Optimizing transit maintenance and rehabilitation to support human development and sustainability: A case study of Costa Rica’s railroad network

Public transportation plays a critical role in improving human development and consequently the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by United Nations. Convenient and efficient transit enable inhabitants to reach labor markets, access social support facilities as well as health and education services. This study develops a decision-making support framework for transit agencies to select optimum maintenance, rehabilitation, and upgrade alternatives to accomplish good levels of service and improve human development and sustainability indexes. A case study of Costa Rica’s great metropolitan area is used to illustrate the study with various budget scenarios. The results show that the proposed system can accomplish significant improvements on both level of service and human development. It is also confirmed that the explicit consideration of human development and sustainability made a significant difference as compared to the classical approach, which only considers the level of service (LOS). The proposed model could be used by other public transit systems.     

Policy-feasibility study of vertical/horizontal moving-assistant systems for the mobility-disabled using a contingent valuation method

The development of vertical/horizontal moving-assistant systems is at an initial stage. However, it is expected to enhance the efficiency of mobility-disabled individuals when it is used in the field of public transportation systems. Hence, this study involved analyzing the benefits and whether users would be willing to pay more as a type of tax to install the new systems into the public transportation sector by using the contingent valuation method as well as their willingness-to-pay for these systems. A survey was conducted among Seoul metropolitan subway users to establish a model and compute the total annual benefits of the new systems. The results indicated that individuals are willing to pay more of USD 1.65 for the installation of a new system. The findings also determined that the minimum and maximum total annual benefits of establishing these systems are USD 69.81 million and USD 200.32 million, respectively. Additionally, an analysis was performed to separately compare the value of installing these systems from the viewpoints of general and mobility-disabled users. This analysis indicated that general users consider the value of new systems that is not directly related to their own convenience as more necessary and valuable when compared to the perceptions of mobility-disabled users. There is a paucity of studies on vertical/horizontal moving-assistant systems in the field of transportation. Nevertheless, the results of the study suggest that the proliferation of the systems is feasible and leads to enhancements in the sustainability of the public transportation sector.     

Accessibility measurements in São Paulo,Rio de Janeiro,Curitiba and Recife,Brazil

Increasing attention is given to public transport services in cities of the Global South as a tool to enhance social inclusion and support economic development. Against this background, developing and evaluating indicators that quantify the distribution of public transport services from a social equity perspective is essential. The aim of the study is, therefore, to assess the equity of public transport services in four metropolitan regions in Brazil (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Recife) with two commonly used indicators of public transport provision. The first indicator measures proximity to rapid transit infrastructure (bus rapid transit, light rail and heavy rail stops with high frequency throughout the day), and the second measures accessibility to jobs by public transport. While simple indicators of proximity to public transport stops are most commonly used given their ease of operationalization and communication, accessibility to job indicators are more representative of the benefits provided to individuals by the public transport network. Combining these two indicators in one study provides a quantitative assessment of the socio-spatial distribution of public transport services in four large metropolitan areas in Brazil and the results demonstrate that lower-income households are disadvantaged in terms of public transport services in all four metropolitan areas. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of quantifying accessibility by public transport, in addition to proximity to rapid transit, and thereby sheds light on the importance of developing openly available public transport schedules and geographic data. This study is of relevance to planners and researchers wishing to measure and evaluate public transport equity in the Global South.     

Urban change,mobility and transport in São Paulo: three decades,three cities

The paper analyses current transportation and traffic conditions in the São Paulo Metropolitan area and the factors that shaped them over the 1967–1997 period. Quantitative data from four subsequent Origin-Destination surveys (OD) were used. Transport progressively changed towards a motorized system, first with the intense use of buses and finally with the large increase in the use of automobiles. Public transport services experienced severe supply and quality problems and increasing fares led to the exclusion of a large number of users. Negative externalities related to the increasing use of the automobile—such as traffic accidents, congestion and pollution—skyrocketed, threatening the sustainability of the metropolis. Policies towards unsustainability continue to be supported and it also appears that even harsher negative consequences will have to be faced until a new vision of the problem is developed.     

