The call of the road: factors predicting students’ car travelling intentions and behaviour

The most common daily trip for employed persons and students is the commute to and from work and/or place of study. Though there are clear environmental, health and safety benefits from using public transport instead of private vehicles for these trips, a high proportion of commuters still choose private vehicles to get to work or study. This study reports an investigation of psychological factors influencing students’ travel choices from the perspective of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Students from three different university campuses (n = 186) completed a cross-sectional survey on their car commuting behaviour. Particular focus was given to whether car commuting habits could add to understanding of commuting behaviour over and above behavioural intentions. Results indicated that, as expected, behavioural intention to travel by car was the strongest TPB predictor of car commuting behaviour. Further, general car commuting habits explained additional variance over and above TPB constructs, though the contribution was modest. No relationship between habit and intentions was found. Overall results suggest that, although student car commuting behaviour is habitual in nature, it is predominantly guided by reasoned action. Implications of these findings are that in order to alter the use of private vehicles, the factors influencing commuters’ intentions to travel by car must be addressed. Specifically, interventions should target the perceived high levels of both the acceptability of commuting by car and the perceived control over travel undertaken by private vehicle.     

The impact of “free” public transport: The case of Brussels

Public transport subsidies play an important role in the present Belgian mobility policy. The introduction of “free” bus transport in Hasselt in 1997 was an important event. Later, the Flemish government in cooperation with the regional public transport company elaborated the so-called “third-payer system” for target groups. The price of public transport is not paid by the user or the provider, but partly or completely by a “third party”. In how far these measures contribute to a more sustainable mobility system has caused much debate.In the academic year 2003–2004, a “free public transport” initiative was introduced for the students of Flemish colleges and universities in Brussels. These students had the opportunity to obtain a refunded annual season ticket on Brussels public transport. Brussels was selected for the case study, because in the same city there is a group of students that benefits from the measure, and another group (students from French speaking universities and colleges) that does not. In order to examine the effects of this measure, we conducted a survey among the students to examine their present travel behaviour (number of trips, motives, modal choice …) and the changes with the travel behaviour of the previous year. In addition we compare the current travel behaviour between the students benefiting from the measure, and those who do not.     

Optimizing location and capacity of rail-based Park-and-Ride sites to increase public transport usage

This paper presents a new methodology to identify optimal locations and capacity for rail-based Park-and-Ride (P&R) sites to increase public transport mode share. P&R is usually taken as an important component of policies for the sustainable development of urban transport systems. However, previous studies reveal that arbitrarily determined P&R sites may act to reduce public transport commuting. This paper proposes a methodology for the optimal location and capacity design of P&R sites, with the aim of enhancing public transport usage. A Combined Mode Split and Traffic Assignment (CMSTA) model is proposed for the P&R scheme. Taking the CMSTA model as the lower level, a bi-level mathematical programming model is then built to establish the optimal location and capacity of P&R sites. A heuristic genetic algorithm is adopted to solve this model. Finally, a network example is adopted to test numerically the proposed models and algorithms.     

Excess commuting and modal choice

This paper reports results from research conducted to analyse the extent of excess commuting in Dublin, Ireland. The research differs from similar studies on excess commuting in two ways. First, a disaggregate modal choice analysis of excess commuting is undertaken for two time periods – 1991 and 2001. Second, sensitivity analysis is undertaken to explore the impact of changes in the density of the transport network for users of public and private transport. The results suggest that excess commuting is considerably greater for users of private transport implying the greater inefficiency of commuting associated with that mode. By way of contrast, capacity utilisation measures suggest the opposite indicating the difficulty of using these measures for policy-making. The results suggest also that the greater inter-mixing of jobs–housing functions has facilitated reductions in actual commuting costs as well as increasing the range of available trip possibilities over the study period. In terms of the sensitivity analysis, the results suggest that public transport users could achieve dramatic savings on their commute if the density of that network was increased considerably.     

