School travel mode choice in Beijing,China

This study explores school travel mode choice behavior of 7–18 year-old students in Beijing, China, based on the data collected in Fifth Travel Survey of Beijing Inhabitants. The integration of tree-based and logit-based models is employed to examine the influence of key variables on school travel mode choice. In particular, the tree-based model is used to preliminarily select the traits which have a statistical effect on mode choice, and the logit-based model is used to provide deeper understanding of the underlying decision processes and the correlation effects of the variables. Results show that car ownership, poor walking/cycling environment, and adults' convenience for escorting students significantly stimulate the use of cars in school commuting. Students are more inclined to choose cars when their departure time is at rush hour compared to the other time. Moreover, the longer distance encourages the use of motorized transport, where the households with local hukou (usually related to the car ownership and other welfares) are more willing to drive their children to school. A number of recommendations on car restraint, sustainable travel environment improvement, different working hour implementing, and educational resources layout for the encouragement and promotion of sustainable travel practices are lastly proposed.     

Indexing the contribution of household travel behaviour to sustainability

This paper describes the application of a robust policy relevant methodology for the assessment of travel behaviour in terms of a household sustainability index (HSI). Results from a survey of 1000 households in the Belfast (The capital city of Northern Ireland.) City Region (radius of 50 km) show that householders fail to reconcile their lifestyle and travel patterns with sustainability and moreover the popular trend for the provision of homes in suburbanised settlements is counterproductive in terms of sustainability. From a travel behaviour perspective, brownfield sites are shown to be more sustainable than suburbanised settlements and that suburbanisation in general is prejudicial to sustainable travel albeit that established residents behave more sustainably than their newcomer counterparts.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Ex-post environmental and traffic assessment of a speed reduction strategy in Madrid's inner ring-road

Since urban traffic is a major source of CO₂ and NO_x emissions, cities play a key role averting climate change and combating air pollution. Most researchers agree on the need of designing comprehensive mitigation strategies instead of applying isolated measures. Nevertheless, it is important to understand the specific impact and scope of each measure to look for the most effective synergies among them. In 2004, the Madrid City Council launched a plan to re-design its inner ring-road to move traffic out of the city centre. For safety reasons the planned speed limit for the full-renovated South-West section was finally reduced from 90 km/h to 70 km/h. Besides contributing to traffic safety, this strategy could also be seen as positive to the environment due to the associated reduced fuel consumption and lower emissions. However, lower speed limits have lower rates of community acceptance due to its impact on average travel times at the individual level. This paper conducts an ex-post evaluation of this speed reduction strategy to explore its environmental and traffic performance impacts. The results support the thesis that, in this velocity range, lower speed limits present important opportunities for reducing GHG and air pollution in the section affected by the measure, without substantially altering traffic performance. The implementation of the new speed limit policy produces a 14.4% and 16.4% reduction in CO₂ and NO_x emissions respectively, while global travel time remains virtually constant and the saturation rate decreases slightly. Besides, this cost-effective measure reveals great potential to reduce air pollution in highly populated urban areas located next to urban highways. This work provides local policy makers and city managers with useful insights regarding potential co-benefits of traffic optimization and speed reduction management to reduce mobile source emissions in urban environments.     

Spatial and socio-demographic determinants of South East Queensland students’ school cycling

The low prevalence of Australian students’ utilitarian school cycling could be attributed to the varied and context specific demographic, socio-economic and spatial school travel mode choice determinants. Travel distance is universally important for school cycling and is reliant amongst related home and school spatial proximity factors on a student’s choice of schools. This paper, primarily based on school students’ travel data extracted from the 2009 South East Queensland Household Travel Survey (SEQHTS), examines comparative school cycling travel patterns, school catchment choices and the significant analytical determinants of cycling mode choices from within an urban regional Australian context. Students’ choice of a school external to that located within their designated State school catchment zone was associated with household attributes of parent/guardian employment location, number of income earners and ownership of private vehicles coupled with State school and catchment attributes. Noteworthy variations in school travel distances and modal splits were allied with school catchment choices. Adolescent male students from two parent households owning fewer than two cars and more than two bicycles, with parents/guardians commuting using non-motorised travel modes and resident in Census Collection Districts with conducive cycling environments, contributed largely to the one-way bi-directional primary and secondary school cycling mode shares. This prevalent student cyclist profile indicates the need for enhancements in student school cycling participation, through policies addressing both the spatial (built) and social environment which impact students’ personal and traffic safety coupled with utilitarian cycling image enhancements. Concerted efforts to bolster cycling amongst student segments with current low cycling participation inclusive of females, students from single parent households and those with adequate access to private motorised travel modes may be necessary to further enhance school cycling mode shares. The paper makes a case for individualised targeted travel interventions informed by segregated mode choice determinant analysis for respective primary and secondary school types and directions of school travel.     

