Existing Transport Modes Research Articles

Mobility Energy Productivity Evaluation of On-Demand Transit: A Case Study in Arlington, Texas

On-demand transit (ODT) systems are increasing in number and size. To evaluate and quantify outcomes, the research team utilizes the mobility energy productivity (MEP) metric, which is a holistic accessibility measure, to analyze and compare the mobility of various transportation modes in Arlington, Texas. The MEP tool is applied to the ODT system in Arlington, Texas, as well as to five existing transportation modes (driving, transportation network company, transit, biking, and walking). Six ODT scenarios are also analyzed and compared. The analysis is focused on the opportunities that an ODT system presents for transportation disadvantaged communities (DACs) with low rates of car ownership. Although driving received the highest MEP score—a finding typical for a U.S.A. city— the results for the ODT system reveal that it serves those in DACs effectively, helping to achieve an equity design goal. ODT improved the average MEP score across the service area by 83% when considering only accessible, nonprivate vehicle modes (biking, transit, and ODT). For the ODT scenarios, decreasing the wait time by 50% compared with the baseline scenario led to a nearly 160% increase in the MEP score, whereas increasing the ODT travel speed by 21% led to an 80% improvement in the MEP score. As analyzed through the MEP tool, this paper demonstrates how ODT can enhance mobility, particularly for DACs. The results of an MEP analysis can be used by researchers and transit agencies to compare transportation modes and improve the effectiveness of transportation systems across a service area.

Innovations disruption in Aviation

Transportation is a vital means of connecting people across the globe and represents an invaluable asset to our highly globalized society. It enables economic, social, and cultural development. It facilitates access to goods and services and has become an integral part of human life. The existing transport modes will be enhanced and developed further, and the utilization of new technologies, including emerging modes or 'new entrants', will be expanded, particularly in the aviation sector. The question of how sustainable mobility can be achieved and how progress towards it can be measured remains unanswered each time new technologies are introduced in the contemporary world, where air mobility is about efficiency, interconnectivity, and accessibility for all. This paper provides a critical overview of innovations disruption in the aviation sector.

IDENTIFYING THE POTENTIAL OF UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE ROUTING FOR BLOOD DISTRIBUTION IN EMERGENCY REQUESTS

This study is focusing on identifying the potential of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) routing for blood distribution in emergency requests in Sri Lanka compared to existing transportation modes. Capacitated Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Routing Problem was used as the methodology to find the optimal distribution plan between blood banks directing emergency requests. The developed UAV routing model was tested for different instances to compare the results. Finally, the proposed distribution process via UAVs was compared with the current distribution process for the objective function set up in the model and other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including energy consumption savings and operational cost savings. The average percentage of distribution time re-duction, energy consumption cost reduction, and operational cost per day reduction utilizing UAVs were determined to be 58.57%, 96.35%, and 61.20%, respectively, for the instances tested using the model highlighting the potential of UAVs. Therefore, the deficiencies in Sri Lanka's present blood delivery system can be addressed using UAVs' potential for time, cost, and energy savings. The ability to save time through the deployment of UAVs to the fleet during emergency situations plays a crucial role in preventing the loss of human lives.

Commuting to College: An Analysis of a Suburban Campus on the Outskirts of Madrid

This paper aims to analyse human mobility in a university campus on the outskirts of the Madrid region. Several surveys which were distributed to students for completion during the 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2021-2022 courses were examined. Both an exploration of existing transport modes using clustering techniques and a statistical analysis on trip origins, travel times, and distances were performed. Not all municipalities with the highest number of trips were the closest to the university. The clustering analysis identified a lower variability in the use ratio of the transport modes in the 2017-2018 course. The private car, which exhibited a low sharing rate, was the most utilised transport mode. This was followed by public and university transportation. Similarities between the probability distributions of journeys using public and university transports were found. High and moderate correlations between the number of the existing stops and the amount of trips by subway and urban bus were detected. The lowest median values of travel distances corresponded to students, administrative staff, teachers, and researchers who exhibited very similar values. Considering the three analysed academic years as a whole, the most likely travel times were 30–60 minutes. It was detected that a higher gross annual income did not imply higher private car use. Residents in areas with the highest ozone concentrations also exhibited a high use of motorised vehicles. A low familiarisation with car-sharing and car-pooling platforms was also found. Globally, a high level of comfort during the trip was mostly perceived.

