Powered-two-wheelers for city commuting: Insight from Australia's three largest capital cities

The journey to work receives a great deal of research attention due to the peak demand on the transport system. Cities are increasingly concerned with managing traffic congestion and reducing pollution and most of the focus of this research has been on cars, public transport, walking and cycling. In contrast, the role of powered two-wheelers (PTWs), including motorcycles and scooters, in commuting has received little attention, particularly in the context of cities in the developed world. This paper provides new insight into commuting by PTW by drawing on census journey to work data from Australia's three largest cities (Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane) combined with an intercept survey of PTW commuters in Melbourne. It explores the extent of, and changes in, PTW commuting as well as the demographics of PTW commuters. While PTWs account for only a small percentage of urban commuting in Australian cities, their use is growing rapidly and there is a concentration of commuting by PTW into city centres. PTW commuters tend to be high-income males in skilled professional and technical professions. The implication of these findings for transport policy are discussed.     

Local accessibility inequalities and willingness to walk in Latin-American cities: Findings from Medellín,Colombia

As planning for accessibility is becoming a priority for most cities, policies encouraging short-distance traveling and the use of active modes of transport are gaining force. Emphasizing short-distance travel and localized practices can produce positive sustainable outcomes, but in order to design proper public policies, a deeper understanding of the determinants of this mobility of proximity is still needed. This paper uses mobility data from the city of Medellín, Colombia, to examine the role of local accessibility and the proximate scale in the city's everyday mobility. The analysis aimed at testing whether significant efforts on improving local conditions and fostering local mobility would help to improve social exclusion and transport disadvantage situations by alleviating the need of motorized and long-distance transport. Unlike most traditional analysis, proximity is not defined by Euclidian distance but instead using travel and modal choice variables. Results show the relevance of socioeconomic variables at determining travel behaviors as well as the importance of local accessibility for social groups in situations of transport disadvantage.     

Vienna's path to sustainable transport

Vienna, Austria reduced the car share of trips by a third between 1993 and 2014: from 40% to 27%. The key to Vienna's success has been a coordinated package of mutually reinforcing transport and land-use policies that have made car use slower, less convenient, and more costly, while improving conditions for walking, cycling, and public transport. During 32 in-person interviews in Vienna in May 2015, a wide range of politicians, transport planners, and academics almost unanimously identified the expansion of the U-Bahn (metro) and parking management as the most important policies accounting for the reduction in car mode share since 1993. Implementation of sustainable transport policies in Vienna has been a long-term, multi-staged process requiring compromises, political deals, and coalition-building among political parties and groups of stakeholders. This consensual approach to policy development has been time-consuming. Vienna has not been the first city to introduce any particular policy, but it has masterfully adopted successful policies from other cities. The continuity of social democratic governments in Vienna since 1945 has provided a crucial political basis for long-term implementation. The Greens have vigorously pushed for accelerating implementation of sustainable transport policies since becoming part of the ruling coalition government in 2010. The progressive political environment in Vienna has been essential to its increasingly sustainable transport system. Other major cities in Western Europe have also reduced the share of trips by car since 1990. Together with Vienna, they provide useful lessons for other cities throughout the world on how to reduce car dependence.     

Exploring tertiary students' travel mode choices in Auckland: Insights and policy implications

