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.     

Processing passengers efficiently: An analysis of airport processing times for international passengers

With immense and growing pressure on stakeholders in international airport terminals to process passengers faster than previously, there is a great benefit to understanding which factors affect passenger processing times and in which situations. In addition, storing and analysing the collected data in batch is itself a difficult and time consuming task that could be made much simpler with sequential analysis. We aim to present a method for airport managers to discover which variables are important to understanding passenger processing times and identifying problematic passenger profiles without the need for high computational capacity and full historical datasets.In this paper we introduce Bayesian hierarchical models as a method of sequentially processing data, reducing computation time and obviating storage of large amounts of raw data. We use a range of exploratory models to identify which variables are important to predicting passenger processing time using a dataset from a day of operations at an international airport terminal, then compare a range of regression models. A Bayesian hierarchical regression model based on the model of best fit discovered through exploration is then applied to two subsets of data. We demonstrate that sequential updating based on daily data achieves similar results to batch processing based on full historical datasets and can therefore be used as an alternative in appropriate circumstances. Using the presented models, we find that the airline operating a flight is the most important variable to determining passenger processing time, followed by each passenger's age, sex and nationality. We demonstrate that in our dataset, the passenger profiles correlated with higher mean processing times overall were not the same as those passengers most problematic for meeting processing time targets.     

Exploring travel patterns and trip purposes of dockless bike-sharing by analyzing massive bike-sharing data in Shanghai,China

In recent years, dockless bike-sharing has rapidly emerged in many cities all over the world, which provides a flexible tool for short-distance trips and interchange between different modes of transport. However, new problems have arisen with the fast and extensive development of the dockless bike-sharing system, such as high running expenses, ineffective bike repositioning, parking problems and so on. To improve the operations of the dockless bike-sharing system, this study aims to investigate the travel pattern and trip purpose of the bike-sharing users by combining bike-sharing data and points of interest (POIs). A massive amount of bike-sharing trips was obtained from the Mobike company, which is a bike-sharing operator in China. The POIs surrounding each trip origin and destination were derived from the Gaode Map application programming interface. K-means++ clustering was adopted to investigate dockless bike-sharing travel patterns and trip purpose based on trip records and their surrounding POIs. The clustering results show that on weekdays, bike-sharing trip origin and destination can be divided into five typical groups, i.e., dining, transportation, shopping, work and residential places. Dining is the most popular trip purpose by bike-sharing, followed by the transferring to other transportation modes and shopping. In addition, through understanding the spatial distribution of the bike-sharing usage patterns of five typical activities, strategies for improving the operation of the dockless bike-sharing system are provided.     

Incorporating annoyance in airport environmental policy: noise, societal response and community participation

Airport capacity continues to be one of the air transport issues that creates the most concern. The major environmental constraint for airports is the noise generated by aircraft. Annoyed communities living around airports have become a limiting factor for airport capacity and operability. This paper brings together the existing literature in the fields of airport environmental capacity, non-acoustic factors of noise annoyance, NIMBYism and environmental conflicts. We also analyze the socio-environmental conflict between Barcelona airport and the community of Gavà Mar. This case shows that the lack of trust between parties, the impossibility of predicting noise exposure, the absence of opportunities for civil society to speak and the difficulty of accessing relevant information foster annoyance and mobilization in the communities that live around the airport. In addition, it is shown that, in such a situation, communities’ reactions can evolve to a post-NIMBY stage in which proactive attitudes replace reactive ones.     

An exploratory analysis of relationships between socioeconomic,land use,activity participation variables and travel patterns

This paper aims to find relations between the socioeconomic characteristics, activity participation, land use patterns and travel behavior of the residents in the São Paulo Metropolitan Area (SPMA) by using Exploratory Multivariate Data Analysis (EMDA) techniques. The variables influencing travel pattern choices are investigated using: (a) Cluster Analysis (CA), grouping and characterizing the Traffic Zones (TZ), proposing the independent variable called Origin Cluster and, (b) Decision Tree (DT) to find a priori unknown relations among socioeconomic characteristics, land use attributes of the origin TZ and destination choices. The analysis was based on the origin–destination home-interview survey carried out in SPMA in 1997. The DT application revealed the variables of greatest influence on the travel pattern choice. The most important independent variable considered by DT is car ownership, followed by the Use of Transportation “credits” for Transit tariff, and, finally, activity participation variables and Origin Cluster. With these results, it was possible to analyze the influence of a family income, car ownership, position of the individual in the family, use of transportation “credits” for transit tariff (mainly for travel mode sequence choice), activities participation (activity sequence choice) and Origin Cluster (destination/travel distance choice).     

