Future prospects for personal security in travel by public transport

This paper reports findings from a project focused on understanding the interaction between transport technologies and user needs and perceptions in supporting personal security in travel by public transport. The research engaged over 60 experts from across the UK transport sector in a combination of interviews, workshops and scenario planning activities to address a set of four application areas in relation to secure travel. These areas were information provision, travel disruption, automated transport services and flexible transport services. Four future scenario narratives (to a 2040 time horizon) were developed for each application area. A final workshop consolidated and reviewed the narrative scenarios and pulled out key themes and priority issues for policy, practice and research for the near term. Consequently a set of policy recommendations, operator and business opportunities, knowledge gaps and research priorities were identified to support and enhance provision for personal security in travel by public transport.     

Measuring the equity effects of a carbon charge on car commuters: A case study of Manchester Airport

This papers attempts to quantify the equity effect of a hypothesized economic instrument, a carbon charge on car commuters, for reducing carbon dioxide emissions produced by commuters on airport surface access. Manchester Airport is taken as a case study using staff Survey data from 2008 and 2010. Consumer welfare change is analysed for measuring the equity effects of carbon charge by user group, which considers the changes of travel mode choice, the carbon dioxide emissions reduction, the revenue from a carbon charge and how it is distributed. First, the individual carbon footprint in terms of gram passenger kilometre, and the damage cost of carbon by commuters on airport surface access are estimated. Next, the impact of carbon charge on travel behaviour is investigated by the nested logit model. Finally, the net effect of carbon charges is assessed by travel mode user, gender, job type, and age group. The results show some impacts of the carbon charge on car users and carbon reduction, and the positive effects on lower income group and less carbon commuters. The quantified results provide the evidences for the mitigation policies to combine monetary incentives with disincentives for travel behaviour change, and demonstrate the different equity effects among commuter groups.     

基于广西旅游业的道路客运发展探析

文章针对广西道路旅客运输的现状及广西道路客运企业发展旅游业的优越条件,以＂运游结合＂为切入点,介绍以快捷优质的客运服务带动＂慢旅游＂道路客运企业发展旅游业的新模式,对采取＂运游结合＂经营模式,提高服务质量,发展＂慢旅游＂提出了相关的建议。     

A practical approach to identifying the market potential for high speed rail: A case study in the Sydney-Canberra corridor

This paper presents the methodology and selective empirical results from a study of the demand for a high speed rail system serving the Sydney-Canberra corridor currently dominated by air travel for business trips and car travel for non-business trips. We outline the steps involved in the study from problem specification, data needs, development of base year trip tables, model specification and estimation to establish switching behaviour in the presence of a new mode and calculation of induced demand for current travellers. A stated choice heteroskedastic extreme value switching model is used to evaluate the choice of fare type for business and non-business travel given the current mode used in the corridor for each sampled traveller conventional train, charter coach, scheduled coach, plane or car. Starting with the current travel profile, patronage can be predicted under alternative fare regimes, taking into account diverted traffic, induced traffic and growth. Treating fare class as endogenous enhances the real choice context facing potential patrons.     

Using the sustainability footprint model to assess development impacts of transportation systems

A review of the sustainability literature reveals the lack of viable frameworks and management tools that can be used to accommodate both spatial and temporal variability in how stakeholder entities meet their sustainable development goals, taking into account the fact that different entities may need to pursue different priorities and also deal with different constraints and schedules at different stages of their development. This paper presents a sustainability footprint framework and model that may be used in analyzing the impacts of transportation and other infrastructure systems on regional sustainable development. A specific application of the framework is in the quality of life contributions that transportation systems may make to communities as a function of their impacts on natural assets that contribute inputs and absorb the byproducts of development. The application is illustrated in a case study that uses data from the Atlanta and Chicago Metropolitan Areas to demonstrate how this model may be applied in real life situations. The implications of this model for transport systems research, policy and practice are discussed. The value of this framework and model lie in introducing both spatial and temporal flexibility that may enable stakeholders with widely different priorities to reach consensus on interim goals for sustainable development to ultimately attain sustainability.     

