The implementation of road user charging and the lessons learnt: the case of Valletta,Malta

Whilst the theory on road pricing is well developed there are only a few schemes operating worldwide with others which have failed to be implemented. One scheme which has received relatively little attention is the Controlled Vehicular Access System (CVA) recently implemented in Valletta, Malta. This paper draws on the experience of Valletta with a move from a fixed annual charge (V-licence) for access into the city to a time-based road user charge implemented in May 2007. The aims of this paper are to identify the reasons why a fixed charge was initially introduced; to review the literature related to implementation of road user charging schemes around the world; to compare the V-licence with the CVA and identify the issues relating to the change from one scheme to another. Through the direct involvement of one of the authors in the design and implementation of the road user charge in Valletta, this paper is based on archival data, direct observation and qualitative interviews. This paper concludes on what lessons can be learnt from the case of Valletta for other cities contemplating the introduction of a road user charge.     

Achieving genuinely dynamic road user charging: issues with a GNSS-based approach

A variety of approaches to road user charging (RUC) for reducing congestion and raising revenue to maintain and improve transport infrastructure is in place in many countries; examples of such RUC include: an Electronic Fee Collection System in Singapore, Cordon Pricing in Oslo City in Norway, Zoned Based Pricing in London and Distance-Based Pricing (also called Pay-As-You-Drive) in Germany and Switzerland. With the development of satellite technologies, the introduction of dynamic pricing becomes possible, affording an opportunity for RUC to fully reflect the ‘Polluter Pays Principle’. This paper provides critical and comparative assessments of existing road user charging (RUC) systems with reference to technological limitations and public and political acceptability. The paper then goes on to demonstrate a system architecture for a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based dynamic road user charging system capable of considering dynamic variables. Finally we consider the feasibility of the proposed system in relation to technology readiness and public acceptability. We then consider some potential wider benefits from the introduction of a comprehensive system that could be highlighted to justify the cost of development and implementation as well as to improve public and political acceptability. The paper ends with conclusions and future research directions.     

Investigating users' travel behaviours and perceptions of single-corridor BRT: Lessons from Lahore

Despite the global popularity of bus rapid transit (BRT) in last couple of decades, there is limited empirical evidence in the rapidly urbanizing developing countries regarding corridor-wide users' typical travel characteristics and perceptions of the system attributes. The factors affecting BRT users' (dis)satisfaction are also often disregarded, given less priority than needed, or delayed till issues become more difficult and costlier to manage. Although on a rise, currently only ~10% of BRT systems worldwide are in lower-middle-income and low-income countries, which also supports the need to effectively address BRT passengers' mobility issues in such countries with cramped resources, contributing towards more sustainable urban mass transit systems. As major share of BRTs worldwide are single-corridors (~63%), this study investigates the above stated gaps using case of such BRT in the megacity of Lahore, Pakistan via on-site structured interview surveys using intercept method from BRT users along all stations of the corridor. Typical travel characteristics, correlations and cross-comparisons of sample demographics with mobility attributes, underlying (dis)similar themed factors ensuring internal consistency, and rankings of (dis)satisfactions regarding service attributes were evaluated using combination of statistical methods. Visual comparisons of factors in 2D and 3D rotated space were also explored. Results revealed differences in travel characteristics of BRT users for various demographics; convergence of eight factors from twenty-two service quality attributes; spectrum of highest, average and lowest ranked attributes; and inter-spatial relationship of service quality attributes based on the factors contributing relatively more variation. The overarching findings provide useful insights for transportation practitioners, policy makers and could also contribute towards updating BRT guidelines by incorporating the needs and requirements of BRT users in the developing countries.     

Transport and tourism: roadmap to integrated planning developing and assessing integrated travel chains

The article reviews planning strategies in tourism and transport based on experiences from a German project on event travel. Firstly, the concept of ‘travel chains’ is introduced as a way to create sustainable tourism products. These ‘travel chains’ combine travel and tourism activities, with particular attention to the ‘transit region’. Secondly, an assessment tool has been developed which aims to offer a practical approach to assessing the sustainability of transport services and packages. The concept of the measurement tool and the selection of indicators are presented and illustrated by the assessment of a ‘travel chain’ tested in the summer of 2003.     

