Going steerage on Ryanair: cultures of migrant air travel between Poland and the UK

One of the most high profile migration movements to the UK in recent years has undoubtedly been that of A8, and mainly Polish, newcomers following the 2004 expansion of the EU. Accompanying, and perhaps fuelling, this increase in mobility has been a substantial rise in low cost air travel provision. The UK Civil Aviation Authority and the Civil Aviation Office of the Republic of Poland statistics testify to the expansion in passenger numbers between Poland and the UK since 2004, with Ryanair being one of the main carriers. Although other modes of transport, such as coach and car travel, are still important, in some senses these Ryanair flights define this new migration. Taking as a starting point that airports and airplanes are social and cultural venues in their own right, and that migration journeys are themselves at the heart of the migration experience, this article uses interviews with Polish migrants in the UK to consider this low cost air travel for migration in more depth. Firstly it briefly charts the increase in air travel between Poland and the UK, considering the narratives of mobility cultures collected with the migrants. Secondly it investigates the collective dimension of travelling for migration on these flights and the tensions which emerge around this collectivity. Finally, it reflects on the wider costs and contexts of low cost shuttle flights as a late capitalist mode of migration transport.     

Seasonal hotel jobs: an occupation and a way of life

Research for the present study was undertaken in the summer of 1995. This paper seeks to identify whether Salaman's notion of ‘occupational communities’ exists in a sample of six British seasonal seaside hotels, a relatively unexplored sector of the hotel industry. Briefly, occupational communities have as their major focus the job itself and they are also characterised by a fusing of work and leisure activities. Interviews with 30 hotel workers indicate that seasonal, and particularly live-in workers, tend to form distinct ‘occupational communities’. These communities, however, are different to ‘traditional’ occupational communities in a number of respects. Most importantly, instead of the job itself being the focus for community formation, job importance is replaced by work situations characterised by hedonism and close social bonding. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

广深客运专线动车组能耗计算与分析

通过对动车组能耗的各种影响因素的分析,按照动车组运行过程的起停、运行、调速制动、出入库等环节,针对每一环节分别研究其能耗计算方法,考虑坡道附加能耗和空调能耗,分别建立数学模型、确定修正系数。研究提供的动车组能耗计算方法可以进行能耗计算与预测,以及对能耗影响因素进行分析。以广深客运专线为例,动车组能耗计算结果与实际能耗的拟合性好,可以为合理确定既有线和客运专线动车组能耗水平提供帮助。     

Evaluating energy efficiency for airlines: An application of VFB-DEA

In this paper, the energy efficiency of airlines has been studied with number of employees, capital stock and tons of aviation kerosene as the inputs and Revenue Ton Kilometers, Revenue Passenger Kilometers, total business income and CO₂ emissions decrease index as the outputs. A new model, Virtual Frontier Benevolent DEA Cross Efficiency model (VFB-DEA), is proposed to calculate the energy efficiencies of 11 airlines from 2008 to 2012. Spearman correlation coefficient is applied to validate the applicability of the new model. The results indicate that capital efficiency is an important factor in driving energy efficiency, and the American financial crisis had a significant influence on the change in energy efficiency during this period.     

铁路机车单耗测算模型研究

在对国内外铁路机车能耗模型进行分析的基础上,以我国传统铁路客贷共线运行列车为研究对象,从机车能耗产生的微观角度出发,运用列车运行计算的相关原理,设定了列车运行环境,建立铁路机车单耗测算模型。模型中引入"牵引运行能耗换算系数",通过微观数值计算方法测算机车单耗的宏观量,计算机车担当客、货运时的单位能耗值。根据机车数量比例和完成的运输工作量,通过加权平均法测算机车综合单耗。经过测算,内燃机车综合单位耗油量与电力机车综合单位耗电量的模型测算值与实际统计值较为吻合。     

UK road freight energy use by product: trends and analysis from 1985 to 1995

Since the early 1980s, energy use in road freight has been rising much faster than overall energy use in the UK. To better understand the factors driving this rapid growth, we carried out an analysis of road freight energy use trends across 14 product sectors from 1985 to 1995. Growth in length and complexity of supply chains, rather than growth of output, is shown to be the main driver of increasing freight energy consumption, with high value products having the highest energy use per tonne lifted. Policy options and a proposal for improved estimation of energy consumption are also discussed.     

