Rarely enjoyed? A count data analysis of ridership in Germany's public transport

Focusing on adult members of German households, this paper investigates the determinants of public transit ridership with the aim of quantifying the effects of fuel prices, fares, person-level attributes, and characteristics of the transit system on transport counts over a five-day week. The reliance on individual data raises several conceptual and empirical issues, the most fundamental of which is the large proportion of zero values in transit counts. To accommodate this feature of the data, we employ modeling procedures referred to as zero-inflated models (ZIMs), which order observations into two latent regimes defined by whether the individual never uses public transport. Our estimates reveal fuel prices to have a positive and substantial influence on transit ridership, though there is no evidence for a statistically significant impact of the fare.     

Neopagan Pilgrimages in the Age of the Internet: A Life Changing Religious Experience or an Example of Commodification?

This paper focuses on the phenomenon of Neopagan ‘pilgrimages’, which are advertised on the Internet and directed to various ancient sacred sites in Greece and in the Mediterranean Sea. After showing how travellers to Greece in the Modern Age have been inspired by classical myths and have often represented their trips as ‘pilgrimages’, the paper examines how Neopagans, women belonging to the Goddess Spirituality Movement, use travels to ancient sacred places as a way to reconstruct their own identity. Therefore, the perception and representation of the tourist journey as ‘pilgrimage’ obscures the reality of the commodification of religious experiences, in a globalised context in which different consumers ‘buy’ different experiences of ancient Greece.     

Assessing the ‘value’ of new transport initiatives in deprived neighbourhoods in the UK

In the context of growing policy awareness in the UK of the links between transport and social exclusion, this paper describes case-study research of four different transport projects funded under the UK Department for Transport's Urban Bus Challenge Fund (UBC) with the specific aim of facilitating social inclusion in the areas they serve. Through surveys and interviews with end-users, the study qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated the value of these new services to local residents in terms of their increased economic opportunities and other quality of life benefits. It also aimed to identify their wider contribution to the renewal and regeneration of the deprived areas they serve through depth interviews with professional local stakeholders.     

Is spatial dispersal the dominant trend in air transport development? A global analysis for 2006–2015

The economic performance of a city or region is considered to be intertwined with its air travel capability. It is thus important for planners and stakeholders to understand the changes in the global aviation network. This study investigates the global aviation network, taking 10 years worth's OAG data from the years 2006–2015 and examines whether a spatial dispersal trend dominates the development of the aviation industry. It considers the aviation network at the airport level, and the airport–city level, which may consist of one or more airports. After clarification of the various definitions of concentration, we find that there appears a trend toward a dispersal pattern in the global aviation network at the airport level. On the other hand, there appears a slight concentration at the airport–city level. Besides, there have been some major capacity expansions at airports in the Middle East and East Asia, while the capacities of some traditional hubs in Europe and North America have become increasingly constrained since the 2008 global financial crisis. Furthermore, our study provides further observations consistent with the phenomenon of bypassing of traditional hubs, especially mega-hubs. Competition for passengers among hubs and secondary airports, especially in multi-airport cities, is discussed.     

The Northeast Asian air transport network: is there a possibility of creating Open Skies in the region?

Unlike in the US and the European Union aviation markets, the Northeast Asian markets are still very fragmented. As a result, the passenger and air freight collection/distribution systems in the region are very inefficiently organized. The primary reason for the inefficient and inconvenient air carrier networks in the region is the restrictive bilateral air services agreements between Asian countries. This paper documents the nature and extent of the restrictive bilateral agreements among China, Japan and Korea, evaluates several bilateral or trilateral approaches for liberalizing the regional air transport markets, and makes a proposal which would increase substantially the probability of achieving an Open Skies market in the region. In particular, the current approach to liberalize the bilateral air services agreements among China, Korea and Japan has limitations even in the medium term because of China's and, to a less extent, Japan's reluctance to remove price and capacity restrictions. Therefore, as an institutional solution we propose to create bi-national (for bilateral negotiations) or tri-national (for trilateral negotiations) ‘Trade and Transport Facilitation Committees’, that can pursue a practical avenue to tie air transport negotiations with those of other goods and services trade.     

