Car Ownership Levels Research Articles

Disparities in public transport accessibility in London from 2011 to 2021

Addressing urban inequalities has become a pressing concern on both the global sustainable development agenda and for local policy. Improving public transport services is seen as an important area where local governments can exert influence and potentially help reduce inequalities. Existing measures of accessibility used to inform decision-making for public transport infrastructure in London show spatial disparities, yet there is a gap in understanding how these disparities vary across demographic groups and how they evolve over time—whether they are improving or worsening. In this study, we investigate the distribution of public transport accessibility based on ethnicity and income deprivation in London over the past decade. We used data from the Census 2011 and 2021 for area-level ethnicity characteristics, English Indices of Deprivation for income deprivation in 2011 and 2019, and public transport accessibility metrics from Transport for London for 2010 and 2023, all at the small area level using lower super output areas (LSOAs) in Greater London. We found that, on average, public transport accessibility in London has increased over the past decade, with 78% of LSOAs experiencing improvements. Public transport accessibility in London showed an unequal distribution in cross-sectional analyses. Lower income neighbourhoods had poorer accessibility to public transportation in 2011 and 2023 after controlling for car-ownership and population density. These disparities were particularly pronounced for underground accessibility. Temporal analyses revealed that existing inequalities with respect to income deprivation and ethnicity are generally not improving. While wealthier groups benefited most from London Underground service improvements; lower income groups benefited more from bus service improvements. We also found that car ownership levels declined in areas with substantial increases to public transport accessibility and major housing developments, but not in those with moderate improvements.

Predicting travel mode choice with a robust neural network and Shapley additive explanations analysis

AbstractPredicting and understanding travellers’ mode choices is crucial to developing urban transportation systems and formulating traffic demand management strategies. Machine learning (ML) methods have been widely used as promising alternatives to traditional discrete choice models owing to their high prediction accuracy. However, a significant body of ML methods, especially the branch of neural networks, is constrained by overfitting and a lack of model interpretability. This study employs a neural network with feature selection for predicting travel mode choices and Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) analysis for model interpretation. A dataset collected in Chengdu, China was used for experimentation. The results reveal that the neural network achieves commendable prediction performance, with a 12% improvement over the traditional multinomial logit model. Also, feature selection using a combined result from two embedded methods can alleviate the overfitting tendency of the neural network, while establishing a more robust model against redundant or unnecessary variables. Additionally, the SHAP analysis identifies factors such as travel expenditure, age, driving experience, number of cars owned, individual monthly income, and trip purpose as significant features in our dataset. The heterogeneity of mode choice behaviour is significant among demographic groups, including different age, car ownership, and income levels.

Quality of Life Dependence on Public Transport Accessibility

Purpose. Article present the survey on dependency of quality-of-life indicators with transport accessibility. Specific focus is on rural areas. There was hypothesis to prove, that inhabitants of low population density rural areas are facing poor quality-of-life. Design/Methodology/Approach. A representative survey of the population was chosen as the research method. The study area was divided into transport districts, and the representativeness of the survey was ensured in each transport district. Transport districts are divided according to the criterion of travel time and public transport supply. The survey included questions that allowed checking whether and which quality of life parameters correlate with the quality of public services. Findings and implications. The research found that public transport accessibility is closely related with such attributes as education, employment rate and closely related to such attributes of life quality as change of clothes more often or having the proper shoes more often as well as having Internet access. Limitations. The study was conducted in just one country with a very high level of car ownership, which is still growing. Another limitation is that the public transport supply in this country is insufficient due to historical reasons. For a long time, public transport was unsubsidized or weakly subsidized in this country. Originality. The originality of the paper is based on a representative survey conducted by the authors, the results of which linked quality of life indicators with public transport availability indicators. The originality of the work is based on a representative survey conducted by the authors, the results of which linked quality of life indicators with public transport availability indicators.

