Ground Access Research Articles

Strategies for collaborative funding of intermodal airport ground access projects

Projects to improve airport ground access not only provide important intermodal connections but can also present difficult funding challenges. This paper reviews the recent literature on funding airport ground access projects as well as some of the wider literature on funding transportation projects in general in the United States (U.S.) that is indirectly relevant to airport ground access projects. This is followed by a review of current U.S. federal transportation funding programs relevant to airport ground access projects, as well as a discussion of state and local funding programs and potential opportunities for private sector funding. The paper then describes several case studies of airport ground access project funding that were undertaken as part of this research. Based on this discussion, the paper discusses potential funding strategies for intermodal airport ground access projects in the U.S., requirements for effective implementation of these strategies, and a recommended approach to facilitate successful project development and implementation. It also presents recommended changes to the transportation funding program rules and regulations in the U.S. that could facilitate and simplify the development of intermodal solutions to meet future airport ground access needs.

Ground access to airports, case study: Port Columbus International Airport

This study examines the ground access mode choices of passengers traveling to Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio. The survey was conducted with 642 individuals at the airport in April 2012. The survey included questions about passengers' flights, attitudes toward auto-use, interest in alternative modes of transportation, important factors affecting mode choice, and socio-demographic information. The factors affecting passengers' mode choices constituted the greatest focus of the survey. Binary logit models are estimated to analyze the passengers' interest in taking alternative modes of transportation. The results show that individuals who are on business trips, flying alone (or with fewer people), and already trying to reduce their auto-use in general are more likely to take alternative modes of transportation to the airport. In addition, the most important factors that affect individuals' ground access mode decisions are presented separately for travelers on business trips and non-business trips.

Factors affecting airport access mode choice for elderly air passengers

This research investigates whether elderly air passengers exhibit different mode choice behavior in regard to airport ground access. Using survey data from a Taiwanese sample, our results show that elderly air passengers prefer to ask family members to drive them to the airport, while general passengers prefer to take a taxi. The results also indicate that “safety” is the most important item in the choice of access mode and “user friendly” and “convenience for storing luggage” as the next most important items for the elderly. Elderly passengers are found to be less likely to use public transport than private transport. Factors such as “possessing a car in their household”, “carrying more luggage”, “spending more time spent in the vehicle”, and “higher ticket prices for public transport” increase the propensity for the elderly to use private transport.

Scottish Land Reform and the Idea of ‘Outdoors’

This paper explores political and phenomenological aspects of landscape through an ethnographic study of new access rights in Scotland. Drawing on a Nordic tradition of common access rights, the recent legislation in Scotland takes a radical approach to landscape by providing access to Scotland's outdoors in its entirety. Olwig's descriptions of ‘customary’ and ‘natural’ landscape law provide a basis for identifying the intentions of those involved in the access agenda in inculcating a national sense of an accessible landscape. But ethnographic evidence, beginning with the premise of moving subjects rather than static viewers of landscape, shows that the continuing divisions between higher ground and lower ground access issues are based on the qualities of walking that combine gesture, confidence, and features in the landscape. The political landscape thus comes into being through the progression of footsteps of those on the ground as much as through discourse in legislative centres.

Who Rides Airport Railways?

A new methodology is proposed for postproject analysis of airport railways for guidance in planning airport ground access. The concept is to determine the type of rail passenger (air passenger or employee, business or leisure, and resident or nonresident) by comparison of hourly rail ridership, air passenger volumes, air traffic movements, and geographic location of trip ends. A test is proposed for each possible ridership group to determine who is using the railway. A case study of London City Airport is used to illustrate the value of the method with Oyster smartcard ridership data from Transport for London. Findings confirm that the impressive 51% Docklands Light Railway mode share for air passengers from small sample surveys is realistic: the railway connection is predominantly used by air passengers and not employees. The airport characteristics—predominantly business travelers, relatively central location, and local employees—simplify the analysis. Geographical information system analysis revealed one major surprise: the busiest station by trip ends is Woolwich Arsenal in southeast London. However, the general findings are as expected: trip ends concentrate in the financial and business districts. The policy recommendation for future airport railway projects is to apply this methodology to a range of comparable airports. This will aid transport planners in designing a rail service optimized for the groups most likely to use the railway.

Forecast of Airport Ground Access Mode Choice with the Incremental Logit Model

As factors affecting airport passengers' and other travelers' transportation choices constantly change, the probability of choosing a particular mode also changes. For example, an increase in highway congestion would tend to shift auto travelers to public transport, or an increase in transit fare would make auto traveling more attractive. Although current modal share of airport ground access can be easily determined from passenger's revealed preference surveys, any forecast on mode choice is difficult because characteristics of individual travelers vary. This paper attempts to forecast airport ground access and egress trips at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) with the incremental logit or pivot point model. The model is developed by using modal share data from a revealed preference survey conducted by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates JFK. The resulting model predicts how changes in highway travel time due to traffic congestion, increases in transit fare to the airport, and changes in waiting and transfer time in the AirTrain system may affect the mode choice of air passengers and employees traveling to and from the airport.

