Deconstructing development density: Quality, quantity and price effects on household non-work travel

Smart growth and transit-oriented development proponents advocate increasing the density of new land development and infill redevelopment. This is partly in order to reduce auto use, by reducing distances between trip origins and destinations, creating a more enjoyable walking environment, slowing down road travel, and increasing the market for transit. But research investigating how development density influences household travel has typically been inadequate to account for this complex set of hypotheses: it has used theoretically unjustified measures, has not accounted for spatial scale very well, and has not investigated potentially important combinations of measures. Using data from a survey of metropolitan households in California, measures of development density corresponding to the main hypotheses about how density affects travel—activity density affecting distance traveled, network load density affecting the speed of auto travel, and built form density affecting the quality of walking—are tested as independent variables in models of auto trip speed and individual non-work travel. Residential network load density is highly negatively correlated with the speed of driving, and is also highly correlated with non-work travel, both singly and in combination with other measures. Activity density and built form density are not as significantly related, on their own. These results suggest that denser development will not influence travel very much unless road level-of-service standards and parking requirements are reduced or eliminated.     

Environmental invitingness for transport-related cycling in middle-aged adults: A proof of concept study using photographs

IntroductionCurrent evidence on associations between modifiable environmental characteristics and transport-related cycling remains inconsistent. Most studies on these associations used questionnaires to determine environmental perceptions, but such tools may be subject to bias due to unreliable recall. Moreover, questionnaires only measure separate environmental characteristics, while real environments are a combination of different characteristics. To overcome these limitations, the present proof of concept study used panoramic photographs of cycling environments to capture direct responses to the physical environment. We examined which depicted environmental characteristics were associated to environments’ invitingness for transportation cycling. Furthermore, interactions with gender and participants’ cycling behavior were examined.MethodsFifty-nine middle-aged adults were recruited through purposeful convenience sampling. During a home visit, participants took part in a structured interview assessing demographics and PA during the preceding seven days, followed by an intuitive choice task and a (cognitive) rating task, which both measured 40 photographed environments’ invitingness to cycle along. Multi-level cross-classified analyses were conducted using MLwiN 2.26.ResultsBoth tasks’ multivariate results showed that presence of vegetation was identified as the most important environmental characteristic to invite people for engaging in transportation cycling, even when the amount of vegetation was relatively small. In the bivariate analyzes, some differences between results of the cognitive rating task and the intuitive choice task were found, showing that invitingness measured by the rating task was associated with environmental maintenance and cycling infrastructure, whereas invitingness determined by the choice task was associated with more traffic-oriented characteristics. Moreover, only for the choice task’s results, moderating effects of gender and participants’ cycling behavior in the preceding week were observed.ConclusionThe present study provides proof of concept that capturing people’s less cognitive, more intuitive responses to an environment’s invitingness for transport-related cycling may be important for revealing environment-behavior associations. If replicated in future studies using larger samples, results of our innovative measurements with photographs, especially those on vegetation, can complete the existing knowledge on which environmental characteristics are important for transportation cycling in adults and could form a basis to inform health promoters and local policy makers. However, future studies replicating our study method in larger samples and other population subgroups are highly encouraged. Moreover, causal relationships should be explored.     

Alternative Modeling Approaches Used for Examining Automobile Ownership: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

Household vehicle ownership, and the associated dimensions including fleet size, vehicle type and usage, has been one of the most researched transport topics. This paper endeavors to provide a critical overview of the wide-ranging methodological approaches employed in vehicle ownership modeling depending on the ownership representation over the past two decades. The studies in the existing literature based on the vehicle ownership representation are classified as: exogenous static, exogenous dynamic, endogenous static and endogenous dynamic models. The methodological approaches applied range from simple linear regressions to complex econometrics formulations taking into account a rich set of covariates. In spite of the steady advancement and impressive evolution in terms of methodological approaches to examine the decision process, we identify complex issues that pose a formidable challenge to address the evolution of vehicle ownership in the coming years. Specifically, we discuss challenges with data availability and methodological framework selection. In light of these discussions, we provide a decision matrix for aiding researchers/practitioners in determining appropriate model frameworks for conducting vehicle ownership analysis.     

