Drivers’ acceptance of automatic speed limiters: implications for policy and implementation

It has been suggested that speed limiters will have the most impact on vehicle speeds and hence road safety in general. Whilst it is technically feasible to develop a functional speed control system, it may be more difficult to design a system that drivers actually wish to use. It is essential that drivers’ acceptability towards speed limiters is gauged in order to establish the most effective way to implement the system. The research reported here used a variety of techniques to evaluate acceptability and concluded that although drivers perceive speed limiters to be effective in reducing accidents, there is a need to change perceptions about possible impacts on comfort and safety.     

Predicting truck driver turnover

We propose a decision tool for truckload carriers that can help control driver turnover rates. Our approach is to use an existing econometric method, along with the drivers’ work data, to predict the quit probability of each driver on a weekly basis, so that carriers can identify a subset of drivers who are “about to quit” in a timely manner. Empirical results from two case studies indicate that our approach does a nice job of predicting driver exits, and that it may become a useful management decision tool. Our method was recently adopted by two US truckload carriers.     

The impact of highway safety regulation enforcement activities on motor vehicle fatalities

This paper analyzes the influence of highway safety regulation enforcement efforts on motor vehicle fatalities. It estimates a regression model in which such deaths depend on these efforts as well as economic conditions, driver characteristics, government regulations, and locational factors, using 1973–2000 annual Ohio data. Statistically significant results indicate that the enforcement measure of drunk driving arrests saves lives. They also suggest that highway deaths increase with the following: better economic conditions, greater alcohol consumption, larger proportions of young and old drivers, higher speed limits, and more driving on rural roads. The trend in deaths is downward.     

Driver speed compliance in Western Australia: a multivariate analysis

The importance of identifying factors affecting speeding is related to Police and insurance evidence of speeding as a contributor to road crashes, particularly those involving fatalities and serious injuries. Most of the literature on the causes of speeding regards speeding as a feature of risky driver behaviour or careless driving habits. Some of the literature also refers to the importance of vehicle and road environment features. Studies in Australia and overseas have looked at these factors and their relationship to spot speeds or average speed using bivariate analysis. Few studies have looked at the relative contribution of factors to driver speed compliance. In this study, an ordinary least squares regression procedure estimates that 62% of the variation in vehicle speeds can be explained by variables related to the road environment and vehicles. Moreover, it seems that drivers use posted speed limits as targets rather than delimiters and choose vehicle speeds based on factors other than the desire to be non-compliant. Policymakers intent on improving road safety should redress instances of mismatch between road design and posted speed limits and the possibilities of differential rules for rural/urban, day/night and weekday/weekend driving.     

The impact of the minimum driver licensing age on mobility in New Zealand

In the year to August 2002, 15% of the New Zealand road toll was attributed to 15–19 year-old drivers. This is the highest percent of casualties by any five-year age group, with the motor vehicle accident risk peaking at 16 years of age. New Zealand has the highest road accident statistic for this age group in the motorised world. It has been proposed that the driver licensing age be raised from 15 to 17 years of age. A 1998 Parliamentary Select Committee rejected the final proposal of a minimum driver licensing age of 16, on the grounds that such a rise would disadvantage rural youth through less accessible employment, educational facilities, social, and recreational activity, due to inadequate transport alternatives. This paper presents the results of research that examined the impact of the minimum driver licensing age on youth mobility. High school students were surveyed through interviews, questionnaires and travel diaries. It was concluded that the social benefits of raising the minimum driver licensing age to 17 years of age outweighed the social benefits of the status quo, as only minimal number of essential trips were totally dependent on youth acquisition of a driver licence.     

An analysis of drivers route choice behaviour using GPS data and optimal alternatives

This work aims to study drivers' route choices using a dataset of low frequency GPS coordinates to identify travels' trajectories. The sample consists of 89 drivers who performed 42 thousand paths in the province of Reggio Emilia, in Italy, during the seventeen considered months. Four attributes that may be important for the driver are identified and four optimal alternative paths are created based on the selected objectives to evaluate route choice behaviour. The comparison between the characteristics of the paths allows to conclude that drivers select routes that are overall longer than their optimal alternatives but that allow for higher speeds. Furthermore the statistical analysis of drivers' route choices in macroareas evidences that drivers have different behaviours depending on the geography of the territory. Specifically, there is higher heterogeneity of route choices in the plain areas compared to the mountains. In the second part of this work, clusters of repetitive travels are identified and a Geographical Route Directness Index is proposed to identify the areas of the province where the deviation from the shortest alternative path is higher. The analysis shows that, among groups of repetitive travels, the value of the index is higher along the ring road of the city of Reggio Emilia and there is a strong negative correlation between the frequency the driver selects the longer alternative that allow for higher speed, and the number of additional kilometres the same driver has to travel.     