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.     

School site walkability and active school transport – association,mediation and moderation

Increasing active school transport (AST) can improve population health, but its association with the urban form is not fully clear. This study investigated the association of an objective school walkability index with AST and how this association is mediated by the perceived physical and social environment. 1250 Danish students aged 11–13 years completed a commuting diary and a questionnaire. The walkability index was constituted of measures of road connectivity, traffic exposure and residential density. AST’s share in all school trips was 85.4% with little difference between genders. The school walkability index was significantly associated with AST (Medium vs. Low OR 2.68; High vs. Low OR 2.49). Adding the perceived physical and social environment variables improved the model prediction of AST, with no change in the association with the school walkability index. Furthermore, distance to school significantly moderated the association between the school walkability index and AST. This research confirms the association between the urban form surrounding schools and AST. Medium and highly walkable school sites in combination with a distance to school below 2 km, no speeding traffic and many paths in the neighborhood was associated with the highest odds ratio for AST.     

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.     

Commuting efficiency in the Beijing metropolitan area: an exploration combining smartcard and travel survey data

Using Beijing as an example, this research demonstrates that smartcard data can be used to (a) assemble the required data for excess commuting studies, and (b) visualise related results. Based on both smartcard and household travel survey data, we find that the theoretical minimum commute is considerably lower for bus users than for car users in Beijing. This suggests that there is a greater inter-mixing of jobs–housing functions (i.e., a better jobs–housing balance) associated with users of that mode compared to the corresponding land-use arrangement for car users, who locate further from the central area (Tian’anmen) than bus users. The commuting range for car users is 9.4 km greater than for bus users. Excess commuting is slightly higher for bus users (69.5%) than for car users (68.8%). Commuting capacity values are slightly lower for car users than for bus users, implying that car users consume less of their available commuting resources overall than bus users, albeit only marginally.     

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.     

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.     

Ride-sourcing compared to its public-transit alternative using big trip data

Ride-sourcing risks increasing GHG emissions by replacing public transit (PT) for some trips therefore, understanding the relation of ride-sourcing to PT in urban mobility is crucial. This study explores the competition between ride-sourcing and PT through the lens of big data analysis. This research uses 4.3 million ride-sourcing trip records collected from Chengdu, China over a month, dividing these into two categories, transit-competing (48.2%) and non-transit-competing (51.8%). Here, a ride-sourcing trip is labelled transit-competing if and only if it occurs during the day and there is a PT alternative such that the walking distance associated with it is less than 800 m for access and egress alike. We construct a glass-box model to characterise the two ride-sourcing trip categories based on trip attributes and the built environment from the enriched trip data. This study provides a good overview of not only the main factors affecting the relationship between ride-sourcing and PT, but also the interactions between those factors. The built environment, as characterised by points of interest (POIs) and transit-stop density, is the most important aspect followed by travel time, number of transfers, weather, and a series of interactions between them. Competition is more likely to arise if: (1) the travel time by ride-sourcing <15 min or the travel time by PT is disproportionately longer than ride-sourcing; (2) the PT alternative requires multiple transfers, especially for the trips happening within the transition area between the central city and the outskirts; (3) the weather is good; (4) land use is high-density and high-diversity; (5) transit access is good, especially for the areas featuring a large number of business and much real estate. Based on the main findings, we discuss a few recommendations for transport planning and policymaking.     

Exploring heterogeneity in travel time expenditure of aging populations in the Netherlands: results of a CHAID analysis

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the increasing literature on travel behavior and time use of the elderly. The Dutch National Travel Survey, administered in 2009, was used as a data source. First, various facets of activity-travel patterns of the elderly were compared against overall sample averages. Results indicate that the new generation of elderly people do not differ that much from other age groups in terms of their activity-travel behavior. Differences in behavior can be largely understood in terms of constraints acting on agendas. Moreover, travel patterns of elderly are affected by socio-demographic variables. Second, to further qualify the average findings, the Chi-square automatic interaction detection (CHAID) method was applied to explore heterogeneity among the elderly in terms of travel time expenditure. It is analyzed how differences in travel time co-vary with socio-demographics, in addition to activity type, activity duration and travel aspects. The results suggest that the aging population can be systematically broken down into several homogeneous cohort segments. Travel time of elderly groups depends significantly on transport modes, travel motivation, and seven socio-demographic variables (gender, age, living environment, personal net-income, household size and season). Moreover, there is less heterogeneity in travel time of elderly who are older than 75 years old. However, for younger elderly people, especially the group aged from 65 to 74 years old, heterogeneity affects their travel.     