How is ICT use linked to household transport expenditure? A cross-national macro analysis of the influence of home broadband access

Understanding of the interactions between Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and physical mobility is a major area of research with practical applications in a number of fields. Very little, however, is known regarding how these relationships vary on a cross-national basis, including across countries at different stages in development. To address this gap, this paper presents an analysis of household transport expenditure as a function of the available variables, with a particular focus on the ICT. This analysis is based on a cross-sectional dataset from 2010 comprising information on 33 countries including average household transport expenditure, ICT represented by the percentage of households with Internet access at home, and a number of contextual macroeconomic and infrastructural variables.Using a log-log framework we find that, in our sample of countries, household transport expenditure is negatively associated with Internet penetration with an elasticity of − 0.394. We verify this to be robust to endogeneity using presence of restrictions on foreign ownership in the Internet market as an instrumental variable. We also control for potential differences in data quality across countries using the Corruption Perceptions Index. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to quantify this relationship at a cross-national level while also controlling for endogeneity and data quality issues. Among the control variables, we observe the estimated effects to be intuitive, and consistent with existing research and microeconomic understandings of the behaviour of individuals and households.     

Measuring airport quality from the airlines’ viewpoint: an application of data envelopment analysis

The main objective of this paper is to develop a model to determine the relative efficiency and quality of airports. This factor seems to have a strong effect on the airlines’ choice of hubs. Previous studies of airport quality have used subjective passenger data whereas in this study airport quality is defined from the airlines’ viewpoint. Accordingly, we have solicited airlines’ evaluations of a number of European and non-European airports by means of a detailed questionnaire. Statistical analysis of the median score has shown that these evaluations vary considerably relative to quality factors and airports. The key methodology used in this study to determine the relative quality level of the airports is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which has been adapted through the use of principle component analysis. Of the set of West-European airports analyzed, Geneva, Milan and Munich received uniformly high, relative efficiency scores. In contrast, Charles de Gaulle, Athens and Manchester consistently appear low in the rankings.     

Achieving destination competitiveness: an importance–performance analysis of Serbia

As a relatively new and under-researched tourism destination, Serbia provides an interesting context to assess destination competitiveness in conditions of global environmental changes and the additional challenges of transition from a socialist economy to a market-based economy. This article uses importance–performance analysis (IPA) to assess the importance of different activities to underpin tourism development in Serbia, as well as the industry's perceived performance in respect of these activities. There are a number of areas in which Serbian tourism industry considers itself to be underperforming in the implementation of activities to maintain destination competitiveness. This article analyses these results in detail using IPA as a diagnostic tool. Particular attention is paid to investigating the implications of the findings for both destination managers and private tourism operators in Serbia that can assist them to develop a focused action agenda to achieve and maintain destination competitive advantage. The approach can be used in other destinations to assess tourism ability to meet the challenges of global trends.     

Spatio-temporal evolution of cities and regional economic development in Nepal: Does transport infrastructure matter?

The literature on the New Economic Geography (NEG) suggests that transport cost is a major driving factor for the emergence of core–periphery patterns within a country. However, very few studies have tested this theoretical explanation in the context of transport infrastructure networks in developing countries. This paper takes a closer look at Nepal and tests four expectations that are drawn from the NEG, which highlight different aspects of the formation of core–periphery dynamic as determined by infrastructure quality. The expectations are tested by relating spatial-temporal patterns of road development to the growth and distribution of cities and examining the transport infrastructure contribution to shaping the patterns of regional economic development. We used intercity travel time estimates, based on the design speed of roads, length of sections and pavement type (from 1961 onwards in 10-year segments) as an indicator for the quality of infrastructure (transportation cost). Next, we computed hubness and accessibility indices of cities, defined by means of a gravity model and as a function of transportation cost, to undertake a cross-city comparison. We applied GIS mapping, multiple regression and mediation analysis techniques to relate these transport and accessibility characteristics to spatio-temporal patterns in city size and GDP per capita. Our study broadly confirms the core expectation derived from the NEG that transport improvements facilitate urbanization and that higher urbanization leads to higher regional GDP per capita. Two independent effects were identified in qualification of these overall patterns – the impact of market potential on city primacy and the impact of highly localized, immobile resources on GDP.     