Women's modal switching behavior since driving is allowed in Saudi Arabia

The objective of this paper is to explore if and how the primary transport mode of women in Saudi Arabia changed since they are allowed to issue a driving license and drive, and what the factors affecting modal switch behavior are. A survey was launched as part of the national project She Drives KSA a year after the activation of the decree on allowing women drive. 20,504 women participated in the survey. Data analysis shows that modal shifts happened to several directions. A significant percentage of women (22.7%) has switched from “household car-as a passenger” to “household car-as a driver”. In total, 37.7% of the participants have switched to household car-as a driver. A nested logit model is developed and the model estimation results indicate that employed women, women in the age groups of 18 to 29 and 30 to 39, women with high educational level, and single women are more likely to change from “household private car-as a passenger”, “ridehailing” and “other” to “household private car-as a driver”. Women who are unemployed, with low educational level and from households with low monthly income, are more likely to not change their primary transport mode. To our knowledge, this is the first research investigating such a unique and sensitive topic that is expected to significantly affect women's travel behavior.     

Home-end and activity-end preferences for access to and egress from train stations in the Copenhagen region

Increasing public transport use with the aim of improving the sustainability of cities should focus not only on enhancing level and quality of the service offered, but also on understanding determinants of the choice of access and egress modes to and from the railway network. This study analyzes the difference in preferences at the home-end and activity-end for travelers who have chosen train as their main travel mode while investigating the effect of policy variables such as car parking availability, bicycle parking availability and type, and bicycle on train possibility. Specifically, this study analyzes the choices between five transport modes (i.e., “walk,” “bicycle,” “car driver,” “car passenger,” “bus”) for 2921 home-end and 3658 activity-end trips. Joint mixed logit models are specified and estimated to account for heteroscedasticity and correlation across alternative modes as well as taste heterogeneity across travelers. Model estimates and pseudo-elasticities uncover the importance of travel time and underline how the improvement of walkability, bikeability, and bus service would contribute significantly to the increase in the probability of choosing sustainable modes to and from train stations. Moreover, model results emphasize the role of bicycle parking in terms of the sheer number of spaces to be increased as well as covered places to be offered at the activity end, de facto giving the possibility to leave a bicycle at that end during the night. Lastly, model results show that it is a matter of not only time and trip characteristics, but also traveler characteristics, occupation, and purpose.     

Route choice behavior in a radial structured urban network: Do people choose the orbital or the route through the city center?

We use a license plate survey to study route choice through the city center of a medium-sized Dutch city, in which car drivers can basically choose between the orbital and center ring. For a sample of 1397 trips, we fitted a multinomial logit regression model. According to this model, route choice is relatively little influenced by actual travel time. This corresponds with the fact that many drivers did not choose the shortest time route. Travel distance in combination with one “route type velocity” for all orbital routes, and one route type velocity for all center routes is the most decisive factor. The route type velocity indicates how fast and attractive routes of that type are (being perceived). The results support the hypothesis that orbital routes are more attractive as these routes avoid the busy city center. This effect is however partly offset by the fact that drivers also prefer routes in the direction of their destination. These direct routes are mainly center routes. The results show the importance of considering complete routes in relation to their location and not only as a set of links and nodes when modeling route choice.     

Is there a case for replacing parking charges by road user charges?

The price of parking is often considered an important tool with which to influence transport choice but, since many local authorities have limited control over off-street charges and since parking charges have no direct impact on through traffic, its influence on overall travel demand may be limited. Road user charges, on the other hand, do appear to offer an effective means of influencing overall demand. The problem is that public acceptance of such charges is low unless some obvious “carrot” can be identified. This paper explores the possibility that the removal of parking charges might be that “carrot”. Our analysis suggests that, although the removal of parking charges would reduce revenues and dilute the reduction in demand caused by the introduction of road charges, the combined effect might, in certain circumstances, be more beneficial to the local economy and might still yield a net increase in revenue. Given the incidence of impacts, it also appears that a combined scheme would be more equitable and might stand a greater chance of achieving public acceptance than a more conventional road charging scheme. The paper identifies the circumstances in which a combined scheme might work well and outlines the detailed analysis that would be necessary to confirm this.     