Effect of Commuters’ Income on the Ferry Operational Costs in Lagos State, Nigeria

Commuters’ mobility plays significant roles in urban economic due to its reliance on the cheapest means and available transportation system from one location to another. Commuters’ income in Lagos State affects the number of traffic generated along waterways during travel behavior such as commuters’ occupation and commuters’ level of car ownership. This study aims to estimate the impact of commuters’ income on the ferry operations in Lagos state.
 The research was carried out in four selected waterways terminals in Lagos State. The authors used primary data with the aid of snow balling sampling technique to administered 836 questionnaires at the selected inland waterways terminals in Lagos State. The study used multiple regressions to analyze the obtained data in the study area.
 The result of the findings revealed that majority of the respondents representing 63.9% (523) of the sample size had no car. Furthermore, passenger’s income that was measured using passengers’ occupation and passengers’ car ownership had a significant impact on ferry operational costs in Lagos State having R value of .699 (69.9%) and p-value of 0.000. This shows that ferry operational costs can be determined by passengers’ daily or monthly income.
 The study concluded that increase in mobility demand along waterways can be experienced when traveling cost is minimal compared to other means of transportation. It was recommended that government should subsidize the freight price and come up with a policy that will enforce usage of ferry service.

Determinants of zero-car and car-owning apartment households

AbstractWhile much research has explored the determinants of car ownership, there is little understanding of these factors in the context of apartment households, where off-street car parking provision is frequently stipulated by planning requirements and zero-car households are more evident. Drawing on a survey of apartment residents (n = 1316) in three Australian cities, this study aimed to understand the determinants of zero-car and car-owning apartment households. The data was analysed using binary and multinominal logistic regression, including random parameter modelling. A joint model of car ownership and off-street car parking supply was also developed to account for potential endogeneity between these two variables. The results highlight the significant association between car ownership and off-street car parking supply, alongside a range of socio-demographics, attitudes, perceptions, built environment and transport characteristics. An additional off-street car parking space, on average, was found to increase the odds of having 2+ cars, compared with zero cars, by around 10 times. The findings imply that reducing off-street residential car parking requirements can play a significant role in supporting lower car ownership levels among apartment households.

Towards niche market for shared mobility: Identifying heterogeneity of potential early adopters to use shared electric bikes in a Chinese mega city

Shared mobility endures the pandemic, legislative upheaval, and points to a sizable potential market with wider range of shared services. As the shared mobility segment worldwide continually increases, a noticeable trend towards segmentation of shared mobility services, namely, the niche market, is gaining attention. However, the majority of scholarship has mainly focused on early adopters’ transition from conventional transportation modes to shared mobility, with little attention given to the shift towards specialized and niche shared mobility services. To address such gap, this study aims to explore the heterogeneous characteristics of potential early adopters of shared electric bikes among different transportation groups in the existing market. The questionnaire targets 1,034 citizens living in Shenzhen, a mega city in China, from March to April in 2020, before the official launch of the shared electric bikes scheme in the city. Both binary logistic models and text sentiment analysis have been conducted to present a comprehensive analytical framework to understand the group-sensitive identification of potential early adopters. Results reveal that age, car ownership, commute time, and confidence level on the potential scheme are four significant variables to explain all respondents’ willingness to adopt shared electric bikes, regardless of their existing dominant transport mode. However, when it comes to subgroups with different travel preferences, the profile of potential early adopters vary distinctly. Specifically, younger public transport users are interested in adopting shared electric bikes but have price concerns; gender is the most significant variable to predict private vehicle user’s adopt willingness, and female user show strong concerns on safety issue; users who primarily walk or cycle can benefit from shared electric bikes to travel longer distances, and lastly, there are no significant variables to predict electric bike users’ intention to switch from self-owned bikes to shared programmes. Overall, an analytical framework is presented in the study to comprehend the diverse features of prospective early adopters who may utilize shared electric bikes from different transportation groups, and a collection of development strategies for operators is proposed.

