Examining the impact of weather variability on non-commuters’ daily activity–travel patterns in different regions of Sweden

By jointly modelling the routine and leisure activity–travel engagements of non-commuters in different regions of Sweden, this paper explores the interactions between time allocation, travel demand and mode choice under different weather conditions. Combined weather and travel survey datasets that span a period of over 13 years were analysed. Simultaneous Tobit models were applied to explore the interactions among these activity–travel indicators, whilst municipalities’ unique conditions and heterogeneities between different time-points were taken into account. The model results reveal the trade-offs between routine and leisure activities in terms of activity duration, number of trips and travel time. Positive mutual endogeneity was found between slow-mode share in routine and leisure trips. The results also highlight the trade-offs between routine and leisure activities under abnormal weather conditions. Regional differences between weather effects are substantial due to differences in direct, indirect and total marginal effects. Between-municipality variability constitutes a considerable part of the variability in activity duration and travel time. Between-municipality variability in leisure activity duration and leisure travel time is larger in northern Sweden, while that of routine activity duration and routine travel time is larger in central Sweden, after weather and social demographics have been controlled.     

Mobility in different generations of older persons: The development of daily travel in different cohorts in Denmark,Norway and Sweden

In the Scandinavian countries Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the proportion of older people in the total population is expected to reach about 25% in 2060. The ageing of the population has a variety of social implications. One aspect of population ageing that has relatively little attention in the Scandinavian countries is the question of everyday mobility. The purpose of this paper is to get a better understanding of the activity and travel patterns of different groups of older people, examine how travel- and activity patterns are developing during the life course, study the changes over time and how the “new” generations of older people behave compared to the older ones. The method used is cohort analysis of National Travel Surveys from the three countries in a 20 years perspective. Results show a significant period effect in car ownership and use among older people in Denmark, Norway and Sweden with a clear increase during the past 20 years. This is especially true for women. The increase in the number of driver’s licence-holders and car availability is reflected in travel mode choice among older people: both men and women maintain their car-use habits at old age. Another clear finding is that older people today travel more than the comparable age groups 20–25 years ago: everyday trip rates are higher and activities outside home are more common. While commuting and work-related trips decline after retirement, shopping and leisure trips do not start to decline before high age. From the cohort analysis we see that leisure and shopping trips are maintained in the period after retirement, and the car is important to reach shopping malls, health service, leisure activities, visit relatives and other social company.     

Greenhouse gas emissions from flying can offset the gain from reduced driving in dense urban areas

Numerous studies have illustrated how denser urban forms lead to smaller greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from passenger transport. Many of these studies have excluded aviation since the association between urban structure and air travel is not as intuitive as it is the case of ground travel. However, several recent studies have concluded that air travel is a significant contributor to the GHGs from passenger transport. Furthermore, even air travel habits depend heavily on lifestyles and socio-economic factors that are related to the urban form. Here we analyse the interactions between urban structure and different transportation modes and their GHG impacts in Finland. The study utilises the data from the Finnish Transportation Agency’s passenger traffic survey from May 2010 to May 2011, which includes over 12 000 people and over 35 000 trips. The survey is based on one-day travel diaries and also includes additional data on long-distance trips from a longer period. Methodologically, the study takes a traveller’s perspective to assess the GHG emissions from passenger transport. We found that (1) air travel breaks the pattern where GHG emissions decrease with increasing density of urban structures, and (2) in the metropolitan region there is a clear trade-off between car-ownership and air travel in the middle income class. The main policy implication of our study is that air travel must be included in GHG assessments and mitigation strategies targeting travel behaviour. In dense urban regions, the emissions of air travel have the potential to offset the gain from reduced private driving.     

