Linear,non-linear,bi-directional? Testing the nature of the relationship between mobility and satisfaction with life

Transportation - Travel is one of the most important facilitators of life and has been widely acknowledged as a prerequisite for economic and social activity. Research developing in recent decades...     

Trajectories and transitions: mobility after parenthood

Transportation - Life events, such as childbirth or retirement, provide a crucial opportunity in which an individual’s habitual travel routines are disrupted and they may be especially...     

Factors influencing travel mode choice among families with young children (aged 0–4): a review of the literature

Life events, such as the birth of a child, disrupt habitual travel behaviour and provide a valuable opportunity to influence the adoption of sustainable transport practices. However, in order for sustainable travel practices to be adopted, an understanding is required of the factors that influence travel mode choice among families with young children. Research in this field is particularly timely given many in the millennial generation, a comparably large cohort, are approaching this life stage. This comprehensive literature review develops a framework of factors influencing travel mode choice among families with young children. The findings reveal a multitude of factors influence decisions about mode choice, and, in particular, encourage travel by car, when travelling with young children. The paper concludes with an agenda for future research about travel among families with young children, a largely overlooked group of transport users.     

幸福感在交通政策中的作用

幸福感、生活质量和幸福正逐渐影响众多不同领域,例如经济、国家标准和公共健康。尽管心理幸福感的重要性日益受到重视,但却鲜有人关注交通系统对生活满意度的影响。首先,探讨幸福感在交通政策中所发挥的作用,并阐述幸福感对未来交通政策的启发作用。其次,回顾心理学文献,提出一个假设的模型即交通会通过提高重要生活领域的可达性或者物质环境的机动性及外部性从而对生活满意度产生间接或直接影响。对交通领域的初步研究为该模型提供了支持。最后,阐述政策建议和可使用该框架进行研究的领域。     

Exploring public transport usage trends in an ageing population

An ageing population remains one of the most significant challenges for Western society in the 21st century. Whilst public transport use has attractive sustainability features for older generations there is mixed evidence with regard to trends in travel and public transport use in ageing societies. This paper explores public transport trip rates amongst older age groups using travel survey evidence collected from a household travel survey in Melbourne, Australia for the period 1994 to 1999. A particular aim of the research was to establish trends in trip rates so as to explore the impact of the ageing Baby Boomer generation on travel by public transport. The results suggested that compared to those aged below 60, those aged over 60 years demonstrated 30% lower trip making overall and 16% lower public transport trip rates. Longitudinal trends in trip rates showed those aged over 60 had a very small decline in trip rates by public transport (−0.004 average daily trips per annum) but increasing rates for car trips. A further analysis showed a small but significant increase in longitudinal trip rates of public transport use amongst Baby Boomers (0.004 daily trips p.a., p < .05) while car usage for Baby Boomers was steady. The implication of these findings is that trends in the existing over 60s population are not necessarily going to flow through to behaviour patterns in the Baby Boomer generations. The Baby Boomer age group showed longitudinal trends in travel behaviour which contrasted with those of the existing over 60s generation notably with a trend towards increased public transport usage.     

Parenthood and cars: A weakening relationship?

Transportation - A wide body of research supports the notion that the travel behaviour of families with children tends to be car dependent. Yet recent literature suggests a more varied set of...     

Estimating the trip generation impacts of autonomous vehicles on car travel in Victoria,Australia

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) potentially increase vehicle travel by reducing travel and parking costs and by providing improved mobility to those who are too young to drive or older people. The increase in vehicle travel could be generated by both trip diversion from other modes and entirely new trips. Existing studies however tend to overlook AVs’ impacts on entirely new trips. There is a need to develop a methodology for estimating possible impacts of AVs on entirely new trips across all age groups. This paper explores the impacts of AVs on car trips using a case study of Victoria, Australia. A new methodology for estimating entirely new trips associated with AVs is proposed by measuring gaps in travel need at different life stages. Results show that AVs would increase daily trips by 4.14% on average. The 76+ age group would have the largest increase of 18.5%, followed by the 18–24 age group and the 12–17 age group with 14.6 and 11.1% respectively. If car occupancy remains constant in AV scenarios, entirely new trips and trip diversions from public transport and active modes would lead to a 7.31% increase in car trips. However increases in car travel are substantially magnified by reduced car occupancy rates, a trend evidenced throughout the world. Car occupancy would need to increase by at least 5.3–7.3% to keep car trips unchanged in AV scenarios.     

Changing demographics and young adult driver license decline in Melbourne,Australia (1994–2009)

In the last decade young people in North America, Australia and much of Europe are becoming less likely to hold a driver’s license and, if they can drive, they are driving less. This is a remarkable trend which is not yet well understood. This paper is an empirical analysis exploring the relationship between young adult driver licensing and young adult demographics and living arrangements. In many developed countries, young adults are becoming increasingly less likely to be in full-time work, more likely to be in part-time work or studying, more likely to be living at home with parents and they are getting married and having children later in life. Against the background of these trends, a binary logistic regression model of travel survey data (1994–2009) for Melbourne, Australia is used to explore the association between these demographics and young adult license-holding. The model established that full-time employment and child-rearing are associated with higher young adult licensing rates whereas part-time work and studying were associated with lower licensing rates. However the impact of living at home with parents was not clear and requires further study. Together it is theorised that these changes in living arrangements may be restricting the disposable income of some young adults and reducing or postponing license take-up. The paper concludes with the implications of findings for policy and opportunities for future research.