Telecommuting and other trips: an English case study

This paper investigates the importance of non-work travel to the growing population of telecommuters and the implications of this for sustainable travel patterns. Previous research has identified a link between increased online access to work and reduced proximity between residential and workplace locations. These studies raise concerns that as more people split their work activities between home and external workplace, whilst living in more dispersed locations, more unsustainable transport impacts will be generated, including higher vehicle mileage, car dependency, and less physical activity. This paper counters that the implications of telecommuting and other flexible working practices for sustainable travel behaviours may be more dependent upon the number and type of non-work journeys and the accessibility of amenities for these purposes rather than on the distance to the workplace for less frequent commuting journeys. Using the National Travel Survey for England, the travel behaviours of those who identify themselves not as home workers but as working from home at least once a week are compared to other working adults by measuring and modelling the number and purpose of trips within a week's travel diary, independent of distance or mode. Telecommuters record fewer commute trips, more trips for other purposes, and the marginal utility of additional non-work trips to telecommuters is greater than for many other socio-economic characteristics. Thus, addressing the accessibility of non-work destinations proactively through local planning has the potential to optimise the sustainability benefits of telecommuting.     

The growth of Arabian airlines from a German perspective – A study of the impacts of new air services to Asia

Airlines from Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman have gained significant market shares in international air transport. Traditionally travellers have chosen hubs like Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London or Paris as transfer points for trips to Asia. With the inauguration of non-stop services to places like Abu Dhabi, Doha or Dubai, new choices for air travellers have emerged. We analyse data derived from German air transport statistics on the effects of passenger flows between the airports of Düsseldorf and Hamburg to Asian destinations. They suggest that services introduced by Emirates stimulated passenger demand for Asian destinations, while incumbent hubs do not lose transfer passengers. Regarding travel times and connection quality of routings between secondary airports in Germany and Asian destinations, comparing routings of Emirates Airlines and Lufthansa suggests that due to geographic and scheduling constraints, services via Arabia do not constitute a perfect substitute for time-sensitive passengers.     

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.     

Estimating social travel demand of senior citizens in the Netherlands

Like many other countries, the Netherlands is experiencing a sharp rise in the ageing population. As age increases, people’s mobility may decrease. However, older people have more leisure time compared to their younger (working) counterparts, and potentially spend more time on social activities. Therefore, this group can possibly increase social travel demand. However, to date, the travel demand for social activities of senior citizens has received only little attention. This paper studies trip-making for social purposes, with a special focus on the demographic ageing factors. Using social activity diary data, models are estimated to predict the number of social trips, the travel distance and mode of transport for social trips. The results indicate that the elderly of today seem to be as mobile as their younger counterparts with respect to the number of social trips. High education and involvement in clubs on average result in more social trips and full time work is found to result in fewer social trips. With regard to trip distance the results show that the average travel distance does not decrease as people get older. Full time work is found to result in longer social trips. Shorter trips were found for people in urban as well as rural areas. Trips for the purpose of visiting or joint activities tend to be longer than average. With regard to transport mode choice the results indicate that older seniors (75+) are less likely to choose the bicycle, relative to driving. No other significant age effects were found. Significant effects were found for gender, household structure, education level, car ownership, having a disability, urban density, distance and the purpose of the social activity.     

Dynamic accessibility: Incorporating day-to-day travel time reliability into accessibility measurement

Travel times and hence accessibility in urban areas are susceptible to traffic disruption caused by events such as congestion, roadworks and traffic accidents. Being highly valued by travellers, travel time reliability affects their participation in activities and thus, plays a decisive role in accessibility. The aim of the study was to develop an approach to integrate travel time reliability into the measurement of accessibility. To achieve this, we extended a commonly-used accessibility indicator to include day-to-day variability in travel times. In a case study of the accessibility to the newly-built Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow, we used real-time travel times with high temporal resolution collected over a long period of time to demonstrate the applicability and the utility value of this approach compared to the standard accessibility measurement. Our results revealed that travel time reliability varied both temporally and spatially, and zones experienced relatively high levels of accessibility loss due to higher travel time variability. The proposed approach provides a more realistic representation of actual network performance, allows for assessing the effect of travel time reliability on accessibility throughout the day and will help transport planners to trace equity impacts on accessibility due to travel time unreliability.     