It is crucial that policymakers and public transport operators comprehend tertiary students' travel mode choices and understand the factors that inform these choices in order to manage travel demands effectively and to optimise the use of public transport and improve its quality of service, particularly during the peak hours. This study aims to examine tertiary students' travel mode choices in Auckland, which is recognised as one of the most car-dependent cities in the world. The city is struggling with traffic congestion, particularly around its Central Business District (CBD) during peak hours. Auckland is New Zealand's largest city, with a population of 1.4 million residents. The main campuses of two major public universities, The University of Auckland (UoA) and Auckland University of Technology (AUT), are located in the CBD, attracting a large number of daily trips by both staff and students, particularly during the teaching semesters. However, there is a limited understanding of tertiary students' travel mode choices, particularly the factors that inform these choices when they travel to the universities' city campuses. A mixed methodology approach was used to comprehend the travel mode choices of students attending The University of Auckland and to identify the key factors that are drivers of these choices. The data collection included a questionnaire-based survey, which received 249 responses, and 10 semi-structured interviews with students. Thematic analysis was utilised to codify and then analyse the interviews. Despite the significant car dependency in Auckland, the survey demonstrated that most respondents utilised public transport and active modes when commuting to the university's city campus. Seven factors were identified that inform tertiary students' travel mode choices: cost, parking availability and cost, access to a car, travel time, physical environment, reliability, and attitudinal variables. The interviewees mostly argued that travel cost and lack of or limited access to a private car were the primary drivers of their travel mode choices. The study suggests that different stakeholders, such as Auckland Transport (AT) and The University of Auckland, should work collaboratively to provide an inclusive travel demand management policy. The university could rearrange classes for off-peak hours, and AT could offer tertiary students further discounts during these hours. These actions would result in the optimisation of public transport efficiency, improvement of the quality of the public transport service, and mitigation of traffic congestion around Auckland's Central Business District (CBD).     

Pre-schoolers' transport imaginaries: Moving towards sustainable futures?

Being on the move is part of children's everyday life in cities. However, little is known about how young children experience transport systems or their aspirations for mobility in cities. In this paper, we explore pre-schoolers' experiences with the mobile world and show their affinity with different transport modes and hopes for their current transport system. We draw on a participatory research project that engaged children in class discussions, a tile-based city building exercise and neighbourhood walks. Findings suggest that although the voices of children aged 3–5 years are absent in mobility or transport debates, children are fascinated by mobility and transport related activities and services. Pre-schoolers from Dunedin, New Zealand, though recognising a predominantly motorised transport system, also showed creative or alternative modes making their way into their own transport systems. In this paper we argue that children should be introduced to and experience alternative modes of transport in the early years to allow for more imaginary transport geographies creating greater support for more sustainable, liveable urban environments for all ages.     

The factors in residents' mobility in rural towns of China: Car ownership,road infrastructure and public transport services

The improvement of rural people's mobility in developing countries has informed many policies. Still, debates remain on which policies are efficient, for instance, building more roads, providing public transport or promoting car ownership. The empirical evidence for these debates at the national level remains scarce. As a result, this paper aims to provide fresh evidence for discussions by examining residents' mobility in China using nationwide survey data with 12,524 respondents from 119 rural towns. The results of the analysis show car ownership is the most significant factor influencing rural people's mobility than other factors. Higher car ownership relates to a higher travel frequency to counties or cities. Other kinds of transport vehicles (i.e. electric cars, motorcycles and electric bikes) also have positive but relatively weaker impacts on rural mobility. For public transport, it is more accessible to access bus stops, which encourages travel to higher-order centres rather than increasing the frequency of county bus services. The accessibility of high-quality road systems tends to have a negative influence and has combined effects with levels of local services. People from towns with insufficient local services and poor access to highways travel the most frequently to higher-order centres. This study highlights the critical role of road investments and car ownership enhancement policies in improving mobility. Moreover, this study also underscores the supplemental role of public transport services given the current low car ownership rates in rural towns of China and the global consensus on sustainable green transport development. It highlights the importance of engaging eco-friendly and locally adaptive transport alternatives, such as electric cars and electric bikes. It also calls for a rational distribution of bus stops and more flexible, convenient, and physically accessible public transport and carshare modes in rural China.     

Emerging cycling policy in Moscow,Russia: The role of international policy transfer