The relationship between ridehailing and public transit in Chicago: A comparison before and after COVID-19

As Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) have expanded their role in U.S. cities recently, their services (i.e. ridehailing) have been subject to scrutiny for displacing public transit (PT) ridership. Previous studies have attempted to classify the relationship between transit and TNCs, though analysis has been limited by a lack of granular TNC trip records, or has been conducted at aggregated scales. This study seeks to understand the TNC-PT relationship in Chicago at a spatially and temporally granular level by analyzing detailed individual trip records. An analysis framework is developed which enables TNC trips to be classified according to their potential relationship with transit: complementary (providing access to/from transit), substitutive (replacing a transit alternative), or independent (not desirably completable by transit). This framework is applied to both regular operating conditions and to early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, to identify the TNC-PT relationship in these two contexts. We find that complementary TNC trips make up a small fraction of trips taken (approximately 2%), while potential independent trips represent 48% to 53% and potential substitution trips represent 45% to 50%. The percentage of substitution trips drops substantially following COVID-19 shutdowns (to around 14%). This may be attributed to a reduction in work-based TNC trips from Chicago's north side, indicated by changes in spatial distributions and flattening of trips occurring during peak hours. Furthermore, using spatial regression, we find that an increased tendency of TNC trips to substitute transit is related to a lower proportion of elderly people, greater proportion of peak-period TNC travel, greater transit network availability, a higher percentage of white population, and increased crime rates. Our findings identify spatial and temporal trends in the tendency to use TNC services in place of public transit, and thus have potential policy implications for transit management, such as spatially targeted service improvements and safety measures to reduce the possibility of public transit being substituted by TNC services.     

The influence of socioeconomic characteristics,land use and travel time considerations on mode choice for medium- and longer-distance trips

This paper contributes to the limited number of investigations into the influence of the spatial configuration of land use and transport systems on mode choice for medium- and longer-distance travel (defined here as home-based trips of 50 km and over) in the Netherlands. We have employed data from the 1998 Netherlands National Travel Survey to address the question as to how socioeconomic factors, land use attributes, and travel time affect mode choice for medium- and longer-distance travel, and how their role varies across trip purposes: commuting, business, and leisure. The empirical analysis indicates that land use attributes and travel time considerations are important in explaining the variation in mode choice for medium- and longer-distance travel when controlling for the socioeconomic characteristics of travellers.     

Cyclists' exposure to air pollution and road traffic noise in central city neighbourhoods of Montreal

It is well known that bicycling in urban areas has beneficial effects on people's health and well-being. On the other hand, urban cycling, especially during the morning and evening commute, may be associated with health and safety risks due to potentially high levels of exposure to air pollution, road noise, and high traffic density. Few studies have, however, measured cyclists' exposure to noise and air pollution simultaneously.The objective of this research is to evaluate cyclists' exposure to air pollution and noise in central city neighbourhoods of Montreal and to identify the impact on exposure of associated local factors such as weather conditions, the day and time, the type of road, bicycle path or lane used and the characteristics of the immediate environment around the cyclist's route.A total of 85 bicycle trips were analyzed, representing 422 km of travel and nearly 25 h of data collection. The mean exposure levels were 70.5 dB(A) for noise and 76 μg/m³ for nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). A very weak negative correlation was found between the two measures of exposure (R² = − 0.07, p = 0.005).The results of the spatial regression models show that the morning commute and trips on collector roads and on-street bike lanes and shared bike lanes have significant and positive impacts on exposure to air pollution and noise. On the other hand, some factors are only significant for one or the other of the two types of exposure.     

