How highway safety regulations and enforcement activities affect subcategories of motor vehicle fatalities

This paper uses seemingly unrelated regression analysis and annual Ohio data for 1975–2000 to estimate a model for six different types of motor vehicle fatalities: car occupants, light truck occupants, large truck occupants, motorcyclists, pedestrians, and pedalcyclists. It finds that while certain government highway safety regulations (e.g., speed limits) and enforcement activities (e.g., drunk driving arrests) have life-saving effects, not all groups are beneficiaries.     

Defining and monitoring the quality of shared-use transportation facilities in parks and recreation areas

Transportation networks in parks and recreation areas provide travelers recreation opportunities and often support multiple transportation modes (e.g., hiking, walking, biking). In recreation areas, the quality of transportation service may be monitored and evaluated differently than in traditional transportation contexts. However, few studies have examined approaches for defining and monitoring the quality of transportation service and recreation experiences. This study applies traffic monitoring models to monitor (1) the quality of transportation service through the Levels of Service (LOS) framework and (2) travelers’ recreation experiences through the indicators and standards framework simultaneously on the Burlington Bike Path (BBP), a typical shared-use transportation recreation facility in Vermont. Results identify the temporal pattern of visitors use and the mode splits between cyclists and pedestrians. Moreover, study results show that the majority of travelers use the BBP for recreation or mixed purpose of recreation and commute. Study results build quantitative relationships between LOS and indicators and standards of quality that will help inform management of transportation in the context of recreation. The indicators and standards framework can help define the thresholds of acceptable levels of transportation service through the LOS framework. The relationships between LOS and the indicators and standards framework help build a robust and fully parameterized transportation planning and management framework for parks and recreation areas. Study results suggest quantitative guidelines that can be used to evaluate and monitor the quality of transportation performance for shared-use paths in parks and recreation areas.     

How adult children in the UK and the US view the driving cessation of their parents: Is a policy window opening?

Both the UK and the US have rapidly ageing and increasingly diverse populations very dependent on driving. A comparative study commissioned by the UK Department for Transport found that in both the UK and the US adult children of older drivers, whilst often concerned about their parents’ continued driving, were also worried about the burden they would carry when their parents stopped driving, although there were differences by race and ethnicity. This study suggests that a policy window may be opening through which babyboomers can advocate for a range of driver training, roadway and vehicle improvements, expansion and enhancement of traditional public transportation and community transport options, improvements in accessibility and pedestrian infrastructure, and supportive land use and housing policies that would allow older people to drive safely longer, and, find meaningful mobility options when they can no longer drive. Policy responses must recognise and respond appropriately to differences by race and ethnicity.     

Embedded and exposed: exploring the lived experiences of African American tourists

ABSTRACT

The United States is experiencing a shift in racial demographics. Recent projections suggest that minority groups will make up over 40% of the country’s population by 2050. Such increases have made the topics of race, ethnicity, and culture an important area of study for researchers and tourism professionals alike. Existing explanations of differences in African American travel suggest that decisions are made due to marginality or ethnicity. Because travel preferences may be a byproduct of learned behaviors passed down through generations, it is imperative to understand both current and historical aspects of leisure behavior. In this qualitative study, the narratives of 12 African American tourists provided information which suggests that marginality, ethnicity, and issues related to discrimination impact their tourism-related attitudes and behaviors. Capturing the voices of African American travelers offers a more inclusive understanding of their travel experiences and insights into the relationship between race and tourism.     

Optimisation of the exploitation period of individual vehicles in freight transportation companies

The individual vehicle replacement problem typical for freight transportation companies is discussed in the paper. Two characteristic features of such problem are that transportation companies utilise vehicles with intensity decreasing with an age of vehicles and that managers of such companies first of all take into account economical criteria when planning vehicle replacements. The paper presents a single criterion, nonlinear, deterministic and discrete mathematical model of such a problem that minimises a total exploitation and ownership costs calculated per kilometre. The exact solution procedure is proposed here. The problem is solved as a real life case study. As a result, an average, economically optimal 5-year exploitation period of vehicles has been determined.     