Over the past four decades, commuter cycling has become a planning issue in cities that did not have established cycling cultures. This category includes post-Socialist cities with recent and strong automobility systems and limited cycling planning experiences. This article seeks to demonstrate how transfer of policy ideas from other contexts has contributed to the emergence of cycling policies in the largest post-Socialist city, Moscow, Russia, in the mid 2000s - 2016. Policy transfer means the diverse processes of acquiring policy ideas from other planning contexts and adapting this knowledge to shape local policies. The article is based on the results of a study that combined policy transfer questions with policy ethnography methodology that entailed prolonged field work and interviews with diverse policy actors and beneficiaries. This article aims to answer a question: How did policy learning, transfer and translation contribute to the emergence of Moscow's cycling policy? The article concludes that policy transfer facilitated cycling planning in Moscow by providing fast solutions, informing and legitimizing policy decisions, and temporarily leveraging cyclists' advocacy efforts. However, policy learning and transfer do not guarantee acceptance or successful implementation of policies. Integration of cycling into transport policies depends on an interplay of local institutional, political, and socio-spatial factors that influence decision-making. Constraints to implementing cycling policies include a peculiar car-culture, technocratic planning with a significant role of state actors and other elite groups, and insufficient opportunities for Moscow's cycling community to influence policy-making. These findings contribute to the transport policy and geography literature by exploring the role of policy transfer in cycling planning and by focusing on a less known transport policy context: post-Socialist cities outside the European Union.     

Evolution trends of the network structure of Spring Airlines in China: A temporal and spatial analysis

Both the sustainable development of China's economy and the deregulation of the China air transport market have acted as a spur for the halting development of low-cost carriers (LCCs) in China. To analyze the development trends of LCCs' network in China, this paper took Spring Airlines, the only LCC in China as an example. First, the winter flight plans of Spring Airlines from 2005 to 2013 were collected. Secondly, the development trends of air transport network of Spring Airlines were explored with methods of mathematical statistics and social network analysis. Additionally, the development trends were analyzed from the levels of navigable cities, air routes and air transport networks. The results show that although Spring Airlines actively launched air routes between tourist cities with non-class I airports, its network has been transformed from a star structure into a complex one with multi-hubs. The development process of the Spring Airlines network can be separated into three stages. In addition, the problems and evolution trends of its network are discussed further.     

Urban mobility transitions through GDP growth: Policy choices facing cities in developing countries

This paper analyses the factors associated with the private transport modal share in cities of different wealth. We use the 1995 UITP Millennium Cities dataset and smaller samples of matching cities in the 2012 UITP Mobility in Cities dataset. Segmented bivariate analysis using the 1995 data showed that the associations between the private transport share and various socio-economic, transport, and land use variables are mostly non-linear or moderated by third variables. K-means clustering of the same 1995 variables then revealed three distinct groups of cities. Cluster 1 contains cities in developing countries with low private transport share and poor provision for both private and public transport. Cluster 2 contains high-income cities with high private transport share, low population density, and better relative provision and quality of private transport. Cluster 3 also contains high-income cities but with a moderate private transport share, higher population density, and better relative provision and quality of public transport. The evolution of cities from 1995 to 2012 showed that, as cities grow in wealth, they either move from Cluster 1 to Cluster 2 or from Cluster 1 to Cluster 3. Regression analysis provided further confirmation that the private transport share is explained by the variables that define the three clusters. Overall, the paper provides information for cities in developing countries to formulate combinations of transport and land use policies that can contribute to a transition towards sustainable transport systems.     

Dense,mixed-use,walkable urban precinct to support sustainable transport or vice versa? A model for consideration from Perth,Western Australia

ABSTRACT

Within the majority of the literature on sustainable transport, it is accepted as ideal to arrange new urban growth in close proximity to major public transit services. While the literature on this subject of transit-oriented developments (TOD) is positive and optimistic, for the most part such assertions are conjectural. This article will attempt to fill this gap by revealing a modeling process undertaken for a local area's reurbanization project to understand the potential and limitations of several modes of transport to support the increased activity density in the precincts. Several of the most standardized policy levers were employed, such as parking ratios and mix of use and building height, and contrasted with the trip generation and transit mode's hourly capacity to reveal potential real-estate yields. The outcomes indicate not only the immediate yields but also the capacity for urban transformation due to each level of sustainable transport investments. The model is unique in that the capacity, parking ratios, and assumptions are highly transparent.     

