Impacts of vehicle restrictions on urban transport flows: The case of Santiago,Chile

Regression models are employed to quantify the effects of vehicle restrictions on private and public transport passenger flows in Santiago, Chile using trip flow data for cars, buses and the city's Metro rail system. Estimates are derived for the effects of two restrictions: a permanent measure applied from April through August 2008 to vehicles without catalytic converters and additional measures that banned the use of vehicles with catalytic converters between 7:30 am and 9 pm on days declared as environmental “pre-emergencies” due to high air pollution levels. The estimates show that the permanent restriction had no impact on the use of private cars while the additional restriction curtailed their use by 5.5%. Also, on pre-emergency days the flow of passengers to the Metro increased by about 3% while the bus network showed no statistically significant increase. The pre-emergency restrictions thus had an effect on the ridership of the Metro but not on the bus network as alternatives to the use of private cars.     

Segmentation of passenger preferences for using digital technologies at airports in Norway

Airports are increasingly focused on implementing digital technologies at key stages of the airport journey to enhance the passenger experience. However, passengers have different preferences. TwoStep Cluster Analysis is used to reveal the presence of distinct segments according to their preferences. The findings are based on a survey of 6082 passengers at airports in Norway. Three distinct segments are identified: those that prefer traditional manual processes, those that prefer automated technology-based processes, and those that prefer more personalised technology-based processes. Significant differences are revealed for each segment according to passenger and trip characteristics and opinions regarding how the use of digital technologies at airports impact on personal privacy and human dignity. The findings contribute to knowledge on passenger preferences at airports and can help to inform airport decision making.     

Ride-sourcing compared to its public-transit alternative using big trip data

Ride-sourcing risks increasing GHG emissions by replacing public transit (PT) for some trips therefore, understanding the relation of ride-sourcing to PT in urban mobility is crucial. This study explores the competition between ride-sourcing and PT through the lens of big data analysis. This research uses 4.3 million ride-sourcing trip records collected from Chengdu, China over a month, dividing these into two categories, transit-competing (48.2%) and non-transit-competing (51.8%). Here, a ride-sourcing trip is labelled transit-competing if and only if it occurs during the day and there is a PT alternative such that the walking distance associated with it is less than 800 m for access and egress alike. We construct a glass-box model to characterise the two ride-sourcing trip categories based on trip attributes and the built environment from the enriched trip data. This study provides a good overview of not only the main factors affecting the relationship between ride-sourcing and PT, but also the interactions between those factors. The built environment, as characterised by points of interest (POIs) and transit-stop density, is the most important aspect followed by travel time, number of transfers, weather, and a series of interactions between them. Competition is more likely to arise if: (1) the travel time by ride-sourcing <15 min or the travel time by PT is disproportionately longer than ride-sourcing; (2) the PT alternative requires multiple transfers, especially for the trips happening within the transition area between the central city and the outskirts; (3) the weather is good; (4) land use is high-density and high-diversity; (5) transit access is good, especially for the areas featuring a large number of business and much real estate. Based on the main findings, we discuss a few recommendations for transport planning and policymaking.     

Improving interchanges in China: the experiential phenomenon

This paper examines the development of multimodal passenger rail hubs as part of the high-speed rail (HSR) network in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The instrumental, attitudinal and affective experience of the journey through the interchange is assessed from the user perspective. Surveys are used from three HSR stations: Beijing South, Chengdu East and Suzhou North (N = 150), representing three types of HSR stations, i.e. national capital, regional capital and sub-regional city. ‘Expected’ and ‘realised’ facilities are compared – with the difference representing the ‘disgruntlement’ factor (after Stradling et al., 2007).The unprecedented urbanisation process currently being witnessed in the PRC, together with the rapid development of the HSR network and associated multimodal interchanges, offers much opportunity to develop a leading-edge public transport system and urban development predicated on the use of public transport. Although the importance of intermodal interchange hubs is being increasingly recognised, the journey experience through the interchange often remains poor, with problems including Wi-Fi availability, waiting and seating, the availability of door-to-door ticketing, crowdedness, access to the hub, time of travel through and waiting in the hub. MANOVA analysis and factorial (three way) MANOVA analysis are used to explore the differences between intermodal hubs, with many instrumental and particularly attitudinal and affective factors being significantly influenced by location.     