Safety and travel time in cost-benefit analysis: A sensitivity analysis for North Rhine-Westphalia

Decisions on large-scale infrastructure concepts are frequently based on cost benefit analysis (CBA). Using 431 road projects evaluated in the integrated transport planning process in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany (IGVP NRW) this paper examines the evaluation dimensions traffic safety (fatalities) and travel time in private passenger transport. The unit values of traffic fatalities and travel time are varied, and the effects of the variations on the rank order of the projects are examined. Target conflicts between safety and travel time are studied as well as the contribution of these two dimensions to the total benefit values. The sensitivity analysis shows that the evaluation results are fairly stable against variations in unit values of travel time and fatalities. The relevance of traffic safety in terms of its contribution to total benefit as well as in terms of the unit value appears to be relatively minor. The unit value of travel time is higher than that of lifetime. Some projects turn out as feasible in the evaluation even though they are likely to increase the number of fatalities. The paper therefore suggests the higher weighting of traffic safety in CBA.     

Transportation network and venture capital mobility: An analysis of air travel and high-speed rail in China

Transportation network plays a critical role in reshaping the spatial geographical economy in terms of population, urban form, output and so on. But the impact of transportation on capital mobility is seldom revealed. Using venture capital investment events and airline network as well as high-speed rail network in China, this paper examines the effects of transportation network on capital mobility. We find that 1% decline in travel time will lead to increase in VC investment deals by 0.02. Heterogeneous results indicate that small firms, young firms, and emerging industries benefit more from the transportation network, which demonstrates the role of transportation network in alleviating information asymmetries. In addition, heterogeneity on VC flow direction offers suggestive evidence that transportation network is likely to alleviate development imbalance within wealthier cities while widening the gap between wealthier cities and poorer cities.     

An appraisal of the CORINE land cover database in airport catchment area analysis using a GIS approach

This paper presents a free available dataset, the CORINE land cover that helps dealing with the biases caused by pre-defined and heterogeneous census district boundaries in airport catchment area analysis in Europe. Using this dataset and a conventional GIS software it is possible to measure the size of the population within catchment areas at the same spatial level for all EU airports, allowing for consistent comparisons among airports. To illustrate the potential of the CORINE/GIS approach, the size of the population in the catchment areas of all European airports was determined. The empirical exercise has an aggregate perspective, but this database presents many other possibilities of analysis to perform in a case-by-case basis.     

An emerging Korean youth culture,Rail-ro: the application of cultural consensus analysis to domestic rail travel experiences

This study deals with an emerging domestic rail travel phenomenon among Korean youth, known as Rail-ro (Railo), which has influenced aspects of youth culture and domestic tourism in Korea since 2007. The purpose of this study is to determine whether Railo experiences exist as a coherent culture among Railers based on cultural consensus analysis. The result indicates Railers’ strong agreement about Railo experiences, which reinforces the view that a particular rail pass could be instrumental in forming a distinct youth travel subculture. This study demonstrates how travel culture driven by the seasonal rail pass supports domestic tourism and inbound tourism.     

An analysis of trends in air travel behaviour using four related SP datasets collected between 2000 and 2005

A growing number of studies of air travel behaviour make use of data collected through stated choice surveys. However, while these studies all produce useful results in their own right, they are limited to the context of each specific study. We address this issue by using data from four related surveys carried out between 2000 and 2005. The analysis shows a level of consistency in some of the sensitivities, but also highlights trends such as reduced willingness-to-pay measures, potentially influenced by the growing number of low cost flight options, lack of service differentiation among the carriers, and increased use of online ticketing, which has led to greater fare transparency.     

