The transformation of urban transport in the Czech Republic, 1988–1998

Similar to virtually all formerly socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the Czech Republic has been experiencing a transport revolution since the shift from socialism to capitalism a decade ago. From 1988 to 1998, per-capita car ownership rose by 63% in the country as a whole, and by 93% in the capital city of Prague. Vehicle km of motor vehicle use have more than doubled. Conversely, public transport usage has fallen considerably, by 26% in the country as a whole, and by 19% in Prague. This modal shift from public transport to the private car has resulted from increased incomes, access to Western markets, declining real prices of cars and petrol, removal of restrictions on manufacturing and importing cars, and the car's attraction as a symbol of freedom, affluence, and status. The sharp reduction of subsidies for public transport has forced increases in fares and service cutbacks, which have also encouraged the shift toward the private car. Although the private car is very popular, the sudden surge in car ownership and use has caused significant social and environmental problems: roadway congestion, parking shortages, increased traffic accidents, air pollution, and noise. Given their severe financial limitations, Czech cities are struggling to preserve their public transport systems while accommodating the immensely popular private car.     

Differentiating metropolitan transport disadvantage by mode: Household expenditure on private vehicle fuel and public transport fares in Brisbane,Australia

Public transport (PT) has become important in everyday travels in Australian cities. Rising PT fares create a competitive disadvantage against private motor vehicles which is threatening PT ridership. This paper seeks to gain further insights into transport disadvantage by exploring spatial patterns of household transport expenditure on PT fares and private vehicle fuel use for the Brisbane metropolitan area. Several datasets are used to measure mode-specific transport costs, including the journey to work matrix, fuel efficiency of the private vehicle fleet and PT fares for the city. Through an advanced spatial analysis, the results show that PT was not a cost-effective means of transport for households when compared to private motor vehicles. The paper then compares mode-specific trip costs with patterns of suburban socio-economic disadvantage in Brisbane. We demonstrate that the high PT fares increase household exposure to higher transport costs and compound other forms of transport disadvantage and vulnerability, particularly in outer suburban areas.     

A fuel surcharge policy for reducing road traffic greenhouse gas emissions

This paper proposes a car pricing policy based on fuel surcharges in substitution of car ownership taxes for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by cars. The aim of the proposed policy is to change some (fixed) costs of car use that are not perceived at each trip into (variable) costs. The amount of fuel surcharges and the effects of their application on fuel consumption and on GHG emissions are estimated by a model that is able to relate gasoline and diesel consumption with fuel prices. The effects of the proposed policy on fuel consumption and on GHG emissions are estimated for Italy. The results show that car users prefer to shift towards more efficient fuel vehicles than to public transport, producing a significant, but less than expected, reduction of GHG emissions.     

Travel behavior of university students who live on campus: A case study of a rural university in Asia

With their irregular class schedules and considerable freedom in the campus environment, university students are an example of a social group that tends to have complex and unique travel behavior. This study examined travel patterns of 130 students who study and live on campus in a rural university of Thailand. All survey participants completed a travel diary for seven consecutive days in a typical school week. Other than overall travel patterns, such as trip generation, mode split, distance traveled, and travel time, this study also investigated the differences in traffic patterns of four student groups, categorized by their gender and whether they own a private vehicle or not. It was found that students of both genders appeared to have similar travel patterns in all aspects. Whether they own a private vehicle does not appear to impact daily trip generation nor the total distance traveled of the students, but it does have an effect on the travel modes used by students. Those students who own a private vehicle mostly rely on driving the vehicle, while those who do not own a vehicle rely on three modes of travel: primarily being a passenger on or in a friend’s private vehicle, and to a lesser extent, driving a friend’s vehicle, and taking a bus (the only form of public transport on the campus). The results indicate a high social interdependency among university students, which makes the development of a model to simulate travel behavior of university students a complicated task.     

