Children’s travel to school: satisfaction,current mood,and cognitive performance

We investigate whether travel mode, travel time, and activities during travel influence children’s satisfaction with their travel to school, their current mood, and their cognitive performance after arriving at school. A sample of 344 children (165 girls) between the ages of 10 and 15 years were recruited at five public schools in Värmland County, Sweden. Directly after arriving at school, the children rated how they felt on two scales ranging from very sad to very happy and from very tired to very alert, filled out the Satisfaction with Travel Scale adapted for children (STS-C), reported details about their journeys, and took a word-fluency test. The results for STS-C showed that traveling by school bus and walking or cycling was experienced as having a higher quality than traveling by car. Children who engaged in conversation during their journeys reported a higher quality and more positive feelings than children who were engaged in solitary activities during their journeys. A shorter journey was experienced as having a higher quality and resulting in more positive feelings. Children traveling for longer durations performed better in the word-fluency test if using their smartphones or doing a combination of activities during their journeys.     

Gender,Residential Location,and Household Travel: Empirical Findings from Low‐income Urban Settlements in Durban,South Africa

Abstract

Urban development and transport policies designed to improve the livelihoods of poor communities need to consider the particular needs of women to be effective. Gender roles are played out in a spatial world, and can thus be expected to vary across the urban landscape. The paper examines empirical relationships between spatial factors—in particular residential location within the city—and travel behaviour for men and women in a cross‐section of low‐income communities in a large metropolitan area in South Africa. Data from a comprehensive household survey show that locality has a significant influence on gender experiences of mobility. Gender differences are greatest in more distant, rural localities, although site‐specific characteristics such as walking access to social services, informal work, and small‐scale agriculture help alleviate women’s inequitable travel burdens. Central localities display the smallest differences between men and women’s travel habits, supporting the notion that the high access afforded by centrally located housing helps to promote the satisfaction of women’s daily needs as well as their strategic empowerment. Households in peri‐urban and peripheral localities suffer the highest travel burdens, having neither the high access of a central location nor the livelihoods‐enhancing amenities of a rural environment. Women bear a large part of this burden. Urban development strategies to benefit the urban poor while promoting gender equity are highlighted, including an added emphasis on the provision of social and educational infrastructure within closer proximity to peripheral residential areas, coupled with better pedestrian access.     

Middle‐class Travel Patterns,Predispositions and Attitudes,and Present‐day Transport Policy in Bangkok,Thailand

Abstract

Middle‐class expansion and new consumption patterns have increasingly become an important focus of studies of the development and change in newly industrialized and middle‐income‐developing East and South East Asian countries. However, there is still a dearth of studies in the literature particularly focusing on middle‐class travel patterns, predispositions and transport policy preferences. Nor have the implications of these factors on current transport and land development policy been examined. The present exploratory study addresses this gap by examining three cases in Bangkok, Thailand, which in recent decades witnessed dramatic middle‐class expansion, an increase in private motor vehicle population, and spatial diffusion of middle‐class residences into lower‐density zones in the suburbs. By mainly employing a survey method of data‐gathering and quantitative research analysis, the paper discusses the following findings: (1) that middle‐class travel behaviour is characterized by a high dependence on private motor vehicle travel and ‘inward commuting’; (2) that middle‐class preferences for transport mode and attitudes about remedial policy options are generally protective of their members’ car‐dependence and ownership; and (3) that present policy measures of the Thai government on Bangkok transport perfectly fit and support exclusively middle‐ and upper‐class predispositions and stakes in mobility. These findings in a developing country city basically follow a similar profile to be found in middle‐class‐dominant transport patterns and urban form in a number of North American cities. This paper further argues that in a developing country city such as Bangkok, where marked social differentiation and the combined population of poor and low‐income classes still comprise almost half of the urban social landscape despite an expanding middle‐class, an adequate and good public transport system that also meets the former’s need for efficient mobility is an imperative.     

The taxi industry: working conditions and health of drivers,a literature review

The taxi industry plays an important role in urban transportation systems, both in economic and mobility terms. In the case of the former, it provides employment for a large number of people and circulates significant amounts of money. In the case of the latter, it is a flexible means of transportation capable of arriving at any destination. Although the way the taxi industry is organised varies across countries and even within countries, some factors are shared at varying latitudes of the globe. Working conditions, habits, health, and exposure to road crashes have been a subject of interest for researchers from various disciplines, including medicine, psychology, and economics. However, much of this research focuses on a part of the problem and is not mutually referential. A review of the literature may be useful not only to researchers of diverse disciplines but also to industry representatives and those public officials responsible for transportation, road safety and health policy. This article provides a comprehensive review of the working conditions of taxi drivers, their relationship to road risk exposure and their consequences on the health of workers. It also includes information on coping strategies and protective behaviors. The review is based on a Scopus database search. The search covered the period from 1990 to 2015. This initial search was complemented with other database searches, which yielded some additional studies. Our goal was to summarise existing knowledge, identify possible lines of research and suggest some practical recommendations. It would be important (a) to reduce the workload, establish adequate time for breaks, and provide access to healthcare, (b) to implement actions to promote and maintain healthy habits, (c) to diagnose, detect and treat indicators of occupational fatigue and stress, and (d) to develop programs that make it possible to evaluate work concerns and broaden coping strategies to foster positive changes.     