Greenhouse gas emissions from flying can offset the gain from reduced driving in dense urban areas

Numerous studies have illustrated how denser urban forms lead to smaller greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from passenger transport. Many of these studies have excluded aviation since the association between urban structure and air travel is not as intuitive as it is the case of ground travel. However, several recent studies have concluded that air travel is a significant contributor to the GHGs from passenger transport. Furthermore, even air travel habits depend heavily on lifestyles and socio-economic factors that are related to the urban form. Here we analyse the interactions between urban structure and different transportation modes and their GHG impacts in Finland. The study utilises the data from the Finnish Transportation Agency’s passenger traffic survey from May 2010 to May 2011, which includes over 12 000 people and over 35 000 trips. The survey is based on one-day travel diaries and also includes additional data on long-distance trips from a longer period. Methodologically, the study takes a traveller’s perspective to assess the GHG emissions from passenger transport. We found that (1) air travel breaks the pattern where GHG emissions decrease with increasing density of urban structures, and (2) in the metropolitan region there is a clear trade-off between car-ownership and air travel in the middle income class. The main policy implication of our study is that air travel must be included in GHG assessments and mitigation strategies targeting travel behaviour. In dense urban regions, the emissions of air travel have the potential to offset the gain from reduced private driving.     

Life events and mobility milestones: Advances in mobility biography theory and research

The concept of mobility biographies has recently gained considerable currency in social-scientific transport research, reflecting increasing awareness of the long-term development of mobility practices. To complement existing work on the effects of major life events on mobility practices, we introduce the novel concept of ‘mobility milestones’, that is, mobility-related events across the life course that show a very high dependence on (infra)structural factors. Overall, the paper explicitly recognises the centrality of interactions between structural factors and human agency, thereby moving beyond a sole focus on individual travel behaviour.Initially, this paper reviews social and interdisciplinary research on mobility biographies, especially studies that use retrospective survey methodologies. Building on this review, we present an innovative online survey tool that has been deployed on the island of Ireland (n = 324) to record changes in individuals' mobility biographies and their connections with both life events and mobility milestones. This is followed by a discussion of key findings regarding the impact of starting college, residential relocation and changing employment, as well as buying a car or bicycle or getting a driving licence on individuals' modal choice.     

旅客旅行舒适度的需求分析

影响旅客舒适度的主要因素有人均占用面积、旅行时间、站车环境、运行平稳度和客运服务水平。不同职业和出行目的的旅客,对旅行舒适度的需求有所不同。铁路客运专线建设为旅客出行提供了更人性化的设计和高标准的软硬件环境,舒适度的改善将使旅客出行更加舒适愉快,也将进一步增强铁路客运的市场竞争力。     

Business travelers’ ticketing,refund, and exchange behavior

This study investigates when and why business travelers make changes to their airline itineraries. Results are based on tickets purchased over a 9-month period by employees of a university in Atlanta, US. The ability to track repeat passengers purchases across time allows analysis of how passenger cancellation behavior differs by frequency of travel as well as by carrier. Results indicate that frequent travelers and those purchasing from Delta versus AirTran are more likely to request ticketing changes. Other factors influencing cancellation behavior include the time from ticket purchase, time before flight departure, and whether the itinerary is for the outbound or inbound portion of a trip.     

Changing times – A decade of empirical insight into the experience of rail passengers in Great Britain

In the last decade the number of rail passenger journeys in Great Britain has increased by half and car trips per person are down by a tenth. Meanwhile there has been significant growth in internet use and ownership of smartphones. Travel patterns are changing in tandem with adoption of digital age innovations. At a time when Britain is also poised to invest tens of billions of pounds in high speed rail, this paper examines how the experience of rail passengers has changed from 2004 to 2014. It draws upon questions concerning travel time use designed by its first two authors that have been included in the National Rail Passenger Survey waves conducted in Autumn 2004, 2010 and 2014, yielding over 80,000 survey responses in total.The data reveal an ongoing decline of paper-based materials accompanying travellers in the face of increasing adoption of digital alternatives. The latter can, for many, make their journey time experience better. However, the significant increase from 2004 to 2010 in the proportion of passengers considering their time use to have been very worthwhile has not continued on to 2014. This appears to be attributable (in part) to increased crowding and reduced passenger satisfaction associated with rising demand for rail travel. The paper sets out empirical insights, drawing them together in the form of a diagrammatic depiction of the interplay of factors involved in rail passenger experience. This depiction is then used to consider the implications for the future of rail travel. While mobile technologies appear to be placing more control of passenger experience in the hands of the passengers themselves, there remain important imperatives for the rail industry to support positive use of travel time.     

Segmentation of passengers using full-service and low-cost carriers – Evidence from Taiwan

Low-cost carriers in Taiwan have rapidly drawn a large number of passengers away from full-service carriers in recent years. However, many passengers still stick with traditional airlines as their primary air carriers. These two groups of passengers should differ in terms of their personal and trip characteristics, valuations of factors in determining an airline, and perceptions of need for ancillary services. The present paper compares the profiles of passengers using different types of air services in Taiwan using data collected from an online survey and assesses the potential of principal component analysis with biplot technique to define different passengers based on their preferences of services and valuations of the importance of factors. Our study shows that passengers of full-service and low-cost carriers have different trip characteristics; principal component analysis is applicable for this context of passenger profile segmentations.     

