2009/03/24 
BOOKS and BOOK CHAPTERS 
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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 husdal.com is a gateway to literature reviews of journal articles, research papers, books, websites and other resources in Supply Chain Risk, Business Continuity, and Transport Vulnerability, personally collected and reviewed by Jan Husdal.
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This is a philosophical essay on transportation vulnerability, where three fields or subjects are brought together : engineering (reliability and vulnerability), economics (cost and benefits) and politics (decision making). The idea behind the research is to blend statistical, economical and political arguments in order to achieve a novel and unifying framework for decision making within transportation planning. By adding reliability and vulnerability to the traditional equations of costs and benefits it is hoped that transportation planners and professionals will not only consider economical arguments, but also dare to take on political statements that may be in opposition to strictly factual costs and benefits.
It is a perpetual topic with the Norwegian public, particularly in election years, like this year: We want better roads. And indeed, it is puzzling that a country ranked as one of the world’s biggest oil exporters, a country whose economy is strong, a country ranked by the UN and OECD as one of the best countries to live in, has such a poor road standard, compared to many other European countries. How come?
In the current financial downturn, much pressure has been on the government (here in Norway, and I bet elsewhere too) to initiate public works projects or other public investment projects in order to create or save jobs, and last month the Norwegian government indeed presented a plan aimed at securing employment by increasing renovation and maintenance of public buildings, and by investing in railways, roads and harbors nationwide. But, are all projects worthwhile?
Classical facility location models assume that once optimally located and set up, facilities will operate as planned, smoothly, and without interruption. In reality, though, operations seldom go as planned; interruptions, unscheduled downtime and failures occur every once in a while, with unplanned and unbudgeted disruption costs as a consequence. Is it possible to know beforehand which locations that have the least disruptions costs?
2010/07/11 : WCTR 2010
2010/07/01 : Mitigating Supply Chain Vulnerability
2010/06/23 : Humanitarian Relief Supply Chains
2010/06/19 : The causes of logistics uncertainty
2010/06/14 : How Norwegian freight carriers handle supply chain disruptions
2010/06/11 : State of the art in SCRM?
2010/05/03 : Risk and Vulnerability in Virtual Enterprise Networks
2010/04/30 : What goes into resilience?
2010/04/29 : Pay more get more?
2010/04/24 : Volcanic ash cloud – really a surprise?