Evaluating the impacts of transit-oriented developments (TODs) on household transportation expenditures in California

This study evaluates the impact of transit-oriented development (TOD) on household transportation expenditures in California by comparing TOD households with two groups of control households that are identified by propensity score matching. When controlling for household demographics, TOD households own fewer and more fuel-efficient cars, drive fewer miles, and use transit more. On average, they save $1232 per year on transportation expenditures than non-TOD households with similar demographics, accounting for 18% of their total annual transportation expenditures. When controlling for both demographics and neighborhood environment, TOD households still own slightly fewer and more fuel-efficient cars and use transit more. But they drive similar amount of miles as non-TOD households do. TOD households save $429 per year on transportation expenditures than non-TOD households with similar demographics and neighborhood environment, accounting for about 6% of their total annual transportation expenditures. TOD households save money on transportation costs mainly because they own fewer cars than non-TOD households. About two thirds of the savings can be attributed to transit-friendly neighborhood environment and one third to their access to rail transit, suggesting the importance of integrating a rail transit system with supportive land use planning and neighborhood design.     

Efficient vehicles versus efficient transportation. Comparing transportation energy conservation strategies

This article compares four potential transportation energy conservation strategies using a comprehensive evaluation framework that takes into account how each strategy affects annual vehicle travel, and therefore, mileage-related impacts such as traffic congestion, road and parking facility costs and crash risk. Mileage-related impacts tend to be large in magnitude compared with energy conservation benefits, so even small changes in total vehicle travel can have a large impact on net benefits. Fuel efficiency standards and some alternative fuels cause vehicle travel to increase. Higher fuel taxes cause a combination of increased vehicle fuel economy and reduced mileage. Mobility management strategies cause relatively large mileage reductions and so provide the greatest mileage-related benefits. Conventional evaluation practices often overlook mileage-related impacts and so tend to overvalue strategies that increase vehicle fuel efficiency and undervalue mobility management strategies.     

A GIS-based Bayesian approach for analyzing spatial–temporal patterns of intra-city motor vehicle crashes

This paper develops a GIS-based Bayesian approach for intra-city motor vehicle crash analysis. Five-year crash data for Harris County (primarily the City of Houston), Texas are analyzed using a geographic information system (GIS), and spatial–temporal patterns of relative crash risks are identified based on a Bayesian approach. This approach is used to identify and rank roadway segments with potentially high risks for crashes so that preventive actions can be taken to reduce the risks in these segments. Results demonstrate the approach is useful in estimating the relative crash risks, eliminating the instability of estimates while maintaining overall safety trends. The 3-D posterior risk maps show risky roadway segments where safety improvements need to be implemented. Results of GIS-based Bayesian mapping are also useful for travelers to choose relatively safer routes.     

Beyond sharing: cultivating cooperative transportation systems through geographic information science

Transportation systems are facing unprecedented challenges in the 21st century. Increasing the efficiency of transportation systems alone will not solve these problems and may exacerbate them. Instead, we must extract new transportation capabilities related to more cooperative decision-making across a wide range of time horizons, spatial scales and decision contexts. This paper discusses the role of sensed transportation, geographic information science and social media to cultivate transportation systems where participants share, cooperate and act collectively to solve operational, tactical and strategic mobility and accessibility problems. This paper also provides a vision of the future by imaging a seamless multimodal transportation system combined with a virtual environment where data streams are fused, interpreted and made available with tools for human engagement and shared decision making. This paper concludes by outlining a GIScience-centric research agenda.     

The political economy of post-transition transportation policy in Hungary

This paper reviews transportation system trends in Hungary since the transition in 1989. It documents the continuation of rapid increases in private motor vehicle ownership and use despite a major economic downturn. Sharp increases in new highway investments are contrasted with a growing backlog of unmet maintenance and rehabilitation needs in the road, rail and public transit sectors. It then reviews recent political struggles over these policies, and the effectiveness of these policies in promoting employment, regional development, and a sustainable environment. It suggests that the dynamics of the post-industrial economy may have reduced the importance of highway sector investments relative to investments into human capital.     