Accessibility modelling: predicting the impact of planned transport infrastructure on accessibility patterns in Edinburgh,UK

The achievement of good spatial accessibility and equity in the distribution of urban services is one of the supreme goals for urban planners. With Scottish Government backing, the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) has started to construct a tram network to cater for the future needs of Scotland’s capital city by providing an integrated transport solution using trams and buses. Spatial Network Analysis of Public Transport Accessibility (SNAPTA) which is a GIS-based accessibility model has been developed to measure the accessibility by public transport to different urban services and activities. The model responds to several limitations in other existing accessibility models in planning practice. It offers an alternative and practical tool to help planners and decision makers in examining the strengths and weaknesses of land use – transport integration. SNAPTA has been applied to a pilot study in Edinburgh city to identify the contribution of the infrastructure improvements of the tram system and Edinburgh South Suburban Railway (ESSR) to improved accessibility by public transport to six types of activity opportunities. This paper outlines the concept and methodology of the SNAPTA model, and presents the findings related to this pilot study with a focus on changes in potential accessibility to jobs between four different public transport network scenarios. The accessibility values so obtained help to identify the gaps in the coverage of the public transport network and the efficiency in the spatial distribution of urban services and activities. The findings focus on whether the planned transport infrastructures for Edinburgh will lead to better accessibility and reduced inequity (in terms of accessibility) across the city.     

An exploratory empirical analysis of willingness to hire and pay for flying taxis and shared flying car services

A new transportation mode that can simultaneously operate on land and in the air, namely the flying cars, is anticipated to penetrate the automobile fleet between 2020 and 2025. Due to their flexible mobility patterns and automated operational characteristics, flying taxi and shared flying car services are expected to expand the existing shared mobility services (such as Uber, Lyft, and similar services) of the urban transportation network. Despite their forthcoming introduction in the shared mobility market, public perceptions and expectations about these services have not been investigated in travel demand literature. This study aims to provide an exploratory analysis of public willingness to hire and pay for flying taxis and shared flying car services, and to identify the determinants of the willingness to hire and pay for such services. Using data collected from an online survey, individuals' willingness to hire and to pay for flying taxi and shared flying car services are statistically modeled within a correlated grouped random parameters bivariate probit framework. The analysis shows that various socio-demographic characteristics and individuals’ opinions towards the perceived benefits and challenges of flying cars affect public willingness to hire and pay for flying taxi and shared flying car services. Even though the awareness about the operation of flying taxis and shared flying car services is possibly limited in the public sphere, the findings of this study can provide insights into the challenges that policymakers, manufacturing companies, and shared mobility providers will face with the introduction of such flying car services in the transportation networks.     

The geography of air freight: connections to U.S. metropolitan economies

Despite the rapid growth of air freight shipments, much of the existing literature on the geography of air transportation has paid more attention to passenger travel than air freight. The purpose of this paper is to elevate our understanding of air freight by determining which specific variables most influence and shape the geographic distribution of air freight by metropolitan area using stepwise regression analysis. The empirical results suggest a regression model of five independent variables was the most parsimonious solution where the final model accounted for 71.1% of the variation in air freight shipments by metropolitan area (MA). The most important predictor was the traffic shadow effect, where less populated MAs under the traffic shadow of larger MAs tended to generate lower levels of freight. The model also suggested that other key predictors included the employment market share in transportation-shipping-logistics industries, per capita personal income, the number of medical diagnostic and supplier establishments, and above average wages in high technology. Overall, metropolitan markets with diverse and efficient ground support systems, freight forwarders and other transportation services, a more affluent population, an intense agglomeration of medical laboratories and related suppliers, and a well paid skilled workforce engaged in computer systems design and electronic product manufacturing are more likely to ship freight by air.     

