Profiling tourists' use of public transport through smart travel card data

Data collected through smart travel cards in public transport networks have become a valuable source of information for transport geography studies. During the last two decades, a growing body of literature has used this sort of data source to study the behaviour of public transport users in cities and regions around the world. However, its use has been scarce in contexts where public transport demand is highly influenced by the activities of the tourist sector. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether these data can be leveraged to optimize the supply of public transport. In this article, data drawn from the Camp de Tarragona automated fare collection system extracted during 2018 are used to study tourists' use of public transport in Costa Daurada (Catalonia, Spain). This is a popular coastal destination with a high concentration of visitors during the summer period. The analysis focuses on the use of the T-10, a multipersonal transport fare with no time limitations on its use which makes it appealing for tourists. Model-based clustering has been applied to identify different clusters of passengers according to their activity and spatial profiles. Differences between profiles are significant and, as a result, this study allowed the validation of a method that could be replicated in other contexts, as it provides highly useful information for public transport policy and mobility management.     

Understanding accessibility through public transport users' experiences: A mixed methods approach

The quantitative measurement of accessibility through public transport has become more complex and accurate over time. However, it lacks many of the deeper nuances of how people actually experience their travel environments. Our previous works have highlighted the importance of incorporating the lived travel experiences of passengers within accessibility indicators, considering the quality of the walking environment and different attributes of the public transport services.Building on these works, this mixed-method research seeks to further improve the characterization of accessibility according to users' travel experiences, as described by those attributes that inhibit or enhance access to opportunities within the city. We use content analysis of focus groups, data gathered in a brief survey and sociodemographic and public transport data for our analyses. Our main contributions are (i) to develop a conceptual framework to analyze qualitative data on how people relate and discuss their public transport accessibility experiences and (ii) to develop accessibility indicators differentiating user perceptions. We apply this novel conceptual framework and methods to the unique urban morphology of two municipalities of Santiago de Chile.We identified different ‘socially constructed’ narratives for buses and metro. The participants focused on barriers to accessibility, showing an important relationship between them, as well as substantial differences in their overarching positive perception of metro and negative for buses. However, when disaggregating the analysis by primary transport mode and location, we found ‘hidden’ values for buses, recognizing its capillarity and underlying connectivity with the metro system. Furthermore, we found a dissimilar perception of transport environments when disaggregating the analysis by gender, age and location, which translated into different accessibility profiles for the various public transport users. From these experiential qualitative perspectives, it was thus possible to determine some attributes that had been previously overlooked in more quantitative studies but which are important when analyzing public transport accessibility for different population groups.     

Evaluating voluntary travel behaviour change: Suggested guidelines and case studies

Since the late 1990s, voluntary travel behaviour change (VTBC) has been an increasingly popular strategy in Australia, applied to reduce both reliance on the car and greenhouse gas emissions. Early efforts to evaluate the impact of this strategy were generally implemented by the agency that also implemented the policy and used small sample, self-report surveys. The paper starts out by discussing the nature and size of travel behaviour changes that are frequently expected in current policy, noting that these are often smaller than the sampling and measurement errors in traditional methods of measuring travel behaviour. The paper then discusses some alternative methods of evaluating voluntary travel behaviour change implementations using panels to reduce sampling error, and using a combination of personal Global Positioning System devices and odometer reading surveys to measure travel patterns. From these considerations, a number of guidelines are suggested for what is required to evaluate voluntary travel behaviour change. The paper describes three recent case studies in Australia in which such methods have been used and evaluates the methodological approaches used in these studies against the suggested guidelines.     