Differences in travel objectives between first‐time and repeat tourists: An empirical analysis for the Kansai area in Japan

This study investigates the differences in travel objectives between first‐time and repeat tourists. We conduct a questionnaire survey of travel agencies, which asked about specific tour plan for target tourists, their experiences and travel objectives in the Kansai area in Japan. We estimate a logit model for the relationship between travel objectives and visiting experiences. The results indicate that the first‐time tourists' main objective is to enjoy looking around sightseeing spots, while the repeat tourists' objective is simply to enjoy the stay, including the hotel visit and participating in events. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Telephone uses and the travel behaviour of residents in Osogbo,Nigeria: an empirical analysis

This paper looks at the impacts of telephone uses of residents in Osogbo, Nigeria on the travel behaviour, particularly within the realm of the three popular telecommunication propositions of substitution, inducement and complementarities. The study is based on a randomly selected set of 163 households with functioning telephones. Evidence from the study shows that the usage of telephone in the study area tends to increase the number of trips.Further analysis shows the significant variations between the trip categories expressed by the three propositions of induced, replaced and complemented trips in the study area. The paper suggests tangible policy issues for telecommunication improvements in Nigeria at large and their potential impact on transport demand.     

Inter-regional and inter-temporal analysis of travel behaviour for Asian metropolitan cities: Case studies of Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Nagoya

The unprecedented demand for travel experienced in Asia, in conjunction with the economic development of the1980s, has resulted in a number of detrimental effects on urban systems. Economic development has certainly intensified per capita income enhancing personal mobility. In Asia, private vehicle ownership and usage have continued to be recognised as an obligatory element of travel for many. Undoubtedly there is a direct relationship between vehicle ownership and public transport usage. Inter-regional and inter-temporal investigations of travel behaviour in Asian cities are therefore necessary to develop an understanding of the future transportation system including suitability and the role of public transport. Since travel data are scarce in Asian countries, inter-regional or inter-temporal travel behaviour investigations do not exist to date. Several travel demand models are developed using discrete choice modelling techniques and Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Nagoya as case studies. Estimation results of the mode choice models are successfully incorporated to compare travel behaviour trends in selected cities in Asia. The developed models are tested for spatial and temporal transferability.     

The importance of markets,politics, and community support: An analysis of the Small Community Air Service Development Program

Across the U.S., smaller communities face a challenging environment for attracting and retaining commercial air service as a result of airline industry changes. Increasingly, airports and communities in smaller markets are developing air service development programs (ASIPs) to provide incentives to reduce the financial risk to airlines while also marketing the new service to the community. A key source of funds for many of community-based incentive programs is the Small Community Air Service Development Program (SCASDP), which is a discretionary grant program operated by the Department of Transportation that provides funding to communities to supplement their own ASIPs. Despite the growing importance of this tool used by many communities, we know little about the factors that drive the allocation of SCASDP grants by the DOT. Using an analysis of 164 applications to the SCASDP program between 2011 and 2013, we assess the effect of market, political, and economic factors on the DOT's allocation of grants. Our findings suggest the DOT largely relies on the criteria in its published guidelines to allocate SCASDP grants. Specifically, the agency is more likely to approve applications for SCASDP grants when the community has the support of members of Congress who represent the community and the support of businesses and citizens through local match contributions. We also find the DOT allocates grants to communities with letters of support from air carriers and prior experience, either through multiple applications in the past or through an experience air service development consultant, with the application process.     

Energy performance analysis of airport terminal buildings by use of architectural,operational information and benchmark metrics

Airport terminal buildings are one of the most energy-intensive building types, and their constituents can include several types of spaces in one-roof structures. However, they have been rarely included in several energy-related studies due to the complexity of their mechanical and operational systems. The purpose of this research is to propose benchmark metrics to investigate the energy performance of existing and future airport terminal buildings. By using measured data of total 30 existing ones in North America and simulated results of total 90 specific space type models, a more improved multivariate regression model can refine the values for average of energy use. When revalued from their characteristics based on the refined average, energy performance forecasts are improved by from 1.1% to 3.0% as compared to the case of the simple average. In addition, it can be used to define a higher energy baseline reflecting some weights adjusted by the building characteristics and to apply it into the space configurations for new airport terminal buildings.     