Fleet optimization in shared mobility services: Theoretical findings and future steps

The rise of innovative mobility services provides new alternatives to existing transport modes complying to the vision of sustainable urban mobility. However, this rise implies a series of challenges for the transport sector associated with the need for adapting the yearlong planning processes to the specific needs of these services. The current paper provides a brief overview of relevant strategic planning frameworks and considerations discussed so far in the scientific community, focusing on the assessment of the optimal fleet size of shared mobility services. On that basis, it presents the conceptual framework and the computational flow of a tool oriented to support such a strategic planning purpose, as well as some initial results of this tool. The outcomes of the suggested tool meet rationality criteria and the initial expectations of policy makers.

Modeling of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Collaborative Dispatching System of Railway Passenger Transport Hub Based on Neural Network Algorithm

In order to solve the modeling problem of travel as a service (MaaS) collaborative dispatching system of railway passenger transport hub based on neural network algorithm, meet people’s needs, make up for the lack of high traffic travel pressure, and improve people’s living standards, through 30 random questionnaires, it is found that 28 people think that travel convenience improves their quality of life, and 2 people think that owning a car has little effect on travel convenience. Travel has always been people’s basic living needs. In recent years, with the improvement of people’s living standards, there are more and more urban vehicles. At the same time, the increase of vehicles also directly leads to the increasing pressure of urban traffic travel, and the problems of vehicle emission pollution and traffic congestion are becoming more and more obvious. With the national low-carbon environmental protection policies, green transportation has become the theme of the times. With the continuous development of shared transportation mode and intelligent information technology, the new transportation concept of “Mobility as a Service” based on this technical mode will highly integrate the existing transportation modes and travel services. With the support of MaaS system, people’s travel modes will change greatly. Starting with the MaaS cooperative dispatching system of railway passenger transport hub, a multiparameter fuzzy neural network control system dispatching algorithm is proposed to better help the modeling of MaaS cooperative dispatching system of railway passenger transport hub.

A comparative economic assessment of urban transport infrastructure options in low- and middle-income countries

Several innovative public transport (PT) projects have been developed in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where cars, motorcycles and buses share the facilities. However, there seems to be very little evidence on assessment methods to analyse the feasibility of different PT modes and identify the most cost-effective mixed transport system. To address this issue, this study develops a comparative economic assessment (CEcoA) based on the PT technologies’ characteristics and the conditions of local transport networks. The assessment integrates four models. First, a social cost model (SCM), that calculates the social costs of each mode and mixed transport systems, is the key model in the assessment. Second, an incremental elasticity analysis (IEA) evaluates changes in total demand by using the demand elasticity with respect to a composite cost. The IEA solves the first drawback of the SCM that demand is assumed to be fixed. Third, an incremental logit model (ILM) estimates changes in modal shares with respect to generalised costs. The ILM overcomes the second disadvantage of the SCM, where preferences of users for all alternative transport modes are not considered. Fourth, a microscopic simulation model (MSM) simulates all existing transport modes’ flows on the local network. The MSM solves the third drawback of the SCM, which only considers an isolated corridor without any interaction between the different modes and any junctions. The assessment was applied to compare an existing mixed transport situation and twelve options with an introduction of new PT technologies (Bus Rapid Transit - BRT, elevated Metro and Monorail) replacing the existing bus services; either wholly or partially, and with or without a congestion charge scheme for private transport (PRV) on a corridor in Hanoi, Vietnam in terms of average social cost (ASC), total demand and PT share. The results show that eight options with BRT or Monorail or Metro are feasible, whilst the BRT option that replaces all existing buses and includes congestion charging is the best alternative in terms of ASC. Transport planners and decision makers can draw on the findings of this research. A congestion charge scheme might be considered for the local conditions to meet specific objectives such as a reduction in ASCs and an increase in modal share of PT. The CEcoA can be a strategic tool for not only planning new PT technologies on corridors in the whole network but also retrospectively evaluating investments of PT modes. Moreover, the methodology of the CEcoA might be applied and modified to various transport networks with an abundance of motorcycles to assess the costs and benefits of new PT modes and mixed transport systems with or without the congestion charge.