Exploring the joint impacts of income, car ownership, and built environment on daily activity patterns: a cluster analysis of trip chains

Clustering activity patterns and identifying homogeneous travel behaviour through trip chain sequences offer valuable insight for transportation planners and policymakers in addressing transport equity problems and travel demand management. This study explores how income and car-ownership levels determine mobility patterns and travellers' decisions. Unlike previous studies that investigated the travel mode and destinations separately, we designed a novel, aggregated form considering the trip purpose and associated transport mode use as a unit of our analysis. To mitigate the subjectivity of rule-based approaches for trip chain analysis, we employ a novel sequence clustering framework to extract homogeneous clusters of activity patterns. Our results reveal that income and car-ownership levels influence travellers' travel decisions and mobility patterns. Among low-income carless households, 37% of their daily trips include care activities where women more frequently than men play this traditional role in a household by either public transit or a car as a passenger. In the low-income car-owner subsample, females still use public transit for their work trips, whereas males more often use the available car to commute to work. Males of wealthy carless households integrate public transit and active transportation for their daily trips when they live in high-density and more accessible neighbourhoods. While our findings demonstrate the impact of car ownership, income, and built environment on trip-chaining behaviour, we recognise that achieving transport equity will require tailored transportation and land use policies and investments that address the specific needs and barriers faced by different household types, particularly the most vulnerable ones in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, accessibility levels, and affordability issues. Hence, we recommend that policymakers and planners take a more holistic approach to transportation planning that considers the interplay of these factors to ensure that transportation systems and services are accessible, affordable, and equitable for all.

Evaluation of Bus Rapid Transit System: Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia

Al Riyadh city, the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is experiencing significant economic and population growth, it is also a major metropolitan area in Saudi Arabia and in the Gulf regions. This has led to a high level of car ownership and use of vehicles, and this has led to the construction of a series of slow-moving roads and roads around the city. Traffic congestion is a major problem, where road behavior has an economic and psychological impact on people. The Riyadh Bus stations and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System Project is an integral part of the current Riyadh metropolitan area including the new Riyadh Metro. The main objective of this paper’s is to study the “Bus Rapid Transit” network in the city of Al Riyadh and to assess the functioning of this network using geographic information systems and the theory of graphs. A centralized geodatabase has been built for BRT lines and stations. A geometric network was conducted for BRT routes to facilitate moving from any location to another within Riyadh city. The assessment and evaluation of BRT routes focused on routes and station distribution regarding Riyadh city and how BRT solved population needs in Riyadh city. Using the powerful GIS network analysis functions, a navigation system was developed to assist passengers in planning their trips from one station to another giving detailed information about route directions and different BRT lines used. The study reinforces the value of good design techniques for accessible public transportation systems. The utilization of accessible vehicles, such as low-floor buses, is needed but lacking for such an accessible system, planners and operators should be aware.

What predicts motorcycle ownership, mode choice, and use for utilitarian travel? A literature review

ABSTRACT This literature review is the first to explore the predictors of the ownership, mode choice, and use of private motorcycles for utilitarian travel. Existing literature reviews on motorcycles only focused on the adverse impacts of motorcycle transport. A total of 45 articles in English published up to 2022 from quantitative and qualitative studies were reviewed to identify socioeconomic and built environment predictors of motorcycle travel which can be affected by planning or policy interventions. Motorcycle ownership level of a country is explained by average income, population density, and urbanisation level; that of a province or city by average income; and that of a household by the numbers of adults and workers, car ownership level, income as well as the population density and road density at the residential location. The choice of individuals to use a motorcycle rather than other modes is predicted by income and age as well as the advantages of time and cost savings of motorcycles over other modes. The amount of motorcycle use of households or individuals is associated with the number of household members, car ownership level, the age of the principal user, and income. Supply of public transport should focus on areas prone to widespread motorcycle ownership to both slow down the growth in motorcycle ownership and pre-empt that in car ownership as both types of motorised vehicles bring environmental and public health harms. More research is needed for further understanding of the relationships between motorcycle travel, the built environment, and public transport supply.