Mapping the potential consequences of car-use reduction in urban areas

Policy measures managing the demand for private car use are contemplated in urban areas all over the world. A first step in evaluating the effectiveness––as well as the interrelated sociospatial consequences––of travel demand management (TDM) measures is determining how their implementation changes the travel options faced by households in different segments. Geocoded travel diary data from Gothenburg, Sweden, are analysed with the aim of determining the number and type of trips by car to the city centre that would be affected by the introduction of traffic regulations varying spatially and temporally. Logistic regression analyses are performed to identify effects on different trip purposes, as well as individual and household characteristics related to changes in travel options. The possible application of the results within a policy context and to other urban areas is discussed along with the potential implications for research into adaptation strategies adopted in response to the implementation of TDM measures.     

Factors affecting airport access mode choice for elderly air passengers

This research investigates whether elderly air passengers exhibit different mode choice behavior in regard to airport ground access. Using survey data from a Taiwanese sample, our results show that elderly air passengers prefer to ask family members to drive them to the airport, while general passengers prefer to take a taxi. The results also indicate that “safety” is the most important item in the choice of access mode and “user friendly” and “convenience for storing luggage” as the next most important items for the elderly. Elderly passengers are found to be less likely to use public transport than private transport. Factors such as “possessing a car in their household”, “carrying more luggage”, “spending more time spent in the vehicle”, and “higher ticket prices for public transport” increase the propensity for the elderly to use private transport.     

Interrelations between travel mode choice and trip distance: trends in Germany 1976–2002

In recent decades, trends in travel behaviour have been characterised by increasing trip distances and a modal shift towards the private car. This paper reports findings from longitudinal analyses of the German nation-wide travel survey KONTIV for the period 1976–2002. It focuses on travel mode choice, subdivided by distance categories, and also takes car availability and city size into account. In addition, trends in car availability itself are examined by city size categories. The results indicate that even within the same distance categories car use has considerably increased. In some cases bicycle use has increased as well. Gains in the use of the private car are mainly at the expense of trips on foot and by public transport. Accordingly, the shift in modal split towards the car is not (only) caused by increasing trip distances but took place even within distance classes. Once car availability is taken into account, the modal shifts appear to be considerably weaker. This suggests that once car availability is held constant the decision rationales of mode choice for a certain trip distance have remained relatively stable. The increase in motorisation over the study period was considerably weaker in large cities than in small towns, although the cities started from a lower level in the 1970s. Thus, the motorisation divide between cities on the one hand, and suburban and rural areas on the other hand has become ever wider. For travel mode choice, the picture is similar. What is more, the results suggest that even car owners are more inclined to walk a given distance in the cities than in small towns, even more so if they live in a central urban area. The built environment, thus, appears to have a strong impact on whether an available car is used or not.     

Demand for electric vehicles in hybrid households: an exploratory analysis

Previous studies of the potential market for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from different research streams have failed to converge on a single, robust estimate. What these previous research streams share are untested or implausible assumptions about consumer response to new transportation technology. We frame the BEV purchase decision in terms of a household's entire stock of vehicles, car purchase behavior and travel behavior. Within this framework, households which own both electric vehicles and gasoline vehicles are called ‘hybrid households’. Because nearly all consumers are unfamiliar with the characteristics of BEVs, we designed an interactive interview based on week-long travel diaries, which we call Purchase Intentions and Range Estimation Games (PIREG) to explore hypothetical hybrid household vehicle use. Our primary finding is that consumers' perceived driving range needs are substantially lower than previous hypothetical stated preference studies conclude. We find evidence of a viable market for BEVs with 60 to 100 miles driving range.     

