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.     

Cyclists' exposure to air pollution and road traffic noise in central city neighbourhoods of Montreal

It is well known that bicycling in urban areas has beneficial effects on people's health and well-being. On the other hand, urban cycling, especially during the morning and evening commute, may be associated with health and safety risks due to potentially high levels of exposure to air pollution, road noise, and high traffic density. Few studies have, however, measured cyclists' exposure to noise and air pollution simultaneously.The objective of this research is to evaluate cyclists' exposure to air pollution and noise in central city neighbourhoods of Montreal and to identify the impact on exposure of associated local factors such as weather conditions, the day and time, the type of road, bicycle path or lane used and the characteristics of the immediate environment around the cyclist's route.A total of 85 bicycle trips were analyzed, representing 422 km of travel and nearly 25 h of data collection. The mean exposure levels were 70.5 dB(A) for noise and 76 μg/m³ for nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). A very weak negative correlation was found between the two measures of exposure (R² = − 0.07, p = 0.005).The results of the spatial regression models show that the morning commute and trips on collector roads and on-street bike lanes and shared bike lanes have significant and positive impacts on exposure to air pollution and noise. On the other hand, some factors are only significant for one or the other of the two types of exposure.     

En-route weather and place valuations for different transport mode users

With the increasing societal interest in climate change, mostly separated strands of literature have investigated the travel-behavioural, thermo-sensational and environmental–psychological effects of weather on people in everyday life. This research conceptually and statistically integrates these fragmented insights. Drawing on unique Greater Rotterdam (The Netherlands) travel diary data enriched with hourly meteorological and spatial route attributes, we analyse how weather affects different transport mode users’ en-route place valuations in terms of liveliness, friendliness and aesthetics. Our main findings indicate that windy, cloudy, cold (<15 °C) or too hot (⩾25 °C) weather conditions negatively affect en-route place valuations, either directly or through lower thermal comfort. Active mode users generally value their route surroundings more positively than motorised transport modes, however they also appear more strongly affected by weather in their thermal experiences and place valuations. Policy makers are advised to expand climate-sensitive urban planning along active transport mode infrastructures.     

Active-transport walking behavior: destinations,durations, distances

This paper fills a gap in our knowledge of active-transport (AT) walking, by presenting detailed aspects of walking behavior for a medium-sized North American city. It analyzes the frequency and length of walking episodes, categorized by origins, purposes, and destinations, and also investigates distance-decay functions for major destinations. The study employs day-after recall time diary and questionnaire data from the 2007–8 Space–Time Activity Research (STAR) survey conducted in Halifax, Canada. GPS co-ordinate data enhanced the accuracy of location information, start times, and end times of the 1790 AT walking episodes, while GIS software was used to compute a shortest-path distance between the origin and destination of each episode.Home is both the most common origin and destination for AT walks, and the most common purpose is travel-to-shop rather than travel-to-work. Most walks are to non-home locations, such as retail establishments and offices. Particularly important are restaurants and bars, grocery stores, shopping centers, banks, and other services. All major destinations show strong distance-decay effects: most walks are shorter than 600 m, and very few exceed 1200 m. The assumption employed in the walkability literature, that one should restrict the ‘neighborhood of opportunity’ to walking destinations within 1000 m of the home, is seen to be well justified. However, a planning policy focus on the walker’s home neighborhood is revealed as questionable, since the majority of walking trips do not originate from the home. The relationship between urban land-use patterns and walkability may therefore require some rethinking.     

Towards an understanding of a child’s cruise experience

The current studies on cruise tourism lack an exploration of children’s cruise experience. The aim of this article is to obtain a deeper understanding of children’s cruise experience in the following phases: the pre-cruise decision and planning phase; the on-board engagement phase; and the reinterpretation and evaluation phase. Following an inductive qualitative approach, three sets of interviews (one for each phase) were conducted with 12 children (aged 4–14 years). The findings revealed that children play a very important role in choosing the cruise company and that while on board children want to have a certain level of autonomy so that they can co-create their own memorable cruise experience. This study contributes to the overall theory of children’s tourism experience. The managerial implications for cruise companies are outlined.     