Evaluation of voluntary travel behaviour change: Experiences from three continents

The past 20 years has seen a rapid growth across the world in the number, range and scale of voluntary travel behaviour change (VTBC) initiatives. These so-called ‘soft’ measures have challenged the assumption that modal shift is only possible through ‘hard’ system-based measures, or through regulation. Among the most high-profile VTBC initiatives is a household-based behaviour change technique known as Individualised Travel Marketing. This dialogue marketing approach was developed by Socialdata (under the brand name IndiMark^®) in response to its own research suggesting that a lack of information and motivation, and incorrect perceptions of the alternatives to the car, were significant barriers to modal shift. IndiMark has been applied in more than 100 pilot and nearly 150 large-scale projects, targeting a total of more than three million people on three continents. A key factor in this widespread take up has been the consistent use of a detailed evaluation design, employing travel behaviour surveys before and after the IndiMark intervention, using Socialdata's KONTIV^® survey method. This well-established design uses a self-administered, mail-back questionnaire, coupled with motivation by post and telephone to encourage high response rates (typically between 60% and 80%) helping to provide reliable data on mobility behaviour. This paper reviews the development of the IndiMark technique and the key features of its evaluation using the KONTIV^® survey method. It draws on this experience to address key challenges in the evaluation of VTBC initiatives, and to identify the common threads of an integrated approach which might strengthen the case for all soft measures.     

Exploring the impact of public transport strikes on travel behavior and traffic congestion

Public transport (PT) disruption can occur due to various factors such as malfunctions and breakdowns of vehicles, power outages, and personnel strikes. This paper explores the network-wide impacts of PT strikes (train, tram, and bus strikes) on traffic congestion in Melbourne, Australia using a network modeling approach. A primary survey aimed to investigate the mode shift of users when each public transport mode ceases was conducted with 648 public transport users in May 2016. Findings show that train withdrawal was expected to result in 43% of users shifting to car. Smaller yet significant shifts to car was also expected with bus withdrawal (34%) and tram withdrawal (17%). Based on the survey results and the use of a four-step transport model, train withdrawal was expected to increase the number of severely congested road links by 130% and reduce the average travel speed from 48 km/h to 39 km/h (20% decrease). Bus and tram withdrawal was also found to increase congestion although the result was less severe. Future research should investigate the switching behavior in actual withdrawal events and explore the long-term effects of public transport withdrawal.     

The travel behaviour intentions of young people in the context of climate change

This article examines the factors influencing the future travel behaviour intentions of young people (aged 11–18), with specific attention given to how climate change considerations affect these. Overall it is found that the participants’ travel behaviour intentions are dominated by a desire to drive and that their values relating to identity, self-image, and social recognition (at the expense of their environmental values), as well as their affective attitudes towards transport modes, are key influences on this. Although they are aware of climate change, the participants’ understanding of the link between transport and climate change was weak. At the same time, they illustrated an apathy towards climate change – in part due to the timing and intangibility of its associated impacts and their lack of self-efficacy with respect to tackling this issue. However, despite claiming that their current environmentally friendly travel behaviours (such as walking or cycling to school) are not influenced by the issue of climate change, a number are accepting of the idea of enforced travel behaviour change – away from use of the car, towards more ‘environmentally friendly’ modes. This acceptance was in part due to their belief that such action would remove the influence of the ‘social dilemma’, where their own efforts to tackle climate change may be rendered worthless by the inaction of others.     

Understanding attitudes towards public transport and private car: A qualitative study

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study of public transport users and car users in order to obtain a deeper understanding of travellers’ attitudes towards transport and to explore perceptions of public transport service quality. The key findings indicate that in order to increase public transport usage, the service should be designed in a way that accommodates the levels of service required by customers and by doing so, attract potential users. Furthermore, the choice of transport is influenced by several factors, such as individual characteristics and lifestyle, the type of journey, the perceived service performance of each transport mode and situational variables. This suggests the need for segmentation taking into account travel attitudes and behaviours. Policies which aim to influence car usage should be targeted at the market segments that are most motivated to change and willing to reduce frequency of car use.     

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.     

The effect of aesthetic-image value of travel expert blogs on the intention to travel: an exploratory study

Information searching is an important subject in tourism literature, but the subject of information is not often prioritised in leisure-constraint studies. Studies of leisure-constraint-negotiation mechanisms are frequently undertaken at a general level and not at the level of specific-negotiation strategy. This exploratory study examines how aesthetic-image information value affects the negotiation mechanism at the level of time-management-negotiation strategy by measuring the intentions of Taiwanese residents to tour Thailand. Aesthetic-image value is found to moderate the relationship between motivation and intention in the negotiation process. This study thus bridges tourism information values and the leisure-constraint concept.     