Road user charging and business performance: identifying the processes of economic change

This paper presents the results of a survey of specialist knowledge concerning the processes of economic change that could impact business performance in city centres surrounded by road user charging cordons. The responses to charging operate in a complex and cyclical process, but the general trajectory and pattern of impacts show that charging with hypothecation may in the longer term enhance business performance in city centres. However, an overriding concern is how long it will take before the improvements reach their full effect. A number of key issues are identified for implementation of charging interventions including the need for greater awareness of the concerns of the business community, and their involvement in the planning process.     

Network structure and travel patterns: explaining the geographical disparities of road network vulnerability

Inevitably, links in the road network are sometimes disrupted because of adverse weather, technical failures or major accidents. Link closures may have different economic and societal consequences depending on in which regions they occur (regional importance), and users may be affected differently depending on where they travel (regional exposure). In this paper we investigate in what way these geographical disparities depend on the road network structure and travel patterns. We propose aggregate supply-side (link redundancy, network scale, road density, population density) and demand-side (user travel time, traffic load) indicators and combine them in statistical regression models. Using the Swedish road network as a case study, we find that regional importance is largely determined by the network structure and the average traffic load in the region, whereas regional exposure is largely determined by the network structure and the average user travel time. Our findings show that the long-term vulnerability disparities stem from fundamental properties of the transport system and the population densities. Quantitatively, they show how vulnerability depends on different variables, which is of interest for robust network design.     

Gravity models for dynamic transport planning: Development and implementation in urban networks

This paper describes the development and comparison through a real-life implementation of dynamic extensions of the entropy-based gravity model of trip distribution for dynamic transport planning purposes in urban networks. The single dynamic gravity model (SDGM) accounts only for the inter-period (long-term) evolution of travel demand. The doubly dynamic gravity model (DDGM) takes into account both the inter-period and intra-period (short-term or within-day) evolution of travel demand. The computational analysis and explanation of the differences between the two models are demonstrated in relation to different demand inputs, model parameters and performance measures.     

Using the land-use planning process to secure travel plans: an assessment of progress in England to date

A travel plan is a package of measures implemented by an organisation to encourage people who travel to/from that organisation to do so by means other than driving alone by private car. This paper advances two principal arguments: firstly, that the planning system and maximum parking standards as part of it are the main factors leading to travel plan development in England today; and, secondly, that the difficulties of using the planning system in this way means that there is a risk that many of these travel plans are unlikely to have a great deal of influence on travel patterns, making it more unlikely that they will achieve the predicted impact on travel behaviour change, as contained in the important study and report “Smarter Choices” (Department for Transport, 2004).This paper presents results from a survey of planning and transport authorities in England, which obtained a 62% response rate from the 139 authorities contacted. It also uses the results of 18 interviews with local authority and Highways Agency staff involved in securing travel plans through the planning process. The survey found that the planning process (as opposed to voluntary efforts) is indeed the main means by which travel plans are now secured. In addition, maximum parking standards were shown to have a major influence on travel plan formation for organisations going through the planning process. There are however reasons to doubt that all of the travel plans secured through the planning process are effective. This is because:

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Many local authorities use only planning conditions and not the more flexible (but complex) obligations which would allow more complex travel plans to be secured.

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There is a lack of monitoring of travel plans in many authorities.

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There is evidence that in many authority areas there are travel plans in breach of legal agreements, but these breaches are not enforced, reportedly due to a lack of monitoring, resources, and other organisational issues.

The paper discusses the reasons for these findings and also makes a number of suggestions as to how the planning system could be improved as a means of securing travel plans.     