Understanding the development of business travel policies: Reducing business travel,motivations and barriers

Business travel accounted in the UK in 2010 for 3% of trips and 10% of the UK’s domestic distance travelled (Department for Transport, 2011, p. 4). However, it is an under researched area, even though in major cities, where transport networks are most congested, it forms a higher proportion of trips. The paper presents the findings of a study of changing business travel practices and policies affecting the briefcase traveller. The findings are drawn from semi-structured interviews with key actors in stakeholder and private sector organisations based predominately in London and a survey of 150 business travellers. The study was designed to understand the motivations and attitudes towards reducing business travel and the compromises that needed to be made to balance reducing carbon emissions and cost, whilst maintaining or improving productivity and meeting the requirements of the business.The main findings show the approaches and implications of these approaches to reduce carbon emissions and costs, improve productivity and the impact of ICT. The findings show the importance of external reporting through the Carbon Reduction Commitment, the Carbon Disclosure Project and corporate responsibility reports as a motivator to develop new policies. The paper goes on to outline how some factors can be both barriers and motivations for change, such as customers insisting on meeting their suppliers face-to-face, but also requiring information on carbon emissions as part of the Carbon Disclosure Project. Individuals can also be both a barrier and a motivator to change. The role of existing travel and meeting habits and the view of some that travelling is a perk linked to status symbols have proved to be a hard barriers to overcome. However, a technically literate younger generation used to communicating virtually have challenged these practices.     

Use of ecological footprinting to explore alternative transport policy scenarios in an Irish city-region

The objective of this paper is to compare the ecological footprint for travel-commuting patterns for the residents of an Irish city-region, that is Limerick city-region, in 1996 and 2002. Scenario building, based on ecological footprint analysis, is used to estimate the impact of different policy choices for 2010. The optimal policy mix for sustainable travel is proposed and consists of a mix of reduced demand through travel demand measures, better spatial planning and technological improvements in fuel economy.     

Would personal carbon trading reduce travel emissions more effectively than a carbon tax?

The application of personal carbon trading (PCT) to transport choices has recently been considered in the literature as a means of reducing CO₂ emissions. Its potential effectiveness in changing car travel behavior is compared to the conventional carbon tax (CT) by means of a stated preferences survey conducted among French drivers (N ∼ 300). We show evidence that PCT could effectively change travel behavior and hence reduce transport emissions from personal travel. There is however a definite reluctance to reduce car travel. We were unable to demonstrate any significant difference between the effectiveness of PCT and the CT with regard to changing travel behavior. However, in the experiment, the PCT scheme provided consistent results while this was not the case for the CT scheme. Further research is needed into the “social norm” conveyed by a personal emissions allowance.     

Multi-period planning of closed-loop supply chain with carbon policies under uncertainty

Climate change and greenhouse gases emissions have caused countries to implement various carbon regulatory mechanisms in some industrial sectors around the globe to curb carbon emissions. One effective method to reduce industry environmental footprint is the use of a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC). The decision concerning the design and planning of an optimal network of the CLSC plays a vital role in determining the total carbon footprint across the supply chain and also the total cost. In this context, this research proposes an optimization model for design and planning a multi-period, multi-product CLSC with carbon footprint consideration under two different uncertainties. The demand and returns uncertainties are considered by means of multiple scenarios and uncertainty of carbon emissions due to supply chain related activities are considered by means of bounded box set and solve using robust optimization approach. The model extends further to investigate the impact of different carbon policies such as including strict carbon cap, carbon tax, carbon cap-and-trade, and carbon offset on the supply chain strategic and operational decisions. The model captures trade-offs that exist among supply chain total cost and carbon emissions. Also, the proposed model optimizes both supply chain total cost and carbon emissions across the supply chain activities. The numerical results reveal some insightful observations with respect to CLSC strategic design decisions and carbon emissions under various carbon policies and at the end we highlighted some managerial insights.     