Do the regional growth effects of air transport differ among airports?

This paper empirically studies the contribution of air transport to regional economic development in Germany. We find that the scale and direction of output effects of air services and airport infrastructure differ among airports. These differences are driven by ‘opportunity costs’ of airport capital and by positive output effects from air transport connectivity. We argue that the latter impacts potentially depend on traffic characteristics.     

Same city—different options: An analysis of the work trips of married couples in the metropolitan area of Oslo

The question raised in this paper is in which ways the urban structure interacts with or creates different conditions for activities made by men and women. To explore this question the paper focuses on the travel to work of married couples in an urban context, how they adapt time use and deal with the spatial choices of work places and the allocation of transport resources. The empirical analyses are based on a personal travel study from the Oslo-region in 1990/91. Women work closer to their homes than the husbands, and have less choice on the geographical labour market. In families with one car, the husband has the first choice. Women have more often tasks on the way to and from work related to household responsibilities.     

‘Devolution’ of transport powers to Local Government: Impacts of the 2004 Traffic Management Act in England

The concept of ‘Devolution’—the transfer of powers away from the Central Government to more local bodies of Government, has been used across many different areas of policy and by many different national governments. This paper examines the devolution of transport powers to the existing Local Traffic Authorities in England via the 2004 Traffic Management Act. The paper first presents a summary of how several different nations have undertaken this process of devolving transport powers and responsibilities to either new or existing bodies. It then presents research from an electronic survey concerning how English Local Traffic Aut`horities are choosing to use some of the new powers available to them and their opinion on complementary areas of transport policy. Research is also presented from structured telephone interviews, concerning how individual Local Authorities perceive the efficacy and equity of the new legislation. Overall, the results show that only some of these new powers are likely to be used by English Local Authorities, with limited variation in how different types of LTA are choosing to implement these new powers. The structured telephone interviews provided some evidence that rural Authorities in particular are more dissatisfied with the legislation and consider some of the measures unhelpful. The results provide some insights on the formulation of devolved policy applicable to existing Local Government bodies and the varying benefits that can be perceived to apply to different types of Local Authority. Conclusions are drawn on some of the practical difficulties arising from the English experience, and lessons of relevance are drawn for other nations considering a similar devolution of transport powers.     

Evaluating transport user benefits and social surplus in a transport market—The case of the Norwegian ferries

The article first infers how consumer surplus in a market is linked to revenue under different assumptions about fare elasticity and when using different types of demand functions. This information is added to producer surplus in order to derive social surplus. The method, thus, produces a simple approach for authorities to assess social surplus in a market and its benefits to the users. A modified exponential demand function is applied to calculate consumer surplus and social surplus for 97 ferry services in Norway regulated by the state. The calculations are based on empirical data concerning ferry fare, revenue data at service level and reasonable assumptions about fare point elasticity for services covering different distances.In 2007, these services generated welfare for the users (consumer surplus) and the society (social surplus) amounting to about 5.8 billion NOK and 4.3 billion NOK, respectively. Consumer surplus and social surplus varied considerably amongst the services. Only 3 of the 97 services operate with positive profits and, hence, without subsidies. About 21 of the services contribute negatively to social surplus. Many of these unprofitable services are the only transport alternatives in rural areas and could be argued to continue operation according to politically decided regional measures. Implicitly, maintaining all these 21 services means that the welfare for the people in these areas is valued as up to four times greater than the welfare of the people in the rest of society.     