The end of travel time matrices: Individual travel times in integrated land use/transport models

To reduce inaccuracies due to insufficient spatial resolution of models, it has been suggested to use smaller raster cells instead of larger zones. Increasing the number of zones, however, increases the size of a matrix to store travel times, called skim tables in transport modeling. Those become difficult to create, to store and to read, while most of the origin-destination pairs are calculated and stored but never used. At the same time, such approaches do not solve inaccuracies due to lack of temporal resolution. This paper analyzes the use of personalized travel times at the finest spatial resolution possible (at x/y coordinates) and a detailed temporal resolution for synthetic agents. The approach is tested in the context of an existing integrated land use/transport model (ILUT) where travel times affect, among others, household relocation decisions. In this paper, person-level individual travel times are compared to traditional skim-based travel times to identify the extent of errors caused by spatial and temporal aggregation and how they affect relocation decisions in the model. It was shown that skim-based travel times fail to capture the spatial and temporal variations of travel times available at a microscopic scale of an agent-based ILUT model. Skims may provide acceptable averages for car travel times if a dense network and small zones are used. Transit travel times, however, suffer from temporal and spatial aggregation of skims. When analyzing travel-time-dependent relocation decisions in the land use model, transit captive households tend to react more sensitively to the transit level of service when individual travel times are used. The findings add to the existing literature a quantification of spatial biases in ILUT models and present a novel approach to overcome them. The presented methodology eliminates the impact of the chosen zone system on model results, and thereby, avoids biases caused by the modifiable spatial unit problem.     

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.     

Job accessibility through public transport and unemployment in Latin America: The case of Montevideo (Uruguay)

Accessibility to job opportunities is one of the factors that explains labor outcomes. For developing countries, public transport plays a key role in providing the population with access to employment opportunities. This paper aims to quantify accessibility by public transport to employment in Montevideo, Uruguay and to explore how accessibility to job opportunities via public transport relates to unemployment. To do so, we calculate a cumulative measure of accessibility to job opportunities for 1063 small zones—approximately 4–6 blocks each—within Montevideo. This measure yields accurate data on accessibility and can be assigned to individual households. Accessibility in Montevideo is unevenly distributed among social strata and is concentrated within the central (and wealthier) areas of the city. In addition, a multilevel logistic regression analysis indicates that greater accessibility to jobs via public transport is associated with a lower probability of being unemployed. This finding suggests that improving accessibility to job opportunities via public transit may enhance individual labor outcomes.     

Robust accessibility: Measuring accessibility based on travelers' heterogeneous strategies for managing travel time uncertainty

Uncertainties in travel times due to traffic congestion and delay are risks for drivers and public transit users. To avoid undesired consequences such as losing jobs or missing medical appointments, people can manage the risks of missing on-time arrivals to destinations using different strategies, including leaving earlier to create a safety margin and choosing routes that have more reliable rather than fastest travel times. This research develops a general analytical framework for measuring accessibility considering automobile or public transit travelers' heterogeneous strategies for dealing with travel time uncertainty. To represent different safety margin plans, we use effective travel time (expected time + safety margin), given specified on-time arrival probabilities. Heterogeneity in routing strategy is addressed using different Pareto-optimal routes with two main criteria: faster travel time vs. higher reliability. Based on various safety margin and routing strategy combinations, we examine how accessibility changes under varying safety margin plans and routing strategies. Also, we define and measure robust accessibility: geographic regions that are accessible regardless of the safety margin planning and routing strategy. Robust accessibility can provide a conservative and reasonable view of accessibility under travel time uncertainty. To demonstrate the applicability of the methods, we carry out an empirical study on measuring the impacts of new transit service on healthcare accessibility in a deprived neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio, USA.     

The travel cost method and the economic value of leisure time

Recent estimates of high values for tourist related recreation USA amenity values indicate that allocation of basic water and terrestrial resources to recreation activities should be given precedence over conventional market oriented activities that often degrade or even extirpate the resource. We discuss at length the travel cost method (TCM), a survey based technique that quantifies the non‐market benefits of trips to recreation sites. The TCM has been cast in the role of an ‘umpire’ in recent resource allocation debates. Understanding the key role of the TCM in the debate will aid tourist agency officials throughout the world. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the U.S.A.     