Route choice decision under travel time uncertainty

We study route choice behavior when travel time is uncertain. In this case, users choice depends both on expected travel time and travel time variability. We collected survey data in the Paris area and analyzed them using a method based on the ordered probit. This leads to an ordinal as well as to different cardinal measures of risk aversion. Such an approach is consistent with expected and with non-expected utility theory. Econometric estimates suggest that absolute risk aversion is constant and show that risk aversion is larger for transit users, blue collars and for business appointments.     

How do passengers use travel time? A case study of Shanghai–Nanjing high speed rail

Traditional travel behavior theory regards travel time as a waste. Recent studies suggest that it carries a positive utility, among other reasons for the benefit of the activities conducted while traveling. However, most studies of travel time use have focused on conventional trains in developed countries. Few have systematically examined the permeation of information and communication technology (ICT) into travel time use and the correlates of activity participation in developing countries, particularly on high speed rail (HSR). Using a survey conducted on the Shanghai–Nanjing corridor (N = 901), this study examines how HSR passengers use their travel time and explores the correlates of the different types of activities of business and non-business travelers, respectively, through multivariate probit models. We found that 96% of the respondents use ICT during their HSR journey and that most passengers spend some of their travel time on work-related activities. Moreover, items carried and advance planning as well as work-related travel attributes contribute significantly to activity participation. However, the factors affecting time use of business and non-business travelers differ. HSR service design should facilitate passenger engagement in various activities and improvement of their travel experience. A stable internet connection, adequate power sockets, and a noise-free environment will promote both work and leisure activities on the HSR.     

Dynamic system-optimal traffic assignment using a state space model

We propose a new mathematical formulation for the problem of optimal traffic assignment in dynamic networks with multiple origins and destinations. This problem is motivated by route guidance issues that arise in an Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems (IVHS) environment. We assume that the network is subject to known time-varying demands for travel between its origins and destinations during a given time horizon. The objective is to assign the vehicles to links over time so as to minimize the total travel time experienced by all the vehicles using the network. We model the traffic network over the time horizon as a discrete-time dynamical system. The system state at each time instant is defined in a way that, without loss of optimality, avoids complete microscopic detail by grouping vehicles into platoons irrespective of origin node and time of entry to network. Moreover, the formulation contains no explicit path enumeration. The state transition function can model link travel times by either impedance functions, link outflow functions, or by a combination of both. Two versions (with different boundary conditions) of the problem of optimal traffic assignment are studied in the context of this model. These optimization problems are optimal control problems for nonlinear discrete-time dynamical systems, and thus they are amenable to algorithmic solutions based on dynamic programming. The computational challenges associated with the exact solution of these problems are discussed and some heuristics are proposed.     

Working on the train: from ‘dead time’ to productive and vital time

The conventional approach to the study of travel time is to see it as ??dead time??, i.e. time that should be minimized. In this paper, we study time-use on trains, especially in relation to the use of information and communication technology for work purposes. The empirical results are based on a survey of rail travellers in Norway in 2008. It was found that a high proportion of ordinary commuters and business people work on board while travelling by train, i.e. 35?% of commuters and 43?% of business people. Nearly every fourth commuter gets their travel time approved as working hours. Most respondents had some sort of electronic device with them on board, and 25?% travelling for work-related purposes use a laptop computer. Only 10?% report that their travel time is of no use. Knowledge of how travel time is utilized is indispensable in the discussion about the evaluation of travel time in cost-benefit analysis. The use of travel time can also be important for choice of transport mode in the assessment of travel time versus work options.     

Analysis of the factors that influence the relationship between business air travel and videoconferencing

This paper seeks to investigate the relationship between business air travel and videoconferencing for intra-firm communication using econometric models developed through survey data from Taiwan’s technology industry. The survey respondents include business firms that either use or do not use videoconferencing currently. Based on survey data analyses, negative binomial models are developed for the set of current adopters of videoconferencing, and a Poisson regression model is developed for the non-adopters. They suggest substitution relationships between business air travel and videoconferencing for the two groups. However, the substitution effect is perceptibly stronger when videoconferencing is used as a substitute for business air travel. The analysis highlights that the meeting context significantly influences the choice of the communication mechanism; meeting contexts that do not specifically require face-to-face interaction tend to foster increased videoconferencing usage. Further, the perceptions of the respondents in terms of the relative benefits and weaknesses of each communication option influence the likelihood of substitution.     