Impacts of high speed rail on railroad network accessibility in China

High speed rail (HSR) is changing the overall travel accessibility of cities in China. There have been a number of studies of high speed rail in China. However, detailed spatiotemporal accessibility pattern of cities affected by the operation of high speed rail in China has not been reported. This study takes a timetable-based accessibility evaluation approach to analyze the changes in travel time, travel cost, and distance accessibility for each of the four main stages of HSR development in China: no HSR service in Stage 1 before August 2008, several HSR lines in Stage 2 between August 2008 and July 2011, reduced operating speed of HSR trains in Stage 3 between August 2011 and November 2012, and addition of new HSR lines and reduction of ticket fares in Stage 4 between December 2012 and January 2013. In addition to the “corridor effect” and the “center-diffusion” pattern, this paper investigates the impacts of HSR on changes in in-vehicle travel time and out-of-vehicle travel time with respect to the policy changes that reduced the operating speed of HSR trains, rearranged the train timetable, and lowered the ticket fare on HSR trains. The analysis results indicate the spatiotemporal pattern of Chinese cities affected by these policy changes. This study is useful for assessing HSR impacts on the accessibility of various cities across China as well as serving as a decision-making support to policies related to adjustments of HSR operation and planning of future HSR routes by considering the existing HSR and non-HSR railway lines.     

The broader effects of transportation infrastructure: Spatial econometrics and productivity approaches

The importance of “broader” economic effects of transportation infrastructure has recently become apparent. “Broader” refers to impacts beyond the geographic boundaries within which the infrastructure investments are undertaken. Approaches to estimate “broader” impacts in production and cost function models are evaluated. A contribution of this paper is the empirical demonstration with a cross-section of US states’ manufacturing data that ignoring broader effects of a spatially lagged dependent variable can lead to mis-statements of the overall productive impacts of public infrastructure. These inaccuracies can arise because of missing indirect effects and from specification bias that may directly impact the infrastructure elasticity.     

Modeling and testing the “two-step” decision process of travelers in airport and airline choices

This paper develops and estimates a nested logit model of airport–airline choice that incorporates the “two-step” decision process of air travelers. The model assumes that a traveler first eliminates certain choice alternatives that do not satisfy his/her minimum acceptable standards (first step), and then chooses the utility-maximizing alternative from the set of screened choice alternatives (second step). The model is calibrated by using the survey data collected in the USA (central Iowa). The results imply that the “two-step” choice model may fit the observed data significantly better than the conventional “one-step” choice models.     

Factors affecting airport access mode choice for elderly air passengers

This research investigates whether elderly air passengers exhibit different mode choice behavior in regard to airport ground access. Using survey data from a Taiwanese sample, our results show that elderly air passengers prefer to ask family members to drive them to the airport, while general passengers prefer to take a taxi. The results also indicate that “safety” is the most important item in the choice of access mode and “user friendly” and “convenience for storing luggage” as the next most important items for the elderly. Elderly passengers are found to be less likely to use public transport than private transport. Factors such as “possessing a car in their household”, “carrying more luggage”, “spending more time spent in the vehicle”, and “higher ticket prices for public transport” increase the propensity for the elderly to use private transport.     

Love and Satisfaction Drive Persistent Stickiness: Investigating International Tourist Hotel Brands

Switching resistance loyalty manifests in persistent stickiness to the incumbent brand as the sole choice in the presence of other attractive alternatives. Empirically, it is the crucial determinant of retaining customers for long duration. However, specific drivers of such loyalty in the hospitality and tourism brand categories are still unclear. The current study, integrating the brand love and customer satisfaction paradigms, addresses this issue with a focus on international tourist hotel brands. Brand love proves to be a powerful driver of switching resistance loyalty toward the hotel brand. Noteworthy, overall customer satisfaction serves to reinforce the loyalty‐driving effect of brand love. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seniors’ unmet mobility needs – how important is a driving licence?

Previous studies have come to different conclusions regarding how important a driving licence is for seniors to fulfil their mobility needs. We investigated this question based on three groups of Danish seniors: persons who were licensed as drivers (“drivers”); persons who have never been licensed drivers (“never-drivers”); and persons who recently gave up their licence (“ex-drivers”). Data were collected via standardised telephone interviews in 2012 among 863 individuals born in 1939/40. The three groups differed significantly in socio-demographics and health; never-drivers had the least resources, and ex-drivers the poorest health. Moreover, the two unlicensed groups had more unmet mobility needs than drivers. In ordinal regression models, both never having had a licence and having given up a licence significantly affected unmet mobility needs. Among the background variables, which were successively added to the models, health variables were most relevant, while socio-demographics and infrastructure played a minor role. When entering the health variables to the models, the effect of giving up a licence decreased but remained significant for unmet leisure needs, while it became insignificant for unmet shopping needs. The effect of never having had a licence was hardly affected by the inclusion of control variables. The results emphasise the importance of a driving licence in fulfilling seniors’ mobility needs. Contrary to our hypotheses, more experience with, and better access to alternative transport modes cannot sufficiently compensate for mobility problems due to the lack of the option to drive.     