Competition in multi-modal transport networks: A dynamic approach

We analyze the behavior of market participants in a multi-modal commuter network, where roads are not priced, but public transport has a usage fee, which is set while taking the effects on the roads into account. In particular, we analyze the difference between markets with a monopolistic public transport operator, which operates all public transport links, and markets in which separate operators own each public transport link. To do so, we consider a simple dynamic transport network consisting of two serial segments and two parallel congestible modes of transport. We obtain a reduced form of the public transport operator’s optimal fare setting problem and show that, even if the total travel demand is inelastic, serial Bertrand–Nash competition on the public transport links leads to different fares than a serial monopoly; a result not observed in a static model. This results from the fact that trip timing decisions, and therefore the generalized prices of all commuters, are influenced by all fares in the network. We then use numerical simulations to show that, contrary to the results obtained in classic studies on vertical competition, monopolistic fares are not always lower than duopolistic fares; the opposite can also occur. We also explore how different parameters influence the price differential, and how this affects welfare.     

Learning from Los Angeles: transport,urban form,and air quality

Los Angeles is well known around the world as an automobile-oriented low density community, yet recent transportation policies have emphasized greater capital investment in rail transportation than in highways, and recent policies have attempted to discourage automobile usage through transportation demand management. While these policies have accomplished small shifts toward public transport and somewhat lower dependence upon singly occupied automobilies for work commuting, the financial costs of these policy changes has been very large in relation to their benefits. Proper pricing of transportation alternatives, more creative use of new and emerging transportation technologies, and the provision of many more opportunities for simpler private sector transport services, would all appear to be more promising as cost-effective approaches to coping with congestion in Los Angeles than the current regional transportation policies.     

The Movingo integrated ticket: seamless connections across the mälardalen region of Sweden

ABSTRACT

The need for improved public transport (PT) ticketing in ever-growing deregulated PT markets has made well-designed integrated ticketing systems a priority area of intervention for PT service providers around the world. Yet, very little practical evidence of its impacts are reported in Sweden and in the world at large. The focus of this study was the impacts of the Movingo integrated ticketing scheme in terms of PT patronage, user satisfaction and the perceived quality of the ticketing set-up. Three travel surveys were conducted along the Stockholm-Uppsala route. Methods including logistic regression and correlated t-tests were used to analyse the samples. The findings suggest that the scheme made rail commuting more attractive resulting in an overall increase of about 24% in ticket sales with 3% – 15% car commuters reporting that they patronised PT services after the project. The scheme also resulted in increased rail commuter satisfaction. The overall perceived quality of the ticketing set-up did not however improve due to interoperability challenges. Service providers’ uncertainty about equitable distribution of revenue among the participating service providers, interoperability challenges and the lack of interest among most of the participating service providers to sell Movingo tickets are some issues to be addressed.     

Objective correlates and determinants of bicycle commuting propensity in an urban environment

ObjectiveBicycle use for commuting is being encouraged not only to address physical inactivity, but also vehicular congestion, air pollution and climate change. The current study aimed to ascertain the urban environmental correlates and determinants of bicycle use for commuting (bicycle commuting) among the working or studying population in Barcelona, Spain.MethodsAdults (n = 769; 52% females) recruited whilst commuting within Barcelona (Spain) responded to a comprehensive telephone survey concerning their travel behaviour. Based upon responses collected from June 2011 to May 2012, participants were categorised into four groups: frequent bicyclists, infrequent bicyclists, willing non-bicyclists, and unwilling non-bicyclists. The determinants of frequency and willingness (propensity) to commute by bicycle were assessed by multinomial logistic regression models adjusted for potential confounders and covariates.ResultsThe number of public bicycle stations surrounding the home address and amount of greenness surrounding the work/study address were significant positive determinants of bicycle commuting propensity. On the other hand, the number of public transport stations surrounding the home address and elevation of the work/study address were significant negative determinants of bicycle commuting propensity. Individual age, education level, gender, nationality, physical activity level and commute distance significantly affected this propensity.ConclusionGreater availability of public bicycle stations and higher levels of urban greenness may increase bicycle use by adults commuting within a city such as Barcelona, Spain. Electrically-assisted public bicycles may address the challenge of elevation, making this system a more competitive mode against traditional motorised public transport.     

The impact of urban characteristics and residents’ income on commuting in China

This study examined the relationship between urban characteristics and residents’ commuting behaviour using sample survey data from 106 cities in China. We found that the average commuting time of high-income groups is significantly longer than that of low-income groups. The increasing urbanization rate leads to an increase in commuting time and more residents using public transport for commuting. The increase in the urban population density is expected to increase the commuting time and the possibility of commuting using non-motorised modes. Different urban characteristics have different effects on the commuting patterns of residents within different income groups. The increased urbanization rate promotes the use of motorised modes for commuting in the high-income group, and shortens the commuting time of the low-income group. We also found that population density and neighbourhood-level factors have a greater impact on the commuting time of the low-income group compared to the high-income group. We suggest China’s urban planners should place emphasis on the commuting requirements of the low-income group by China’s urban planners.     