混合交通环境下网联自动驾驶车辆跟驰模型与优化策略

为进一步提高混合交通环境下车辆的行车效率与交通流的稳定性,在考虑后视效应的基础上,融合多辆前车速度与加速度等状态信息,以指数平滑方式构建了网联自动驾驶车辆(CAV)跟驰模型;在此基础上,研究了前后方车辆数和状态信息完整度对模型稳定性的影响,结合Lyapunov第一方法和线性谐波微扰法进行了线性稳定性分析,并确定了模型最优参数;利用混合交通环境特性,在考虑通信信息丢失的情况下提出了CAV在不同位置和状态下的跟驰策略,并在该策略支撑下进行了不同CAV渗透率的车辆启动、车辆刹车停止、环形道路3个典型场景下的数值仿真。研究结果表明：在刹车停止场景中,全部车辆的停止波速最大提高了26.1%;在车辆启动场景中,启动波速最大提高了15.5%,车辆加速度和速度变化更为平缓;在环形道路场景中,当混合交通流中CAV渗透率由40%提高至100%时,在较大扰动条件下车辆的平均速度波动时间相较于低CAV渗透率场景下降了44.8%,波峰下降了5.7%,波谷上升了19.4%,而CAV渗透率较低时提出的优化策略对混合交通流的改善并不明显。由此可见,在当前构建实际混合交通环境与开展CAV实车试验比较困难的情况下,该跟驰模型和策略可用于车辆跟驰仿真与特定场景下的测试验证,能够有效保障混合交通环境中的交通流扰动吸收和车队稳定行驶。     

道路环境对交通安全的影响及对策

交通安全,涉及到人、车以及道路和环境等很多因素。近年来,因为各种原因使得有关单位以及人员将更多的将精力放在人、车、道路这几个因素上,对道路交通环境没有过多的考虑和研究。深入研究道路交通环境,有利于道路交通的安全,文章通过对其的研究和分析,得出有关道路交通环境对交通安全的影响和解决措施,对于防止道路交通安全事故具有重要意义。同时为人们的生命财产的安全提供保障、对构建社会主义和谐社会具有很大帮助。     

A valuation of the environmental performance of vehicles: an analysis and comparison of two methodologies

The European Clean Vehicle Directive was introduced in 2009 to create an obligation on public authorities to take into account the impact of energy consumption, carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and pollutant emissions into their purchasing decisions for road transport vehicles. This should stimulate the market for clean and energy-efficient vehicles and improve transport's impact on environment, climate change and energy use. Therefore the so-called ‘Operational Lifetime Cost’ of a vehicle is calculated, divided into the cost for energy consumption, CO₂ and pollutant (nitrous oxide, particulate matter, non-methane hydrocarbons) emissions. In Belgium, a different methodology has been developed to calculate the environmental impact of a vehicle, called ‘Ecoscore’, based on a well-to-wheel approach. More pollutants are included compared to the Clean Vehicle methodology, but also indirect emissions are taken into account. In this paper, both methodologies are compared and used to analyze the environmental performance of passenger cars with different fuel types and from different vehicle segments. Similar rankings between both methodologies are obtained; however, the large impact of energy use (and CO₂ emissions) in the Clean Vehicle methodology disadvantages compressed natural gas cars, as well as diesel cars equipped with particulate filters, compared to the Ecoscore methodology.     

The influences of past and present residential locations on vehicle ownership decisions

This study explores the relationship between historical exposure to the built environment and current vehicle ownership patterns. The influence of past exposure to the built environment on current vehicle ownership decisions may be causal, but there are alternative explanations. Households may primarily select to live in neighborhoods that facilitate their vehicle ownership preferences, or they may retain preferences that they have developed in the past, irrespective of their current situations. This study seeks to control for these alternative explanations by including the built environment attributes of households’ past residences as an influence on vehicle ownership choices. We use a dataset from a credit reporting firm that contains up to nine previous residential ZIP codes for households currently living in the 13-county Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan area. Results show that past location is significant, but of marginal influence relative to the attributes of the current location. From a practical perspective, our results suggest that models that include current but not past neighborhood attributes (also controlling for standard socioeconomic variables) can forecast vehicle ownership decisions reasonably well. However, models that include both current and past neighborhood attributes can provide a more nuanced understanding of the built environment’s potentially causal influences on vehicle ownership decisions. This better understanding may provide more realistic forecasts of responses to densification or other travel demand management strategies.     