The influence of personality traits on airport public transport access mode choice: A hybrid latent class choice modeling approach

Many objective and subjective factors affect individual tendencies. Such subjective factors include personality traits, attitudes, identities, perceptions, and feelings. The choice of transportation mode is an individual tendency that is considered important in policy-making decisions, and it can affect sustainable transportation, particularly in metropolitan areas. The present study’s main aim is to determine the impact of the Big Five Personality Factors on individual preferences toward public transportation modes. We use data from a survey conducted in January and February of 2015 at Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA). Passengers were asked to indicate their preferred mode of transportation to access the IKIA and to respond to questions on the NEO Five-Factor Inventory. Based on 557 valid responses, hybrid discrete latent class modeling was conducted to understand the heterogeneity in the respondents’ individual preferences regarding the Big Five Personality Factors and their preferences toward public modes of transportation. The results indicated that individuals who display neuroticism were more likely than the others to be concerned about carrying heavy luggage and about inclement weather conditions when using public transportation. In addition, interesting results indicated that conscientious individuals likely paid more attention to travel cost than to any other attribute of public transportation, and the model of the conscientious latent personality trait was a better fit to the data. Finally, this paper examined the taste heterogeneity of each personality trait and the results indicate the usefulness of considering personality traits in mode choice models for richer insights toward sustainable transportation.     

Network–wide prediction of public transportation ridership using spatio–temporal link–level information

Public transportation is a key element to vivid city life. Understanding the dynamics and driving forces of public transportation ridership can be a very rewarding task. It is, however, a highly complex construct. In this research, we focus on a spatial viewpoint, which has seen little attention: the link level. It represents the trip of a vehicle between directly connected stations. Additionally, we put emphasis on the impact of exogenous events. In order to assess their spatio–temporal influences, a temporal resolution of 30 min complements the spatial link level. Ridership data for trams and buses is provided by Stadtwerke München (SWM), which is the operator of the public transportation network in Munich, Germany, including 82 bus and 17 tram lines. About 30% of trams and 50% of buses are equipped with automatic passenger counting sensors, which capture boarding and alighting at each individual station. The equipped vehicles are strategically placed by SWM to obtain a meaningful view on the whole system. The raw sensor data is cleaned and sanitized. The data we are using spans a 4–year period (2014–2017). Following a pre–processing step, ∼59.79% of the data is considered, which equates to ∼97 million observations. There are 693 tram links and 2944 bus links, which makes 3637 links in total. We distinguish the analysis in ridership prediction and inference. For prediction, we specify one model functional form and build this model for each link, using 5–fold cross–validation to avoid overfitting. We employ decision trees, combining them with bagging and boosting. We then perform inference, i.e. attempt to understand the relationship between the variables that emerged in the predictive models. Ridership is assessed for each link separately and visualized together in order to construct network views and maps. Conclusions are drawn, and recommendations for future research are formulated.     

Air passenger demand and skilled labor markets by US metropolitan area

This paper examines the relationships that exist between skilled labor markets and air transportation by US metropolitan area. The goal is to enhance the current literature by conducting a more specific investigation of the links that exist between air passenger demand and employment levels within metropolitan economies focusing especially on employment patterns and the number of establishments for both the professional, scientific, and technical (PST) services sector and the high-technology sector. The results suggest that employment opportunities and the number of establishments in both sectors are systematically linked to the geography of air passenger demand.     

Metropolitan transportation planning in the 1990s: comparisons and contrasts in New Zealand,Chile and California

This article reviews major events and trends in metropolitan transportation planning and policy during the 1990s in three divergent Pacific rim jurisdictions: New Zealand, Chile, and California. Major metropolitan areas in each country have seen rising motorization, increasing congestion, and privatization of transportation services. Devolution of transportation planning responsibility has occurred; to a lesser degree, funding responsibility has been devolved from central to regional/local government. New Zealand pushed privatization harder in the 1990s than either Chile or California. While no dominant model of transportation planning has emerged, metropolitan-level planning has become more prominent and autonomous in each country studied.     