Travel,roads, risks and volunteers

International volunteers often travel to destinations (low- and middle-income countries) that carry a greater chance of being involved in a road-related injury and a possible fatality. Within this cultural exchange, tourists move from safe roads and cars to those that are potentially unsafe. Is this all part of the adventure of volunteering or should the tourist industry take some responsibility? This paper highlights the intersection between tourism and road injury and fatality risks (as pedestrians or in vehicles) with special attention to the longer term volunteer traveller. Social science theory underpins some of the discussions around risk and travel. A brief consideration of the international road traffic death and injury crisis and the emergence of the recognition that this impacts upon tourist safety is explored as backdrop to discussions. Tourism relies upon the ability for people to travel in and around the countries they travel to, often taking on the local travel arrangements prevalent in their destination. These local travel arrangements enable leisure tourists to explore their destination and volunteer travellers to live and work as locals. Is it time to consider and further the research on road risks as a growing feature of tourism?     

How large are tax subsidies to motor-vehicle users in the US?

There has been considerable discussion about the extent to which motor-vehicle use in the US is “subsidized,” making petroleum-based motor vehicle use more attractive than other transportation modes. Estimates of these subsidies vary widely, and in many cases can be criticized on methodological grounds. In this paper we estimate corporate-income-tax, sales-tax, property-tax, and personal-income-tax subsidies related to motor-vehicle use. Whereas previous estimates of sales-tax and corporate-income-tax subsidies have been built piecemeal, tax provision by tax provision, we offer an alternative method, based on the difference between actual tax payments of the motor vehicle industry compared to other industries. We estimate that the total “tax subsidy” to motor-vehicle users in the US may be in the range of $19–64 billion (10⁹) per year, or $0.11–0.37 per gallon ($0.03–0.10 per liter) of motor fuel. However, the amount of the subsidy, and hence the magnitude of its effect, depends greatly on the tax baseline with respect to which the subsidy is estimated. (The property-tax subsidy is particularly uncertain.) We emphasize that without doing a full equilibrium analysis, we cannot say how eliminating these subsidies would affect social welfare.     

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.     

Transportation disruption risk management: business interruption insurance and backup transportation

Business interruption (BI) insurance and backup transportation have been widely used in distribution centers’ daily risk management. If disruption occurs, a firm (distribution center) can exert efforts to resume its transportation, although its unit transportation cost during the recovery process is uncertain. This paper studies how ex ante BI insurance can affect the ex post transportation recovery, and compares BI insurance with the ex post action—backup transportation. We investigate four strategies: basic strategy, BI insurance strategy, backup transportation strategy, and mixed strategy (integration of the last two). The distribution center that seeks the least profit loss prefers the mixed strategy to other three strategies. However, the mixed strategy might in turn require longer transportation recovery time than the BI insurance strategy. The BI insurance and transportation recovery are complementary, but the BI insurance and backup transportation are substitutable, the backup transportation and the transportation recovery are also substitutable. We also find that the choice of BI insurance strategy and the backup transportation strategy depends on transportation market, insurance market and distribution center’s operational environments.     

Reducing the wasted transportation capacity of Personal Rapid Transit systems: An integrated model and multi-objective optimization approach

This study addresses the problem of wasted transportation capacity in Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) systems. We propose a two-tier transportation model that integrates PRT and capillary transportation systems. We study a related multi-objective empty vehicle redistribution problem that attempts to minimize empty movement and the number of vehicles used. Furthermore, we design a hybrid multi-objective genetic algorithm that integrates multiple crossover operators and linear programming techniques to solve the proposed problem. Evaluations indicate that our algorithm produces satisfactory results, and simulations confirm the efficiency of our proposed two-tier transportation system.     

Liquidity risk premium and asset pricing in US water transportation

The water transportation of freight has been one of the most important sectors in facilitating international trade and contributing to the growth of the world economy. Bearing in mind the importance of the relation between asset returns and liquidity in water transportation, this paper examines this relation within the context of US traded international water freight transportation firms. Using a Fama–MacBeth analysis, it is shown that the illiquidity risk premium is priced in the water transportation sector beyond the Fama and French and market-wide illiquidity risk factors, indicating higher average returns for stocks with greater illiquidity measures. It is also shown that the market-wide illiquidity factor and the Fama–French SMB and HML risk factors are significant in explaining stock returns. In contrast, market risk is found not to be priced in the water transportation sector. The results are also robust to asset pricing tests over two alternative sub-periods.     