Transportation–land-use interaction: empirical findings in North America,and their implications for modeling

The last two decades have witnessed the implementation of various policies based on land-use to address problems stemming from automobile ownership and use. There are, however, questions with respect to the efficacy of such policies. This paper therefore reviews the literature on empirical studies of the transportation–land-use interaction with the objective of identifying the current state of knowledge concerning the interactions, particularly with respect to the impact land-use policies are likely to have on the system. The focus is on studies conducted in North America. The results are mixed; some studies conclude that urban densities, traditional neighborhood design schemes, and land-use mix have an impact on auto ownership and use. Other studies find the impact of such variables to be at best marginal. Gaps in our understanding of the interaction are identified. These are found to be primarily the result of data limitations and methodological weaknesses. A detailed discussion of the implications of the findings for the development and application of integrated transportation–land-use models is provided, with the recommendation that without such an integrated approach to analyzing the transportation–land-use interaction, any study of impacts of urban form on travel behavior is likely to yield erroneous results.     

Urban form,commuting patterns and CO2 emissions: What differences between the municipality’s residents and its jobs?

This article investigates the links between urban form and commuting patterns, and the CO₂ emissions associated with them, in the municipalities that comprise the New Town of Marne-la-Vallée (NTMV) located in the Paris Region. The paper distinguishes between the commutes performed by residents and those generated by the jobs located in a municipality. The contribution of the paper is twofold. Firstly, it shows that the CO₂ emissions of commutes differ greatly depending on whether one considers residents or jobs: hence focusing on the travel behaviour of residents can lead to significant errors in the assessment of the CO₂ emissions generated by a municipality, and therefore its environmental sustainability. Secondly, the paper explores the relationship between commuting trips and several indicators of urban form: density, compactness, jobs-to-residents ratio, accessibility to public transport and distance from Paris. We highlight that high jobs-to-residents ratios tend to increase the proportion of jobs held by residents. Density and compactness are associated with more sustainable travel behaviour among residents, but not non-residents. Finally, the shape of the public transport system, which mainly connects the municipalities of the NTMV with Paris, tends to decrease the proportion of jobs held by residents, especially in the municipalities that are close to Paris, and does not allow non-residents, most of whom do not travel from Paris, to use public transport.     

Personal tradable carbon permits for road transport: Why, why not and who wins?

Personal road transport sector poses a significant challenge in reducing carbon emissions. This paper evaluates a policy approach known as personal tradable carbon permits to reduce carbon emissions from personal vehicles. The policy is a downstream tradable permit where individuals are allocated carbon emission caps. The policy is qualitatively evaluated in the context of carbon taxes and some upstream tradable permit options. The biggest disadvantage of such a policy is the initial set up costs. Personal tradable permits, however, are more effective than carbon taxes and are also capable of stabilizing the gasoline prices faced by the consumers when the underlying oil prices fluctuate. Since equity effects are often a concern to policy makers, the effect of such personal carbon permits on the distribution of burden is quantified in a partial equilibrium framework for the US population. Different permit allocation strategies are investigated in this regard. Using US consumer expenditure survey data, and incorporating a differentiated price response for different households, we find that all three allocation strategies considered are progressive: a per adult based allocation is the most progressive, a per vehicle allocation nearer to proportional, and a per capita allocation in between the two. Personal tradable permits therefore take care of equity concerns directly through the design of the policy.     

An analysis of children’s leisure activity engagement: examining the day of week, location, physical activity level, and fixity dimensions

This paper presents a detailed analysis of discretionary leisure activity engagement by children. Children’s leisure activity engagement is of much interest to transportation professionals from an activity-based travel demand modeling perspective, to child development professionals from a sociological perspective, and to health professionals from an active lifestyle perspective that can help prevent obesity and other medical ailments from an early age. Using data from the 2002 Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this paper presents a detailed analysis of children’s discretionary activity engagement by day of week (weekend versus weekday), location (in-home versus out-of-home), type of activity (physically active versus passive), and nature of activity (structured versus unstructured). A mixed multiple discrete-continuous extreme value model formulation is adopted to account for the fact that children may participate in multiple activities and allocate positive time duration to each of the activities chosen. It is found that children participate at the highest rate and for the longest duration in passive unstructured leisure activities inside the home. Children in households with parents who are employed, higher income, or higher education were found to participate in structured outdoor activities at higher rates. The child activity modeling framework and methodology presented in this paper lends itself for incorporation into larger activity-based travel model systems where it is imperative that children’s activity-travel patterns be explicitly modeled—both from a child health and well-being policy perspective and from a travel forecasting perspective.

上海海事局:突出重点,科学管理

为上海航运中心发展创造良好的安全环境2012年,上海海事局在安全生产工作中突出重点,科学管理,辖区水上交通事故四项指标全面下降,安全形势大幅度好转,为上海航运中心发展创造了良好的安全环境。全年,局辖区水域共发生一般及以上等级水上交通事故24件、沉船12艘、死亡/失踪6人(其中1人为渔船人员)、事故直接经济损失10429.35万元。与去年同期相比,事故件数下降22.6%、沉船艘数下降29.4%、死亡失踪人数下降81.8%,直接经济损失下降45.3%。