Design speeds and acceleration characteristics of bicycle traffic for use in planning,design and appraisal

This paper reports the results of a study of a cohort of cyclists to determine their speed and acceleration characteristics relative to gradient and other influencing factors in order to supply data for planners, designers and appraisers of cycle infrastructure schemes. A cohort of everyday cyclists was supplied with a global positioning system device and a heart rate monitor and asked to collect data from their journeys in Leeds, UK.The analysis determines the cyclists’ speeds and accelerations at every point on their journey and elevation data, corroborated by mapping information, was used to determine the gradient. Two linear regression models of speed and acceleration were estimated and show that the influence of a downhill gradient on speed is less pronounced than the effect of an uphill gradient. The results indicate an eighty-fifth percentile speed on the flat of 22 kph, and for a downhill gradient of 3%, 25 kph. The power required to cycle has been estimated and shows that cyclists deliver around 150 W on the flat, but that this rises to around 250 W climbing hills. Mean acceleration on the flat is 0.231 m/s² and the average power output over the acceleration phase, which is of mean duration 26 s, is approximately 120 W. Air resistance accounts for approximately 70% of the resistive force when cycling at design speed.It is recommended that designers adopt 25 kph as a design speed for gradients less than 3%, but that consideration should be given to design speeds of up to 35 kph for steeper gradients. Free-flow speeds in this range should be used when modelling mode and route choices and in benefit appraisal.     

Continuity and change in American urban freeway networks

The American Interstate Highway System was created in 1944, though construction did not commence until 1956. During the planning process for this network the blueprint for American urban freeway systems was set in 1955 by a federal document called the Yellow Book. This provided about 100 maps of cities with planned urban freeway locations for the Interstate Highway System. A set of three basic network patterns were applied to these cities based on their size and location. In the half century since 1955 urban freeways in the Interstate System have expanded from a planned 2000 miles to over 16,600 miles, along with another 11,500 miles of non-Interstate freeways. The number of large metropolitan areas has increased tremendously while the monocentric commuting patterns of have been transformed. This paper explores how these urban freeway systems were applied to the country's urban geography of the 1950s and how they have adapted to changing populations and other transformations in American metropolitan areas in the last half century.     

Luxury-cruise travellers’ brand community perception and its consequences

This study examines the roles of brand community and brand differentiation in the context of the luxury-cruise market. Employing a brand community integration scale, an online survey was conducted with 300 luxury-cruise customers in the USA. The results of structural equation modelling provided six findings as follows: (1) three of the four dimensions of brand community, namely the relationship with the cruise brand, the cruise product, and other cruisers, had positive effects on brand distinctiveness; (2) brand distinctiveness had positive effects on emotional brand attraction; (3) emotional brand attraction had positive effects on active engagement and repurchase intentions; (4) the corporate social responsibility image moderated the link between the relationship with other cruisers and brand distinctiveness; (5) customers’ desire for unique products moderated the relationship between brand distinctiveness and emotional brand attraction; and (6) service-use self-efficacy moderated the relationship between emotional brand attraction and active engagement. The results provide a deeper theoretical and practical understanding of the luxury-cruise market.     

Representation of Cruise: Cruisers and Noncruisers Cross Views

The article demonstrates the interest in using social representations as a tool of analysis in the representation of cruise for cruisers and noncruisers. The main objective of this study is to identify and to compare social representations of cruise for these groups. The article is based on a review of the social representation theory literature. Using multiapproach methods focused on organizing principles, the results indicate some resemblance and many differences between both representations. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed before the article concludes with limitations and directions for future research. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rail access charges and the competitiveness of high speed trains

This paper examines rail access charges for high speed trains on new high speed lines in Europe and the impact these have on the market position of high speed rail. It examines the latest evidence on the marginal infrastructure and external costs of high speed rail, finding that the best evidence is that these are both not more than 2 €/train-km. However, current legislation states that environmental costs should not be charged for unless they are charged for on competing modes. Mark ups based on Ramsey pricing principles might reasonably raise prices by 100–200%, given that infrastructure charges are only a part of the final price of rail. The paper then examines the actual prices charged in the main European countries operating high speed trains and the impact these are likely to have on traffic levels and mode split. It is found that mark ups often exceed even the optimal Ramsey levels, with a significant impact on rail volumes and market share. It is concluded that, whilst it is not surprising that governments wish to recover some of the construction costs of new high speed rail lines from users, they should consider carefully whether the level of charges is actually significantly reducing traffic on and benefits from these lines.     