Disentangling the behavioural side of the first and last mile problem: the role of modality style and the built environment

The first and last mile (FLM) problem, namely the poor connection between trip origins or destination and public transport stations, is a significant obstacle to sustainable transportation as it is likely to encourage the use of cars for FLM travel, if not for the entire trip. This study examines the role of modality style and built environment in FLM mode choice behaviour, in order to identify the key features that might invoke a travel mode shift from cars to more sustainable travel options for both mandatory and discretionary trips. More specifically, this study draws on disaggregate data from the South East Queensland household travel survey and presents a latent class choice model to unravel modality style groups. Results reveal two distinct individual-level modality style groups: (1) driving and walking oriented; (2) multimodal travellers. Individuals in the second modality style group were found to be relatively inelastic to FLM travel time for mandatory trips, while individuals in the first group were largely unaffected by built environment characteristics and highly habitual in their mode choice behaviour for both mandatory and discretionary trips. Home residence environments with high road intersection density and public transport accessibility, and home residence environments with diverse land use mix, respectively encourage individuals within the second modality style to walk for mandatory trips, and discretionary trips. To this end, when place-based policies seek to change certain built environment features, individuals in the second modality style are more likely to shift their preference from cars to more sustainable modes. Finally, our findings have practical planning implications in targeting mode shift through highlighting the importance of considering the intersection of individual modality style in a given locale and mode choice behaviour. More specifically, our findings advocate for place-based policies that seek to target particular locales with the certain modality style deemed to be more predisposed to adopting a mode shift.     

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.     

The value and usage of ticket flexibility for short haul business travellers

Fully flexible business class and “full economy” airline tickets are aimed at meeting the needs of business travellers whose travel requirements may change after a ticket is purchased. The provision of these products has implications for airlines’ revenue management systems, which may lead to overbooking and denied boarding. Low-cost carriers have developed a method by which tickets can be changed only when required. This paper investigates the usage and value of ticket flexibility by business travellers as the popularity of high fare-fully flexible tickets has fallen in recent years. A survey of 284 business travellers showed that business travellers change their flight arrangements in only 32% of short haul trips. A stated preference study investigated the likelihood of respondents to change tickets in three hypothetical scenarios. The results indicate that to extend a business trip for business purposes travellers are confident that their company will bear the cost of changing a ticket valuing additional time at about £54 per hour but that the value of personal time when travelling is fairly low at £15 per hour. The study concludes that business travellers do not need to change their tickets often and that when they do, low-cost carriers offer a more cost-efficient method of providing ticket flexibility. This pay-for-usage approach to ticket flexibility undermines the traditional airlines’ pricing structures and this has contributed to the reduced, relative value of business class and full economy class tickets for short haul air travel.     

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.     

Exploring tertiary students' travel mode choices in Auckland: Insights and policy implications

It is crucial that policymakers and public transport operators comprehend tertiary students' travel mode choices and understand the factors that inform these choices in order to manage travel demands effectively and to optimise the use of public transport and improve its quality of service, particularly during the peak hours. This study aims to examine tertiary students' travel mode choices in Auckland, which is recognised as one of the most car-dependent cities in the world. The city is struggling with traffic congestion, particularly around its Central Business District (CBD) during peak hours. Auckland is New Zealand's largest city, with a population of 1.4 million residents. The main campuses of two major public universities, The University of Auckland (UoA) and Auckland University of Technology (AUT), are located in the CBD, attracting a large number of daily trips by both staff and students, particularly during the teaching semesters. However, there is a limited understanding of tertiary students' travel mode choices, particularly the factors that inform these choices when they travel to the universities' city campuses. A mixed methodology approach was used to comprehend the travel mode choices of students attending The University of Auckland and to identify the key factors that are drivers of these choices. The data collection included a questionnaire-based survey, which received 249 responses, and 10 semi-structured interviews with students. Thematic analysis was utilised to codify and then analyse the interviews. Despite the significant car dependency in Auckland, the survey demonstrated that most respondents utilised public transport and active modes when commuting to the university's city campus. Seven factors were identified that inform tertiary students' travel mode choices: cost, parking availability and cost, access to a car, travel time, physical environment, reliability, and attitudinal variables. The interviewees mostly argued that travel cost and lack of or limited access to a private car were the primary drivers of their travel mode choices. The study suggests that different stakeholders, such as Auckland Transport (AT) and The University of Auckland, should work collaboratively to provide an inclusive travel demand management policy. The university could rearrange classes for off-peak hours, and AT could offer tertiary students further discounts during these hours. These actions would result in the optimisation of public transport efficiency, improvement of the quality of the public transport service, and mitigation of traffic congestion around Auckland's Central Business District (CBD).     