Cost savings of using a marketable permit system for regulating light-duty vehicle emissions

In the USA, each individual vehicle is required to meet uniform per-mile emission standards. The uniform standard system does not allow vehicle manufacturers flexibility in achieving overall emission reduction goals for motor vehicles. The system provides manufacturers with little or no incentive to control vehicle emissions beyond what is required. In this paper, an incentive-based marketable permit system is proposed to replace the uniform standard system. Under the marketable permit system, vehicle manufacturers are required to meet corporate average emission standards; they are allowed to buy or sell vehicle emission reduction credits among themselves to meet corporate average standards; and they are allowed to bank vehicle emission reduction credits that are accumulated in earlier years and to use the credits for meeting average standards in later years. It is estimated in this study that relative to the current uniform standard system, the marketable permit system can reduce vehicle emission control costs by $150 to $400 million per year in California, or 13–30% of the costs currently spent on vehicle emission control.     

Insights into carsharing demand dynamics: Outputs of an agent-based model application to Lisbon,Portugal

Two important claims for carsharing systems are their increased flexibility and potential contribution to reducing transport externalities such as pollution. Carsharing typically involves a fleet of vehicles in stations around a city that clients may use on an hourly-payment basis. Classical round-trip systems address a niche market of shopping and errand trips. However, a growing market is now arising providing one-way trips to clients. Great uncertainty remains on the economic viability of this type of carsharing given the complex relation between supply and demand, and how this may influence the level of service provided. Realistic modeling tools that include both supply and demand characterization and allow testing several carsharing operational parameters are scarce. In this sense, a detailed agent-based model was developed to simulate one-way carsharing systems. The simulation incorporates a stochastic demand model discretized in time and space and a detailed environment characterization with realistic travel times. The operation includes maintenance operations, relocations and reservations. The model was applied to the case-study city of Lisbon. Our results show that comparing to other modes, carsharing performs worse than private cars both in terms of time and cost. Nevertheless, it clearly outperforms taxis in terms of cost, and outperforms buses, metro and walking in terms of travel time. The competitiveness of carsharing is highly determined by trip length, becoming more competitive than other modes (travel-time wise) as trips become longer. The operational policies as car-fleet relocation and car reservation showed significant effects in enhancing profit while preserving good customers' satisfaction.     

A Lagrangian heuristic for the real-time vehicle rescheduling problem

When a public transit vehicle breaks down on a scheduled trip, one or more vehicles need to be rescheduled to serve that trip and other service trips originally scheduled for the disabled vehicle. In this paper, the vehicle rescheduling problem (VRSP) is investiaged to consider operating costs, schedule disruption costs, and trip cancellation costs. The VRSP is proven to be NP-hard, and a Lagrangian relaxation based insertion heuristic is developed. Extensive computational experiments on randomly generated problems are reported. The results show that the Lagrangian heuristic performs very well for solving the VRSP.     

An examination of the factors that impact upon multiple vehicle ownership: The case of Dublin, Ireland

This paper examines the characteristics of households with multiple car ownership in Dublin, Ireland. Data from the 2006 Census of Ireland are analysed to ascertain the characteristics of these households. The analysis of multiple car ownership presented herein examines individual specific, transport availability, and household characteristics to provide an indication of the individuals most likely to have access to more than one vehicle. Understanding the characteristics of households with more than one car is important for many reasons, such as how policies for emissions reductions or pricing regimes might affect households. Ireland, like many countries, has recently launched a number of electric vehicle and car sharing schemes. Traditionally these schemes have been aimed at reducing multiple car ownership, therefore it is important to develop an understanding of the households that would most likely give up an extra car and use a car sharing scheme or an electric vehicle. Also from a sustainability point of view, greater levels of car ownership can result in unsustainable transport patterns.This paper examines the Census data using a multinomial logit regression model to determine the relationships between multiple car ownership levels and several household characteristics. The findings of the paper demonstrate that occupation, public transport availability and residential density all have an impact upon the decision to own more than one vehicle.     

