Bridging the gap between complex data and decision-makers: an example of an innovative interactive tool

Abstract

The increasing capacity of technological tools, as well as the advent of geographic information systems, has multiplied the ability to process large sets of microdata. At the same time, modeling concerns and the quest for a more in-depth understanding of individual behaviors is requiring more, and better, data. The gap between scientific modeling and informational tools for decision-making seems to be widening.

In the Greater Montreal area, large sets of microdata have been available for more than 30 years. Along with the development of modeling and planning tools, particular attention has been given to the continuous enlightening of planners and decision-makers with respect to the outcomes of the various surveys. This has led to the development of particular interactive tools, specifically addressed at local planners, which present the most significant information regarding travel and demography, for geopolitically relevant areas.

This paper presents the most recent interactive tool that has been developed for local planners in the Montreal area. It integrates information from both the most recent travel survey held in the region and the Canadian census. It offers both ease of use and relevant analytical means to assist in exploring the complex relations between spatial locations, demographic features, and activity-travel indicators.     

The implications of the sharing economy for transport

ABSTRACT

The sharing economy has gained a lot of attention in recent years. Despite the substantial growth in shared services, its impact overall on transport is unclear. This paper analyses the literature on sharing in transport and includes government and consultant reports, websites and academic journals. The drivers of ride-sharing, car-sharing, car-pooling and freight-sharing are largely economic and convenience related for participants. Trust, technology platforms and the trend to avoid ownership of assets are facilitating factors in its growth. Over-regulation, inconsistent quality of service and the need for recommendation are potential barriers. The transport journals in particular are relatively slow to research this topic with more focusing on bike-sharing than other modes of vehicle sharing. The paper discusses the impact of sharing on transport suggesting it is likely to be part of a solution to transport problems and congestion perhaps in combination with other developments such as driverless vehicles. It also warns of the dangers of over-regulation and under-regulation. The future will require holistic transport strategies that consider sharing options and will require government departments to work cooperatively.     

The sharing economy and the job market: the case of ride-hailing drivers in Chile

Transportation - Ride-hailing (ridesourcing) companies such as Uber, Lyft, and Didi Chuxing have been a disruptive force in the urban mobility landscape around the world during the past decade. In...     

Bridging the gap between multi-objective optimization and spatial planning: a new post-processing methodology capturing the optimum allocation of land uses against established transportation infrastructure

The optimal allocation of multiple land uses constitutes a complex multi-objective optimization problem with unknown feasible objective space and optimal planning alternatives. Despite the effectiveness of evolutionary algorithms to capture the underlying Pareto set of optimum maps, land use planners are bound to pursue the best possible spatial allocation of each use within an enormous population of non-dominated solutions. This article presents a novel post-processing methodology enhancing the comparative evaluation of alternative planning approaches without making any assumptions about the (relative) importance of each objective function. The proposed consolidated post-processing module is applied in a land use planning paradigm, revealing: (a) the existence of substantial planning guidelines whose validity is not affected by the relative significance of each criterion and (b) the variable planning component emerging from the (varying) relative importance of objective functions. Such planning feedback could not be extracted by the exhaustive review of non-dominated maps.     

Analysis of child pick-up during daily routines and for daytime no-notice evacuations

In a no-notice disaster (e.g., nuclear explosion, terrorist attack, or hazardous materials release), an evacuation may start immediately after the disaster strikes. When a no-notice evacuation occurs during the daytime, household members are scattered throughout the regional network, and some family members (e.g., children) may need to be picked up. This household pick-up and gathering behavior was seldom investigated in previous work due to insufficient data; this gap in our understanding about who within families handles child-gathering is addressed here. Three hundred fifteen interviews were conducted in the Chicago metropolitan area to ascertain how respondents planned their response to hypothetical no-notice emergency evacuation orders. This paper presents the influencing factors that affect household pick-up and gathering behavior/expectations and the logistic regression models developed to predict the probability that parents pick up a child in three situations: a normal weekday and two hypothetical emergency scenarios. The results showed that both mothers and fathers were more likely to pick up a child under emergency conditions than they were on a normal weekday. For a normal weekday, increasing the distance between parents and children decreased the probability of parents picking up children; in other words, the farther parents are from their children, the less likely they will pick them up. In an emergency, effects of distance on pick-up behavior were significant for women, but not significant for men; that is, increasing the distance between parents and children decreased the probability that mothers pick up a child, but had a less significant effect on the fathers’ probability. Another significant factor affecting child pick-up behavior/expectations was household income when controlling for distance. The results of this study confirm that parents expect to gather children under emergency conditions, which needs to be accounted for in evacuation planning; failure to do so could cause difficulties in executing the pick-ups, lead to considerable queuing and rerouting, and extend the time citizens are exposed to high levels of risk.     