The demand potential of shared autonomous vehicles: a large-scale simulation using mobility survey data

Shared Autonomous Vehicles (SAV), or robotaxis, are expected to be commercially available within this decade. This new transport mode has the potential to revolutionize travel, offering a level of service comparable to traditional taxis with much lower prices. This may attract travelers currently using other modes, impacting the economic sustainability of public transport as well as car ownership levels. We investigate this potential demand using a scalable SAV simulation framework. We do not establish a future equilibrium considering the interaction between all users on a detailed road network, but establish the potential demand for a large metropolitan area. Travelers can choose between their current mode and the new SAV mode, with fare and waiting times which depend on real-time demand. For our input data we train a statistical model on a large transport survey from Germany for an urban region, allowing us to generate a large number of trips with realistic characteristics. We conduct a sensitivity analysis to study the effect of several key parameters on the modal shift. We find that SAVs can be attractive to many active mode and public transport users unless regulations are put in place. Our results also show that due to SAV fleet constraints, changes in incentives for travelers currently using cars may have significant consequences on the behavior of other travelers. We further calculate key economic indicators for the fleet, which can inform the discussion on the fleet size and fare level that operators are likely to choose when maximizing their own profit.

How has COVID-19 changed private car use in European urban areas? An analysis of the effect of socio-economic characteristics and mobility habits

The private car has been identified as the main winner among transport modes in urban areas during the COVID-19 pandemic. The fear of contagion when using public transport or the decrease in road congestion are likely to have induced changes in citizens’ travel habits with respect to cars. This work investigates the impact of the pandemic on individuals’ habits and preferences regarding their car ownership levels and car usage in the European urban context, with a special focus on the role played by individual socio-demographics and urban mobility patterns. For this purpose, a Path Analysis approach has been adopted to model car ownership and use before and after COVID-19. The main data source employed in this research is an EU-Wide Urban Mobility Survey that collects detailed information (individual and household socio-economic characteristics, built environment attributes and mobility habits) of 10,152 individuals from a total of 21 European urban areas of different sizes, geographical locations, and urban forms. The survey data has been complemented with city-level variables that account for differences across the cities that may explain changes in car-related behaviour. The results show that the pandemic has induced an increase in car use among socio-economic groups that are generally associated with low car-dependent behaviour, revealing that policy instruments that discourage the use of the private car in urban areas are needed to avoid reversing past trends in the reduction of urban transport emissions. High-income, well-educated teleworkers are observed to be the ones that have reduced their car use to a larger extent. On the contrary, low-income individuals are mostly maintaining similar levels of car mobility. Finally, frequent public transport users are more likely than occasional users to have substituted this mode by the private car.

Who is more attached to their car? Comparing automobility engagement and response to shared, automated and electric mobility in Canada and Germany

The “automobility system” encompasses the prevalence of the privately-owned car in industrialized societies. We apply automobility theory in a novel approach, by investigating consumer engagement with aspects of the automobility system related to car ownership and use in the case studies of Canada and Germany, while also considering openness to new mobility innovations. These countries differ in that Canada has higher levels of car ownership, commutes made by car, and urban sprawl, as well as lower levels of carsharing and electric vehicle adoption relative to Germany. We apply a conceptual framework and 40-item scale of consumer “automobility engagement” to representative survey samples of 3527 Canadian and 2620 German respondents. Exploratory factor analysis identifies five automobility engagement factors: “Driving Enjoyment”, “Car Identity”, “Car Dependence”, “Societal Concern about Car Use”, and “Sustainable Travel Norms”. Mean scores are significantly higher for Canadian respondents on four factors, but not significantly different for “Driving Enjoyment”. In regression analysis, these factors can help to explain consumer interest in carsharing, fully automated vehicles, and electric vehicles in both countries, where “Car Dependence” and “Societal Concern about Car Use” predict interest in fully automated and electric vehicles. Interactions reveal that some patterns differ by country; for example, “Societal Concern about Car Use” predicts carsharing interest among German respondents only. The similarities and differences in country results suggest that the framework can be useful in a variety of contexts.