Perception of safety and passage of time as factors influencing mode choice: The case of the Prague-Munich high-speed route

Abstract Behavioural factors of risk perception and time perception influencing the mode choice on the Prague-Munich route in relation to railway as a reference mode, are subject to evaluation in this article. Semi-structured interviews are qualitatively analysed using the Grounded Theory method and ATLAS.ti software, giving specific sets of meanings and understandings of selected factors, which in turn affect the travel behaviours and the mode choice. Defining these factors creates space for estimating and proposing perspectives for the development of expected travel behaviours in the context of the planned high-speed rail (HSR) system on the Prague-Munich route. The significance of this research lies in creating new meaning fields of selected factors in the specific transport infrastructure with four existing transport modes between Prague and Munich. The results based on the formulated concepts show two different meaning fields of risk – the concept of perceived risk of an accident and the concept of personal safety. Empirical results of time perception show four different meaning fields of time perception based on a preferred transport mode. Finally, the results are used for creating contextual perspectives for HSR planning across Czech – German borders.

Formation of Urban and Regional Space Under Mixed Condition of Slow Mobility and Existing Transportation Modes : Introduction

Formation of Urban and Regional Space Under Mixed Condition of Slow Mobility and Existing Transportation Modes : Introduction

Examining Customers’ Critical Acceptance Factors toward Ridepooling Services

Ridepooling is a new mobility service mainly for people in cities and urban areas. By matching the routes of customers with similar start and end points while driving in an optimally pooled manner, meaningful reductions in road traffic and related emissions can be achieved. Such services must meet customers’ demands appropriately to achieve sustainable customer acceptance. Service providers face diverse customer expectations and prejudices that differ from those toward existing transportation modes. Today, most ridepooling trips are conducted with only one customer, confirming impressions of non-optimal operation. Using a survey-based approach, possible relevant constructs for the acceptance of and intention to use ridepooling services are analyzed. Testing constructs from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 and environmental awareness, partial least squares analysis was performed with the software SmartPLS to investigate a dataset of 224 respondents. Results suggest that attitude toward use, perceived usefulness, and performance expectancy have an influence on the behavioral intention to use ridepooling services. In contrast, environmental awareness, price value, and effort expectancy do not have such an influence. The study expands the literature about customer acceptance of ridepooling service as well as new mobility services in general. Further, the paper provides research implications and recommendations for the development and implementation of the ridepooling concept for service providers.

Potential Travel Time Reduction with Autonomous Vehicles for Different Types of Travellers

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) have been designed to make changes in the travel behaviour of travellers. These changes can be interpreted using transport models and simulation tools. In this study, the daily activity plans were used to study the possibility of increasing the utility of travellers through minimizing the travel time by using AVs. Three groups of travellers were selected based on the benefits that they can obtain when AVs are on the market. The groups are (a) long-trip travellers (b) public transport riders, and (c) travellers with specified characteristics. Each group is divided into one or more scenarios based on the definition of each group and the collected data. A total of seven scenarios were derived from the collected data and simulated twice to include the existing transport modes and the presence of AVs. The simulations were conducted using Multi-Agents Transport Simulation (MATSim) that applies the concept of a co-evolutionary algorithm. MATSim simulates the current plans and the ones where AVs replace all or part of the existing conventional transport modes in the daily activity plans. The results have shown a reduction in the trip time: 13% to 42% for group (a), 33% for group (b), and 16% to 28% for group (c) compared with the original trip times. In conclusion, it can be claimed that AVs could reduce the travel time in all cases, which provides benefits for people to increase their utilities.

Gasoline Demand Elasticities at the Backdrop of Lower Oil Prices: Fuel-Subsidizing Country Case

This study investigates the income and price elasticities of gasoline demand for a fuel subsidizing country case, applying three different time-varying coefficient approaches to the data spanning the period from January 2002 to June 2018. The empirical estimations concluded a cointegration relationship between gasoline demand, income, and gasoline price. The income elasticity found ranges from 0.10 to 0.29, while the price elasticity remains constant over time, being −0.15. Income elasticity increases over time, slightly decreasing close to the end of the period, which is specific for a developing country. In the short run, gasoline demand does not respond to the changes in income and price. The policy implications are discussed based on the findings of the study. Research results show that since the income elasticity of demand is not constant, the use of constant elasticities obtained in previous studies might be misleading for policymaking purposes. An increase in income elasticity might be the cause of the inefficiency of the existing vehicles. The small price elasticity allows to say that if policy makers plan to reduce gasoline consumption then increasing its price would not substantially reduce the consumption. The current situation can be utilized to increase energy efficiency and implement eco-friendly technologies. For this purpose, the quality of existing transport modes can be improved. Meanwhile, to meet households’ needs, policies such as providing soft auto loans need to be formed to balance the recent drop in car sales.

