Activity settings and travel behaviour: A social contact perspective

Using time-use data from Canada, Norway, and Sweden, this study briefly outlines the essence of the activity setting approach and illustrates one aspect of its usefulness by exploring the impact of social contact on travel behaviour. The activity system approach views behaviour in context. Activity settings are generic components of the activity system and studying them using time-use diaries can provide major insights into travel behaviour. Focusing on social contact, this paper characterizes the social environment in terms of social circle (interaction partners) and social space (location). The analysis shows that there are clear differences in the levels of social interaction across various groups, including those who work at home. The 1992 Canadian data showed people working at the workplace spend relatively more time with others, about 50% of total time awake. Working at home reduced the time with others to a low of 15.7%. when people worked at home the family benefited, almost doubling the time spent with them compared to those working at the workplace. Persons working at home only spend the most time alone. There is a tendency for persons with low social interaction to travel more. It is argued that individual need, or want, social contact and if they cannot find it at the workplace they will seek it elsewhere thus generating travel. Whether this is the result of need or opportunity is of minor relevance, what it does suggest is that working in isolation at home will not necessarily diminish travel but rather may simply change its purpose. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

高速铁路对都市区一体化的影响 ——以伦敦、马德里和巴黎为例

高速铁路建设的最初目的是连接相距400~600 km的都市区.但是近年,都市地区的郊区及城市出现了一些边缘位置的高铁车站,距都市中心的距离约100 km.重点研究位于马德里(瓜达拉哈拉、塞戈维亚和托莱多)、伦敦(斯特拉特福德、艾贝斯费特和阿什福德)和巴黎(鲁瓦西—戴高乐、马恩河谷—谢西和马西)附近的9座外围高铁车站,分析它们对都市区及当地的影响,并提取对加利福尼亚州高速铁路项目可借鉴之处.     

The perception and image of shipping

The image of the shipping industry plays a vital role in developing maritime transport as a major future, sustainable transport alternative. In particular, it is crucial to understand the image the shipping industry has among young people and the anatomy of the concept in order to be able to effectively promote careers in shipping, to cultivate shipping as an attractive labour market and to develop attractive educational programmes. The focus of this paper is the image of the shipping industry. This study reports on the findings of a large-scale survey of the image of shipping- and image-related concepts among upper secondary school pupils in Sweden, Norway and Greece. We define and analyse empirically by means of multivariate statistical analysis the anatomy of the image concept. We identify various image dimensions, estimate how young people rate the shipping industry along these dimensions and estimate their relative importance to young people who are planning their future careers. The results from this study can be used as a base for describing and explaining the images that young people have of the shipping industry. Such knowledge is fundamental for deriving and developing constructive strategies to promote careers in shipping, to adapt shipping to the expectations of young people and to develop creative and relevant educational programmes. Finally, understanding the image of shipping among young people is important not only for the shipping industry, but for other stakeholders as well, such as ship-owners associations, trade associations, labour unions, transport authorities and administrations and policy makers at the national and supra-national level.     

Contractual PPPs for Transport Infrastructure in Spain: Lessons from the Economic Recession

In this paper, we analyse the successes and failures of contractual public-private partnerships (PPPs) for delivering and operating transport infrastructure in Spain from the award of the first toll highway concession programme to the present. To that end, we show the risk allocation principles used in Spain and explore the evolution of the contracting approaches over the years. We found that the performance was reasonably good until the arrival of the economic crisis in 2008. Taking advantage of that, we make a review of contractual PPPs for different transport modes and assess the impact that the economic crisis has had on their business performance and the capacity of the central and regional governments to fulfil their commitments with the private sector. This analysis enabled us to identify measures that, if had been applied, would have improved the resilience of these contract during the economic crisis.     

Single wheel hub motor failures and their impact on vehicle and driver behaviour

This research work studies the impact of single wheel hub motor failures on the dynamic behaviour of electric vehicles and the corresponding driver reactions. An experimental study in a moving-base driving simulator is conducted to analyse the influence of single wheel hub motor failures for motorway speeds. Driver reaction times are derived from the measured data and discussed in their experimental context. The failure is rated objectively on the dynamic behaviour of the vehicle and compared to the subjective evaluation. Findings indicate that critical traffic situations impairing traffic safety can occur for motorway speeds. Clear counteractions by the drivers had to be taken.