The effects of road infrastructure improvement on work travel in Northern Iceland

Work travel is an important alternative to out-migration in rural areas characterized by a limited range of jobs. The size of local labour markets is determined in part by geography and tradition, but advances in transportation have the potential to move people and communities closer together and transform established mindscapes. In Iceland, the dispersion of the rural population, a challenging terrain, and unpredictable weather has made road infrastructure improvements a key component in regional development strategies. A large-scale tunnel project completed in 2010 was intended to strengthen a vulnerable rural area on the northern coast and expand the urban labour market of the regional centre of Akureyri. Traffic surveys and resident surveys conducted before and after the tunnels show a substantial increase in 17–34 km work travel between rural communities. Work travel 61–77 km to and from the regional centre did however not increase. The average length of work travel has shortened but the increase in commuting yielded a net increase in total km commuted. The tunnels increased work travel irrespective of age and education, but increased work travel by women with children in the household in particular. The results suggest that large-scale road infrastructure improvements may substantially strengthen rural labour markets within a driving distance of 15–30 min, but may not extend the edge of micropolitan labour markets 45–60 min from an urban centre of less than 20 thousand inhabitants.     

Does the built environment make a difference? Additional evidence from the daily activity and travel behavior of homemakers living in New York City and suburbs

Homemakers, unlike employed people who have jobs and unemployed people who are seeking jobs, are a special group who do not have to spend time working out of the home, commuting to work, or looking for a job. Given that a regular job typically takes 9 h (This includes an assumed half-hour one-way commute time.) a day, the discretion to allocate their time is presumably much greater than other groups.In this paper, we focus our attention on homemakers’ activity and travel behavior in neighborhoods with different characteristics (e.g., very dense areas, dense areas, and suburbs). The question to be answered is quite simple: are there differences between travel behaviors of homemakers living in different types of neighborhoods? If yes, can these differences be attributed to differences in the built environment?The dataset used in the study is the Household Interview Survey (HIS) collected in 1997/1998 in the New York metropolitan area. We found significant differences in activity and travel related behavior by homemakers living in different types of neighborhoods. Compared to suburban homemakers, New York City homemakers spend more time on discretionary activities and less time on maintenance activities; use public transportation and walk more frequently; and conduct fewer trip chains. The study found that both individuals’ socio-economic characteristics and built environment appear to play a role in explaining behavior. A probably more important factor in explaining people’s time use behavior is the interrelationship between activities and trips, and between different types of activities.     

The decline of the traditional travel agent model

This article analyzes the struggle between traditional travel agencies and airlines to gain control of the Spanish airline services market. Also analyzed is the strong emergence of a third player, online travel portals that act as online travel agencies. We use a multinomial logit model to study the influence of 27 socio-economic factors and trip attributes on passenger purchase channel choice. The results show that the profile of a passenger who has a greater likelihood of making his/her bookings online is that of a young person, a student or educated to a high level, a habitual traveler, booking a simple journey and using an LCC. The factors linked to an increased likelihood of making purchases by phone include: being male, middle-aged, on a business or short trip, and the passengers usually use a travel agency. Finally, passengers who are over 65 years of age, with a lower academic level, who use a travel agency and are going to make a more complicated journey, are more likely to purchase their tickets in-store.     

The interplay between dockless bikeshare and bus for small-size cities in the US: A case study of Ithaca

As another mode of shared transportation, bikeshare can substitute or complement public transit. Prior studies mainly relied on self-reported survey data or aggregated station-level data from docked bikeshare systems, and their conclusions and implications were focused on large cities. It is largely unknown how and to what extent a dockless bikeshare system complements or substitutes public transit, especially in small cities. This study was set to measure the interplay between Lime dockless bikeshare and bus service in Ithaca, NY – a typical small-size college town – and its environs. By joining about 3.42 million records of bus stop data and 102 thousand Lime bikeshare trip data from 2019, two types of Bikeshare-Bus-Linkage (BBL) trips were identified, namely (1) the first-mile trip where a user rides a Lime to board a bus, and (2) the last-mile trip where a user bikes to their destination after alighting a bus. BBL trips were identified using a spatiotemporal proximity framework based on two important parameters: the catchment radius and the time window between a bus stop event and a Lime trip. Different values were tested with a sensitivity analysis, and the parameters were finally set at 100 ft. and 5 min. As such, 3026 BBL trips were identified, which was 3% of total Lime ridership or 0.1% of total bus ridership. Our findings indicated that Lime provided useful first- and last-mile transfers to bus service for commuters. The complementary effect was particularly strong in the urban core and with transit development and employment land use areas. Moreover, in the morning peak, there were more first-mile trips from residential areas to bus stops in the urban core, while in the evening peak more last-mile trips started from bus stops in the urban core to residential areas. Based on the unique first-mile and last-mile trip patterns identified, policy implications and recommendations for bikeshare operators, local government, transit agencies, and transportation policymakers were discussed to better integrate bikeshare and public transit.     

