Hi, my name is José Mª Subero and this blog is a personal venture where I´d like to express my opinion about some issues I deal with on my daily work.
I graduated in Civil Engineering at Universidad de Cantabria, then I got my Ph.D. on Transport Infrastructures and Land Use at Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya. I also studied a Masters in Public Management at Universidad de Zaragoza that complements my technical studies.
Concerning my professional career, throughout my 10 years´ experience I went through different phases. I started as Chief of Building and Urbanization Works, then I changed to Manager of Urbanization Works. In 2006 I got a place as a civil servant at the Aragon Government, where I worked as an Urbanism Technical Advisor, as Head of Territorial Studies and at the moment I´m working as Technical Advisor in the New Technolgies Department.
Due to my personal interests, I try to combine my permanent job with teaching jobs at the Masters in City Management at Universidad Oberta de Catalunya, and with other projects that come up every day.
For further information on my curriculum vitae you can go to:
I already give you a link with my PhD Thesis: “Analysis methods concerning the spatial efficacy of railroad networks for collective transport, essay on Offer Indicators”
Networks territory is starting to be established as an important field of study in order to understand several physical phenomena associated to infrastructures. In this context, railroad networks point out as an essential element to guarantee citizens´ mobility needs, to provide territories with cohesion and to push economical activities, as well as responding to better sustainability criteria and respecting our environment more than other transport infrastructures.
That is why this study aims to analyse railroad networks´ morphological features, in a way that we can identify the factors that originate an improvement on transport, territory and infrastructure planning.
To carry on this task, we first needed to establish a study methodology of our own, that would allow us to determine the different parameters that take part in the formulae. This point must be highlighted, since conceptualization and materialization of the study method shape the approach for the analysis, and the predisposition to obtain certain results. In this case, we have chosen to follow an approach where the features of railroad networks´ offer condition the infrastructure own utility and the territory on which it is based.
In this way, and so as to fulfil the analysis, we have carried on a comparative study of the transport networks of 5 big European cities with mature railroad networks (Barcelona, London, Madrid, Milan and Paris). The comparative study has consisted on, firstly, getting models out of these cities´ territory and fixed transport networks, secondly, on calculating a series of Offer Indicators and, thirdly, on comparing these Indicators.
The Offer Indicators that have been used were chosen for reflecting the networks´ morphological features. Thus, to begin with, we have chosen Indicators that make reference to accessibility, coverage, fractal dimension and network´s density. Furthermore, eventually, we have defined another series of Indicators, which have into account territorial or transport-associated effects, such as the number of railroad network users, urban sprawl and infrastructure inversion.
All these Indicators have been compared in pairs and we have been able to determine a series of relations between them. More specifically, in a first phase of the analysis, we have proved the existence of a correlation between the relative accessibility given by the network, its fractal dimension and the area density served by the different stations. Furthermore, in a second comparative process, we have been able to identify how the railroad network´s features show a correlation with the figures of transported users, with the urban sprawl and with the relative inversion that is made on railroad network compared to road network. Finally, we must highlight the important role of the Fractal Dimension Indicator upon the whole of the correlations obtained.
All these and other correlations are analysed in our study, leading us to conclude that the features of the railroad network´s offer are real determiners of, among others, the network utility in terms of efficiency in mobility satisfaction and efficacy in the occupation of built space. Thanks to these conclusions, we can provide new lines for railroad network planning and for the exploitation of the territory on which they are based.
City Lines 
Leave a comment