Non‐travel by Hong Kong residents

The study examined non‐travel by Hong Kong residents. Cluster analysis was used to segment the non‐travelling population into five groups. Overall, two‐thirds of non‐travellers indicated that taking a pleasure trip each year is unimportant to them. Yet, when asked to identify barriers to travel, lack of interest is cited rarely. Instead, intrapersonal barriers were identified as the most critical barriers by elderly singles and couples with low incomes. Affordability, work and family commitments were identified by all other groups. Non‐travellers simply do not have the travel bug and often have to rely on socially acceptable barriers to rationalise their lack of interest. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The relationship between air travel behaviour and the key life stages of having children and entering retirement

The airline industry sets fares in the knowledge that market segments behave differently in response to pricing changes. Traditional market segments, typically split into business and leisure travellers, can be developed further through the examination of the influence that life stage exerts upon air travel choices, particularly for leisure trips. Life stage can be defined as a specific, optional event. The two key life stages of having children and entering retirement are examined in this paper in relation to individual air travel behaviour, in order to determine the primary characteristics of the associated market segments. The paper is based on a series of household air travel surveys and focus groups. Findings show the distinct characteristics of family air travel, such as higher air fare sensitivity, as well as in-group variations due to factors such as the age of the child (or children). Retirement is also shown to impact upon air travel, affecting individuals in different ways. Some in retirement take advantage of greater time availability and fly more frequently; others will cut back, say due to health problems. Aviation industry implications, both in terms of surface access to airports and regional airport provision, are also presented.     

Travel time use and its impact on high-speed-railway passengers' travel satisfaction in the e-society

The availability of wireless networks and the pervasive use of mobile ICT devices have allowed passengers to conduct various e-activities during journeys. These various e-activities, in turn, may change people's conventional perception of travel time from being “wasteful” and “unproductive,” to “desirable” and giving rise to satisfaction. Journeys on high-speed railway (HSR) is particularly relevant for transport researchers to probe into this question because of its characteristics of being medium to long-distance (typically taking half-an-hour or more), seat availability, and a smooth ride. Using a questionnaire survey on passengers along the Shanghai-Nanjing HSR route, this study aims to examine the nature of ICT device use and in-vehicle e-activities conducted by HSR passengers and the influence on their travel satisfaction with their on-board journey experience. Our results reveal a high percentage of ICT device use and a wide variety of e-activities such as e-working, e-communication, and e-reading for leisure on HSR trains. In addition, the higher use of ICT device was associated with an increase of passengers' travel satisfaction. Furthermore, we found a positive effect of work-related e-activities on travel satisfaction for business/work trips, while a positive effect of entertainment-related e-activities for non-business/work trips. Given that HSR is potentially a more sustainable transport mode, some possible policy implications are proposed to encourage people to use HSR, as opposed to driving or flying, for medium to long-distance intercity journeys.     

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.     

Using metro smart card data to model location choice of after-work activities: An application to Shanghai

A location choice model explains how travellers choose their trip destinations especially for those activities which are flexible in space and time. The model is usually estimated using travel survey data; however, little is known about how to use smart card data (SCD) for this purpose in a public transport network. Our study extracted trip information from SCD to model location choice of after-work activities. We newly defined the metrics of travel impedance in this case. Moreover, since socio-demographic information is missing in such anonymous data, we used observable proxy indicators, including commuting distance and the characteristics of one's home and workplace stations, to capture some interpersonal heterogeneity. Such heterogeneity is expected to distinguish the population and better explain the difference of their location choice behaviour. The approach was applied to metro travellers in the city of Shanghai, China. As a result, the model performs well in explaining the choices. Our new metrics of travel impedance to access an after-work activity result in a better model fit than the existing metrics and add additional interpretability to the results. Moreover, the proxy variables distinguishing the population seem to influence the choice behaviour and thus improve the model performance.     

Do rural older adults take fewer trips than their urban counterparts for lack of a ride?