Religious obligations to travel: first-generation Pakistani migrants from Newcastle-upon-Tyne

This article analyses the religious travel experiences of members of the first generation of the Muslim Pakistani diaspora living in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK drawing upon qualitative interpretations collected from semi-structured interviews. Religious travel for first-generation Muslim Pakistanis is influenced by Islamic principles and practices associated with obligations to travel to meet with friends and relatives. Religious obligations to travel are considered as a key factor influencing visiting friends and relatives (VFR) mobilities at a local and national level. The religious obligation associated with VFR travel is examined in view of one of the five pillars of Islam, which is salah (prayer), which stimulates various mobilities. Central to the analysis of religious-orientated (VFR) journeys are the conceptual underpinnings of obligations situated in the mobilities paradigm, which give rise to understandings of spiritualities of place. Religious obligations to travel unite the Muslim diaspora in various local (in Newcastle-upon-Tyne) and national (UK) settings. The contribution of this paper is, therefore, to advance the understanding of the relationship between Islam and travel, and add to existing knowledge of the journeys of Muslim travellers in the context of VFR travel. We conclude by suggesting further avenues of research concerning religious obligations to travel.     

Expanding the positive utility of travel through weeklong tracking: Within-person and multi-environment variability of ideal travel time

Travel has been found to have a positive utility—often measured as a desire for non-zero travel time. Although past studies have found that desired travel time varies by trip attributes, they often focused on a single trip purpose (e.g., commute) or single time point (e.g., peak period of one day) and rarely captured variation within individuals and across multiple travel environments. To address these limitations, we employed a smartphone-based travel behavior survey of 186 users making 4397 trips in the Washington, DC, and Blacksburg, VA metropolitan areas. For each user, multiple trips were recorded and the user was asked to repeatedly report on the ideal travel time for each trip. We found that desired travel time varied across different trip environmental characteristics and purposes. Ideal travel time was longer for active travel trips, leisure trips, weekend trips, and when the user conducted activities during trips (e.g., talking, using the phone, looking at the landscape) and traveled with companions. Our study suggests the need for more realistic estimation of the value of travel time savings and the need for quantifying the effect of multitasking during travel on people's willingness to reduce travel time. Practitioners should also consider providing better urban infrastructure for pedestrians and bicyclists to fulfill their trips, as their ideal travel times closely match actual travel times.     

A cointegration analysis of bilateral air travel flows: The case of international travel to and from the United States

Demand for international air travel has risen over the past decade causing international visitation to the US to reach a record high in 2012. This paper assesses the dynamic impacts of GDP, exchange rate, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks on bilateral air travel flows between the US and its 11 major travel and trading partners. An autoregressive distributed lag modeling approach is employed to estimate short- and long-run relationships between variables. Long-run results demonstrate foreign GDP as the major determinant of demand for inbound travel to the US and US GDP is a crucial factor affecting demand for outbound travel from the US. These findings support a strong linkage between economic growth and demand for international air travel. The real exchange rate has relatively little impact on the bilateral air travel flows. The US dollar appreciation against foreign currencies is found to reduce demand for inbound travel to the US, while having mixed effects on outbound travel from the US. In the short-run, economic growth tends to be a primary factor influencing international travel flows to and from the US. The 9/11 market shock has a detrimental short- and long-run effect on the bilateral air travel flows, implying that the impact of 9/11 is prolonged in international air travel markets.     

Telework and daily travel: New evidence from Sweden

Telework, long promoted as a way to reduce daily travel and address congestion problems, has been extensively studied in transport research. Empirical consensus has long held that telework reduces overall travel, but several updated studies now suggest the opposite. Meanwhile, telework has steadily increased in many countries, and few studies have examined contexts where regular teleworkers have grown to form an early majority. We study how telework influences daily travel in such a context, namely, Sweden from 2011 to 2016. Using representative micro-data from the Swedish National Travel Survey, this study also captures travel behaviour during the defined period when the telework was actually practiced, distinguishing different telework arrangements and analysing a range of travel behavioral outcomes. We conclude that telework leads to reduced travel demand, more use of active transport modes, and congestion relief. Important differences between full- and part-day teleworkers are also highlighted, stressing the importance of understanding telework as a diversified coping strategy for organizing the spatiotemporality of everyday life.     