Where does flygskam come from? The role of citizens’ lack of knowledge of the environmental impact of air transport in explaining the development of flight shame

A growing number of citizens are concerned about the environmental impact of air transport, and aviation has become synonymous with high carbon emissions and global warming, which has led to the development of flygskam (or flight shame) in Europe. While its impact on air traffic remains unclear, flight shame has forced the airline industry to react and better understand its origin. In this research, building on the growing literature on industry and organizational stigma, we assume that flight shame can be partly explained by a distorted public perception of the environmental impact of air transport. Accordingly, we investigate the level of knowledge of the environmental footprint of air transport. Based on a sample of 1018 French respondents, we reveal that more than 90% of respondents overestimate the share of air transport in global carbon emissions. We also show that 98% of the respondents underestimate the reduction in carbon emissions per passenger. Finally, we investigate the awareness of the measures taken by the industry to curb its carbon emissions and highlight, for instance, that 70% of respondents overestimate the fuel consumption of the newest generations of aircraft. Based on these results, we draw lessons for airlines and for the air transport industry to help cope with flight shame in Europe.     

The moderating role of past experience in the formation of a tourist destination's image and in tourists’ behavioural intentions

The aim of this work is to understand the moderating effects of tourists’ prior experiences of a given destination on the process of image formation (in both its cognitive and affective dimensions) for that destination and on the influence that the image – together with the tourist's satisfaction – has on their loyalty-driven behaviours as expressed in the intention to recommend. To achieve this aim, a sample of 512 tourists was used and a multi-group analysis performed, distinguishing between first-time and repeat visitors. The findings reveal that experience has a moderating effect on the formation of the cognitive image and on the influence of the tourist's satisfaction on the overall image of the tourist destination. These findings have significant management implications in the context of helping to create and appropriately manage the image of a tourist destination.     

What to assess to model the transport impacts of urban growth? A Delphi approach to examine the space–time suitability of transport indicators

Selection of right transport impact indicators of urban growth is challenging because the impacts vary both geographically and temporally. For example, congestion might be a problem in inner-city areas in a short-term but might not be detectable in a regional context event in the long-run. This paper contributes to address this challenge. First, the study systematically selects 23 transport impact indicators through a review of 62 indicators identified from the literature. Second, it evaluates and classifies their suitability in terms of space–time dyads through a two-round of Delphi survey involving 29 international experts. The experts reached a consensus that 12 (52%) indicators are suitable in various space–time dyadic combinations. Only “travel time” was identified as a suitable indicator for all three spatial (local, city, region) and two temporal (short-, long-term) scales. The findings serve as a guide for decision makers, transport modelers and planners to adopt indicators according to their scale of operation, and thus simplify the daunting task of suitable indicator selection process.     

Car-reduced neighborhoods as blueprints for the transition toward an environmentally friendly urban transport system? A comparison of narratives and mobility-related practices in two case studies

In the pursuit of sustainability, the concept of ‘car-reduced neighborhoods’ promises to decrease car ownership and increase car-independent mobility. However, mobility is not only designed from ‘above’ by planners and policymakers, but also shaped from ‘below’ by its practitioners and their contexts. Only a few studies currently bring together the perspective from ‘above’ and ‘below’ regarding car-reduced neighborhoods. This article therefore combines both perspectives by contrasting the narratives and the mobility-related practices of two German car-reduced urban residential areas. Firstly, we conduct interviews with various actors involved in the planning and implementation of both neighborhoods to identify the narratives. Secondly, we interview the residents to determine the mobility-related practices. Finally, we compare both empirical investigations to analyze the commonalities and differences of the ‘planning vision’ and the ‘lived practice’ of car-free living, car-independent mobility, and restrictive car parking. Although this study identifies differences between the two perspectives, the discrepancy is smaller than evaluated in earlier studies. After relocating to a car-reduced neighborhood, residents tend to maintain, strengthen, and adapt car-independent mobility practices rather than weakening car-independent mobility practices and maintaining car-dependent ones. Thus, residents seem to be encouraged to drive less and to leave their cars parked for most of the time. However, relocating to a car-reduced neighborhood does not automatically initiate full demotorization. Furthermore, residents' parking practices also sometimes deviate from the planning vision. Consequently, the article concludes that overcoming the ‘system’ of automobility for a ‘post-car system’ requires continuous (i) material and (ii) immaterial change fostered by political and planning readiness, as well as local willingness and public acceptability. In this regard, car-reduced neighborhoods can be seen as blueprints for a mobility transition.