How to pay for transportation? A survey of public preferences in California

This paper investigates how strongly California residents support a range of tax and fee options to fund transportation. Because politicians are reluctant to raise tax levels to cover desired levels of transportation expenditures, policy makers are searching for revenue options with strong public support. The results of two surveys provide some optimism for implementing new options, such as tolling. Respondents also reacted positively to linking fees with environmental objectives. Three tax options—gas taxes, sales taxes, and vehicle license fees—had virtually the same levels of overall support, about 40%. An analysis of demographic and other factors provides further insights into public support for the tax and fee options surveyed.     

Measuring housing and transportation affordability: A case study of Melbourne,Australia

Housing affordability is traditionally measured using the percentage of household income spent on housing. An important cost that is usually overlooked in measuring location affordability is the transportation or accessibility costs. In this paper, we present a modeling approach, driven by urban open data, to measure location affordability that incorporates both housing and transportation costs. We apply the developed model to assess housing affordability in Melbourne, Australia as a case study. Results suggest that neighbourhoods that appear to be affordable when only housing cost is considered are not necessarily affordable when transportation costs are taken into account. A negative correlation between housing affordability and transportation affordability is observed. We also identify the presence of a strong spatial clustering pattern in the affordability measure across the study area. A major methodological contribution of the paper is the inclusion of comprehensive private vehicle costs and public transportation expenses in the model that contributes to a more robust estimation and understanding of location affordability. The model also distinguishes between different trip purposes. Results suggest that plans and policies to improve housing affordability should be made in coordination with transportation infrastructure investment plans to ensure effective and equitable outcomes. Nevertheless, the focus of the paper is more on the measurement of affordability; rather than reviewing and recommending housing related policies.     

Analysis of active school transportation in hilly urban environments: A case study of Dresden

This paper analyses the way students travel to school and examines the influence of environmental conditions on travel patterns. More specifically, it studies how topographic changes affect the likelihood of choosing cycling as a transport mode. We use mode choice data on students' home-to-school commuting trips from a previous study by Müller et al. (2008). The results show that models perform better when they account for the topographic conditions of the urban environment. We included this information in the model by introducing the “energy exerted” variable, which significantly improves the model and the results. The implications of this study are manifold; it guides the consolidation or expansion of school-based transportation network planning in Germany and prompts further analysis of active transportation systems, such as bike, pedelec and e-bike sharing systems. Overall, transportation policy should seek to foster active transportation, as it provides the greatest benefits for society and has a direct impact on people's well-being, while notably reducing the negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts of motorized transport.     

Smartphones,travel time-use,and attitudes to public transport services. Insights from an explorative study of urban dwellers in two Norwegian cities

The uptake of mobile media with internet connection has increased rapidly in almost every part of the world, and this has significantly changed how public transport passengers use their travel time. Studies have documented that use of mobile information and communication technologies (ICT) while traveling has the potential to enrich use of travel time and in some cases, strengthen positive attitudes towards public transport. The alternative hypothesis—that mobile communication technologies make travelers more critical and demanding, e.g., due to the risk of interference—has so far hardly been explored through empirical studies. Based on a web-based survey of travelers in two of the largest cities in Norway (Oslo and Trondheim), this paper investigates how use of smart devices are related to general attitudes toward public transportation services. A segmentation of travelers in three clusters based on their mobile use habits, shows that the most active group of mobile media users—a group of younger and middle-aged urban dwellers—were those who bore the most critical attitudes to the public transport services. In contrast, the groups that used their mobile phones rarely, or less actively, on their public transport trips were more satisfied. The findings suggests that a new generation of “equipped travelers” has developed expectations regarding their public transport journeys that service providers might have problems to fulfill in current times. Thus, there is a risk of the most active smartphone users developing negative attitudes to public transport if (or when) their experiences are not improved.