Regional road development,rural and urban poverty: Evidence from China

The study estimates the impact of road investments on overall economic growth, rural and urban growth, and rural and urban poverty reduction. To achieve these goals, an econometric model that captures the different channels through which road investment impacts growth and poverty is developed and estimated using provincial-level data for 1982–1999 in China. Low-grade (mostly rural) roads have benefit/cost ratios for national GDP that are about four times larger than the benefit/cost ratios for high-grade roads. In terms of poverty reduction, low-grade roads raise far more rural and urban poor above the poverty line per yuan invested than do high-grade roads. Another significant finding of the study is the trade-off between growth and poverty reduction when investing in different parts of China. Road investments yield their highest economic returns in the eastern and central regions of China, while their contributions to poverty reduction are greatest in western China (especially the southwest region).     

The role of destination personality in predicting tourist behaviour: implications for branding mid-sized urban destinations

The purpose of this study was to explore urban tourists' perceptions of the personality of a mid-sized city destination in Greece and to assess the effect of destination personality on the city's overall image and tourists' behavioural intentions. Experience with the destination was taken into account as the sample consisted of three distinct groups of urban tourists: local residents, past visitors of the city and non-visitors. Through a mixed-methods approach, excitement and sincerity were found to be the predominant personality characteristics of the destination across all respondents. Further analyses offered support for the significant role of personality in influencing overall destination image and predicting tourists' intention to (re)visit the city or recommend it to others. Differences among the three groups as well as implications of the findings for branding small or mid-sized urban destinations are also discussed.     

Metro and urban growth: Evidence from China

We investigate the effects of metro systems on urban growth in China. Using a difference-in-differences combined with propensity score matching framework, we find that metro systems have an economically significant positive effect on the urban GDP growth rate and that this effect is much larger for megacities with permanent populations of more than 6.15 million. Meanwhile, cross-city metro operations tend to increase economic concentrations in larger cities and expand GDP inequalities between cities connected by a cross-city metro. Our mechanism analyses further corroborate that a higher metro density has a positive effect on urban employment growth and a negative effect on the average wage of employees, but this does not improve urban total factor productivity (TFP), suggesting that a metro system is more likely to provide consumption amenities and employment access than it is to provide production amenities.     

The life and death of residential dissonants in transit-oriented development: A discrete time survival analysis

Residential dissonants, residents who are not satisfied with land use patterns in their neighbourhood, are a threat to transit-oriented development (TOD) policy because of their unsustainable transport choices. However, it is not known if their level of dissatisfaction is reduced in TODs, and if so, the time duration it takes. This study tracks dissonance status of 98 TOD residents using five waves of panel data spanning over nine years from Brisbane, Australia. The residents were classified into TOD dissonant and TOD consonant (opposite of dissonants) groups and a discrete time survival analysis technique was applied to identify time-to-event for these groups. An event was recorded if a dissonant became a consonant, or vice versa. Two discrete time hazard models were estimated using binary logistic regression analysis (one for each transition) to identify socio-demographic and built environment characteristics associated with the occurrence of an event. Results showed that about 46% of the TOD residents were dissonants at baseline. The survival functions were significantly different between dissonant and consonant classes. About half of the dissonants took-on the characteristics of consonants in just four years. In contrast, TOD consonants remained consonants relatively longer (median survival duration is 9 years). Groups that were likely to become dissonants were those with low educational status, and people born overseas. The findings suggest that TODs have an autonomous effect on changing attitudes over time, which verifies the ‘reverse causality’ hypothesis, and therefore, TODs are likely to be dissonant free naturally presumably as residents experience the benefits of TOD living. The process could be sped up with targeted policy interventions (e.g., concessionary travel card, rent relief to bear the high cost of living in TODs) for those being as, or likely to be susceptible to become dissonant.     

A spatial analysis of demand patterns on a bicycle sharing scheme: Evidence from London

This paper investigates the spatial demand for bikesharing through the application of a series of trip generation models for the London Bicycle Sharing Scheme (LBSS). The production of trips from and the arrival of trips at scheme stations are evaluated in reference to how they connect with features of the built environment, demographics of the resident and workplace populations, and attributes of the scheme's structure. A spatial econometrics approach is taken to specify the models, with four different time windows considered throughout the day for all trips taken during 2016. The built environment features show a consistent pattern of results in the model, indicating that proximity to cycling infrastructure, rail stations, parks, university facilities, as well as the density of shops and conventional roads in the vicinity of stations is linked with trip generation rates. The presence of males and Caucasians are associated with higher station demand, aligning with other work on the introduction of new mobility solutions elsewhere, though we do find that greater distances to work tend to depress use. Trip generation is also reduced at the minority of stations located south of the River Thames, indicating that the presence of natural barriers can affect the operation of schemes. The results carry implications for scheme integration in other cities.     

An econometric analysis of domestic air traffic demand in regional airports: Evidence from India

The Indian aviation industry has a vast potential to grow to cater to its population and commerce through developing air transport services to the regional airports. This paper examines the possible determinants of domestic air traffic demand in Indian regional airports serving below three million passengers per annum. Using multiple regression analysis, we find that distance to the nearest airport and accessibility of the airport significantly affect traffic volumes in regional airports. This study also highlights the specificities of Indian regional airports.     