Built environment effects on leisure travel for children: Trip generation and travel mode

This study empirically analyzed the effects of built environment on leisure travel among children. Students of three elementary schools, namely Yangmingshan, Sanyu and Shilin, all located in the Shilin District of Taipei, were chosen to provide sample data. The negative binomial regression model and multinomial logit model were used to analyze trip generation and travel mode, respectively. This study reached the following empirical findings: (1) mixed land use, employment density, walkway quality, leisure facility supply and leisure travel distance encouraged generation of leisure trips for children; (2) intersection density, building density, employment density and walkway quality encouraged a child to use transit systems or non-motorized travel modes for leisure travel; and (3) vehicle density and leisure travel distance discouraged walking and biking but encouraged the use of transit systems for leisure travel involving children. Local government can use the empirical findings of this study to develop urban planning strategies to encourage children to perform leisure activities outside the home using transit systems or non-motorized travel modes.     

Models of crisis management: an evaluation of their value for strategic planning in the international travel industry

Tourism is particularly prone to external shocks, which by their nature are unpredictable and need to be addressed through effective crisis management processes. The paper reviews the literature relating to crisis management in tourism and identifies and briefly critiques several models that have been developed to help managers in their strategic planning for such contingencies. The terrorist attacks of ‘9/11’ are used as an exemplar of the type of external shock that can lead to crisis if travel industry managers fail to take immediate and decisive action. This paper discusses the reactions of leading UK based tour operators to the terrorist attacks and a case study is presented to examine the reaction of a particular company to ‘9/11’ and to review the ‘turnaround’ strategies used. The crisis management process model is compared and contrasted with the steps actually undertaken at the company. It is evident that there are wider lessons for the travel industry including the need to: integrate crisis management with strategic planning processes, prepare detailed contingency plans, define decisional roles and responsibilities, and to retain a degree of flexibility. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial planning,mobilities and culture—Chinese and New Zealand student preferences for Californian travel

Itineraries are under‐researched within tourism, which is arguably strange given their potential importance as determinants of visitor expenditure distribution, and how itinerary planning may become a tool of destination management in determining which areas are most affected by visitor flows, whether positively or negatively. This exploratory study required students in New Zealand and the Peoples' Republic of China to draw maps of potential trips to the south‐west of the USA in order to assess to what degree differences might exist as to (i) preferred places to visit; (ii) durations of stay; (iii) speeds of dispersion and concentration at the points of embarkation and disembarkation (in this instance Los Angeles); and (iv) total distances travelled. Differences were indeed found, and ethnicity appeared to be the main explanatory variable for the differences. Chinese students were found to travel slightly less, not to become so dispersed overall, but were also found to have higher rates of dispersion and slower rates of concentration at the commencement and at the end of the trip. The itineraries also suggest a further triangular pattern of travel that can be added to the categories identified by Oppermann. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Combining travel and population data through a bivariate spatial analysis to define Functional Urban Regions

The aim of this paper is to provide support to the issue of defining Functional Urban Regions (FURs). We carried out an exploratory study in which both commuting trips and population data were used in a combined setting. To do this, Bivariate Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis was used, enabling permuted analyses of the variables considered. The municipalities of São Paulo state, Brazil, were used in the case study investigated in this research. We observed that this combined analysis has more satisfactory results when compared to the analyses of variables in an isolated way. There is also a greater correlation of the results obtained from bivariate analysis with the official delimitations. Considering the possible permuted analyses, which are travel data versus population or population versus travel data, the first showed more reliable results in terms of identifying municipalities with strong correlations between the two variables. This can be observed both in areas within official FURs and throughout the territory, highlighting the areas of regional influence.     

Demand for leisure air travel and limits to growth

This paper discusses methodologies for analysing the existence of limits to growth of leisure air travel and defines the concept of demand maturity. It considers the air market as one of a number of inter-related travel markets and applies these concepts to a UK case study. The paper concludes that the UK air international leisure travel market is only at the early stages of maturity; whilst the overall leisure travel market seems to be much nearer to full maturity. This means that if UK air travel is still to experience healthy growth rates, it must be at the expense of the growth of some other UK travel market.