Analyzing the gap between the QOS demanded by PT users and QOS supplied by service operators

This research evaluated the effectiveness of tendered bus public transportation (PT) in improving the attractiveness of that service in order to promote sustainable mobility. This was accomplished by characterizing the gap between the quality of service (QOS) supplied by contract regimes and that which is demanded by passengers. Analysis of a customer satisfaction survey aimed at bus users provided insight into their ranking of 14 QOS parameters while 13 active service contracts were analyzed for their impact on QOS. In-depth interviews with relevant experts completed the complex narrative that is Israel’s policy of privatization in PT. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses helped identify those QOS parameters most in demand by passengers and impacted by contracts. The results show that the gap is minimal, high demand parameters receive increased priority in contracts. In addition this research documented an evolution in the method contracts employed to provide QOS. Late model contracts define an increasingly higher minimum QOS; but also strongly limit the operator’s ability to make service changes. This is a trend which should improve QOS in Israel but reduce the incentive for operator enacted QOS initiatives. Despite its obvious success to date, it might be time to change again the contract regime for the provision of competitive bus services in Israel.     

Using AHP to measure the perception gap between current and potential users of bus services

Abstract

This study develops a multicriteria evaluation of user perception towards bus transit services and measures the gap in the perceptions held by current and potential users. A review of the transport quality literature indicates that both preference and satisfaction measures have been implemented to provide a comprehensive perception-based evaluation of bus quality. Although attempts have been made to evaluate user perception through a separate analysis of each (preference and/or satisfaction), the application of multicriteria quality measures are limited. A multicriteria quality measure not only offers more than just information on the daily experience of users but also knowledge of the internal process of quality evaluation (drivers/barriers). The multicriteria measure utilises the data of 512 questionnaires, whereby user perceptions were expressed through judgments of importance and satisfaction based on a set of 29 quality indicators classified into six attributes. Firstly, the study develops analytical hierarchy process (AHP) models to measure user preference. Secondly, a weighted perception index (WPI) of both preference and satisfaction is developed through a multicriteria model. Finally, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) is conducted to identify the level of variation in the perception of both current and potential users towards bus service quality. The results show that although both current and potential users place a higher importance towards the same indicators, they do not share the same pattern of preferences (values and/or order). In addition, the study found that the interaction between preferences and satisfaction generated new patterns of subjective evaluation, and that these patterns vary significantly by user category.     

Travel mode choice and travel satisfaction: bridging the gap between decision utility and experienced utility

Over the past decades research on travel mode choice has evolved from work that is informed by utility theory, examining the effects of objective determinants, to studies incorporating more subjective variables such as habits and attitudes. Recently, the way people perceive their travel has been analyzed with transportation-oriented scales of subjective well-being, and particularly the satisfaction with travel scale. However, studies analyzing the link between travel mode choice (i.e., decision utility) and travel satisfaction (i.e., experienced utility) are limited. In this paper we will focus on the relation between mode choice and travel satisfaction for leisure trips (with travel-related attitudes and the built environment as explanatory variables) of study participants in urban and suburban neighborhoods in the city of Ghent, Belgium. It is shown that the built environment and travel-related attitudes—both important explanatory variables of travel mode choice—and mode choice itself affect travel satisfaction. Public transit users perceive their travel most negatively, while active travel results in the highest levels of travel satisfaction. Surprisingly, suburban dwellers perceive their travel more positively than urban dwellers, for all travel modes.     

道路运输--亚欧之桥

9月25日至27日北京举行的"第三届欧亚道路运输大会"是中国举办的首次国际大型交通运输会议.     

Bridging the Gap in Planning Indoor Pedestrian Facilities

Abstract

Pedestrians are currently attracting the interest of various researchers and practitioners, particularly urban and transport planners. Analysis of the pedestrian behavior, environment and modeling has been carried out in diverse instances in the context of pedestrian planning. This paper seeks to identify the content of each of these three research areas and designate the linkages that connect their interests providing insights into planning indoor pedestrian facilities. To achieve this objective, a review of the literature on pedestrians walking indoors and indoor pedestrian environments was conducted. Understanding pedestrian behavior is fundamental in the pedestrian planning process. Principles of decision-making, cognition, wayfinding and flows were studied. When analyzing the pedestrian environment, Space Syntax and wayfinding analysis were found to be established methods that are an integral part of this field. Finally, the majority of the existing modeling approaches were identified. It was found that despite the dynamic evolution of each area, the integration of different research perspectives is weak. The paper concluded with the proposal of a mindmap which brings together all the concepts found in the literature and which should be explored for a more comprehensive planning of indoor pedestrian facilities.     

Substitution and complementarity patterns between traditional transport means and car sharing: a person and trip level analysis

Transportation - Car sharing is a new transport mode which combines characteristics of private and collective traditional transport means. Understanding the relationship of this mode with existing...     