Rail versus bus local public transport services: A social cost comparison methodology

In the last years, several Italian legislative interventions concerning the local public transport (LPT) sector aimed at inducing Local Authorities to re-programming the current services by changing the existing transport modes in favor of less expensive ones, while preserving passengers mobility. Indeed, for some local railway routes the existing level demand and its characteristics (e.g. distribution along the day) would justify a switch from rail to bus mode, when the latter are proved to be less expensive in providing comparable services. We propose a methodology to compare the social economic costs associated with the bus and the rail modes in Italy that can represent a simple and effective tool to support the Italian local policy makers in re-programming the LPT services while using more efficiently the (scarce) financial public funds. The comparison is carried out by considering a given level of exogenous demand (e.g. externally fixed), not influenced by the activated transport mode. Differences in the offered level of services are taken into account through estimation of the users cost in terms of in-vehicle trip time. The social economic costs include service production costs, infrastructure usage costs and externalities impacts (e.g. air pollution, congestion, noise). The investment costs for rail and road infrastructures construction are assumed to be sunk, while the generated infrastructure usage costs (increasing maintenance and operations) are included in the analysis. Finally, the proposed methodology is finally applied to an Italian real case.

Simulation of the Daily Activity Plans of Travelers Using the Park-and-Ride System and Autonomous Vehicles: Work and Shopping Trip Purposes

The preferences of travelers determines the utility of daily activity plans. Decision-makers can affect the preference of travelers when they force private car users to use park-and-ride (P&R) facilities as a way of decreasing traffic in city centers. The P&R system has been shown to be effective in reducing uninterrupted increases in traffic congestion, especially in city centers. Therefore, the impacts of P&R on travel behavior and the daily activity plans of both worker and shopper travelers were studied in this paper. Moreover, autonomous vehicles (AVs) are a promising technology for the coming decade. A simulation of the AV as part of a multimodal system, when the P&R system was integrated in the daily activity plans, was carried out to determine the required AV fleet size needed to fulfill a certain demand and to study the impacts of AVs on the behavior of travelers (trip time and distance). Specifically, a group of travelers, who use private cars as their transport mode, was studied, and certain modifications to their daily activity plans, including P&R facilities and changing their transport mode, were introduced. Using the MATSim open-source tool, four scenarios were simulated based on the mentioned modifications. The four scenarios included (1) a simulation of the existing transport modes of the travelers, (2) a simulation of their daily activity plans when their transport modes were changed to AVs, (3) a simulation of the travelers, when P&R facilities were included in their activity chain plans, and (4) a simulation of their daily activity plans, when both P&R and AVs were included in their activity chain plans. The result showed that using the P&R system increased overall travel time, compared with using a private car. The results also demonstrated that using AVs as a replacement for conventional cars reduced travel time. In conclusion, the impact of P&R and AVs on the travel behavior of certain travelers was evaluated in this paper.

Challenge for the Design and Construction of Jakarta MRT from Geotechnical and Traffic Engineering Perspectives

Traffic condition in Jakarta has reached critical level without the support of adequate public transportation. Jakarta MRT is another transportation mode proposed for the solution. However, this system will not respond to the issue without integration with existing transportation modes i.e., Bus-Trans-Jakarta and LRT. This paper discusses the geotechnical and traffic engineering aspects of the design and construction of Jakarta MRT. In geotechnical perspectives, the fact that soil conditions in Jakarta are soft, so construction requires careful design and method to reduce disturbance to existing traffic conditions. Diaphragm wall used with top-down construction has been proved as the best solution and the use of TBM is required. In traffic engineering perspectives, all existing transportation modes are considered in the determination of MRT station locations as well as the challenge of substructures construction in the soft soil area. Considering public safety during construction, it has been designed with combined elevated railways at the south corridor and subway in the northern corridor. This study concluded that the selection of the station locations considering integrated all public transportation modes is a must and the construction method for subsurface structures should be selected carefully to reduce traffic disturbance in Jakarta and to keep public safety.