The governance of transport and climate change

Climate change is one of the key global policy issues of our time. Transport is the sector from which it has been hardest to cut emissions and, to make substantial progress in the future, action will be required at all levels of government from international to local. The governance of transport within this already challenging arena is further complicated by the existence of different structures for the management of transport modes and variations in formal governance structures across countries and regions.This paper examines the prospect for deep cuts in CO₂ emissions from transport through an examination of the key policy levers for change and considering the governance issues that surround them. The focus of the paper is the United Kingdom, and in particular England and Scotland. The UK is the first country to have a legally binding internal obligation to meet carbon dioxide reduction targets and this has prompted significant activity in both governance institutions and delivery. The research uses a multi-level governance framework to understand the policy environment in England and Scotland, capturing both the range of spatial actors and the influence of sectoral actors in what is a complex polity.It is concluded that the policy approach currently appears constrained by a desire to divide accountability by formal institutional structures, thus failing to tackle the dispersed nature of travel and the national and international nature of businesses. There is currently a lack of clarity about the tiering of responsibilities between spatial levels and there is therefore a comparative lack of commitment to the potential for demand management and travel reduction strategies to contribute to carbon reduction. Carbon reduction policies are also influenced by strong industry lobbies whose goals may not be fully aligned with carbon reduction strategies. The profusion of actors engaged in climate change policy seems to dilute rather than promote effective policy making.     

Cruise travel motivations and repeat cruising behaviour: impact of relationship investment

Passenger retention is undoubtedly one of the major challenges for cruise lines. Given that little is known about passengers’ post-purchase behaviour in the luxury cruise sector, this study addressed this omission by empirically verifying the imperative role of motivations, values, image, desire, and relationship investment in generating repeat cruising intentions. The proposed conceptual framework comprising these triggers was in general supported. In addition, its prediction ability for repurchase decision was sufficient. Specifically, our empirical findings demonstrated the adequacy of the higher order structure of cruise travel motivations that considerably increase hedonic and utilitarian values. Our results further identified the comparative importance of overall company image in determining intention. The mediating role of the study variables was also found. Lastly, the results of the metric-invariance model assessment revealed that relationship investment significantly moderated the value–image–desire linkages. Implications for tourism academics and cruise practitioners and future research directions are discussed.     

COVID-19 and its long-term effects on activity participation and travel behaviour: A multiperspective view

This paper discusses possible long-term effects of COVID-19 on activity-travel behaviour. Making use of theories and concepts from economics, psychology, sociology, and geography, this work argues that lasting effects can be expected, and specifically that peak demand among car and public transport users may be lower than if the pandemic would never have happened. The magnitude of such effects at the aggregate level in terms of the total travel time of all inhabitants of a country or state is likely limited. Such lasting effects imply that additional infrastructure extensions to reduce congestion on roads and crowding in public transport might have a lower benefit-cost ratio than would be the case without these impacts. The paper discusses avenues for future research, including work on the role of attitude changes, the formation of new habitual behaviour, new social norms and practices, well-being effects, and the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).     

Joint estimation of mode and time of day choice accounting for arrival time flexibility,travel time reliability and crowding on public transport

This study develops joint choice models of mode and departure time for implementation in MetroScan, a new version of TRESIS (Hensher and Ton, 2002). Separate models are estimated for work and non-work purposes, testing all practical alternatives of model structure with a rich set of explanatory variables. The contributions of the current work to the existing TRESIS are twofold. First, travel demand for non-work purposes such as shopping, social and recreation are explicitly modelled in MetroScan as opposed to TRESIS that scales the demand for work purposes to obtain non-work travel demand. Second, choices of travel mode and departure time become more sensitive to situational factors such as the flexibility of arrival time, the reliability of travel time and crowding. Willingness to pay for various improvements to the level of service is derived. We describe and demonstrate how the proposed models are applied in the general modelling framework of MetroScan.