Optimal traffic calming: A mixed-integer bi-level programming model for locating sidewalks and crosswalks in a multimodal transportation network to maximize pedestrians’ safety and network usability

We study the effect that installing sidewalks and crosswalks, as traffic calming facilities, has on the safety and usability of a transportation network with automobile, public transit and walking as modes of transportation. A mathematical programming model is proposed for this problem whose objective is to minimize the safety hazard for pedestrians and the total transportation cost of the network. We utilize a customized greedy heuristic and a simulated annealing algorithm for solving the problem. The computational results indicate that installing sidewalks and crosswalks at proper locations can reduce the overall transportation cost and improve pedestrians’ safety.     

Improving the efficiency of metropolitan area transit by joint analysis of its multiple providers

Public transportation in a metropolitan area often is supplied by multiple types of transit. This paper develops and illustrates a DEA-based procedure for estimating: overall efficiency of an area’s public transportation; technical efficiencies of the individual transit types; effect of each type on overall efficiency; and efficiency of the allocation of resources among types and an algorithm for improving it. The paper concludes that the overall efficiency of an urban area’s public transportation can be validly estimated only if the technical efficiency of each major transport type and the efficiency in allocating resources among them are taken into consideration.     

Identifying spatiotemporal transit deserts in Seoul,South Korea

Transit deserts can result from the inequitable distribution of resources and services, and people living in transit deserts have limited access to transportation system. The aim of this study was to perform spatiotemporal data analysis to identify transit desert areas in Seoul in three steps. First, the transit gap between peak and off-peak hours is evaluated and various spatial changes in each temporal transit desert area are identified. Second, a spatial analysis is conducted to identify transit desert and transit oasis areas that emerge during peak hours. Lastly, an independent T-test is conducted to identify how the socio-economic characteristics of transit deserts and transit oases are statistically different. Our analysis show that, transit deserts changed across space and over the time in Seoul. Furthermore, transit deserts in general appear to be associated with socio-economically vulnerable residential areas.     

Supply and pricing strategies of informal rural transport providers

Informal paratransit operators using a range of vehicle types (including pickup trucks, small buses, and motorcycles) are a major provider of mobility in rural areas of the developing world. The paper describes a mixed method approach used to examine such operators’ decisions about vehicle deployment, route frequency, network organisation, and pricing in three rural districts in South Africa. New evidence is presented showing that the condition of rural roads (both paved and unpaved) affects the quantity and quality of public transport services provided, as well as the fares charged to passengers. This strengthens the case for judicious infrastructure investment as a way of improving rural access and livelihoods, and suggests how this might happen by way of leveraging better private sector responses. We also describe the emergence of a differentiated service hierarchy involving a variety of vehicle types suited to different operating conditions, and based on intentional coordination among operators of minibus and pickup truck (‘bakkie’) services. We argue that governments should promote such coordination and innovation in rural transport markets.     

Are they telling the truth? Revealing hidden traits of satisfaction with a public bike-sharing service

Public bike-sharing systems (BSSs) are an emerging mode of transportation introduced by municipalities to solve congestion problems in metropolitan areas, especially when integrated with other types of transportation. In the last years, the number of public bike-sharing services has been constantly on the rise all over the world, and generally the overall satisfaction with them is high. However, satisfaction with public services is driven by mechanisms that can differ from those in the private sector. It is important to establish to what extent a high satisfaction is genuine or simply ephemeral. Even “old” public services (like public transportation) become “gold” when accompanied by the introduction of new technologies. In this paper we analyze this phenomenon using data from a satisfaction web-survey conducted among customers of the public BSS “BikeMi” in Milan, Italy, in a period when mobile technologies have been introduced to speed up the service. On analyzing the responses to satisfaction questions using simple summary statistics, the level of satisfaction resulted very high. However, our aim was to look for potential “darker” sides of the service by detecting possible hidden satisfaction components. For this purpose, we used the Nonlinear Principal Components Analysis, which is particularly powerful in this context. A simple textual analysis was also performed as a validating test. Results from our analysis indicated that satisfaction is flawed by a set of factors like the mechanics of the bikes, the picking and dropping system, and the apps used to organize the service. Less concern was detected for more general aspects of the service.     