Short-term planning and policy interventions to promote cycling in urban centers: Findings from a commute mode choice analysis in Barcelona,Spain

BackgroundCycling for transportation has become an increasingly important component of strategies to address public health, climate change, and air quality concerns in urban centers. Within this context, planners and policy makers would benefit from an improved understanding of available interventions and their relative effectiveness for cycling promotion. We examined predictors of bicycle commuting that are relevant to planning and policy intervention, particularly those amenable to short- and medium-term action.MethodsWe estimated a travel mode choice model using data from a survey of 765 commuters who live and work within the municipality of Barcelona. We considered how the decision to commute by bicycle was associated with cycling infrastructure, bike share availability, travel demand incentives, and other environmental attributes (e.g., public transport availability). Self-reported and objective (GIS-based) measures were compared. Point elasticities and marginal effects were calculated to assess the relative explanatory power of the independent variables considered.ResultsWhile both self-reported and objective measures of access to cycling infrastructure were associated with bicycle commuting, self-reported measures had stronger associations. Bicycle commuting had positive associations with access to bike share stations but inverse associations with access to public transport stops. Point elasticities suggested that bicycle commuting has a mild negative correlation with public transport availability (−0.136), bike share availability is more important at the work location (0.077) than at home (0.034), and bicycle lane presence has a relatively small association with bicycle commuting (0.039). Marginal effects suggested that provision of an employer-based incentive not to commute by private vehicle would be associated with an 11.3% decrease in the probability of commuting by bicycle, likely reflecting the typical emphasis of such incentives on public transport.ConclusionsThe results provide evidence of modal competition between cycling and public transport, through the presence of public transport stops and the provision of public transport-oriented travel demand incentives. Education and awareness campaigns that influence perceptions of cycling infrastructure availability, travel demand incentives that encourage cycling, and policies that integrate public transport and cycling may be promising and cost-effective strategies to promote cycling in the short to medium term.     

The effect of contract renewal and competitive tendering on public transport costs,subsidies and ridership

In this paper, we aim to estimate the effect of contract renewal as well as competitive tendering on public transport costs, subsidies, and ridership. More specifically, we examine to what extent (multiple) contract renewals and introduction of competitive tendering for long-term public transport contracts affect ridership, operational costs and subsidies in concession areas governed by public transportation authorities from 2001 until 2013 in the Netherlands. Our identification strategy improves on the literature as we are able to control for all time-invariant unobserved factors, such as network and area characteristics by using panel data. We show that when renewing long-term contracts, operational costs are reduced by at least 10%, whereas subsidies fall even stronger. For contracts that are renewed at least twice, the reduction in costs is even more substantial and in the order of 16%. We find that the effect of competitive tendering is completely absent, suggesting that the threat of competitive tendering is sufficient in a market where the majority of concessions is competitive tendered. Contract renewal not only reduces costs and subsidies, but simultaneously increases public transport ridership by 7.7%. Furthermore the vehicle-hours elasticity of operational costs is 0.40, pointing to strong economies of density. The geographical scale elasticity of operational costs is around one, which indicates constant returns to scale with respect to the geographical size of the concession area. This suggest that the current size of the Dutch concession area is optimal with respect to costs.     

Commuting trip satisfaction in Beijing: Exploring the influence of multimodal behavior and modal flexibility