Individuals' social preferences in joint activity location choice: A negotiation model and empirical evidence

Out-of-home leisure activities are often conducted jointly by individuals implying that location and travel choices made for these activities are the result of a group interaction. Current utility-theoretic approaches assume an aggregated group utility function and hence ignore aspects of the group decision making process. In this study, an empirical model of joint-activity choice is developed that, in contrast, assumes a negotiation process. A social utility function describes how individuals deal with preference differences in the group. The model is estimated based on an experimental activity-travel choice task where group settings are mimicked. A sample (N = 315) from a national panel of individuals participated in the experiment. Estimation results based on a discrete mixture model show that individuals display a preference for locations in which losses are equally distributed in the group even when this comes at the costs of the total group outcome. Results further show that the social utility function is asymmetric: compromise solutions are favored more strongly when consequences relate to costs (travel costs) than when they concern rewards (attractiveness). Furthermore, there is considerable heterogeneity in how people make social trade-offs. It is concluded that the model offers new insights in location preferences for joint activities that should be taken into account in spatial choice models and accessibility analysis.     

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.     

Design speeds and acceleration characteristics of bicycle traffic for use in planning,design and appraisal

This paper reports the results of a study of a cohort of cyclists to determine their speed and acceleration characteristics relative to gradient and other influencing factors in order to supply data for planners, designers and appraisers of cycle infrastructure schemes. A cohort of everyday cyclists was supplied with a global positioning system device and a heart rate monitor and asked to collect data from their journeys in Leeds, UK.The analysis determines the cyclists’ speeds and accelerations at every point on their journey and elevation data, corroborated by mapping information, was used to determine the gradient. Two linear regression models of speed and acceleration were estimated and show that the influence of a downhill gradient on speed is less pronounced than the effect of an uphill gradient. The results indicate an eighty-fifth percentile speed on the flat of 22 kph, and for a downhill gradient of 3%, 25 kph. The power required to cycle has been estimated and shows that cyclists deliver around 150 W on the flat, but that this rises to around 250 W climbing hills. Mean acceleration on the flat is 0.231 m/s² and the average power output over the acceleration phase, which is of mean duration 26 s, is approximately 120 W. Air resistance accounts for approximately 70% of the resistive force when cycling at design speed.It is recommended that designers adopt 25 kph as a design speed for gradients less than 3%, but that consideration should be given to design speeds of up to 35 kph for steeper gradients. Free-flow speeds in this range should be used when modelling mode and route choices and in benefit appraisal.     

New method to estimate local and system-wide effects of level rail crossings on network traffic flow

This paper makes local and aggregate estimates of the effects of 152 level crossings in the Melbourne metropolitan area, Australia on traffic congestion in the morning peak period (7 am–9 am). A new method, including micro-simulation of a range of rail crossing configurations, is used to inform a network model which makes aggregate estimates of impacts on all traffic.Relationships between train frequency and percentage change in vehicle travel time and volume were identified. These equations can predict change in travel time/traffic flow caused by rail level crossings based on rail crossing closures and train frequency.Overall, Melbourne's level crossings result in an average increase in travel time of 16.1% for vehicle traffic on links with a level crossing. However on average a level crossing reduces the volume of vehicles on these links by 5.9% as a result of traffic diversion. These values are higher in middle suburbs where train arrivals and crossing closure times at level crossings are more frequent.The aggregate effect of all 152 level rail crossings on all traffic in Melbourne is a travel time change from 1.81 to 1.82 min/km (an increase of around 0.3%). The number of congested links in Melbourne increases by 0.9% while the total delay increases by 0.7%. These network wide effects are not large compared to localised effects because road links affected directly by crossings represent a very small part of the overall network. Additionally, network effects also include traffic diversion impacts which will counteract some of the immediate impacts on a localised scale. However, it is significant that the very small element of the system can have even a measurable effect on aggregate traffic congestion.     

Life events and mobility milestones: Advances in mobility biography theory and research

The concept of mobility biographies has recently gained considerable currency in social-scientific transport research, reflecting increasing awareness of the long-term development of mobility practices. To complement existing work on the effects of major life events on mobility practices, we introduce the novel concept of ‘mobility milestones’, that is, mobility-related events across the life course that show a very high dependence on (infra)structural factors. Overall, the paper explicitly recognises the centrality of interactions between structural factors and human agency, thereby moving beyond a sole focus on individual travel behaviour.Initially, this paper reviews social and interdisciplinary research on mobility biographies, especially studies that use retrospective survey methodologies. Building on this review, we present an innovative online survey tool that has been deployed on the island of Ireland (n = 324) to record changes in individuals' mobility biographies and their connections with both life events and mobility milestones. This is followed by a discussion of key findings regarding the impact of starting college, residential relocation and changing employment, as well as buying a car or bicycle or getting a driving licence on individuals' modal choice.