Local distribution and collection for environmental and social sustainability – tricycles in central Beijing

Goods distribution is a growing proportion of intra-urban transport worldwide due to changes in supply chains and e-commerce, yet has received scant attention in research. Cities have opted for a regulatory approach to truck movement and deliveries at a local level but few have tried to develop a systematic approach to management. Following certain suggestions in the literature, a hierarchical deliveries approach is being adopted in some new developments in Europe and Australia using light vehicles at the local level. In East, South and South-East Asia, where 3-wheeled non-motorised vehicles have been a mainstay of goods and people transport for several decades, they are under renewed pressure from city governments. This study of the tricycle in Beijing examines their role for packages delivery, food and beverage distribution and waste and recycling services, which covers nearly all of the uses of utilitarian tricycles in northern Chinese cities. Drivers (n = 97) were interviewed, their usual trips were mapped, and the subsequent trip was recorded using a geo-positioning system. These trips were compared with trips executed by small, motorised vans, favoured since 2014 by Beijing government. Operations can be divided into four categories according to delivery chain organisation, field operations and vehicle type. Motorised alternatives to the tricycle are shown to be uncompetitive in terms of time, cost and energy efficiency. This first detailed examination of the operations of the tricycle in a Chinese city provides a useful base for consideration of local distribution services organisation and a possible model for cities outside China.     

Substituting a tramway to a bus line in Paris: Costs and benefits

In Paris, an old bus line on the Maréchaux Boulevards has been replaced by a modern tramway. Simultaneously, the road-space has been narrowed by about a third. A survey of 1000 users of the tramway shows that the tramway hardly generated any shift from private cars towards public transit mode. However, it did generate important intra-mode transfers: from bus and subway towards tramway, and from Maréchaux boulevards towards the Périphérique (the Paris ring road) for cars. The various benefits and costs of these changes are evaluated. The welfare gains made by public transport users are more than compensated by the time losses of the motorists, and in particular, by the additional cost of road congestion on the Périphérique. The same conclusion applies with regard to CO₂ emissions: the reductions caused by the replacement of buses and the elimination of a few cars trips are less important than the increased pollution caused by the lengthening of the automobile trips and increased congestion on the ring road. Even if one ignores the initial investment of 350 M€, the social impact of the project, as measured by its net present value is negative. This is especially true for suburbanites. The inhabitants (and electors) of Paris pocket the main part of the benefits while supporting a fraction of the costs.     

Trip making of older adults in Seoul: Differences in effects of personal and household characteristics by age group and trip purpose

Korea is experiencing a rapid increase in the number and proportion of the older population aged 65 and older. This study investigated personal and household characteristics affecting trip making of older adults (65 years and older) using data from the 2010 Household Travel Survey in Seoul. It was tested if the effects of characteristics were the same for the 65+ and the under 65 groups, and if the effects for older adults were the same for the 65–74 and the 75+ groups. Trips were also classified into mandatory and discretionary trips and models estimated for the 65+ group for those two trip purposes. The investigation was done with a heteroskedastic ordered logit model to account for age differences in unobserved variance.The analysis showed that the effects of personal and household characteristics on trip making varied significantly between the under 65 and 65+ groups, and between those 65–74 and those 75+. This further confirms the risk of viewing all older adults as similar to each other or to younger individuals. The study found heteroskedasticity due to age for the youngest (under 41) and the oldest (75+) groups but not for those 41–64-years-old.Specific results showed that men 65 or older have a lower probability of making more trips than women, especially mandatory trips, suggesting transportation policy needs to consider the genders differently. Having a driver's license and an automobile was linked to more trips for those 65–74 and for mandatory trips but not for those 75+ and not for discretionary trips of those 65+. Higher income was linked to more trips for older adults, especially mandatory trips.The results show the development of transport policies needs to consider the variance among the aged, such as gender, income, driving licensure and automobile ownership.     