Land use characteristics of subway catchment areas and their influence on subway ridership in Seoul

This study has dual research objectives: 1) to evaluate the land use characteristics of the pedestrian catchment areas (PCA) of subway stations in the Seoul metropolitan area (SMA) in terms of transit-oriented development (TOD) principles and 2) to investigate the influence of each PCA's land use characteristics on station-level ridership. The major findings can be summarized as follows. First, the built environments of subway PCAs in Seoul were found to be compatible with TOD principles in terms of density and diversity. They have declining density gradients of population and employment that extend outward from a station and have a high level of mixed-use land.Second, population and employment densities, land use mix diversity, and intermodal connectivity all have a positive impact on subway ridership, but differ in their spatial ranges. In particular, the influence spans of residential and commercial development patterns (population density and the proportion of commercial land) and mixed land use on ridership were limited to only the core and primary PCAs. Consequently, with respect to TOD in a compact city like Seoul, we recommend that a PCA be defined to encompass a radius of 600 m.     

A supply chain network design model for biomass co-firing in coal-fired power plants

We propose a framework for designing the supply chain network for biomass co-firing in coal-fired power plants. This framework is inspired by existing practices with products with similar physical characteristics to biomass. We present a hub-and-spoke supply chain network design model for long-haul delivery of biomass. This model is a mixed integer linear program solved using benders decomposition algorithm. Numerical analysis indicates that 100 million tons of biomass are located within 75 miles from a coal plant and could be delivered at $8.53/dry-ton; 60 million tons of biomass are located beyond 75 miles and could be delivered at $36/dry-ton.     

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.     

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.     

Island cruise tourism development: a resident's perspective in the context of Italy

Most studies that examine tourism impacts and community attitudes have been carried out from the perspective of the tourism sector as a whole, with very few papers focusing on specific types of tourism and/or analysing tourists' preferences for specific types of tourism segment. This paper discusses some pertinent issues in relation to cruise tourism development and community attitudes in a port of call cruise destination located in the island of Sicily (Southern Italy). Specifically, this study was carried out using a quota random sample of 1500 responses, which is representative of the population of Messina at 1% level. Findings show that residents express an overall positive attitude towards cruise tourism development even if it is not the most preferred when compared to other types of tourism (cultural tourism, sport tourism, and sun and sea tourism). Further, they highlight that significant differences based on socio-economic and demographic characteristics (age, gender, reliance on cruise-related employment, level of education, geographical proximity to tourist areas and port, length of residency and frequency of interaction with tourists) exist in residents' perceptions and attitudes towards cruise tourism development. Implications for policy-makers are discussed and suggestions for further research are given.     

Development and test of the Perceived Accessibility Scale (PAC) in public transport

Perceived accessibility, defined as “how easy it is to live a satisfactory life using the transport system”, is proposed to be a complementary measure to conventional, objective measures of accessibility. Aiming at capturing the subjective element of accessibility, as opposed to conventional accessibility that is based on the same objective attributes for large areas or groups of people, the authors developed and tested a measure of perceived accessibility; the four items self-reported Perceived Accessibility Scale (PAC). In study 1, 237 users of public transport rated PAC. The results showed that PAC is a reliable measure. The PAC was further validated and proved reliable in two waves (study 2) in altered conditions (Wave 1, N = 246, Wave 2, N = 259). Based on this, an overall PAC index was constructed. PAC can be used to determine the traveler's (or possible travelers) opinion of accessibility in transport planning or accessibility-mapping, or for directing interventions aimed at improving accessibility to where they are best needed according to the individuals. Further development of the PAC and its potential within transport research and planning, and its future validation is discussed.     