Walking distances from services and destinations for residential aged-care centres in Australian cities

Aged-care centres are one of the common places used by the older Australian population as their residence. While these centres provide many health supports and assistance for the well-being of the residents, there are still many health benefits for this population by walking in the environment outside the centre, because of the positive effect of walking on health and the opportunities it provides for social interaction. However, to choose walking is dependent on several factors, some of which pertain to the availability of and accessibility to the facilities around the care centres. This paper has approached accessibility as a matter of walking distance to the facilities or services, or to the public transport with potential access to them.For this purpose, the paper has analysed the walking distances from residential aged-care centres to services and transport in the six largest Australian cities which host over 50% of the residential capacity of the aged-care centres within the country. The services included cafés, pharmacies, grocery stores, news agents, lottery outlets, and post offices. The study has used the 2017 database of aged-care centres from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, and Google Map API services to locate the services and transport stops around the centres and calculate the walking distances to them. The results indicated that in all cities, most of services were only in a walking distance for healthier residents, while the less mobile residents might have difficulty walking to the services, especially the pharmacies. Nevertheless, majority of centres were within a walking distance to points of public transport. In addition, the study found that the centres' distance to services varied considerably both inside a city and between cities, which implied there might have been no prior planning in the selection of the locations for building or repurposing the centres.     

Accelerating sustainable mobility and land-use transitions in rapidly growing cities: Identifying common patterns and enabling factors

Urban growth has been increasing rapidly across the globe, in particular in low and middle-income developing countries. As city populations and GDP per capita rise exponentially, cities tend to experience similar challenges related to urban development and transport/mobility.One of the most problematic issues emerges when urban growth drives car-oriented urban development. This is characterised by a range of unsustainable patterns such as low-density development, urban sprawl, lack of plans and infrastructure to accommodate collective transport and active travel, and significant efforts and investments to meet the demand for private motorised vehicle use. For emergent cities, the risk is that these developments lead to highly inefficient, unhealthy and unsustainable urban systems that are difficult to remedy.This paper aims to identify recurrent governance and policy factors across sectors, as well as macro factors, that tend to contribute to car-dependent urban mobility systems in rapidly growing cities. It draws on qualitative and quantitative research findings from five under-researched Eastern European and Middle Eastern cities: Tallinn, Bucharest, Skopje, Adana and Amman. Data examining the evolution of urban mobility in these cities were collected as part of the Horizon2020 EU funded project CREATE.The paper investigates the extent to which car-dependent urban development processes can be avoided in rapidly growing cities, to support transitions towards liveable and sustainable cities. Finally, it provides policy recommendations targeting growing cities with low levels of car-use, in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa. It highlights the importance of acting swiftly to achieve targets such as the Sustainable Development Goals, the New Urban Agenda or the Paris Agreement, by supporting policies fostering efficient, sustainable and inclusive urban mobility and land-use across sectors and levels of governance.     

Maintaining competitiveness of aviation hub: Empirical evidence of visitors to China via Hong Kong by air transport

Prior studies have not extensively researched and explored the key determinants (aviation and tourism attributes) that could affect Hong Kong’s competitiveness as a transit hub for international visitors using Hong Kong as a stopover to Chinese cities when travelling by air. This study adds to that knowledge to empirically investigate Hong Kong’s eight major tourist source markets (Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK, and the US), and also provides an insight to policy-makers in Hong Kong to help them understand the factors that influence Hong Kong’s aviation hub competitiveness and tourism development. The findings of the study suggest that increased air transport capacity from foreign countries and Hong Kong to China, trade volumes between China and its trading partners, air transport costs, and the global financial crisis are the key factors affecting the number of visitors to China by air passing through Hong Kong as their preferred stopover. The policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

Profiling tourists' use of public transport through smart travel card data

Data collected through smart travel cards in public transport networks have become a valuable source of information for transport geography studies. During the last two decades, a growing body of literature has used this sort of data source to study the behaviour of public transport users in cities and regions around the world. However, its use has been scarce in contexts where public transport demand is highly influenced by the activities of the tourist sector. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether these data can be leveraged to optimize the supply of public transport. In this article, data drawn from the Camp de Tarragona automated fare collection system extracted during 2018 are used to study tourists' use of public transport in Costa Daurada (Catalonia, Spain). This is a popular coastal destination with a high concentration of visitors during the summer period. The analysis focuses on the use of the T-10, a multipersonal transport fare with no time limitations on its use which makes it appealing for tourists. Model-based clustering has been applied to identify different clusters of passengers according to their activity and spatial profiles. Differences between profiles are significant and, as a result, this study allowed the validation of a method that could be replicated in other contexts, as it provides highly useful information for public transport policy and mobility management.     

