Shared ride services in North America: definitions,impacts, and the future of pooling

ABSTRACT

Shared ride services allow riders to share a ride to a common destination. They include ridesharing (carpooling and vanpooling); ridesplitting (a pooled version of ridesourcing/transportation network companies); taxi sharing; and microtransit. In recent years, growth of Internet-enabled wireless technologies, global satellite systems, and cloud computing - coupled with data sharing – are causing people to increase their use of mobile applications to share a ride. Some shared ride services, such as carpooling and vanpooling, can provide transportation, infrastructure, environmental, and social benefits. This paper reviews common shared ride service models, definitions, and summarises existing North American impact studies. Additionally, we explore the convergence of shared mobility; electrification; and automation, including the potential impacts of shared automated vehicle (SAV) systems. While SAV impacts remain uncertain, many practitioners and academic research predict higher efficiency, affordability, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. The impacts of SAVs will likely depend on the number of personally owned automated vehicles; types of sharing (concurrent or sequential); and the future modal split among public transit, shared fleets, and pooled rides. We conclude the paper with recommendations for local governments and public agencies to help in managing the transition to highly automated vehicles and encouraging higher occupancy modes.     

Toward More Integrated Ocean Governance in Massachusetts: A Progress Report

The U.K. government is committed to establishing a coherent network of marine protected areas by 2012 and the recent Marine and Coastal Access Act, 2009 will designate marine conservation zones and provide wider access rights to the coast. To fulfill these goals, this article argues the need for a clearer, shared understanding of the social value of protected areas in creating new designations and managing existing ones. Although marine and coastal environments attract many people and are vitally important in terms of realized and potential social value, the majority of the public in the United Kingdom lacks understanding and awareness regarding them. Combined with this, the social value of marine and coastal protected areas (MCPAs) have been largely ignored relative to conservation and economics, with the latter invariably taking precedence in environmental policymaking. Social value reflects the complex, individual responses that people experience in a given place. Many reasons determine why one area is valued above another, and this research investigates the social value of MCPAs from a practitioner's perspective through a series of interviews. Understanding why we “socially” value MCPAs will ultimately equip managers with an informed understanding of these spaces, influence management decisions, and, potentially, policymaking. This article defines social value in the context of MCPAs in England and Wales from a practitioner perspective, explores key concepts, and suggests possible improvements in decision-making.     

世界海事大学

世界海事大学（World Maritime University）成立于1983年，位于瑞典马尔默市，是由联合围下属机构国际海事组织（International Maritime Organization，简称IMO）发起并在其支持下成立。     

Social networks as a source of private-vehicle transportation: The practice of getting rides and borrowing vehicles among Mexican immigrants in California

We examine the role of social networks in enabling access to private-vehicle transportation, through getting rides and borrowing cars. Based on qualitative findings from ten focus group discussions with recent Mexican immigrants to California, half of whom have no car, we describe the extent to which participants depend on rides and borrowed cars for transportation. We highlight the unique aspects of informal access to cars, drawing on social exchange theory and related research to characterize the procurement process and likely levels of exchange. We discuss the implications of these findings for transportation services that might serve this and other community groups.     

Factors associated with proportions and miles of bicycling for transportation and recreation in six small US cities

The majority of bicycling in the US is for recreation rather than transportation purposes but few studies have examined the question of bicycling purpose. We use data from an online survey conducted in 2006 in six small cities in the western US to examine factors affecting bicycling for transportation compared to bicycling for recreation. The results indicate that individual, social-environment, and physical-environment factors have important influences on the balance between transportation and recreational bicycling and on miles of bicycling for each purpose. Bicycling comfort and an aversion to driving are associated with more transportation bicycling. A culture of utilitarian bicycling and short distances to destinations are also key factors for transportation bicycling. Bicycle infrastructure appears to play an indirect role through its effect on perceived bicycling safety and through the self-selection effect, by attracting bicycling-inclined people to bicycling-supportive communities.     

Title iii of the marine protection,research and sanctuaries act: Issues in program implementation

Abstract

Legislation authorizing the national marine sanctuary program was enacted a decade ago. Since this time, six national sanctuaries have been designated and several additional offshore sites have been reviewed. This paper reviews issues associated with implementation of the program since its inception and focuses on four sites which have undergone review as illustrative of primary programmatic issues: The Channel Islands and Point Reyes‐Farallon Islands National Marine Sanctuaries; the Flower Garden Banks; and Georges Bank.     