The influence of socioeconomic characteristics,land use and travel time considerations on mode choice for medium- and longer-distance trips

This paper contributes to the limited number of investigations into the influence of the spatial configuration of land use and transport systems on mode choice for medium- and longer-distance travel (defined here as home-based trips of 50 km and over) in the Netherlands. We have employed data from the 1998 Netherlands National Travel Survey to address the question as to how socioeconomic factors, land use attributes, and travel time affect mode choice for medium- and longer-distance travel, and how their role varies across trip purposes: commuting, business, and leisure. The empirical analysis indicates that land use attributes and travel time considerations are important in explaining the variation in mode choice for medium- and longer-distance travel when controlling for the socioeconomic characteristics of travellers.     

Does the built environment make a difference? Additional evidence from the daily activity and travel behavior of homemakers living in New York City and suburbs

Homemakers, unlike employed people who have jobs and unemployed people who are seeking jobs, are a special group who do not have to spend time working out of the home, commuting to work, or looking for a job. Given that a regular job typically takes 9 h (This includes an assumed half-hour one-way commute time.) a day, the discretion to allocate their time is presumably much greater than other groups.In this paper, we focus our attention on homemakers’ activity and travel behavior in neighborhoods with different characteristics (e.g., very dense areas, dense areas, and suburbs). The question to be answered is quite simple: are there differences between travel behaviors of homemakers living in different types of neighborhoods? If yes, can these differences be attributed to differences in the built environment?The dataset used in the study is the Household Interview Survey (HIS) collected in 1997/1998 in the New York metropolitan area. We found significant differences in activity and travel related behavior by homemakers living in different types of neighborhoods. Compared to suburban homemakers, New York City homemakers spend more time on discretionary activities and less time on maintenance activities; use public transportation and walk more frequently; and conduct fewer trip chains. The study found that both individuals’ socio-economic characteristics and built environment appear to play a role in explaining behavior. A probably more important factor in explaining people’s time use behavior is the interrelationship between activities and trips, and between different types of activities.     

Analyzing passenger behavior in airport terminals based on activity preferences

Airport terminals are facilities that provide a variety of activities related to both the preparation of the passengers for their air trip (aeronautical) and their free time inside the terminal (non-aeronautical). In the last years, the number of non-aeronautical activities has substantially increased and significantly diversified both before and after the security checkpoint. The established role of non-aeronautical activities forces planners and managers to better understand passenger behavior. The potential of discrete choice models for the exploration of passenger behavior is analyzed in this paper. For the demonstration of the methodology, Lisbon Humberto Delgado International airport is used as a case study. Data is collected through a revealed and stated preference survey inside the terminal at the area before the security checkpoint. Activity-choice models are developed to identify the factors that affect the choices of the passengers over the area where they conduct non-aeronautical activities. Forecasts show that when increasing the percentage of passengers who conduct the check-in online and have planned their activities before arriving at the airport, the passengers’ preferences to conduct non-aeronautical activities only after the security checkpoint increase. This paper shows the contribution of developing discrete choice models in the better comprehension of passenger decisions over the activities they perform in an airport terminal.     

Mobility in different generations of older persons: The development of daily travel in different cohorts in Denmark,Norway and Sweden

In the Scandinavian countries Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the proportion of older people in the total population is expected to reach about 25% in 2060. The ageing of the population has a variety of social implications. One aspect of population ageing that has relatively little attention in the Scandinavian countries is the question of everyday mobility. The purpose of this paper is to get a better understanding of the activity and travel patterns of different groups of older people, examine how travel- and activity patterns are developing during the life course, study the changes over time and how the “new” generations of older people behave compared to the older ones. The method used is cohort analysis of National Travel Surveys from the three countries in a 20 years perspective. Results show a significant period effect in car ownership and use among older people in Denmark, Norway and Sweden with a clear increase during the past 20 years. This is especially true for women. The increase in the number of driver’s licence-holders and car availability is reflected in travel mode choice among older people: both men and women maintain their car-use habits at old age. Another clear finding is that older people today travel more than the comparable age groups 20–25 years ago: everyday trip rates are higher and activities outside home are more common. While commuting and work-related trips decline after retirement, shopping and leisure trips do not start to decline before high age. From the cohort analysis we see that leisure and shopping trips are maintained in the period after retirement, and the car is important to reach shopping malls, health service, leisure activities, visit relatives and other social company.     