Reviews on interrelationship between transportation and tourism: Perspective on sustainability of urban tourism development

This paper delivered the review of current research interest in tourism and transport within the context of sustainability. Transportation is important for every tourist traveling to their destinations, tourism industry cannot thrive successfully without it. Thus, this study will demonstrate the relationship of transportation-related to tourist’s satisfaction towards tourism transport, factors affected tourist’s mode of transport and tourist mobility by using the available transport in the destination to investigate the interaction between the two elements. Therefore, selected keywords will be used to identify articles in Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar to sort the most suitable article for review purposes. The review indicated that the tourist’s satisfaction is important for the evaluation of transport performance in the destination and different contexts of research. The review also found that existing transport modes in the destination will affect tourist movement, especially in terms of the designated route of transport and walkability to the tourist attraction places. In short, this review paper recommends the aspect of using new technologies as a potential analysis tool that allowed transportation greatly improved in the tourism sector. Overall, this review also aimed to identify the variable or attribute associated with achieving the idea of sustainable development.

Penguatan Moda Transportasi Lokal dalam Mendukung Kabupaten Pulau Morotai Sebagai Destinasi Wisata Unggulan

The Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Indonesia has chosen Morotai Island Regency as one of ten prioritized tourism destinations. This policy requires tourism supporting elements including an adequate transportation system. This research aims to identify the supporting capacity of the local transportation modes from which the strategies of tourism development derived from. A qualitative methodology is applied by using naturalistic and interpretative approaches to investigate the capacity of transportation modes in Morotai Island. Interviews with the local tourism agency officials and the local transportation service providers are completed for collecting relevant data and information. The research reveals that the existing transportation modes can support tourism development in Morotai. However, there are some attempts required to support tourism based transportation system: strengthening the synergetic relations between the local government and the air transportation service providers for increasing flight schedule for tourists; providing creative local based transportation modes to support better tourism development; and providing accurate information about sea transportation service to support Morotai as the prioritized tourism destination.

Competitiveness of on-demand air taxis regarding door-to-door travel time: A race through Europe

We design and implement a door-to-door travel time estimation framework, which aims to analyze the potential competitiveness of on-demand air taxis in Europe when competing with existing transportation modes: car, railway and traditional air transportation. Our grid cell-based framework, opposed to previous studies, allows for fine-grained, high-resolution estimation of travel time lower-bounds between any points in the region of interest. Region-specific results on domination points and competition transitions of all modes are obtained and reported. Our work helps to understand the competitiveness of on-demand air taxis through the lens of door-to-door travel time estimation. keyword: On-demand air mobility; Competition range; Grid-based framework.

The development of underground freight transport: An overview

Today, transportation of freight by trucks and vans faces congestion within most of the urbanized areas around the world, making supply chains less efficient and causing air pollution, noise, reducing traffic safety and also contributing to climate change. Underground freight transport (UFT) can be an alternative for, but also an addition to existing transport modes for freight, like road, rail and waterborne. It combines the advantages of taking the traffic movements underground and applying electrical (or linear induction) propulsion, with a lower (local) environmental burden and the economic advantages of unimpeded automated transport over a dedicated infrastructure that is separated from passenger traffic. Through the years, initiatives haven been taken to develop underground freight transport systems for different purposes in the USA, Europe and Asia. This paper describes the different initiatives, the benefits and costs and the type of applications. The paper ends with the conclusion that UFT is ready to be implemented but there are points of attention. We are dealing with a process of prolonged efforts on the part of the government and the private sector, which requires long-term commitment and high financial resources.

High-Speed Rail, Inter-Modal Substitution and Willingness-to-Pay. A Stated Preference Analysis for the 'Bari-Rome'

We study the demand and the willingness-to-pay for a new High-Speed (HSR) line on the Bari-Rome route, and its indirect effect on the connected Brindisi-Rome line, when competing with other existing transport modes. We carry out a discrete choice experiment over a significant number of respondents. We find that reductions in access and egress (A/E) time are more valued than in-vehicle travel time if HSR is available (faster services) while, when only traditional services are available, the opposite is true. This confirms that fragmented journeys, for faster connections, yield greater disutility and this would be the greater competitive advantage of HSR services. We also explore the heterogeneity among respondents, by studying the relationship between in-vehicle, and A/E travel time considering different population segments, i.e. different income levels, travel habits (frequent or occasional), and travel purposes, in order to profile potential users. We also study the patterns of the inter-modal substitutability. We find that increasing the travel distance by 120 km (to Brindisi) still guarantees large substitution between HSR and air transport mode.