Indicators and evaluation model for analyzing environmental protection performance of airports

This study develops an evaluation model for analyzing environmental protection performance of airports. First, indicators for evaluating environmental protection at airports are derived by reviewing related literature and existing environmental management plans using the Fuzzy Delphi method. Then, the weights and value functions of these indicators are obtained through expert questionnaire surveys. Applying the value functions to the environmental data from different airports yields the value of each indicator. Finally, multiplying the values with their corresponding weights sheds light on the performance of individual and overall indicators. Findings of this study offer references for airport management in evaluating airport performance in energy conservation, carbon reduction, and implementation of environmental protection measures, as well as in developing performance improvement schemes according to the state of the airport.     

European mobility cultures: A survey-based cluster analysis across 28 European countries

More targeted European policies promoting green travel patterns require better knowledge on differing mobility cultures across European regions. As a basis for this, we clustered the EU population into eight mobility styles based on Eurobarometer data. The mobility styles – including, for example, “green cyclists” and “convenience drivers” – differed not only in their travel-related variables but also in their socio-economic background, IT-affinity, and life satisfaction, with green cyclist showing the highest life satisfaction and two car-oriented styles having the highest socio-economic resources. In a second step, the 28 EU member countries were clustered into six country clusters based on their representation of mobility styles. The country clusters indicate the existence of considerably different mobility cultures across the EU. Sub-regions can be identified that have highly different positions on the path towards sustainable mobility and therefore different requirements towards European platforms and support measures, e.g. for ‘Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans’. The country clusters can provide a starting point for future communication and targeting of European efforts in sustainable mobility.     

铁路能耗的运行组织因素和灰色关联度计量分析

为准确识别不同运行组织因素对铁路能耗影响的重要程度,在解析各运行组织因素的基础上,建立灰色关联度分析模型,计算各运行组织因素对能耗的欧几里德灰色关联度。选取系统能耗为特征行为序列,运行组织各因素为影响因素行为序列,并以日本JR铁路为例,采集近10年的数据进行计算分析,得到铁路能耗影响因素的重要程度排序。     

Zonal method for urban travel surveys: sustainability and sample distance from the CBD

This paper details a method of surveying the travel behaviour and values of households within inner, middle and outer urban zones. This survey of 400 households in two North Queensland (Australia) cities provides details of 3500 urban trips, travel modes and choices linked to household location. Stratified sampling based on distance from the Central Business District shows pronounced methodological advantages. This simple and effective method shows that outer urban dwellers used about three times the amount of fuel as their more central counterparts, placing them at the vanguard of unsustainable urban travel, a great challenge for policy, developers and city planners.     

Households transport-home energy conservation strategies in response to energy price policies: A stated adaptation experiment based on portfolio choices and cross effects designs

This article explores consumer investment choice in long-term energy conservation technology and assesses trade-offs in energy saving behaviour between the housing and transportation domains. The long-term energy conservation choice problem is conceptualized as a portfolio choice problem. Consequently, to measure trade-offs between investments in housing and transport options, a cross effects choice design is developed in which respondents were shown one or more alternate ways to reduce their current energy consumption: (1) investing in new technology in the house, such as solar panels; (2) exchanging the current car for a more energy efficient car; (3) buying a new energy-efficient car, such as EV or solar car; (4) moving house to reduce current travel distances. To help respondents linking these options to their current energy consumption, a new Web-based survey system (SINA) to implement and administer stated adaptation experiments was developed. The system was used to collect two sets of data. First, data about out-of-home and in-home energy consumption, together with detailed time use data, was collected. Second, using a cross effects design, respondents were asked to select a portfolio of energy-saving strategies in response to different energy pricing policy scenarios. Results reported in this paper are based on 572 respondents who completed the survey and responded to seven adaptation questions based on their current energy expenditures. A random parameters logit model is estimated to predict the probability of choosing a particular portfolio of energy-saving options. Estimation results indicate that individuals from different socio-demographic groups exhibit varied preferences. The saving option characteristics, especially cost related characteristics have significant effects on individuals' preferences. Moreover, the results also showed significant effects of choice set composition on energy saving options. Further, the energy pricing policies had showed mixed effects on individual's preferences.     

Minimum cost path problem for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles

We introduce a practically important and theoretically challenging problem: finding the minimum cost path for PHEVs in a road network with refueling and charging stations. We show that this problem is NP-complete and present a mixed integer quadratically constrained formulation, a discrete approximation dynamic programming heuristic, and a shortest path heuristic as solution methodologies. Practical applications of the problem in transportation and logistics, considering specifically the long-distance trips, are discussed in detail. Through extensive computational experiments, significant insights are provided. In addition to the charging infrastructure availability, a driver’s stopping tolerance arises as another critical factor affecting the transportation costs.     