Do Residents Living in Transit-Oriented Development Station Catchment Areas Travel More Sustainably? The Impacts of Life Events

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is an urban designed model aimed at attracting more sustainable travellers. However, not all TOD projects succeed in maintaining a high rate of sustainable travel behaviour. To examine the impacts of TOD on residents’ travel behaviour, this paper applies binary logistic regression to analyse survey data for 1,298 residents living in the TOD areas in Hangzhou collected in 2020. The results show that socioeconomic characteristics, built environment factors, and travel attitudes play important roles in influencing their travel mode choices. Furthermore, the number of children in households and higher levels of car ownership significantly influence residents’ sustainable travel behaviours. However, it appears that only a limited number of factors can convince car users to shift to sustainable modes of travel, such as their workplace being accessible by metro and attitudes towards changes in accessibility. This research study contributes to the existing literature in terms of enhancing the understanding of travel mode choice behaviours, particularly with regard to people who live near public transport infrastructure, as well as formulating evidence-based TOD policies to achieve more sustainable transport systems.

Exploring Car-Ownership and Declining Carlessness in the United States during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper examines changes in car-ownership levels before and after the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. In contrast to the two years before the pandemic, the propensity of households to be carless decreased for all households considered, as well as for low- and middle-income, and minority households. There is also evidence of an increase in the average number of vehicles for low-income households. The results highlight the additional financial burden faced by households during the pandemic as a result of higher levels of car-ownership, and that the recovery of public transportation ridership may be negatively impacted with the rise in car-ownership among transit-using groups.

Probit-Based Discrete-Continuous Choice Model to Explore the Relationship Between Car Ownership and Commuters’ Non-Work Activity Durations in Xiaoshan District of Hangzhou, China

In China, a developing country, the car ownership level is much lower than that in developed countries, but transportation policies have been implemented to discourage car ownership and mitigate traffic congestion. However, car ownership (considered as car availability in this paper, meaning that an individual has access to a household private car) may influence travelers’ well-being. To highlight the interrelation between car ownership and travelers’ well-being, this paper develops a probit-based discrete-continuous model to analyze the relationship between car ownership and the duration of commuters’ three major non-work outdoor activities (Act1: shopping and dining; Act2: leisure and entertainment; and Act3: visiting relatives or friends) in Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou, China. Empirical results indicate strong effects of individual and household socio-demographics, built environment attributes, and work-related characteristics on the car ownership decision and the duration of three non-work activities. The analysis shows positive correlations in unobserved factors between the car ownership decision and the duration of Acts1–3, indicating a mutually promotive relationship. Similarly, negative correlations among the duration of Acts1–3 show that non-work activities’ duration is mutually substitutive. These findings will help to better understand commuters’ car ownership decisions and non-work outdoor activity behavior restricted by fixed work schedules in developing countries, which can, in turn, better evaluate the impact of transportation policies (such as car ownership restriction) on travel demand as well as well-being, and provide decision support for the formulation of transportation policies.

Influential Factors of Household Car and Vehicle Ownership in Urban Areas of Turkey

Car and vehicle ownership levels in developing countries are gradually increasing, leading to traffic congestion, energy consumption, and air pollution. As a developing country, Turkey encounters many of the issues caused by this rapid increase in car ownership. This paper aims to examine potential determinants of household car and vehicle ownership behavior in urban areas of Turkey by concentrating on three cities (Ankara, Erzurum, and Bayburt) that are distinct in population, geographical region, and public transit services. For this purpose, a written survey was administered to 1389 households living in these cities. The data is analyzed using alternative ordered response models—the generalized ordered logit, partial proportional odds (PPO), and heteroskedastic ordered logit models. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to compare alternative ordered response models to determine car and vehicle ownership behavior in Turkey. Consequently, the PPO model was found to be the most parsimonious model among the others. The results demonstrated that household car and vehicle ownership behavior in Turkey differs significantly with urban area size. The estimation results also revealed that several key drivers, including type of dwelling, parking availability, household monthly income, and public transit use, significantly influence Turkish households’ car and vehicle ownership levels. This study’s empirical findings may provide insight to policymakers and stakeholders for future transportation strategies and policies.

