The effects of travel time and cost savings on commuters’ decision to travel on public transport routes involving transfers

Urban cities are struggling with congested networks, noise and air pollution. Government agencies respond by investing in infrastructures to create integrated public transport systems. Transfers are a key element for the success of network integration. This study explores commuters’ perception of transfers by adopting Weber’s Law “Just Noticeable Difference”. Two trip attributes, travel time and cost, are investigated. Two stated-preference surveys are conducted at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Results show that, on average, users’ desire at least a 33% reduction in their current travel time and at least a 16% reduction in their current travel cost given basic comfort amenities at the interchange. For an interchange with more comfort, on average, users’ desire at least a 25% reduction in their current travel time and at least a 10% reduction in their current travel cost. The findings are expected to be used as a guideline by planners when developing integrated public transport networks. Recommendations have been made to the Auckland Regional Public Transport Plan.     

Willingness to pay for airlines’ premium economy class: The perspective of passengers

This study investigates how much extra air travellers are willing to pay to upgrade to premium economy class by using a suitable econometric model. Since a large portion of travellers' willingness to pay for premium economy class is zero, the spike model is applied to overcome the issues that may occur when traditional statistical models are used. Three flight distances, short, medium, and long hauls were separately estimated to investigate the effects of flight distance on willingness to pay. Travellers’ willingness to pay to upgrade from economy class to premium economy class round-trip was US$138 ,¹ US$309, and US$545 for short-, medium-, and long-haul, respectively. The research results should be a helpful reference for the civil aviation industry in strategic pricing planning.     

Reducing car-use for leisure: Can organised walking groups switch from car travel to bus and train walks?

This paper deals with the significant leisure travel sector, focusing on the attitudes of organised walking groups towards public transport use. A series of interviews with walking group leaders explored the design of organised walks, and factors affecting journeys to and from start points. The themes presented suggest an overlying group culture involving mainly circular walks, reached by car. The research indicates an underlying engrained dependency on cars to reach walks and a degree of opposition to using public transport, which generally contradicts widely-held attitudes towards protecting the environment. Future research should focus more in depth on the long-term removal of psychological barriers to using public transport for leisure, and persuasive measures aimed at groups.     

Attracting tourists to travel companies’ websites: the structural relationship between website brand,personal value,shopping experience,perceived risk and purchase intention

This article aims to examine the structural relationship between website brand, personal value, shopping experience, perceived risk and purchase intention from travel websites. Built upon the theory of consumers’ perceived risk, a theoretical model was proposed and a questionnaire was developed. The fieldwork utilized responses from 409 participants who purchased travel items from websites of Malaysian travel companies. Partial least square (PLS) path modelling approach, a variance-based structural equation modelling (VB-SEM), was used to assess the overall goodness-of-fit tests, measurement and structural model. The results highlight different aspects related to the effectiveness and attractiveness of travel companies’ websites. Its unique finding highlights the importance of personal value as a user characteristic factor that can strongly affect online purchase intention. In addition, by combining user characteristics and website characteristic and examining them in a single model, this study provides a clear multidimensional picture of causal relationship between latent constructs in an online travel purchase context. Theoretical and practical implications of study results are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.     

An empirical examination of U.S. travelers’ intentions to use biometric e-gates in airports

The current air travel security challenges call for innovative solutions. Among those solutions, biometric e-gates allow security agencies to allocate their resources efficiently while making travel more fluid in sensitive areas of airports. Using data from a nationwide sample of U.S. air travelers, this study constructed and validated empirically a conceptual model explaining travelers’ intentions to use biometric e-gates in airports. It was found that performance and effort expectancy had the highest impacts, while privacy concerns had low impacts on intentions. Several implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Implications for CARICOM member states in the search for a ‘liberally controlled’ air transport market: The case of regional tourism to Barbados

This study presents an analysis of the state of aviation liberalisation in CARICOM (Caribbean Community) and its implications for regional tourism to Barbados as a member state in CARICOM. The evidence shows that improvements to the regulatory aviation environment in CARICOM would aid improvements in intra-regional tourism. Given the benefits that have been obtained globally, previous studies have been deductive and analysed the benefits of a less restrictive aviation environment in the region. However, the inductive approach of this study reveals that before there can be a successful attempt at any such liberalism in CARICOM, there are pre-existing constraining factors which must be addressed since they will hinder the effectiveness of any such policy. The study therefore proposes that the effectiveness of the existing regional multilateral agreement is hindered by political interference, not only in the overall context of aviation bureaucracy, but also in the business operations of the regional carriers.     

Optimal traffic calming: A mixed-integer bi-level programming model for locating sidewalks and crosswalks in a multimodal transportation network to maximize pedestrians’ safety and network usability

We study the effect that installing sidewalks and crosswalks, as traffic calming facilities, has on the safety and usability of a transportation network with automobile, public transit and walking as modes of transportation. A mathematical programming model is proposed for this problem whose objective is to minimize the safety hazard for pedestrians and the total transportation cost of the network. We utilize a customized greedy heuristic and a simulated annealing algorithm for solving the problem. The computational results indicate that installing sidewalks and crosswalks at proper locations can reduce the overall transportation cost and improve pedestrians’ safety.