Testing the transport-induced environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: The role of air and railway transport

The airline and railway industry contribute immensely to economic development, however, its role in environmental pollution requires attention. Here, this study builds on the theoretical pedigree of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis to explore the contribution of the air and railway transportation sector and urbanization to the emission-growth argument. We utilized annual time-frequency data from 1995 to 2014 for a panel of top 10 air passenger carrier countries using robust panel estimators that control for cross-section dependence. The empirical analysis shows a positive significant relationship between emissions and economic growth, thus, economic growth is emission-embedded with limited green growth. The existence of the EKC phenomenon is affirmed for the investigated blocs — where economic growth is prioritized over environmental quality. Additional, while air transportation drives pollution, railway transportation and urbanization decline emission over the sampled period. The results underscore the need for clean and environmentally friendly energy sources for air sector operations.     

Optimizing the aerodynamic efficiency of intermodal freight trains

We develop an aerodynamic loading assignment model for intermodal freight trains based on an integer-programming framework to help terminal managers make up more fuel-efficient trains. This is the first use of optimization modeling to address the aerodynamics and energy efficiency of railroad intermodal trains. Several recommendations regarding railway equipment use, operations, and policy are proposed to improve fuel-efficiency and reduce emissions from intermodal transportation. Analysis of one major railroad intermodal route reveals the potential to reduce fuel consumption by 15 million gallons per year with corresponding savings of $28,000,000. Greater benefits are possible through broader implementation of the model.     

Bioethanol supply chain system planning under supply and demand uncertainties

A mixed integer stochastic programming model is established to support strategic planning of bioenergy supply chain systems and optimal feedstock resource allocation in an uncertain decision environment. The two-stage stochastic programming model, together with a Lagrange relaxation based decomposition solution algorithm, was implemented in a real-world case study in California to explore the potential of waste-based bioethanol production. The model results show that biowaste-based ethanol can be a viable part of sustainable energy solution for the future.     

Tourism-induced mobilities and transformation of indigenous cultures: where is the Vedda community in Sri Lanka heading to?*

ABSTRACT

Mobilities that encapsulate global- and local-level movement of people, capital, information, material and intangible heritage across boundaries influence distant socio-cultural structures and processes linking them to evolving global networks. Indigenous cultural tourism is a catalyst of mobilities that expose the habitats of distant spaces. This paper examines the Vedda community’s concurrent context and indigenous tourism-informed mobilities’ contributions to transforming their cultural character through anthropological approaches. Data were collected through a series of interviews, overt observation and review of documents. Findings indicate that the Vedda are susceptible to the influence of mobilities within and without the indigenous tourism practices. Enforced restructuring and governance push Vedda towards novel livelihoods, while automobilities, image, communication and geopolitical mobilities challenge Vedda heritage and temporalities. Vedda lead a hybrid life; real one being modern and the other being pseudo attributed for tourist attraction. Indigenous cultural tourism causes losing the inherited meaning of their cultural values. The Vedda, with their anatomically proven Mesolithic inheritance, have drawn world’s attention to preserving and recognizing them before their unique culture is subsumed by the modern world. Findings indicate that tourism planners should realize the significance of distinctive Vedda heritage parallel to commercial gains of tourism.     

Route optimization for energy efficient airport shuttle operations – A case study from Dallas Fort worth International Airport

The objective of this research is to reduce energy consumption from intra airport shuttle operations by optimizing routes and schedules, without compromising on passenger travel experience. To achieve this objective, we propose an optimization model that generates optimal airport shuttle routes for a given set of constraints and a discrete-event simulator that evaluates the optimal shuttle routes in a stochastic environment to understand the tradeoffs between the amount of time passengers wait for shuttles, and shuttle energy consumption. The proposed optimization model and stochastic simulation are tested using shuttle route data provided by the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. Results indicate that optimized routes can lead to a 20% energy reduction in shuttle operations with a modest 2-min increase in average shuttle wait times. The optimization model and simulator presented here are designed to be generalizable and can be adapted to optimize shuttle operations at any major airport.     

The Northern Sea Route versus the Suez Canal: cases from bulk shipping

The navigation distance via the Northern Sea Route (NSR) from a Northwest-European port to the Far East is approximately 40% shorter compared to the route via the Suez Canal. The shorter distance may facilitate more than a doubling of vessels’ operational energy efficiency performance. There is at present substantial uncertainty in schedule reliability via the NSR. Unless the schedule reliability is improved, the NSR should primarily be explored for bulk rather than for liner shipping. A major disadvantage with the NSR is its seasonality. Shipping operations in the summer time via the NSR may already today be profitable for minor bulk trades. Additional shipping routes may give more flexibility, and the NSR route choice option may facilitate supply chain agility and adaptability.