Bus rapid transit as a neoliberal contradiction

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is being implemented as a neoliberal project, but it creates contradictions that challenge the premise of neoliberalism. BRT projects are affordable rapid transit infrastructure, but they are also an impetus to restructure the urban bus sector in developing cities with informal mass transport. The dominant model of BRT implementation creates a market for bus service from large private companies where the government takes on the risk and brands the service as part of the city's attempt to be a ‘world class’ city that can attract mobile capital. However, BRT and the formalization of the bus sector can increase the power of urban residents by firmly putting transport in the public sphere; workers by increasing the incentives for collective action; and bus riders by prioritizing space for buses over cars. But these are only openings that require action to take advantage of the contradictions.     

Children's active travel and independent mobility in four countries: Development,social contributing trends and measures

In many countries a decline in children's active and independent mobility, like walking and cycling is registered. In this paper the development of children's mobility in Denmark, Finland, Great Britain and Norway is compared to examine differences and similarities in these countries. Accessible data are used, which implies that not all of them are directly comparable, but they are employed as indicators of development. The trends are the same in these four countries, an increase in car use and decrease in bicycling and walking. Distance to school has increased, both as a result of bigger units and more children in private schools. Traffic is an important reason for taking children to school by car, but convenience for the parents is also part of it. Organized leisure activities has also contributed to less walking and cycling, in addition to more time pressure in families, increased access to car(s) and easier access to parents as a ‘transport service’ by the help of the mobile phone. The measures that different countries use in trying to meet the challenges of children's mobility tend to focus on the school trip and most often on traffic safety, both at national and local levels.     

The development of air transportation in Nigeria

This paper examines the development of the Nigerian civil aviation industry since its inception in the 1920s, but particularly since 1980, examining the institutional framework, partial deregulation, infrastructural provision and passenger traffic. The current crisis in Nigeria's civil aviation industry, following the decline and near collapse of Nigeria Airways, is blamed on the absence of a coherent air transport policy, excessive bureaucracy, bad management and a failure to adhere to business principles. Full deregulation might be a solution.     

Users' satisfaction evolution of a metropolitan transit system in a context of economic downturn

As the worldwide financial crisis is directly connected to the transport sector, public transport systems become a central player to support economic recovery. Transit services are facing a number of challenges as a consequence of this severe crisis. However, each attribute characterizing transit services has evolved in a different manner, thereby raising some chances and opportunities at some specific areas. This study investigates the evolution of service quality on a metropolitan transit system under economic crisis conditions. We used data from three customer satisfaction surveys (2008, 2011, and 2014) conducted at the bus transit service of the metropolitan area of Granada (Spain). Principal component analysis (PCA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) approaches were applied. PCA results show that the attributes describing the service were grouped into two levels of dimensions according to their impact on users' overall satisfaction (Transport Service Factors and Comfort and Convenience Factors). Subsequently, following a competing model strategy, the existing relationships between users' satisfaction and perception of service quality dimensions were ascertained. Finally, three SEMs were calibrated, one for each year under study, and were subjected to a multigroup analysis to test for equivalence among the three models. The outcomes show that fare of the ticket has lost importance as the financial crisis has become more noticeable and that Transport Service Factors had lower influence and users' satisfaction in 2011, when downturn was more intense.     

The determinants of air passenger traffic at Turkish airports

Investigating the determinants of air passenger traffic has become commonplace. In contrast with most previous publications, this paper investigates these determinants in an emerging country, Turkey, at the provincial level between 2004 and 2014. We find that GDP/capita, population, distance to alternative airports, tourism, leading cities, and international migrations all support more air traffic. Furthermore, market concentration is associated with less traffic, and the presence of academics with more traffic. Mapping models' residuals suggest catchment areas, surface transport options, domestic migrations and (geo)politics could also matter. Accordingly, it appears the determinants of Turkey's air passenger traffic do not differ from those of developed economies. The results also suggest new airports should be built based on the aforementioned factors.