process is the flow of activities in change management when moving from one organizational phase to another. The core activities are those which the road administration must address in the change process. Both of these are discussed in detail. It is asserted that a quick reorganization of road administrations is neither possible nor desirable. The exact path to be taken depends critically on the initial conditions from which the road administration embarks upon its development path.

Public Participation in the Helsinki Crosstown Artery Project (1996)

 

©Antti Talvitie, Tuija Pearson 1996

Public Participation in the Helsinki Crosstown Artery Project

Journal of Advanced Transportation, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 185-199

Antti Talvitie, (aptalvitie(at)gmail.com)

Tuija Pearson

ABSTRACT

The paper reports on citizen participation in the planning of Helsinki Crosstown Artery in the early 1990s. The project had difficult beginnings: there was disagreement on benefits and costs, a broad-based mistrust, and an externally prepared work program which sought to resolve these emotional disagreements using technical information. The citizen participation program consisted of Open Houses preceded by a newsletter, newspaper advertisements, a 1-800 Number hotline, and a responsiveness summary. Additional techniques were used as necessary. The design of the citizen participation program was sound and inexpensive, provided for continuous evaluation, and drove the planning work. Substantial informed consent was created in the project. The main conclusion from the present case study is this: in planning and in public participation emotional issues dominate and can rarely be solved by "rational" studies. The citizen participation technique evolved during the study is transferable and has broad planning implications.