In the past decade, many studies have explored the relationship between travelers’ travel mode and their trip satisfaction. Various characteristics of the chosen travel modes have been found to influence trip experiences; however, apart from the chosen modes, travelers’ variability in mode use and their ability to vary have not been investigated in the trip satisfaction literature. This current paper presents an analysis of commuting trip satisfaction in Beijing with a particular focus on the influence of commuters’ multimodal behavior on multiple workdays and their modal flexibility for each commuting trip. Consistent with previous studies, we find that commuting trips by active modes are the most satisfying, followed by trips by car and public transport. In Beijing, public transport dominates. Urban residents increasingly acquire automobiles, but a strict vehicle policy has been implemented to restrict the use of private cars on workdays. In this comparatively constrained context for transport mode choice, we find a significant portion of commuters showing multimodal behavior. We also find that multimodal commuters tend to feel less satisfied with trips by alternative modes compared with monomodal commuters, which is probably related to their undesirable deviation from habitual transport modes. Furthermore, the relationship between modal flexibility and trip satisfaction is not linear, but U-shaped. Commuters with high flexibility are generally most satisfied because there is a higher possibility for them to choose their mode of transport out of preference. Very inflexible commuters can also reach a relatively high satisfaction level, however, which is probably caused by their lower expectations beforehand and the fact that they did not have an alternative to regret in trip satisfaction assessments.     

Treatment of seasonal tickets for public transport in estimation and application of mode/destination choice models

A new model system dealing with trips of length up to 100 km has recently been developed in Norway. A new way of dealing with seasonal passes for public transport is used in the travel-to-work model. The objective was to account for the fact that a respondent that posses a seasonal pass for public transport may behave as if public transport is free on the day they report a travel diary. On the other hand, we can not assume that public transport is free for respondents that used other modes of transport or that public transport is free to alternative destinations. This problem was solved by defining seasonal pass as a separate alternative in the form of a nest that included all modes of travel. The cost of a seasonal pass is a common cost for all modes in the nest and will thus not affect the choice within the nest. The estimation of this specification is compared with the more common approach of assigning an average cost per day based on the cost of a monthly pass and the number of workdays in a month. The comparison indicates that the “average cost per day” approach may produce biased estimates for several parameters. It also turns out that the cost parameter for seasonal pass is higher than the parameter for “out of pocket” cost, probably reflecting that there will be some uncertainty with respect to the actual use of a seasonal pass.     

Fuel price changes and their impacts on urban transport – a literature review using bibliometric and content analysis techniques, 1972–2017

ABSTRACT

While the period of heightened oil prices in 2005–2014 has attracted considerable academic and policy attention, there is scant cross-disciplinary research considering energy price, transport and land use together. In car dependent societies many socio-economically disadvantaged areas often lack public and active transport accessibility. Emerging research focus has been placed on issues of transport equity including effects of fuel prices. We reviewed 45 years (1972–2017) of publications about fuel price impacts, transport, and urban context, drawn from Web of Science listed publications. Bibliographic citation analysis reveals eight major research clusters with a set of inter-city comparative studies at their centre. The historical evolution, geographical trends, research approaches and the key themes are revealed by context analysis. The paper highlights the need for further studies looking at energy, transport and land use interaction, and suggests a greater focus on transport equity.     

Modal split and urban public transport management in an Eastern European country

When public transport is the main means of travel in urban areas, management and planning are easy and the main objective can be to minimise costs for the demand available, i.e. maximise profit. However when public transport faces competition from other modes of transport, and activities can be undertaken in a variety of locations, then the management and planning of public transport services is considerably more difficult.This paper examines a methodology for representing consumer behaviour when faced with alternative travel decisions, in order to identify the demand for public transport and to help operators adjust services and prices to maximise demand, when considering people's disposable income, the alternative modes and activity locations available. From this it is possible to devise criteria for maximising consumer surplus in a city, taking into account social benefits.     

Free public transport: A socio-cognitive analysis

In this study, the modal shift potential of introducing a free alternative (free public transportation) and of changing the relative prices of transportation is examined. The influence of a cognitive analysis on the zero-price effect is also analyzed. The data used for the analysis stem from a stated preference survey with a sample of approximately 670 respondents that was conducted in Flanders, Belgium. The data are analyzed using a mixed logit model. The modeling results yield findings that confirm the existence of a zero-price effect in transport, which is in line with the literature. This zero-price effect is increased by the forced cognitive analysis for shopping trips, although not for work/school or recreational trips. The results also demonstrate the importance of the current mode choice in hypothetical mode choices and the importance of car availability. The influence of changing relative prices on the modal shift is found to be insignificant. This might be partially because the price differences were too small to matter. Hence, an increase in public transport use can be facilitated by the introduction of free public transport, particularly when individuals evaluate the different alternatives in a more cognitive manner. These findings should be useful to policy makers evaluating free public transport and considering how best to target and promote relevant policy.     