Examining individuals preferences for hybrid electric and alternatively fuelled vehicles

This paper examines individuals motivations when purchasing vehicles, focusing upon what factors would encourage individuals to purchase hybrid electrical vehicle (HEV) or alternatively fuelled vehicle (AFV). AFVs in this paper refer to any cars run on alternatives to petrol and diesel. This research attempts to ascertain whether reductions in fuel costs, vehicle registration tax (VRT), or green house gas emissions would encourage individuals to purchase a HEV or an AFV instead of a conventional vehicle. VRT is an Irish tax that is levied on the purchase of new vehicles. One of the motivations to conduct this research was to examine a new car tax and VRT scheme introduced by the Irish government in 2008. This new policy rewards the purchase of environmentally friendly cars, with lower VRT and car tax rates. To understand individuals’ perceptions of these new taxes a survey was sent to recent customers of a car company in Ireland. The survey asked respondents about their recently purchased vehicle and how important they considered vehicle attributes such as environmental performance, fuel cost, and safety, before making their car purchase. The survey also contained a number of stated preference experiments that were designed to ascertain what factors influence individuals’ decisions when purchasing their new car. The results showed that respondents did not rate green house gas emissions or VRT as crucial attributes when purchasing a new vehicle. The vehicle attributes that respondents rated most highly were reliability, automobile safety, fuel costs, and the cost price. The majority of respondents agreed that HEVs and AFVs are better for the environment, cheaper to run than conventional vehicles and would be the vehicle of choice in ten years time.     

Verkehrsverbund: The evolution and spread of fully integrated regional public transport in Germany,Austria, and Switzerland

Throughout the world, urban areas have been rapidly expanding, exacerbating the problem of many public transport (PT) operators providing service over different governmental jurisdictions. Over the past five decades, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have successfully implemented regional PT associations (called Verkehrsverbund or VV), which integrate services, fares, and ticketing while coordinating public transport planning, marketing, and customer information throughout metropolitan areas, and in some cases, entire states. A key difference between VVs and other forms of regional PT coordination is the collaboration and mutual consultation of government jurisdictions and PT providers in all decision-making. This article examines the origins of VVs, their spread to 13 German, Austrian, and Swiss metropolitan areas from 1967 to 1990, and their subsequent spread to 58 additional metropolitan areas from 1991 to 2017, now serving 85% of Germany's and 100% of Austria's population. The VV model has spread quickly because it is adaptable to the different degrees and types of integration needed in different situations. Most of the article focuses on six case studies of the largest VVs: Hamburg (opened in 1967), Munich (1971), Rhine-Ruhr (1980), Vienna (1984), Zurich (1990), and Berlin-Brandenburg (1999). Since 1990, all six of those VVs have increased the quality and quantity of service, attracted more passengers, and reduced the percentage of costs covered by subsidies. By improving PT throughout metropolitan areas, VVs provide an attractive alternative to the private car, helping to explain why the car mode share of trips has fallen since 1990 in all of the case studies.     

Analysis of the potential demand for battery electric vehicle sharing: Mode share and spatiotemporal distribution

Carsharing is considered one of the solutions to urban transport problems. As a new mode in the urban transport system in China, there are still initial questions of how carsharing will perform and what the impacts will be. Accordingly, this study considers battery electric vehicle sharing and investigates its potential demand, with Beijing as the case study. A nested logit model is established and calibrated to analyze mode choice behavior. Further, real trip data is used to estimate the potential demand for battery electric vehicle sharing. In addition, the temporal and spatial distribution of potential demand, the impact of battery electric vehicle sharing on the mode split, and the impact of pricing strategies are analyzed. The results show that an optimistic mode split of battery electric vehicle sharing is 4.23% when the average distance between travelers and stations is 0.5 km. The main source of potential demand is public transport. However, the substitution effect of battery electric vehicle sharing for private vehicles is weak. The potential trips are concentrated in the morning peak period, mainly starting in residential or integrative areas, and ending in commercial areas or green spaces. Commuting and long-distance trips are more sensitive to decreases in price, such that they are more likely to be completed as battery electric vehicle sharing trips. This price decrease could also increase the potential trip ratio during the evening peak period. These findings are useful to governments and operators for implementing policies such as station planning, relocation, and pricing strategies.     