Supporting the needs of special assistance (including PRM) passengers: An international survey of disabled air passenger rights legislation

Passengers who require special assistance at airports and on aircraft represent one of the fastest growing demographics for aviation worldwide. At some airports, annual growth in PRM (persons with reduced mobility) traffic is six times greater than the overall rate of passenger growth yet barriers to accessible air travel remain and disabled passengers continue to exhibit a lower propensity to fly than other travellers. In an attempt to aid disabled passengers’ accessibility to air travel, countries have introduced dedicated air passenger rights and consumer protection legislation which seeks to specifically address the needs of disabled travellers. These regulations typically state minimum service standards and levels of service provision that must be provided by air transport operators to enable disabled travellers to access air travel on an equal basis to other passengers. These legal interventions, however, have been developed on a country-by-country basis and this has created a lack of international regulatory alignment. This paper reports on the findings of an international survey of disabled air passenger rights legislation in 47 countries covering 20 aviation markets (the single market in the European Union and 19 other States). It identifies the differences in regulatory frameworks, highlights their implications for consumers and ultimately concludes by recommending the formation of more harmonised global policy making to better support the needs of special assistance passengers and facilitate their greater mobility by air.     

Exploring heterogeneity in travel time expenditure of aging populations in the Netherlands: results of a CHAID analysis

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the increasing literature on travel behavior and time use of the elderly. The Dutch National Travel Survey, administered in 2009, was used as a data source. First, various facets of activity-travel patterns of the elderly were compared against overall sample averages. Results indicate that the new generation of elderly people do not differ that much from other age groups in terms of their activity-travel behavior. Differences in behavior can be largely understood in terms of constraints acting on agendas. Moreover, travel patterns of elderly are affected by socio-demographic variables. Second, to further qualify the average findings, the Chi-square automatic interaction detection (CHAID) method was applied to explore heterogeneity among the elderly in terms of travel time expenditure. It is analyzed how differences in travel time co-vary with socio-demographics, in addition to activity type, activity duration and travel aspects. The results suggest that the aging population can be systematically broken down into several homogeneous cohort segments. Travel time of elderly groups depends significantly on transport modes, travel motivation, and seven socio-demographic variables (gender, age, living environment, personal net-income, household size and season). Moreover, there is less heterogeneity in travel time of elderly who are older than 75 years old. However, for younger elderly people, especially the group aged from 65 to 74 years old, heterogeneity affects their travel.     

How children view their travel behaviour: a case study from Flanders (Belgium)

Understanding the thoughts of contemporary children about travel and their opinions on different transport modes of transport may provide important answers for policy-makers on how to respond to current and future transport needs of children. Obviously, children do not act autonomously and their travel behaviours also strongly influence their parents’ travel behaviours. Therefore, a better understanding of children’s travel behaviours seems necessary.This paper reports the results of a large-scale, self-reporting survey (N = 2546) that was conducted to examine the concept and meaning of travel and travel behaviour of children aged between 10 and 13 years in Flanders. It was found that children are able to complete a travel diary on their own, that their travel patterns differ and that the most important part of travelling for them is the social aspect.     

机场进出场客流量分配模型及方法研究

以机场出发旅客为研究对象,分析不同交通方式下旅客进出场出行成本对交通方式选择的影响,构建了机场进出场不同交通方式下交通工具选择的均衡配流模型,并设计了求解该模型的灵敏度分析方法.构建模型主要基于旅客的选择行为,能够定量反映不同交通工具出行费用与其流量分担率间的变化关系.算例结果表明,构建的模型及其求解方法可行、有效.     

The effects of road infrastructure improvement on work travel in Northern Iceland

Work travel is an important alternative to out-migration in rural areas characterized by a limited range of jobs. The size of local labour markets is determined in part by geography and tradition, but advances in transportation have the potential to move people and communities closer together and transform established mindscapes. In Iceland, the dispersion of the rural population, a challenging terrain, and unpredictable weather has made road infrastructure improvements a key component in regional development strategies. A large-scale tunnel project completed in 2010 was intended to strengthen a vulnerable rural area on the northern coast and expand the urban labour market of the regional centre of Akureyri. Traffic surveys and resident surveys conducted before and after the tunnels show a substantial increase in 17–34 km work travel between rural communities. Work travel 61–77 km to and from the regional centre did however not increase. The average length of work travel has shortened but the increase in commuting yielded a net increase in total km commuted. The tunnels increased work travel irrespective of age and education, but increased work travel by women with children in the household in particular. The results suggest that large-scale road infrastructure improvements may substantially strengthen rural labour markets within a driving distance of 15–30 min, but may not extend the edge of micropolitan labour markets 45–60 min from an urban centre of less than 20 thousand inhabitants.