Dependence between travel distance,individual socioeconomic and health-related characteristics,and the choice of the travel mode: a cross-sectional study for Kaunas,Lithuania

The aim of this study was to analyse the associations between individual socioeconomic and health-related characteristics, travel distance, and the choice of different travel modes in urban population. A cross-sectional study included 932 adults of Kaunas city, Lithuania. The choice of the travel mode and individual characteristics were self-reported by the participants, and their travel routes were calculated using the geographic information system. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the most significant factors determining the choice of a car, cycling, walking, or public transport. In total, 529 participants reported using a car, of whom 65.8% had medium or high education levels. These participants were more likely to be younger, male, married, and employed. Among bicycle users, statistically significant differences between the employment status, body mass index, and travel distance were observed. Walkers were significantly more likely to be older, those with lower incomes, unemployed, and travelling the shortest distances. The analysis of the travel distance on the choice of the travel mode revealed that men travelled longer distances with a car compared to women. The employment status was significantly associated with travel distance by car or public transport. Employed individuals travelled longer distances by public transport or by car, compared to unemployed individuals. Among bicycle users, we found that people with higher levels of education and overweight individuals cycled the longest distances. Our study emphasizes the importance of considering different individual characteristics when analysing the choice of transport modes. It provides evidence that is relevant for all urban populations on the choice of the transport mode, particularly considering active versus passive transport.     

Efficiency and patterns of service mix in airport companies: An input distance function approach

In this paper an input distance function approach is used to evaluate efficiency and technological characteristics of Italian airport companies for the period 2000–2005. This approach is robust to deviations from neoclassical paradigm in terms of cost-minimizing behavior. Duality relationship between the input distance function and the shadow cost function is exploited to derive cost complementarities among outputs. Empirical findings are used to discuss the economic implications connected to changes in airport organization, involving in particular outsourcing of handling operations and development of commercial activities.     

Millennials,built form,and travel insights from a nationwide typology of U.S. neighborhoods

We examine the relationship between the built environment and the travel of Millennials in the United States. We develop a neighborhood typology to characterize the built environment and transportation networks in almost every U.S. census tract, allowing us to identify possible synergistic and/or threshold effects on travel. We measure travel behavior in two ways: (1) using a multi-faceted traveler typology created using latent class analysis, and (2) by measuring the vehicle miles of travel among people in each of these traveler types. This dual approach allows us to distinguish between the built environment changes needed to encourage travel by modes other than driving, and those needed to reduce vehicle miles traveled among drivers. Using a multinomial logistic regression, we find that travel patterns are relatively stable along much of the urban-rural continuum, everything else equal. Driving was substantially lower only in “Old Urban” neighborhoods, where densities, job access, and transit service are dramatically higher than in all other neighborhood types. This finding implies that dramatic changes in the built environment—doubling or even tripling development density or transit service—may do little to get young people out of their cars when initial densities or transit services are low, as they are in most of the U.S. Conversely, reducing vehicle miles traveled among drivers appears to require more modest built form changes, a finding that offers some room for optimism among those concerned with auto dependence.     

Accountability and stakeholder engagement in the airport industry: An assessment of airports’ CSR reports

This study assesses the comprehensiveness and quality of corporate social responsibility reports published by airports. A content analysis rating system is built using the global reporting initiative guidelines. The findings indicate that corporate social responsibility reporting is not a common practice among international airports and where it is done, there is considerable variability in the disclosure practices.     

An exact algorithm for the multi-trip vehicle routing and scheduling problem of pickup and delivery of customers to the airport

Door-to-Door service of Pickup and Delivery of Customers to the Airport (D2PDCA) is a new service provided by certain Airline Ticket Sales Agencies (ATSAs) in China. This new service provides an attractive alternative way by picking up customer at this/her specified position and at any time he/she preferred and delivering to the airport more conveniently than airport shuttle and thus earn high customer service quality. Compared with the single-trip mode, the multi-trip mode of D2PDCA (MTM-D2PDCA) service can reduce travel distances, the number of vehicles required and the operating cost. To obtain the exact solution of the MTM-D2PDCA problem, we propose a novel, exact algorithm based on the trip-chain-oriented set-partitioning (TCO-SP) model, where a trip-chain represents multiple trips made by a specific vehicle. In the exact algorithm, we propose an improved label-correcting method to remove infeasible trip-chains quickly and thus speed the search process. Based on the feasible trip-chains, the MTM-D2PDCA problem is formulated as the novel TCO-SP model, which can be solved exactly by the optimization software CPLEX. In addition, we present several mathematical insights into the relationship between the number of trip-chains and the number of local optimal trips that are applicable in both theory and practice. Extensive experiments are conducted to illustrate the application of the model and demonstrate the cost savings of the MTM-D2PDCA mode over the single-trip mode and provide managerial insights into successfully operating a MTM-D2PDCA service.