Vehicle kilometers traveled reduction impacts of Transit-Oriented Development: Evidence from Shanghai City

The role of residential self-selection has become a major subject in the debate over the relationships between the built environment and travel behavior. Numerous previous empirical studies on this subject have provided valuable insights into the associations between the built environment and travel behavior. However, the vast majority of the studies were conducted in North American and European cities; yet this research is still in its infancy in most developing countries, including China, where residential and transport choices are likely to be more constrained and travel-related attitudes quite different from those in the developed world. Using the data collected from 2038 residents currently living in TOD neighborhoods and non-TOD neighborhoods in Shanghai City, this paper aims to partly fill the gaps by investigating the causal relationship between the built environment and travel behavior in the Chinese context. More specifically, this paper employs Heckman’s sample selection model to examine the reduction impacts of TOD on personal vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT), controlling for self-selection. The results show that whilst the effects of residential self-selection are apparent; the built environment exhibits the most significant impacts on travel behavior, playing the dominant role. These findings produce a sound basis for local policymakers to better understand the nature and magnitude toward the impacts of the built environment on travel behavior. Providing the government department with reassurance that effective interventions and policies on land use aimed toward altering the built environment would actually lead to meaningful changes in travel behavior.     

The built environment and travel behavior in urban China: A literature review

Interests in studying of the built environment impacts on travel behavior have proliferated from North America to other parts of the world including China. Until very recently, there has been very little research into travel behavior in China. However, during the last decade, there has been a fast growing interest in studying the built environment and travel behavior in Chinese cities, perhaps motivated by China’s unprecedented urbanization and rapid urban transport development. Case studies from China provide new insights into the impacts of built environment on travel behavior that can help to enrich existing scholarship. However, currently there is a generally poor understanding of the role played by Chinese research and how it has enriched the international literature. This paper aims to fill this gap by reviewing studies in and outside China by both Chinese and non-Chinese scholars. The focus is on the contribution of these studies to the international literature. We identify four areas of contribution: how the built environment has been developed and its implications for travel behavior; the importance of housing sources in defining residential built environment and explaining travel behavior; the unique Danwei (or work unit) perspective on jobs-housing relationships and commuting behavior; and the importance of neighborhood types in explaining travel behavior in Chinese cities. The findings from this review should be relevant for researchers interested in developing future studies that will further advance geographic knowledge of the built environment and travel behavior, specifically in China and with broader global contexts.     

地铁盾构机掘进对周围环境影响的现场测试研究

研究目的:盾构机在城市地铁建设中得到了广泛的应用,但在盾构掘进过程中会引起地层损失,过大的地层损失,可导致较大的地面沉降,对地面建筑物、地下管线等设施产生不利影响甚至会导致破坏,引起较大的经济损失。为此,本文以南京地铁一号线为依托,对盾构掘进过程中引起的建筑物、地下管线位移以及引起的地下水位进行了现场测试,经过分析、总结,得到了盾构掘进对周围环境影响的规律性结论。在此基础上,从地层沉降与土仓压力、同步注浆量和出喳量的关系,探讨了地层沉降的控制措施。研究方法:对盾构掘进过程中所影响得到地下管线位移、建筑沉降、地下水位变化等进行现场实测,获取了有关现场测试数据,并对这些数据进行分析,得到可以供施工参考的有价值的结论。研究结论:调整、修正、合理匹配盾构掘进参数,建立有效土压平衡,确保同步注浆效果,是控制地层损失,减小地层变位的有效手段,是减少盾构掘进对周围环境影响的重要措施。