Revisiting the relationship between traffic congestion and the economy: a longitudinal examination of U.S. metropolitan areas

Conventional transportation practices typically focus on alleviating traffic congestion affecting motorists during peak travel periods. One of the underlying assumptions is that traffic congestion, particularly during these peak periods, is harmful to a region’s economy. This paper seeks to answer a seemingly straightforward question: is the fear of the negative economic effects of traffic congestion justified, or is congestion merely a nuisance with little economic impact? This research analyzed 30 years of data for 89 US metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) to evaluate the economic impacts of traffic congestion at the regional level. Employing a two-stage, least squares panel regression model, we controlled for endogeneity using instrumental variables and assessed the association between traffic congestion and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) as well as between traffic congestion and job growth for an 11-year time period. We then investigated the relationship between traffic congestion and per capita income for those same 11 years as well as for the thirty-year time period (1982–2011) when traffic congestion data were available. Controlling for the key variables found to be significant in the existing literature, our results suggest that the potential negative impact of traffic congestion on the economy does not deserve the attention it receives. Economic productivity is not significantly negatively impacted by high levels of traffic congestion. In fact, the results suggest a positive association between traffic congestion and per capita GDP as well as between traffic congestion and job growth at the MSA level. There was a statistically insignificant effect on per capita income. There may be valid reasons to continue the fight against congestion, but the idea that congestion will stifle the economy does not appear to be one of them.

     

Revenue sharing with multiple airlines and airports

This paper investigates the effects of concession revenue sharing between an airport and its airlines. It is found that the degree of revenue sharing will be affected by how airlines’ services are related to each other (complements, independent, or substitutes). In particular, when carriers provide strongly substitutable services to each other, the airport has incentive to charge airlines, rather than to pay airlines, a share of concession revenue. In these situations, while revenue sharing improves profit, it reduces social welfare. It is further found that airport competition results in a higher degree of revenue sharing than would be had in the case of single airports. The airport–airline chains may nevertheless derive lower profits through the revenue-sharing rivalry, and the situation is similar to a Prisoners’ Dilemma. As the chains move further away from their joint profit maximum, welfare rises beyond the level achievable by single airports. The (equilibrium) revenue-sharing proportion at an airport is also shown to decrease in the number of its carriers, and to increase in the number of carriers at competing airports. Finally, the effects of a ‘pure’ sharing contract are compared to those of the two-part sharing contract. It is found that whether an airport is subject to competition is critical to the welfare consequences of alternative revenue sharing arrangements.     

长联无缝桥梁成套技术在广西那角中桥的应用

修建全无缝桥梁可以彻底解决桥梁伸缩装置问题。那角中桥是广西第一座应用长联无缝桥梁成套技术的半整体式全无缝桥梁。文章通过介绍那角中桥设计与运营情况,分析了长联无缝桥梁成套技术应用所带来的经济与社会效益,为该技术的推广应用提供依据。     

The growing gap in pedestrian and cyclist fatality rates between the United States and the United Kingdom,Germany, Denmark,and the Netherlands, 1990–2018

ABSTRACT

Using official national data for each country, this article calculates trends in walking and cycling fatalities per capita and per km in the USA, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark. From 1990 to 2018, pedestrian fatalities per capita fell by 23% in the USA vs. 66%–80% in the other countries; cyclist fatalities per capita fell by 22% in the USA vs. 55%–68% in the other countries. In 2018, pedestrian fatality rates per km in the USA were 5–10 times higher than in the other four countries; cyclist fatality rates per km in the USA were 4–7 times higher. The gap in walking and cycling fatality rates between the USA and the other countries increased over the entire 28-year period, but especially from 2010 to 2018. Over that 8-year period, per-capita fatality rates in the USA rose by 19% for pedestrians and 11% for cyclists; per-km fatality rates rose by 17% for pedestrians and 33% for cyclists. By comparison, fatality rates either fell or remained stable in the four European countries. We reviewed the relevant literature to identify factors that might help explain the much lower walking and cycling fatality rates in Europe compared to the USA. Possible explanatory factors include better walking and cycling infrastructure; lower urban speed limits; fewer vehicle km travelled; smaller and less powerful personal motor vehicles; and better traffic training, testing, and enforcement of traffic regulations. We recommend that the USA consider implementing an integrated package of mutually reinforcing safety measures such as those that have been successfully implemented in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany to reduce pedestrian and cyclist fatality rates.     

Vehicle sharing for the journey to work by office employees

This paper outlines some spatial variations in the incidence of vehicle sharing for the journey to work amongst office workers at a number of locations in Britain. The contribution of occupation status and related factors to the variability in vehicle sharing is considered with reference to four case study offices and in relation to the use of private hire buses at one establishment. It is concluded that the original, local-specific, empirical evidence presented in the paper confirms the apparent lack of a universal pattern in vehicle sharing.     

Code sharing,joint fares,and competition in the regional airline industry

In the wake of airline deregulation, virtually all large jet carriers have entered into cooperative marketing agreements that involve shared designator codes and joint fares with commuter airlines. This paper examines the development of these agreements, the role they play in the competitive strategies of major and commuter airlines. and the implications of these agreements for the structure of the airline industry and for service to travelers to and from small communities.