Using the revenues from congestion pricing

The economic theory behind congestion pricing relies on using the revenues to help compensate highway users. But can practical methods of using revenues come close to achieving this compensation, and still have salient appeal to important political groups? This paper investigates the possibilities for designing a package of revenue uses that can achieve these twin goals. The suggested approach returns two-thirds of the revenues to travelers through travel allowances and tax reductions, and uses the rest to improve transportation throughout the area, including affected business centers. By replacing regressive sales and fuel taxes, this approach offsets the tendency of the prices alone to have a regressive distributional impact. By lowering taxes, funding new highways, improving transit, and upgrading business centers, the package provides inducements for support from several key interest groups. The potential amounts of money involved are discussed using nationwide data, and in more detail using a case study of ubiquitous facility pricing throughout the Los Angeles region. Illustrative calculations of the effects on various individuals confirm that such a package can create net benefits for a wide spectrum of people and interest groups.     

The role of ‘indirect’ greenhouse gas emissions in tourism: Assessing the hidden carbon impacts from a holiday package tour

Tourism is a noticeable contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Existing estimates of tourism’s carbon footprint are however incomplete as they fail to holistically assess the additional, ‘indirect’ carbon requirements. These arise from the non-use phases of a tourism product or service life cycle and can be further magnified by supply chain industries. Under-development of methods for carbon impact assessment in tourism is the primary reason for the omission of ‘indirect’ GHG emissions. This study develops a new approach for comprehensive appraisal of GHG emissions which incorporates and advances the methodological advantages of existing assessment techniques. It tests the applicability of this approach in tourism by conducting a holistic analysis of a standard holiday package to Portugal, based on the British tourism market. The new approach demonstrates the significance of the ‘indirect’ GHG emissions in the total carbon footprint from the holiday package, thus emphasising the necessity for more comprehensive future assessments.     

Travel time variability and airport accessibility

We analyze the cost of access travel time variability for air travelers. Reliable access to airports is important since the cost of missing a flight is likely to be high. First, the determinants of the preferred arrival times at airports are analyzed. Second, the willingness to pay (WTP) for reductions in access travel time, early and late arrival time at the airport, and the probability to miss a flight are estimated, using a stated choice experiment. The results indicate that the WTPs are relatively high. Third, a model is developed to calculate the cost of variable travel times for representative air travelers going by car, taking into account travel time cost, scheduling cost and the cost of missing a flight using empirical travel time data. In this model, the value of reliability for air travelers is derived taking “anticipating departure time choice” into account, meaning that travelers determine their departure time from home optimally. Results of the numerical exercise show that the cost of access travel time variability for business travelers are between 0% and 30% of total access travel cost, and for non-business travelers between 0% and 25%. These numbers depend strongly on the time of the day.     

Is telecommuting cheaper than travel? An examination of interaction costs in a business setting

This paper presents an analysis of telecommunications and travel costs for typical business meetings. It is contribution to the debate on the substitutability of telecommunications for travel. An underlying assumption which supports the substitution hypothesis is that the cost of traversing distance through the use of telecommunication is lower than the cost of travelling.This paper addresses the relative cost of telecommunications and travel in conducting interactions. Three factors are assumed to determine these costs: distance, duration of interaction and number of participants. The analysis assumes that cost alone affects choice, and ignores other communication qualities.The relationship between telecommunication and travel costs was tested quantitatively through a case study of typical business meetings in the U.S., based on data from 1988. The results show that travel costs are lower than telecommunication costs for shorter distances, and that the relationship between telecommunications and travel costs differs substantially as a function of number of participants and meeting duration. Because of ongoing rapid changes in the costs of both of these interaction modes, the complex competition between them will continue. The implications of the findings for location decisions and policy-making are discussed.