Driving a sustainable road transportation transformation

Driving a sustainable road transportation transformation

How urban metro networks grow: From a complex network perspective

Metro lines emerged and developed in cities driven by various factors, and resulted in different structures as we see today. How do metro lines grow as a system? The spatiotemporal growing patterns of metro networks and their complex-network statistics may shed light on this question. Within the framework of the complex network analysis, this paper establishes a nine-metric scheme to quantify the service performance of an urban metro network from three dimensionalities i.e., accessibility, resilience, and serviceability. Accordingly, a shamrock plot is proposed as a tool to visualize the multi-dimensional maturity of a metro network as well as its growing pattern. The metrics and the visualization tool are used to reveal metro development in 42 cities of Chinese mainland. The results show that metro networks can evolve from nascent, to skeleton, and to mature forms, with their scores increasing in all dimensionalities. The choice of urban transportation between metro-dominant and automobile-dominant results from the race between metro development and car popularity. Cities may be more likely to become metro-dominant if metro develops early at a low level of car ownership. Urban metro network may develop as a response to the city’s needs hierarchically from the most basic (e.g., accessibility) to more advanced (e.g., resilience and serviceability), similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of individual needs.

The Effect of Car Sales E-Commerce Platform on New Car Buying Decisions Mediated by Digital Advertising Media and Youtube Media

Indications of the Indonesian economy are reflected in the growth of the middle class of society in Indonesia. One sector that drives Indonesia's economic growth is the automotive industry sector. The growth of economic level and income has a direct impact on the level of car ownership, especially in big cities. The development of the internet and also the growth of mobile device users open up alternative opportunities for online purchases, including the purchase of automotive or car products. Changes in consumer behavior and technology are accelerating digital innovation, the emergence of online digital media is the preferred source of information for people who have the intention of buying a car and the emergence of digital automotive platforms that provide and enable consumers to buy new cars online. However, in another study, e-commerce for new and second-hand car sales did not have a significant contribution to sales growth and from this study it was found that there is a digital transformation gap for buying new cars online in Indonesia. This study will examine whether digital advertising media and Youtube media can be a bridge for the development of online car sales e-commerce. Testing this hypothesis involved 100 correspondents as a sample and analyzed using SmartPLS3.3.2 software. and has passed the valid and reliable test. The results of this test can be concluded, the e-commerce platform has no effect on purchasing decisions, Youtube media has no effect on purchasing decisions, digital advertising media has no effect on purchasing decisions, Youtube media has no effect on mediating e-commerce platforms on the occurrence of purchasing decisions, digital advertising media influential in mediating e-commerce platforms on the occurrence of purchasing decisions, e-commerce platforms influencing Youtube media, e-commerce platforms influencing digital advertising media.

Comparing car ownership reduction patterns among members of different car sharing schemes operating in three German inner-city areas

This paper explores the relationship between car sharing services membership and private car ownership levels. Compared to previous studies, we focus on differences among members registered in roundtrip station-based, free-floating, and combined services, by analysing the results of a survey addressed to members living in three German inner-city areas. Two logistic regression models were estimated to understand car ownership reduction patterns between different time points. In addition to car sharing membership and related patterns of use, sociodemographic characteristics of respondents, opinions about other transport means, attitudes towards private car, and environmental concerns were considered in the models’ specification. Both regression models showed that car sharing membership is one of the strongest predictors of car shedding. Albeit all car sharing users reported significantly lower levels of car ownership than before registering to the service, roundtrip station-based members are about 15 times more likely to reduce car ownership than free-floating unique members. Respondents with membership in both schemes (either in combined or parallel offers) also showed higher propensity than free-floating members.