Aging and the presence of one or more illnesses result in limited travel for many adults age 65 and over. Yet, the need to get to essential, social, and non-emergency medical destinations endures. At some point in their life, older adults become dependent on family/friends, or rely on for-profit/not-for-profit transportation services for their mobility needs, while some do not go on certain trips. Researchers have studied out-of-home activity and mobility of older adults using data on trips taken. There is a gap, however, in understanding trips not taken in the older adult population in rural versus urban locations. Our objectives in this paper are: (i) to investigate unmet travel needs of older adults by relying on responses for trips not taken; (ii) to examine how personal abilities, living situation, and socio-demographic factors are associated with trips not taken to various destinations; and (iii) to compare the likelihood of trips not taken due to lack of a ride in urban versus rural locations across the age and income spectrum. Our data come from a phone survey conducted across the province of Alberta, Canada, in 2017–18 (n = 1390). We specify ordinal logistic models where the dependent variable is how often a respondent did not undertake a trip due to not having a ride to various trip destinations. We find that rural seniors are more likely to not take trips compared to older adults in cities, holding all else equal including driving cessation, worsening health, and disability. Rural seniors who live alone or in low-density housing are also more likely to not take trips compared to urban older adults. Household income, however, tempers these location preferences. Our findings suggest that rural older adults can be supported through income transfers, community-based low-cost travel, and moving to higher-density residential locations.     

More than medical tourism: lessons from Indonesia and Malaysia on South–South intra-regional medical travel

While scholars increasingly acknowledge that most contemporary international medical travel comprises South–South flows, these have gone curiously unexamined. Rather, policy, scholarly and media attention focuses predominantly on North–South flows of ‘medical tourists’. However, this focus diverts attention from the actual and potential impacts of South–South intra-regional medical travel flows on both their source and receiving contexts. As such, we present findings from a study examining South–South intra-regional medical travellers' motivations, preparations and practices to better understand the social, economic and political situations that condition them and their effects on the destinations that receive them. Our study of Indonesian medical travellers pursuing health care in Malaysia draws on 35 semi-structured interviews with Indonesian patients, their companions, medical staff and agents in both countries. From this, we suggest that South–South medical travellers' diverse socio-economic conditions shape decision-making and spending behaviour relative to treatment, accommodation and transport choices as well as length of stay. We identify ways in which informal economies and social care networks sustain the formal medical travel industry. Finally, we observe how medical travel increasingly serves as a means through which chronic and everyday health needs are met through temporary, visa-free intra-regional movement.     

The desired quality of integrated multimodal travel information in public transport: Customer needs for time and effort savings

Travel information is one of the factors that contribute to the quality of public transport. In particular, integrated multimodal travel information (IMTI) is expected to affect customers’ modal choice. The objective of this research is to identify customers’ desired quality of IMTI provision in public transport. Customers’ desired IMTI quality can vary throughout the pre-trip, wayside and on-board stages of a journey. The main determinants are time savings (travel and search time) and effort savings (physical, cognitive, and affective effort). In a sample of Dutch travellers with a substantial share of young persons, the pre-trip stage turns out to be the favourite stage to collect IMTI when planning multimodal travel; desired IMTI types in this stage are used to plan the part of the journey that is made by public transport. Wayside IMTI is most desired when it helps the traveller to catch the right vehicle en route. On-board travellers are most concerned about timely arrival at interchanges in order to catch connecting modes. In the whole travel process, travel time is the most important saving. Apart from that, pre-trip search time savings are also desired, while en route affective effort is more important than cognitive effort.     

A new approach to travel information sources and travel behaviour based on cognitive dissonance theory

This study examines the influences of en route information on travel behaviours, based on cognitive dissonance theory, which explains that selective exposure to new information leads to the presence of dissonance. Fifteen travel activities were identified from the related literature to measure levels of unplanned travel behaviours. Moreover, two types of information sources used during trips were tested to evaluate the degree of dissonance in accordance with new information provided to travellers while on vacation. The results indicated that during trips, those who use information technology change their intended behaviours, while those who use ‘traditional’ information sources actualize their intended behaviours. In line with cognitive dissonance theory, information technology is viewed as dissonance-increasing information, while traditional information sources used during trips are considered consonance-increasing information.     

Time-space convergence and urban decentralisation

The phenomenon of time-space convergence (or compression) has been considered to be associated with the technological advances that have shortened our travel time. Advances in transport technology have gradually diminished travel times, and this process has been discussed in the context of international- or national-level transport changes. This paper investigates the changing relationship between space and time at the urban level. The changing relationship between commuting time and distance in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA) is empirically analysed by using the 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2005 two-percent sample data of the Korean Census of Population and Housing. The study results empirically demonstrate the close relationship between the urban decentralisation process and the time-space convergence phenomenon. The key findings of this research are that commuting time per distance unit in the SMA shortened over the 15 years of the study period, and this improvement was greater for longer journeys than for shorter trips. The empirical evidence of this research shows that workers have migrated to faster commuting modes such as car and subway and away from slower modes such as buses, so that commuting time has decreased or remained constant even as commuting distance in the SMA has increased.