Social exclusion, location and transport disadvantage amongst non-driving seniors in a Melbourne municipality, Australia

Over the past decade, researchers have refocused their attention upon the interconnection between locationally disadvantaged communities and poor transport services in order to better understand social exclusion. Limited access to private and public transport has often been identified as a major contributing factor to social isolation and economic poverty that certain groups in the community experience. To date, an insufficient amount of research attention has focused on the elderly or seniors, who are often identified as being subject to social exclusion because of difficulties associated with travelling outside their homes to access services and facilities especially for non-car drivers. Moreover, a disproportionate amount of research undertaken on transport related forms of social exclusion in Australia has understandably looked towards the outskirts of its major urban centres, where services and facilities are sparsely located and generally only accessible by car. This paper provides a different insight by analysing a middle distant municipality where large spatial concentrations of seniors are to be found, some of whom do not have ready access to a car or have difficulty accessing the public bus service. Using a variety of data sources for a municipality in Melbourne, this case study reveals that social exclusion of non-car driving seniors is reinforced by a regional public transport system that cannot adequately service the entire municipality. For now, the incidence of locational and transport related disadvantage is restricted to small pockets of the municipality, but as seniors age and surrender their car driving licences this problem could become more serious. The study concludes by calling for more analyses to be undertaken into transport engendered social exclusion if this problem is to be contained as the post-war baby-boomers generation ages across most of the middle suburbs of Australian cities.     

Accessibility improvement,territorial cohesion and spillovers: a multidimensional evaluation of two motorway sections in Poland

The aim of this paper is to contribute to previous methodological studies of the approach to potential accessibility used in the evaluation of development of the road network. This is done by making a threefold analysis, which combines the overall improvement in the level of accessibility, territorial cohesion, and spatial spillovers. Moreover, we use different spatial dimensions (namely national and international) and different distance decay parameters to estimate both the short trips (e.g. commuting) and the long trips (e.g. business trips or tourism). The results are presented at a very detailed spatial scale (i.e. municipalities – LAU-2 units).The paper provides empirical evidence of improvement in accessibility, changes in the degree of territorial cohesion, and spatial spillovers resulting from the recent completion of two sections of motorway in Poland. The selected case studies differ according to their location (i.e. national and European, peripheral vs. central location), population density, and the settlement structure around the investment.The validity of the proposed multidimensional approach to the evaluation of road investments is verified as the combination of different accessibility dimensions and leads to results which differ respecting efficiency, equity and spillover effects. This paper provides arguments to strengthen the need for the tailor-made parameters of potential accessibility indicator and spatial dimension of analysis. They should be adjusted to the main aim of the particular evaluation.     

Evaluation of Hotels to Accommodate Disabled Visitors

ABSTRACT

The study presents an initial investigation result of the disabled consumer group. The research aims to highlight deficiencies in existing provision and helps hoteliers to understand best practices for disabled guests and makes suggestions for implementation. The research studies the five star hotels in Cairo. While disability covers a wide range of quite different impairments, the study concentrates on wheelchair users. The findings of the research will help hoteliers to maximize business from this valuable market, develop best practices through a greater understanding of disabled people, and implement policies and strategies to attract the market. By providing the right facilities and services with appropriate communications, hotels can inform and encourage the disabled to use the facilities and services that were developed for them.     

A Huff model with firm heterogeneity and selection. Application to the Italian retail sector

ABSTRACT

In this paper, firm heterogeneity (in terms of productivity, i.e., marginal costs) is incorporated into a Huff model of competition in the Italian retail sector. A higher market potential in the trade area is associated with higher average productivity and lower productivity dispersion through selection of the best stores. The analysis, based on a unique data set encompassing 14,212 Italian retailers, finds support for this relationship in Southern Italy, but not in Northern and Central Italy (where opposite results are obtained in some cases), suggesting the selection dynamics are affected by context factors (other than provincial/regional accessibility) related to an upper geographical scale. The results are robust to controlling for local context factors such as financial risk and floor size restrictions. Floor size restrictions are found to enhance selection.     

市场潜力与西部地区资源开发

文章模拟了运输成本和市场规模变化情景下市场潜力指数的变化,模拟结果表明,大部分的西部省区在现阶段的运费水平之下,能够通过运输成本的降低有所受益。但是运输成本下降的空间十分有限,难以通过运输成本的降低根本的改善西部的市场通达性。因此现阶段,市场规模是造成东西部地区之间市场潜力差异的主要原因。西部大开发进程中,国家首先致力于改善西部的投资环境,进行了大规模的基础设施建设。但是运输成本降低在改善西部地区市场通达性的同时,也减小了西部资源东运的成本。西部地区市场规模狭小,东部地区强大的市场引力作用吸引了资源的东运和制造业的集聚,成为了阻碍西部地区资源开发的逆向作用力。要对抗东部沿海地区的强大集聚引力、实现西部地区的资源开发、促进西部地区的工业化进程,就必须改善西部地区的市场通达性。因此,在推进基础设施建设的同时,西部开发应该更加重视扩大内需,增强市场引力作用。     