En-route weather and place valuations for different transport mode users

With the increasing societal interest in climate change, mostly separated strands of literature have investigated the travel-behavioural, thermo-sensational and environmental–psychological effects of weather on people in everyday life. This research conceptually and statistically integrates these fragmented insights. Drawing on unique Greater Rotterdam (The Netherlands) travel diary data enriched with hourly meteorological and spatial route attributes, we analyse how weather affects different transport mode users’ en-route place valuations in terms of liveliness, friendliness and aesthetics. Our main findings indicate that windy, cloudy, cold (<15 °C) or too hot (⩾25 °C) weather conditions negatively affect en-route place valuations, either directly or through lower thermal comfort. Active mode users generally value their route surroundings more positively than motorised transport modes, however they also appear more strongly affected by weather in their thermal experiences and place valuations. Policy makers are advised to expand climate-sensitive urban planning along active transport mode infrastructures.     

How children view their travel behaviour: a case study from Flanders (Belgium)

Understanding the thoughts of contemporary children about travel and their opinions on different transport modes of transport may provide important answers for policy-makers on how to respond to current and future transport needs of children. Obviously, children do not act autonomously and their travel behaviours also strongly influence their parents’ travel behaviours. Therefore, a better understanding of children’s travel behaviours seems necessary.This paper reports the results of a large-scale, self-reporting survey (N = 2546) that was conducted to examine the concept and meaning of travel and travel behaviour of children aged between 10 and 13 years in Flanders. It was found that children are able to complete a travel diary on their own, that their travel patterns differ and that the most important part of travelling for them is the social aspect.     

Expanding the positive utility of travel through weeklong tracking: Within-person and multi-environment variability of ideal travel time

Travel has been found to have a positive utility—often measured as a desire for non-zero travel time. Although past studies have found that desired travel time varies by trip attributes, they often focused on a single trip purpose (e.g., commute) or single time point (e.g., peak period of one day) and rarely captured variation within individuals and across multiple travel environments. To address these limitations, we employed a smartphone-based travel behavior survey of 186 users making 4397 trips in the Washington, DC, and Blacksburg, VA metropolitan areas. For each user, multiple trips were recorded and the user was asked to repeatedly report on the ideal travel time for each trip. We found that desired travel time varied across different trip environmental characteristics and purposes. Ideal travel time was longer for active travel trips, leisure trips, weekend trips, and when the user conducted activities during trips (e.g., talking, using the phone, looking at the landscape) and traveled with companions. Our study suggests the need for more realistic estimation of the value of travel time savings and the need for quantifying the effect of multitasking during travel on people's willingness to reduce travel time. Practitioners should also consider providing better urban infrastructure for pedestrians and bicyclists to fulfill their trips, as their ideal travel times closely match actual travel times.     