What are the determinants in making people free riders in proof-of-payment transit systems? Evidence from Italy

Nowadays, in proof-of-payment transit systems, fare evasion is provoking strong interest in public transport companies (PTCs) due to the relevant economic losses, social inequity and increased levels of violence affecting personal security. Therefore, there is the need to recognize possible fare evaders. By using 2177 on-board personal interviews, gathered from an Italian PTC, and logistic regression models, we isolate determinants of possible free-rider passengers and, hence, those whom it might be advisable to target in order to capitalize on the effect of the application of countermeasures on fare evasion put forward by the local PTC. We show that males, younger than 26 years, with a low education level, unemployed and/or students and without an alternative mode of transport other than the bus are more probably fare evaders. Moreover, people who make trips of shorter than 15 min, who are systematic users and are not satisfied with the service are possible fare evaders. Finally, we found that a low level of inspection, knowledge of fines and previous ticket violations are determinants which make people more prone to evade fares. These outcomes are very useful, because, to the best of our knowledge, they represent the first empirical contribution showing the determinants which help evaluate the propensity to be a fare evader, in probabilistic terms. Moreover, they could help PTCs understand who might be a fare evader, in order to anticipate suitable countermeasures.     

Changes to commute mode: The role of life events,spatial context and environmental attitude

It has been suggested that commuting behaviours become habitual and that changes to commute mode are more likely at the time of major life events. However, evidence to support this has so far been limited to analyses of small-scale samples. To address this evidence gap, we use two waves of panel data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009/10 and 2010/11) to identify and explain the prevalence of individual change in commute mode from year to year amongst a representative sample of the English working population (n = 15,200). One third of those that cycle or get the bus to work, and one quarter of those that walk to work, are shown to change commuting mode by the following year. Car commuting is more stable, with only one in ten car commuters changing mode by the following year. Commute mode changes are found to be primarily driven by alterations to the distance to work which occur in association with changing job or moving home. Switching to non-car commuting becomes much more likely (9.2 times) as the distance to work drops below three miles. High quality public transport links to employment centres are shown to encourage switches away from car commuting and mixed land uses are shown to encourage switches to active commuting (walking and cycling). Switches away from car commuting are found to be more likely (1.3 times) for those with a pro-environmental attitude. The attitude orientation is shown to precede the behaviour change, demonstrating evidence of ‘cause and effect’. Overall, the study shows that changes in commuting behaviour are strongly influenced by life events, spatial context and environmental attitude.     

Experiential Incrementalism: On the Theory and Technique to Implement Transport Plans and Policies

The paper describes an approach to the vexing problem of transport planning and policy. It deals jointly with three questions, which in today's practice are addressed separately: How are hypotheses about transport problems and alternatives to their solution developed? How can a good plan or policy be identified? What is the process of implementing a transport plan or policy? In doing this the paper has the ambitious objective of proposing a new model and process for transport planning and policy. It is applicable in developed and developing countries and is not restricted to the transport sector. The paper builds on, and is a reinterpretation of two cornerstone transport planning and decision-making models – the CATS (Chicago Area Transportation Study) Planning and Design Model and Braybrooke and Lindblom's Disjointed Incrementalism. It advances a technique of experiential incrementalism (termed polisanalysis) to develop and implement plans and policies. It proposes that problems should be diagnosed by observation and continuous data collection; that their continuous analysis, finding the “cure”, and implementation take place through the method of experiential incrementalism. In this method interventions are grounded on the theories of neoinstitutional economics and psychoanalysis and derived using contact function, explained in the paper, which renders the method scientific replicability. Experiential incrementalism can employ a wider array of options in planning and policy than is presently thought possible. Like other scientific methods, its application requires rigorous training.     

Travel satisfaction effects of changes in public transport usage

We study the effects of public transport use incentives on changes in travel satisfaction of participants that undergo behavior change. We use the results of an experiment conducted recently at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and requiring a temporary use of public transport for commuting to work by habitual car drivers. We observe an increase in the average level of satisfaction with the commute to work of participants who switch to public transport after the temporary intervention. This increase is sustained to some extent several months after the intervention. Moreover, participants’ dissatisfaction is almost eliminated. We conclude that public transport use incentives are promising not only for encouraging sustainable travel behavior but also for increasing people’s satisfaction.