Commuting and energy consumption: toward an equitable transportation policy

Like other major metropolitan areas, the urban complex that extends from Los Angeles to Orange County faces numerous transportation challenges. Daily traffic congestion, reduced productivity and loss of income, air pollution, environmental degradation and significant energy consumption are only a few outcomes of the millions of miles travelled every day on the region’s highways and streets. An important response to this significant urban challenge has been the desire for further expansion of an efficient public transportation network and increasing densities in particular areas within the larger metropolitan region. In this paper, we estimate the current energy consumption patterns in various communities, arguing that policy attempts to achieve higher density and better jobs-housing balance should fully consider the social geography of our metropolitan areas and their close relationship with energy consumption patterns.     

Public transport accessibility in metropolitan areas: A new approach incorporating population density

Improving public transport accessibility can be considered an effective way of reducing the external costs and negative side effects of motorized commuting. Although there have been many studies conducted that have measured access levels to public transport stops/stations, there has been limited research on measuring accessibility that integrates population density within geographical areas. This study develops a new measure that considers public transport service frequency and population density as an important distributional indicator. A public transport accessibility index (PTAI) is formulated for quantifying accessibility within local areas in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. A public transport network model is applied to identify the service coverage of public transport modes using a Geographical Information System (GIS). A consistent method is introduced for evaluating public transport accessibility for different levels of analysis, from single elements, including public mode stops to network analysis. The Victorian Integrated Survey of Travel and Activity (VISTA) is used to evaluate the index and examine the association between commuting trips undertaken by public transport and the level of accessibility within the Melbourne metropolitan region. Furthermore, the new index is compared with two existing approaches using the VISTA dataset. Key findings indicate that the PTAI had a stronger association whilst showing more use of public transport in areas with higher values of the PTAI.     

“天河之心”——武汉天河机场交通中心规划及建筑设计

作为华中地区规模最大、功能最齐全的武汉天河机场交通中心,是继北京T3停车楼、上海虹桥综合交通枢纽之后,国内又一重要综合交通枢纽,涵盖了航空、城际铁路、地铁、出租车、长途车、公交、社会车辆等七种交通形式的无缝换乘衔接。介绍武汉天河机场交通中心的区域交通网络体系、陆侧区规划设计和建筑设计理念,完善的区域交通网络体系、便捷的流线设计、智慧旅客导引系统、绿色生态设计理念,保证了该交通中心的高效无缝换乘和可持续发展。     

Uncovering the spatially heterogeneous effects of shared mobility on public transit and taxi

A Mixed Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model is applied to explore the effects of shared mobility trips on taxi and public transit ridership at the macro-level. Several essential variables, including socioeconomic, transportation, network, and land use data, are set as the causal factors. The experiment is conducted using the smart card data, vehicle GPS trajectories, and vehicle order data collected in Shenzhen City, China. We show that the Mixed GWR outperforms the basic GWR in model fitting and capturing the unobserved heterogeneity. The spatial analysis reveals that bike-sharing addresses the “last-mile” and “first-mile” problems to bus and metro in the urban periphery. It substitutes the bus and taxis in short-distance journeys in the city center. However, the over-placement of bike-sharing in some regions limits the flexibility of bike-sharing connections to the metro. In the city center, ride-hailing fills the gaps in bus coverage and competes with the metro. In the peripheral areas, ride-hailing replaces buses and improves the accessibility to metro stations. The transportation policy increases the cooperation between ride-hailing and taxis citywide, although competitions in few regions need to be solved. The abovementioned results provide policy suggestions to optimize the allocation of local transportation resources.