Children's active travel and independent mobility in four countries: Development,social contributing trends and measures

In many countries a decline in children's active and independent mobility, like walking and cycling is registered. In this paper the development of children's mobility in Denmark, Finland, Great Britain and Norway is compared to examine differences and similarities in these countries. Accessible data are used, which implies that not all of them are directly comparable, but they are employed as indicators of development. The trends are the same in these four countries, an increase in car use and decrease in bicycling and walking. Distance to school has increased, both as a result of bigger units and more children in private schools. Traffic is an important reason for taking children to school by car, but convenience for the parents is also part of it. Organized leisure activities has also contributed to less walking and cycling, in addition to more time pressure in families, increased access to car(s) and easier access to parents as a ‘transport service’ by the help of the mobile phone. The measures that different countries use in trying to meet the challenges of children's mobility tend to focus on the school trip and most often on traffic safety, both at national and local levels.     

Employment centers and travel behavior: exploring the work commute of Mumbai’s rapidly motorizing middle class

In the Greater Mumbai Region (GMR), jobs and housing are agglomerating in nodes in the periphery of Mumbai City. However, current transportation investments focus on strengthening connections within Mumbai City, while these outlying nodes have received less attention. As housing and jobs move out, given limited travel choices, the need for mobility nudges many middle class Indian households into owning private vehicles. Using household travel survey data from the GMR, this paper develops an understanding of how worker’s trips are different for those who commute to the city versus the exurbs. Socio-economic and transportation indicators for middle class workers going to the city versus the exurbs show that these populations are quite similar demographically. However, those traveling to the exurbs, on average, tend to be at a socio-economic disadvantage with respect to income, education and out-of-pocket travel burdens. Those traveling to exurban work locations have shorter travel times and trip distances, and make much higher use of walking, biking, rickshaws, and motorized two-wheelers compared to commuters to Mumbai City. Across the GMR, car users travel longer and farther compared to motorized two-wheeler users. On average, traveling by a private vehicle is faster than bus or rickshaw travel revealing advantages of private vehicle use. These mode choices in the middle class have resulted in rapid motorization and negative externalities such as traffic congestion and emissions. Evidence of large increases in motorized two-wheelers and cars in India suggests that these modes will likely keep growing, unless competing efficient travel options are supplied.     

从城市交通外部成本分析公交优先的必要性

在论述城市交通外部成本构成和量化情况的基础上,对城市公共交通和小汽车的外部成本进行了比较,指出造成我国城市客运交通结构性失衡的根本原因是由于交通外部成本没有内部化。实现交通外部成本的内部化将提高公共交通在出行中所占的比例,这对建立合理的客运交通结构有重要的意义。     

Is e-shopping likely to reduce shopping trips for car owners? A propensity score matching analysis

Reducing car use is commonly considered as a potential strategy to reduce transport-related problems such as traffic congestion and air pollution. The increasing use of online shopping may potentially replace shopping trips, thus possibly reducing car use. However, car owners – compared to non-car owners – can more easily visit physical stores and transport goods. Therefore, it can be assumed that online shopping is less likely to reduce shopping trips for car owners. Using 653 structured face-to-face interviews in Chengdu (China) in 2016, an empirical study is conducted. The results show that 44.0% of respondents indicated a decrease in shopping trip frequency after they started to purchase online, while only 14.4% indicated an increase in the frequency. This confirms that online shopping tends to be a substitute for shopping trips. Applying a propensity score matching approach, this paper further compares the likelihoods of changes in shopping trips caused by online buying between car owners and non-car owners, while considering sociodemographic factors, internet experiences, spatial attributes, and online shopping attitudes as covariates. The results indicate that – due to online buying – shopping trip frequency is less likely to decrease for car owners compared to non-car owners, while there is no significant difference in the likelihood of increasing shopping trip frequency between owners and non-owners. These findings imply that online shopping may not effectively reduce driving, thus unlikely being a valid solution for transportation problems resulting from the increasing use of cars.