Identifying attributes of public transport services for urban tourists: A data-mining method

The current work focuses on Quality of Service (QoS) of Public Transport (PT) attributes in urban tourist destinations. In particular, we aim to reveal which attributes are most significant for tourists prior to their arrival at their destination, as reflected in questions posted in TripAdvisor Question and Answer forums, a widely used social media platform.We used a data-mining method to classify questions into categories relevant to QoS, using a sample of 8905 items posted between 2005 and 2018 in TripAdvisor forums for seven urban destinations in the United States and Western Europe. We found four PT-QoS attributes: Pricing and ticketing, Accessibility, Trip duration, and Service availability (hours of operation and frequency). These attributes have similar relative significance for all destinations, origins, seasons, and years we checked. Hence, they can help service operators and policymakers to understand tourists' preferences and to adjust PT services accordingly.     

Identifying sources of systematic variation in direct price elasticities from revealed preference studies of inter-city freight demand

Freight demand elasticity studies vary significantly in terms of the demand measure, data type, estimation method, commodity type, etc. This wide variation makes it difficult to compare empirical estimates when the differences may arise in part from the methods and data used. In this paper we conduct a comparative analysis to identify systematic sources of influence on direct price elasticity estimates in the context of freight transport, distinguishing between road, rail, and sea transport, using published direct price elasticities from 12 elasticity-derivative studies from five countries. The study focuses on revealed preference elasticities defined by the freight rate for tonnes and tonne kilometres of inter-city freight movements. Systematic sources that explain differences in direct price elasticities include the demand elasticity measure, mode, commodity class, model estimation form, country, and temporal nature of data (e.g., cross-section). Analysts can utilise the model outputs to adjust the empirical evidence from specific studies to control for differences that impact on the behavioural implications of comparative evidence.     

Planning for urban tourism: a critique of borough development plans and tourism policy in London

The paper presents a critique of tourism policy in London in the context of local environmental plans and central government policy for tourism and hotel development. Rationales for local authority tourism policies are assessed in relation to city‐level planning imperatives and local land‐use plan formulation. A comparative analysis of borough development plans and the treatment of tourism is based on a survey of London's 33 unitary authorities. The paper presents a World City case study of urban tourism from the position of the environmental planning process and in the light of the highly concentrated distribution of hotel provision and tourist activity in London. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mode substitution effect of urban cycle tracks: Case study of a downtown street in Toronto,Canada

With the growing environmental and health concerns associated with automobile dependence, municipalities across the Western world are investing in cycling facilities to encourage drivers and transit users to take up cycling as a mode of transportation, a process that is known as the travel mode substitution. This study explored the potential impact of cycle tracks on short-term travel mode substitution behavior. We present a case study of Sherbourne Street, located in downtown Toronto, Canada, that was redeveloped in 2012 to include a cycle track that replaced an existing bicycle lane. A street intercept survey was conducted in Fall, 2014, to record quantitative data on current and retrospective travel behaviors of cyclists (n = 214). A mode substitution effect was observed, with 38% of the respondents reporting that they would use travel modes other than cycling before the Sherbourne Street redevelopment, for making a trip to their current destination; the majority of them were previously transit users. Binary logistic regression models indicated that younger cyclists were less likely to substitute a car trip for a cycling trip. Those who did not use Sherbourne Street previously were more likely to substitute their travel mode. Improved safety was the most commonly reported reason for mode substitution. This study contributes to a limited literature by providing much needed insights into the impacts of cycle tracks on travel behavior in a North American context. This paper can also inform the development of easy-to-implement survey/audit tools to be used by professionals at the community level.     

Elasticities of mode choice probabilities and market elasticities of demand: Evidence from a simultaneous mode choice/shipment-size freight transport model

This paper presents empirical estimates of market elasticities of demand and elasticities of mode choice probabilities in the intercity freight transport market. Results are derived from a mixed discrete/continuous choice model of mode and shipment size. The mode choice component of the full model was specified as a binary probit function. The two modes considered were rail and regulated common carriers (full truck load). Data was drawn from the US Commodity Transportation Survey consisting of individual shipments of manufactured goods identified at the most disaggregate level. Results obtained in this study are compared with those obtained in previous studies, and areas of similarities and dissimilarities in the magnitude as well as interpretation of the results are highlighted. The own-price and cross-price elasticities of mode choice probabilities were found to vary from 1.44 to 1.88, and from 1.54 to 1.75, respectively. The market price elasticities of demand were found to vary significantly across commodity groups and geographic territories. Among the 40 market segments considered, the truck price elasticity of demand ranged between −0.749 and −2.525; the rail price elasticity of demand was slightly larger, ranging between −0.956 and −2.489; and the rail–truck cross-price elasticity of demand ranged between 0.904 and 2.532.     

Strategies for sustainable urban and transport development in Nigeria

A transportation system can enhance the productivity and quality of life of a community if properly planned and managed. At the same time, development stimulates demand for transport. This paper looks at urban development and the transport system in Nigeria and finds that conflicts exist between them. The paper then tries to analyse these conflicts with a view to understanding their causal agents in order to address them. Finally, the paper proposes some strategies that could be adopted to resolve the conflicts and put in place sustainable urban development and transport system in Nigeria.     