The structure of joint leisure trips: analyzing two-person leisure trips of Dutch students

This paper investigates the spatial structure of students’ leisure trips and to what extent locational characteristics of social network partners influence decisions about their joint leisure activities and travel. To this end a survey was held among university students asking them about details of their last leisure trip made with a friend. Cluster analysis suggests that four typical leisure trip patterns can be derived. Three clusters seem to be determined by the residential locations of ego and alter. Depending on the residential distance between ego and alter, leisure trip distances are either short for ego and alter (if residential distance is very short), somewhat longer for both (if residential distance is slightly longer) or long for at least one partner (if residential distance is large). A fourth cluster includes cases with long leisure trips for both partners, independent of residential distance, representing cases where specific destinations are visited. A more detailed analysis of travel distance suggests that travel distance depends on size of the residential municipality, residential distance and objective and perceived quality of leisure facilities such as cafés, bars and restaurants. Overall, our study provides support for the idea that leisure trip decisions should be understood on the level of social network ties (i.e. ego and alter) rather than based on individual characteristics only. Also, it provides support for the idea that a focus on single ties, rather than on the structure of social networks as a whole, increases our insight in leisure trip decision making.Keywords: Social network links, Social-recreational travel, Spatial context, Students     

Built environment effects on leisure travel for children: Trip generation and travel mode

This study empirically analyzed the effects of built environment on leisure travel among children. Students of three elementary schools, namely Yangmingshan, Sanyu and Shilin, all located in the Shilin District of Taipei, were chosen to provide sample data. The negative binomial regression model and multinomial logit model were used to analyze trip generation and travel mode, respectively. This study reached the following empirical findings: (1) mixed land use, employment density, walkway quality, leisure facility supply and leisure travel distance encouraged generation of leisure trips for children; (2) intersection density, building density, employment density and walkway quality encouraged a child to use transit systems or non-motorized travel modes for leisure travel; and (3) vehicle density and leisure travel distance discouraged walking and biking but encouraged the use of transit systems for leisure travel involving children. Local government can use the empirical findings of this study to develop urban planning strategies to encourage children to perform leisure activities outside the home using transit systems or non-motorized travel modes.     

Extending public transit accessibility models to recognise transfer location

A longstanding issue for public transit agencies has been how to assess the performance of transit service including spatial service coverage to meet the transport needs of the community. The conventional approach quantifies accessibility using door-to-door travel time in such a way that accessibility declines as the travel time to the opportunity increases. A new approach to modelling transit accessibility is proposed by incorporating the potential effect of transfer location. It builds on the premise that transit users may have a preference for a transfer location best located relative to the trip origin and destination points. The model is tested in Brisbane's bus network which has a radial form, where inner-city suburbs have relatively higher accessibility than outer-city suburbs, if only travel time is counted. Incorporating the transfer location refines the accessibility modelling so that some outer-city suburbs located along the major bus corridors have a relatively higher accessibility level. The new model also suggests that inner-city suburbs do not necessarily have better accessibility. Suburbs close to the city centre may have shorter transit travel time to reach other suburbs, but they do not have a well-connected transit network to other suburbs through service transfers.     

The path and time efficiency of residents' trips of different purposes with different travel modes: An empirical study in Guangzhou,China

Improving residents' travel efficiency and reducing carbon emissions from travel are the key issues for sustainable development of urban transportation. This study first employed a circuity index to measure the path efficiency of residents' trips based on 2015 survey data in Guangzhou and developed a generalized additive model (GAM) to investigate the relationship between the path efficiency and travel distance for different purposes of trip and different travel modes. On this basis, it further evaluated the time efficiency of different travel modes for each trip. The results showed that there is a complex and nonlinear relationship between the path efficiency and travel distance, which differs between different purposes of trips and different travel modes. In general, trips by non-motorized transport have a lower circuity index and higher path efficiency than those by cars or public transport. Moreover, non-motorized transport is the time-efficiency optimal mode for almost half of the trips, especially for daily shopping trips. However, people prefer to choose public transport on their trips even though public transport is not the time-efficiency optimal mode for these trips. Generally, only about half of the residents chose the time-efficiency optimal mode for their trips. Those who did not choose the time-efficiency optimal mode tended to choose the modes with higher carbon-intensity. The conclusions of this study indicate that for improving travel efficiency and reducing carbon emissions from transport, more efforts should be focused on the non-motorized travel environment and developing relevant policies to encourage more walking and cycling.