基于换乘效率指数的北京轨道交通网络通达性评价及其成因分析

通过改进用于描述网络系统通达程度的分散指数,基于换乘便利程度构建了城市轨道交通网络总体通达性的指标——换乘效率指数。通过对京沪穗三地轨道交通网络换乘效率指数的比较,发现北京轨道交通的换乘效率不及另外两地;通过对1988年以来8个不同时期北京轨道交通网络格局演变造成的换乘效率变化进行研究,发现北京换乘效率指数在2011年之前总体呈下降趋势,当前则在逐年提升,这是由于历史上重视规模扩张而忽视效率提高造成的。最后针对北京外围线路比例偏高、中心城区线网不足、规划不合理等相关问题,提出了相应的改进建议。     

What retailers need to understand about website inaccessibility and disabled consumers: Challenges and opportunities

This research uniquely contributes to the marketing policy literature by illuminating the widespread yet seldom studied problem of online inaccessibility of retail websites affecting approximately 30 million disabled Americans. When a website is not designed to be navigated easily or is not compatible with assistive technology such as a screen-reader, these potential customers are not able to independently search for information and conduct transactions. Blind and low vision participants in an empirical study provide their opinions regarding accessibility policy issues and reveal that their frustrations with inaccessible retail websites may result, not only in avoidance of the retailer in its different sales channels but also in antifirm behaviors driven by negative attitudes toward perceived retailer accessibility/disability policy that spur feelings of online marketplace discrimination. Using two different evaluation tools, the top 100 retailers in the United States were evaluated on the accessibility of their websites over the past 4 years (2015–2018). Results show that most websites contain many design errors making navigation very difficult or even impossible for vision impaired consumers. The argument is made that online retailers who proactively address these inaccessibility issues on their websites may significantly increase their customer base and profitability.     

Improving spatial accessibility to regional health systems through facility capacity management

In austerity times, the general interest to reduce costs and improve efficiency levels often resulted into local cuts to public expenditure and profound reorganizations of existing service networks, especially in sectors like healthcare. In Italy, a recent reform prescribed the reconfiguration of time-dependent (i.e. emergency) hospital networks with the aim of improving patients’ accessibility conditions. In order to evaluate the impacts determined by this reorganization, we perform a spatial analysis in which we consider the distance from the closest facility as an accessibility measure. Results obtained from the spatial analysis confirm that users effectively benefit from the reorganization process but also that further improvements are possible, especially for the worst served ones. To this end, we also propose solving a mathematical programming model aiming at redistributing the capacities, i.e. the supply of beds, among the hospitals of the network seeking to maximize users’ accessibility. The realized computational experiments show that averagely better and even more equitable accessibility conditions could be obtained by containing the deriving reorganization costs.     

Unlocking potential: An integrated approach using PLS-SEM,NCA, and fsQCA for informed decision making

This study demonstrates the value of integrating different analytical perspectives to identify significant factors and characterize their importance. Specifically, we combine three analytical methods – partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), necessary condition analysis (NCA), and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) – to create an expanded analytical process that enables informed decision-making. PLS-SEM identifies significant correlations between the predictor and outcome variables, NCA identifies critical bottlenecks required for a specific outcome, and fsQCA identifies configurations of conditions sufficient for producing a specific outcome. By applying this expanded analytical process to subjectively reported data on service quality and perceived accessibility, collected from five Nordic cities, we gain new insights into attracting an aging population to public transport. This study contributes to a better understanding of the nuances in the data, which is valuable for both research and practice.     

中国青少年生殖健康可及性调查基础数据报告

目的是了解中国未婚青少年性与生殖健康的知识、态度和行为现状,评价青少年性与生殖健康服务的可得性与可及性,为改善青少年的性与生殖健康可及性提供政策支持。利用分层和概率比例规模抽样相结合的四阶段混合的抽样方法,用结构化问卷对15-24岁未婚青少年的三类子总体进行匿名一对一面访式调查。青少年整体缺乏全面正确的生殖健康知识,22.4%的青少年具有性经历。首次和最近一次性行为中,未采取任何避孕措施的比例分别为51.2%和21.4%。在有性经历的女性青少年中,怀孕率为21.3%,多次怀孕率为4.9%。书/杂志、同学/朋友、学校老师、网络以及电影/电视是青少年生殖健康知识的五大来源。学校课程对青少年的性与生殖健康知识具有积极作用,但青少年参加相关课程/讲座的比例不足40%。50%以上的咨询和治疗需求未实现。分析了原因,提出了对策和建议。