Attitudes of public light bus drivers to penalties to combat red light violations in Hong Kong

Red light violation is a serious driving offense because of the crash risk and injury severity with which it is associated. In 2006, in Hong Kong both the fine and driver demerit penalty for red light violations were increased to combat the increasing trend of red light violation offenses. Public light bus (PLB) drivers constitute one of the most problematic driver groups because of their high rate of driving offenses and involvement in crashes. This study employed a stated preference (SP) survey to investigate the perceptions of PLB drivers and their attitudes towards the increase in the fine and driver demerit penalty imposed for red light violations, and to measure the influence of these penalties on deterring red light violations by using a multinomial logit model. Possible interventions by driver demographics and the operational characteristics of PLBs in the sensitivity measures were revealed through market segmentation analyses. Both the fine and the driver demerit penalty were significant in deterring PLB drivers from committing red light violations. In addition, the market segmentation analyses found age, marital status, educational level, income level, vehicle class, employment structure, and salary system to be significantly associated with perceptions of the increase in the fine and penalty among the drivers.     

Analysis of active school transportation in hilly urban environments: A case study of Dresden

This paper analyses the way students travel to school and examines the influence of environmental conditions on travel patterns. More specifically, it studies how topographic changes affect the likelihood of choosing cycling as a transport mode. We use mode choice data on students' home-to-school commuting trips from a previous study by Müller et al. (2008). The results show that models perform better when they account for the topographic conditions of the urban environment. We included this information in the model by introducing the “energy exerted” variable, which significantly improves the model and the results. The implications of this study are manifold; it guides the consolidation or expansion of school-based transportation network planning in Germany and prompts further analysis of active transportation systems, such as bike, pedelec and e-bike sharing systems. Overall, transportation policy should seek to foster active transportation, as it provides the greatest benefits for society and has a direct impact on people's well-being, while notably reducing the negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts of motorized transport.     

Unpacking older drivers’ mobility at roundabouts: Their visual-motor coordination through driver–vehicle–environment interactions

While mobility and safety of older drivers are challenged by age-related cognitive changes, the increasingly complex road environment has placed a higher demand on their adaptability. Older drivers experience difficulties in regulating their operational level behaviors which rely on the second-to-second decision-making, e.g., using the visuospatial information to guide their steering. The roundabout maneuver is one of the critical scenarios for older drivers which requires efficient visual and motor coordination. Understanding older drivers’ visual-motor coordination at roundabouts will provide insights into the mobility and safety of older driver population, which is important yet to be explored. This paper contributes to new measurements in driving behavior through quantitative examinations on driver–vehicle–environment interactions. The drivers’ visual-motor coordination is conceptualized as a sequence of eye fixations coupling with the vehicle trajectory in a space–time path. The experimental data were from 38 older adults’ on-road driving recorded using context and location-aware enabled eye tracking and precise vehicle movement tracking. A visual-motor coordination composite indicator (VMCCI) was developed to measure the efficiency of visual-motor coordination in GIS based on the aggregate multiple parameters of visual and motor behaviors at entry, circulating and exit stage of a roundabout. The results show that the VMCCI is a sensitive indicator for identifying risky drivers, problematic road sections, problematic behaviors. Older drivers’ VMCCI was associated with the angle of deviation at roundabouts, particularly at the entry stage. Findings of this study have implications for actual roundabout designing practice, which will contribute to improve the safety of older drivers behind the wheel.     

A systems-based approach to address unintended consequences of demand-driven transportation planning in national parks and public lands

In most cases, transportation planning in national parks and public lands might most appropriately be termed “demand-driven.” In this approach, rigorous analyses of park visitation, traffic, and parking data are used as a basis for transportation planning to accommodate current and projected future visitor demand, within financial constraints. Performance measures used to assess the quality of transportation systems in national parks are generally related to “moving people” efficiently. This approach is based on well-established principles for transportation planning in urban and rural communities. However, a demand-driven approach to transportation planning may not be suitable in national parks and public lands because it may enable levels of visitation that cause visitor crowding, resource impacts, and other unintended consequences. This paper introduces a more sustainable, systems-based transportation planning approach developed in the Rocky Mountain National Park (ROMO) to help the park operate its shuttle bus system efficiently and conveniently, and according to thresholds for visitor crowding and resource impacts at sites serviced by the shuttle system. The transportation planning approach developed in this study for ROMO is more suitable and sustainable for national parks and public lands than a demand-driven approach, and is readily adaptable to other locations. Correspondingly, the approach is now being applied in several other national parks and public lands recreation areas.