Complaints caused by aircraft operations: an assessment of annoyance by noise level and time of day

The impact of aircraft movements on the local community surrounding an international airport was investigated using airport data on complaints, noise monitoring, aircraft flight paths and movements to assess annoyance due to noise level and time-of-day. As predicted, the louder the noise the more complaints were generated, with twice the complaints per movement at 110–114 PNdB compared with 74–79 PNdB.The hourly patterns in flight frequency and complaints were clearly distinct. Calculations of the complaints per aircraft movement for each hour of the day showed a striking 24 h pattern with night flights (23.00–06.00) causing on average nearly five times more complaints than the rest of the day (06.00–23.00). The time of the greatest propensity to complain about aircraft noise was between 01.00 and 02.00 and the lowest between 08.00 and 09.00.The circadian pattern in sensitivity to aircraft noise could be used to inform the development of airport operations and flight movements to minimize community disturbance.     

Planning for competitive port expansion on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard: the case of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project

With the expansion of the Panama Canal, port cities along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard are competing to attract the increased trade expected once the project is complete in 2015. Competition includes extensive investment in projects for port expansion, dredging, and multimodal transportation for greater hinterland connectivity, fueled in part by uncoordinated federal port investments without a larger strategic vision for national port and trade infrastructure. One of the competing ports is in Savannah, Georgia, which is the country’s fourth busiest container port. Savannah is about to embark on a $652 million project that will dredge thirty-two miles of the Savannah River from 42 to 47 feet to attract and accommodate Post-Panamax container ships. The paper analyzes the geographic coastal impacts of port competition, and looks at the unique circumstances of the Greater Savannah Metropolitan Region in planning for future growth of its port. The case illustrates the geographic tensions of uncoordinated maritime freight and logistics planning with fragile coastal and riparian ecologies. The dramatic interventions in port excavation also demonstrate how global forces of technological change and port expansions in other parts of the world are reshaping local geographies.     

Relationships between commuting distance,frequency and telework in Finland

The average commuting distance in Finland has increased steadily during recent decades. Daily long-distance commuting especially increases the number of vehicle-kilometres travelled. The aim of this work was to determine the relationship between commuting distance and frequency. The focus was on direct impacts of telework on commuting, but the significance of second apartments close to the workplace was also estimated. The empirical analyses were based on aggregate national data concerning commuting distances and a survey providing data of 19 000 employed respondents. The results of the study indicated that telework reduced by 0.7% the total kilometres travelled in Finland. The probability of working at home increases with commuting distance, but when the commuting trip exceeds 100 km a second apartment near the workplace becomes common and has a stronger impact on commuting kilometres travelled than telework.     

PM,NOx and CO2 emission reductions from speed management policies in Europe

Speed reduction measures rank among the most common schemes to improve traffic safety. Recently many urban streets or entire districts were converted into 30 kph zones and in many European countries the maximum permissible speed of trucks on motorways is under discussion. However, besides contributing to traffic safety, reducing the maximum speed is also seen as beneficial to the environment due to the associated reduced fuel consumption and lower emissions. These claims however are often unsubstantiated.To gain greater insight into the impact of speed management policies on emissions, this paper examines the impact on different traffic types (urban versus highway traffic) with different modelling approaches (microscopic versus macroscopic). Emissions were calculated for specific types of vehicles with the microscopic VeTESS-tool using real-world driving cycles and compared with the results obtained using generalized Copert-like macroscopic methodologies. We analyzed the relative change in pollutants emitted before and after the implementation of a speed reduction measure for passenger cars on local roads (50–30 kph) and trucks on motorways (90–80 kph). Results indicate that emissions of most classic pollutants for the research undertaken do not rise or fall dramatically. For the passenger cars both methods indicate only minor changes to the emissions of NO_x and CO₂. For PM, the macroscopic approach predicts a moderate increase in emissions whereas microscopic results indicate a significant decrease. The effects of specific speed reduction schemes on PM emissions from trucks are ambiguous but lower maximums speed for trucks consistently result in lower emissions of CO₂ and lower fuel consumption. These results illustrate the scientific uncertainties that policy makers face when considering the implementation of speed management policies.