Rail-road crossing impacts: an international synthesis

Rail-road crossings generate a range of transport, economic, social and environmental impacts. While much research has focused on selected impacts such as safety, little consideration has been given to wider impacts. The aim of this research was to therefore develop a holistic understanding of the impacts of rail-road crossings (both at-grade and grade-separated) and to identify key gaps in knowledge in this field. An international synthesis of rail-road crossing impacts was developed through a detailed literature review, which revealed a total of 18 different types of impacts associated with rail-road crossings. The review found that most research to date has focused on quantifying transport and economic impacts, particularly safety and road vehicle delay, with little consideration given to social and environmental impacts. A number of research gaps have been identified which provide a clear agenda for future research. These gaps include the use of empirical evidence to support impact assessments, and the need to better understand the impacts of grade-separating rail-road crossings in terms of safety, travel time variability, land use, traffic flow, rail vehicle delay, disability access, and crime.     

Travel plans for new developments: a global review

A travel plan is a mechanism for delivering a package of transport measures at a site to manage car use and encourage the use of more sustainable forms of transport. In recent years, travel plans have been required for new infill and greenfield developments through the land-use planning and approvals process, predominantly in the United Kingdom, the United States, continental Europe and Australia. This paper contributes to the literature by providing a global review of travel plans for new developments. The results show that while travel plans for new developments share a common set of elements with those for pre-existing sites, differences within each element are notable, particularly in the types of travel plan measures adopted, processes for managing the travel plan, and approaches to monitoring and review. Results of previous evaluations have varied considerably, although most have reported a reduction in car driver trips of 10–20 percentage points. Despite this, most evaluations lack rigour, with a paucity of robust evidence. Key success factors identified by the literature, such as the provision of an explicit policy supporting the role of travel plans, should be embedded within the travel planning process where possible to ensure best outcomes for new developments.     

Autonomous vehicles: who will use them,and will they share?

ABSTRACT

The advent of road transport automation is suggested to be one of four key technological transitions that could amount to a major transformation in mobility practices. Specifically, fully Automated Vehicles (AVs) might replace the current private car owner user model with fleets of on-demand synchronously-shared automated taxis. However, significant barriers to this vision becoming the norm remain. This paper examines two critical user-acceptance aspects of the transition: willingness to adopt AVs, and willingness to share an AV with others, particularly strangers. Our novel survey (n?=?899) included a choice experiment featuring four future full automation transport services (private, synchronously/asynchronously shared, and public). Cluster analysis examined respondents' preferences and their demographic and psycho-social characteristics. We uncover significant uncertainty about willingness to adopt automation and sharing, and important differences between clusters within our sample. For example, under 50% of participants report willingness to use an AV over their normal mode, or would prefer an automated option to a current human-driven option. Our findings raise critical questions for policymakers and transport authorities. Not least, how can AV technologies help realise the environmental and social benefits of widespread vehicle sharing in a context of a travelling public that still prefers its privacy on-the-move?     

An Airport Experience Framework from a Tourism Perspective

This study, by integrating the perspectives of sociological, psychological, and service marketing and management, all of which affect the passenger experience, proposes a theoretical framework for the creation of the airport experience in relation to tourism. This research responds to the current phenomenon in which airports are offering other types of experiences within the airport terminal, expanding the role of an airport from being a utility for transportation into a place where various and different values can be offered. This research explores the current airport experience and adds to research on airport experience by clarifying ten key components necessary for airport passenger experience propositions based on existing research, the current industry phenomena, and the empirical study. The paper also underlines those components that can enhance passenger experience in relation to tourism and highlights the role that airports contribute to a destination.     

A causal inference approach to measure the vulnerability of urban metro systems

Transportation - Transit operators need vulnerability measures to understand the level of service degradation under disruptions. This paper contributes to the literature with a novel causal...     

Exploring built environment impacts on transit use – an updated meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

The built environment (BE) is widely accepted to influence transit use (TU). Evidence to date suggests the relationship is dependent on many factors which can be difficult to account for in quantitative studies. This creates barriers to transferring research into practice. Considering many studies together can be useful for accounting for more of the factors impacting transit use. Yet, meta-analysis of research measuring these influences was last undertaken in 2010 based on 18 studies. Since then 90 new quantitative studies have been published. These recent studies use improved methodologies and are conducted in more diverse geographies. This paper reports an improved and updated meta-analysis of built environment impacts on transit use. It compares elasticity estimates from research published pre-and post-2010 and explores the impact of new methods and a more diverse geographical representation on findings. Updated meta-elasticities range from <0.01 to 0.26; a similar range to the 2010 study. However, at the individual indicator levels, more recent results are different. Elasticities for urban density, including population, employment and commercial density, have increased significantly in studies published since 2010, as did that of land use mix. However, measures of local access, design and jobs-housing balance decreased in post-2010 studies. These results confirm the small but imprecise relationship between the BE and TU. Results also suggest that while the range of elasticity impacts is relatively consistent, new study methodologies, notably those that control for regional accessibility and self-selection, and the increasing geographical diversity in study applications, is acting to change BE-TU findings at the indicator level. Research setting and context are important to consider when using empirical results to design BE strategies to promote transit use.     