Crying wolf: Repeat responses to hurricane evacuation orders

This article examines the evacuation behavior of residents in two South Carolina communities, Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach, during the 1996 hurricane season. Two hurricanes that approached South Carolina but hit in North Carolina allowed us to study the impact of repeated “false alarms”; (evacuations ordered based on expectations of a hurricane landfall that proved to be wrong). Differences in evacuation behavior, specific information and concerns prompting evacuation, and the reliability of information sources between hurricane events are examined to determine the impact of false alarms on the credibility of warning systems. Data were derived from a face‐to‐face survey of residents 2 weeks after Hurricane Fran in September 1996. We found that the role of official advisories was more limited than reported in previous research as people sought information on more diverse sets of concerns in their decision making. Reliance on the media and the Weather Channel, in particular, for storm characteristics and advisories was an important factor in evacuation decision making during both hurricane events. The perceived lack of reliability of gubernatorial warnings coupled with dependence on the media suggests that residents find other sources of information more personally relevant. Thus, while residents do not find that officials are “crying wolf,”; they are searching elsewhere for information to assess their own risk—what does it mean to me if there is a wolf? This increased attention toward individual differences in perceived threat may become more pronounced in future evacuations from hurricanes.     

The Influences of the Built Environment and Residential Self-Selection on Pedestrian Behavior: Evidence from Austin, TX

Pedestrian travel offers a wide range of benefits to both individuals and society. Planners and public health officials alike have been promoting policies that improve the quality of the built environment for pedestrians: mixed land uses, interconnected street networks, sidewalks and other facilities. Whether such policies will prove effective remains open to debate. Two issues in particular need further attention. First, the impact of the built environment on pedestrian behavior may depend on the purpose of the trip, whether for utilitarian or recreational purposes. Second, the connection between the built environment and pedestrian behavior may be more a matter of residential location choice than of travel choice. This study aims to provide new evidence on both questions. Using 1368 respondents to a 1995 survey conducted in six neighborhoods in Austin, TX, two separate negative binomial models were estimated for the frequencies of strolling trips and pedestrian shopping trips within neighborhoods. We found that although residential self-selection impacts both types of trips, it is the most important factor explaining walking to a destination (i.e. for shopping). After accounting for self-selection, neighborhood characteristics (especially perceptions of these characteristics) impact strolling frequency, while characteristics of local commercial areas are important in facilitating shopping trips.     

The Impacts of Ict on leisure Activities and Travel: A Conceptual Exploration

This paper offers a conceptual exploration of the potential impacts of ICTs on leisure activities and the associated travel. We start by discussing what leisure is and is not. We point out that the boundaries between leisure, mandatory, and maintenance activities are permeable, for three reasons: the multi-attribute nature of a single activity, the sequential interleaving of activity fragments, and the simultaneous conduct of multiple activities (multitasking). We then discuss four kinds of ways by which ICT can affect leisure activities and travel: the replacement of a traditional activity with an ICT counterpart, the generation of new ICT activities (that may displace other activities), the ICT-enabled reallocation of time to other activities, and ICT as a facilitator of leisure activities. We suggest 13 dimensions of leisure activities that are especially relevant to the issue of ICT impacts: location (in)dependence, mobility-based versus stationary, time (in)dependence, planning horizon, temporal structure and fragmentation, possible multitasking, solitary versus social activity, active versus passive participation, physical versus mental, equipment/media (in)dependence, informal versus formal arrangements required, motivation, and cost. The primary impact of ICT on leisure is to expand an individual’s choice set; however whether or not the new options will be chosen depends on the attributes of the activity (such as the 13 identified dimensions), as well as those of the individual. The potential transportation impacts when the new options are chosen are ambiguous.     

The importance of the multi-purpose journey to work in urban travel behavior

This study examines the journey to work as a multiple-purpose trip (home-to-home circuit). Using disaggregate travel diary data collected over 35 consecutive days, the study shows the importance of the multi-purpose work trip in the overall travel pattern of the urban household. A large proportion of many households' total travel is undertaken in conjunction with the journey to and from work. The paper also examines the nature of these work-induced travel linkages and finds that many types of urban establishments depend heavily upon stops made in connection with the work trip. In fact, there is a group of urban functions that have stronger travel links with the workplace than with the home or with any other type of urban establishment. The study examines the implications of the multi-purpose journey to work for policies regarding mode use and the viability of centrally-located urban functions.