Service quality in a mid-sized air terminal: A SEM-MIMIC ordinal probit accounting for travel,sociodemographic, and user-type heterogeneity

Service quality of the airline industry is still unexplored, if compared to the public transport service quality literature. In this paper, we propose an analysis of the services provided by an Italian airport based on an SEM approach. Specifically, we propose a SEM-MIMIC ordinal Probit capturing the heterogeneity in perceptions of air transport passengers and identify groups of passengers with similar assessments of the services. Results suggest the presence of four constructs affecting the overall satisfaction at the terminal, namely information, control, environment, and food service. Results also suggest that there are two different user-types: accessory user (who uses ticket office, luggage trolleys, and escalator lifts), and technology user (who uses charging stations, airport website, and airport wi-fi).     

Identifying dimensions of exclusion from a BRT system in a developing country: a content analysis approach

To date, transport exclusion has largely been approached from an accessibility perspective, developing place- and individual-based measures. However, these measures present a weakness in that they typically capture aggregate patterns. To address this disadvantage, in this paper, social-based measures to transport exclusion from a media perspective are explored. The objective is to analyze the content of a transport-related blog initiated by a local newspaper in the city of Cali, Colombia to determine if any potential indicators of social exclusion can be gleaned from this source. A two-step content analysis is performed on the entries to determine if indicators are present that may be a current source of exclusion, or that may potentially cause individuals to exclude themselves from the system. Findings reveal that bloggers made reference to geographic, time, and fear-based exclusionary dimensions, as well as personal and societal. Such a forum thus holds the potential to inform policy makers of enhancements that can be made to the system that help make it more socially inclusive. The study is unique in its developing country setting where public participation in transport planning is rare.     

Implementing cycling infrastructure in a politicized space: Lessons from Toronto,Canada

Cycling infrastructure such as cycle tracks and painted bicycle lanes is critical in improving safety of existing cyclists and in increasing the overall mode share of bicycling in communities. However, the implementation of such infrastructure has been fraught with political contentiousness across North America. In this paper, we discuss how theories of automobility and the politics around it may help explain current active transportation planning practice. We then report findings from ten key informant interviews with municipal planners and engineers in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Canada, in order to identify how they implement cycling infrastructure in the face of political opposition. We find that there are four principal strategies used to secure the political support and ensure the construction of cycling infrastructure across the region: 1) piggybacking on public works projects, 2) using external grants and funding, 3) pre-emptively re-routing cycling infrastructure, and 4) finding support from a political champion. Based on these findings, we conclude that the politicization of cycling infrastructure is a result of the dominance of automobility in Western transportation culture. In other words, it is not the physical presence of the cycling infrastructure, nor its social and political representations, but rather automobile that is political, and a battle for (road)space against it remains and may continue to remain a major policy and professional challenge.     

Collaborative Marketing in a Regional Destination: Evidence from Central Florida

This paper aims to explore a collaborative approach to regional destination marketing. Research questions were constructed for empirical data collection via documentary analysis and semistructured interviews with senior executives of destination marketing organizations (DMOs) in the Central Florida region. The research findings suggest that collaboration among DMOs is beneficial in terms of cost reduction and market penetration. Several issues emerge as inhibiting factors to their collaborative destination marketing efforts. Discussions and implications are provided both from a theoretical and practical perspective on the basis of the findings of the study. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Airport performance in a tourism receiving country: Evidence from Greece

The aim of this study is to estimate the performance of 38 Greek airports. The analysis is performed in two stages. Firstly, efficiency scores for each airport are estimated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) original and bootstrap techniques. Secondly, statistical assessments (Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis tests) and a censored Tobit regression model are employed to identify which factors significantly explain variations in the airport efficiency. The results indicated the scope for substantial efficiency improvements. In addition, island location, connectivity, and hotel infrastructure in the area were found to be significant factors affecting airport efficiency.     

Air transport demand and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa: Direction of causality

Air transport may be a key tool to advance economic development. However, it is uncertain whether air transport boosts economic development, or vice versa. Both views have theoretical and empirical support. In some countries and regions, air transport is important for initiating development, for example by attracting foreign direct investment or granting access to lifelines. Elsewhere, economic development drives air transport demand. Establishing the direction of causality for regions/countries segmented by income level may inform pragmatic policy. This study analyzes the causal relationship between air transport demand and economic development for six sub-Saharan African countries for the period 1981–2018. Vector error correction and vector autoregression models are employed to identify long- and short-run causalities. The results reveal heterogeneous, context-specific causal relationships. In the long-run, for South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, the direction of causality runs from economic development to air transport demand; for Ethiopia, causality runs in the opposite direction, with increased demand for air transport promoting economic development; and for Senegal and Angola, the relationship is too weak to infer causal directions. Possible explanations for this heterogeneity include differences in per capita income, low-cost carriers' share of national aviation markets, the presence of large home-based airlines, and comparative geographical advantage as a natural hub.