A disaggregate study of urban rail transit feeder transfer penalties including weather effects

Transfers between urban rail transit (URT) and its feeder modes represent a considerable barrier to its ridership and the network-wide usage of public transit. The aim of this research is to quantify the time-independent transfer penalty between URT system and feeder modes and to explore its variability by different factors. Based on Melbourne URT origin and destination survey data, this study focused on URT access and egress journeys and estimated URT feeder transfer penalties by formulating feeder mode choice models. With three-hourly weather data and demographical data introduced, this paper conducted disaggregate analyses to investigate the variability of URT feeder transfer penalty across weather conditions, trip types and individual characteristics. According to the model estimation results, the values of transfer penalty vary according to the direction of transfer and the preference ordering for different transfer combinations is URT-tram, URT-bus, tram-URT, bus-URT and auto-URT. It found that local weather elements in terms of air temperature and precipitation are significant factors resulting in the variability of the transfer perception by URT travellers. Transfer penalties for access journeys increase with the rise of air temperature. The non-linear effects of precipitation on URT feeder transfer penalties were observed. In addition, commuters perceive smaller transfer penalties than other travellers for all of the transfer combinations except for bus-URT transfers. Travelers from remote areas perceive smaller transfer penalties for access trips. Travellers’ loyalty to public transit restrains transfer penalties. The male travellers perceive higher transfer penalties than the female. The elderly travellers impose low transfer penalties to access journeys but high transfer penalties for egress journeys. Finally, the paper explored policy implications and details areas for future research.     

Growing patronage - Challenges and what has been found to work

This paper synthesizes evidence on growing public transport patronage. The paper firstly examines barriers to patronage growth before reviewing evidence on endogenous factors (those within the control of operators and regulators) and exogenous factors (those factors such as socio-economic influences which are not controlled by regulators/operators) which affect public transport patronage. Suggested barriers include capacity, network transfers, perceptions and investment/subsidy needs. Evidence is presented suggesting that reliability, service levels and fares are the principal tools to adopt in growing patronage. Car ownership, income and population growth, employment and urban sprawl are amongst the exogenous factors identified as influencing patronage.     

Social Media Use during Unplanned Transit Network Disruptions: A Review of Literature

Abstract

This paper explores social media's role in managing unplanned transit networks disruptions. Although literature exists more broadly on the use of social media in transit, this paper presents the first literature review in this setting. When disruptions occur, commuters require reliable, up-to-date information. Its provision reduces anxiety and allows informed choices. Social media is beneficial given it provides real-time information but it can only supplement (not replace) conventional approaches. Information reliability was critical. Research in the field of disaster management illustrates the importance of publicly contributed information. Known as “crowdsourcing”, it is part of the emerging field of crisis informatics which for the first time was linked to unplanned transit disruption management. The results highlight that social media's real-time nature can reduce disrupted travel demand; however, its utilisation can be resource-intensive. A framework presented illustrates how social media utilisation varies according to the operational characteristics of a disrupted network. Social media use as an information delivery tool is still in its infancy and an unwillingness to embrace it is an impediment to sustained growth. Crowdsourcing is one approach that could resolve the issue of transit agency resourcing whilst satisfying the increased demand and expectation for real-time information.     

Why do people fare evade? A global shift in fare evasion research

ABSTRACT

Fare evasion is a significant concern for most transit authorities. The traditional approach to fare compliance has focussed on modifying the physical control of ticketing or ticket inspection rates. Yet recently the perspective on fare evasion has begun to shift toward profiling the fare evader or understanding the customer motivations to fare evade. This paper uses a literature review method to document the characteristics of these three perspectives on fare evasion: the conventional transit system perspective, the customer profiling perspective and the customer motivations perspective. We find that the conventional transit system perspective, although straightforward to measure and control, has its limits particularly in “open” transit systems. The customer profiling perspective attempts to identify, based on demographics, which customers are more likely to fare evade. However this perspective has little use beyond profiling and is ethically questionable. The customer motivations perspective provides a richer understanding of how customers define fare evasion and what attitudes, social norms and circumstances motivates them to fare evade. Considering that between 20% and 40% of a city’s residents admit to fare evading at some point, understanding these complex motivations can help improve revenue compliance at a time when most governments heavily subsidise their transit systems.