Funding Major Airport Ground Access Projects

Funding projects to improve the intermodal connectivity between the surface transportation system and airports is often complicated by the need to draw on a range of funding programs and sources, each with its own project eligibility requirements and regulations. This paper presents seven case studies of the funding sources used for a range of major intermodal airport ground access projects in the United States that were completed in the past 12 years or were under construction. The case studies were undertaken as part of a recently completed research study that investigated collaborative funding strategies to facilitate airport ground access. The projects included a major intermodal center, two automated people mover links between airports and nearby rail stations, two airport access highway projects, and two extensions of rail transit systems to airports. The funding sources for the seven projects varied widely with the nature and location of the project. All seven projects involved some collaboration between local, state, and federal agencies in developing the funding plan for each project, although the number of agencies involved varied, with the larger projects generally having more agencies involved in providing funding. This experience suggests that developing a funding plan for such projects requires the involvement of a broad range of stakeholder agencies in planning and implementing the project.

Expression of terrain and surface geology in high-resolution helicopter-borne gravity gradient (AGG) data: Examples from Great Sand Dunes National Park, Rio Grande Rift, Colorado

Airborne gravity gradient (AGG) data are rapidly becoming standard components of geophysical mapping programs because of their advantages in cost, access, and resolution over measurements of the gravity field on the ground. Unlike conventional techniques that measure the gravity field, AGG methods measure derivatives of the gravity field. This means that effects of terrain and near-surface geology are amplified in AGG data, and that proper terrain corrections are critically important for AGG data processing. However, terrain corrections require reasonable estimates of density for the rocks and sediments that make up the terrain. A recommended philosophical approach is to use the terrain and surface geology, with their strong expression in AGG data, to the interpreter's advantage. An example of such an approach is presented here for an area with difficult ground access and little ground gravity data. Nettleton-style profiling is used with AGG data to estimate the densities of the sand dunefield and adjacent Precambrian rocks from the area of Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado. Processing of the AGG data using the density estimate for the dunefield allows buried structures, including a hypothesized buried basement bench, to be mapped beneath the sand dunes.

Airports and Bicycles

Case studies examined how airport operators addressed bicycle access to their properties and the motivations and obstacles that they faced in light of new policies to integrate bicycles, along with transit and walking, into transportation planning, design, and construction and to increase the bicycle's role in the transportation system. Eight influential elements that emerged from the review of policy documents and research literature were used to guide interviews: governance structure, location, access roads, self-perceived environmental stewardship, spending restrictions on nonaviation transportation improvements, proximity to transit, policies and mandates to reduce environmental impacts, and land use constraints. Seven cases were selected on the basis of their inclusion in studies on key aspects of airport ground access: Oakland International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, and Los Angeles International Airport, California; Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, Washington; Boston Logan International Airport, Massachusetts; Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, Minnesota; and Portland International Airport, Oregon, an exemplar recommended by several informants. The discussion was limited to employee bicycle access, the focus of airport operators that invested in programs to reduce single-occupancy-vehicle travel at airports. During aggregation of the interviews, replicable approaches for improving bicycle access were identified, as were examples of innovative funding for multimodal access that used revenues generated through passenger facilities charges. The following areas are suggested for additional research: commute needs of airport employees, mode choice for ground access, and airport operator costs and benefits of bicycle access investments.

Intercity Passenger Rail Access to Airports

The increased demand for air travel and diminishing airport capacity, coupled with a new role for passenger rail in intercity corridors across the United States, have renewed interest in the development of intermodal connections between airports and intercity passenger rail among transportation planners and policy makers. As a result, there is a need for a better understanding of who might be using such connections and how the connections might support intermodal travel activities. This paper examines the characteristics of passengers using the airport–intercity passenger rail interface at the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, airport—one of only four such direct connections currently in existence in the United States. In addition to providing a sustainable alternative to automobile ground access trips to the airport, intercity passenger rail at the Milwaukee airport has expanded the airport's market area well into the Chicago, Illinois, region, approximately 80 mi to the south. The findings indicate that passengers value the convenience and reliability of the service in choosing intercity passenger rail to access the airport. Airport and intercity passenger rail planners are encouraged to consider the findings of this paper in planning activities for future airport–intercity passenger rail interfaces.

Geographic access to US Neurocritical Care Units registered with the Neurocritical Care Society.

Neurocritical care provides multidisciplinary, specialized care to critically ill neurological patients, yet an understanding of the proportion of the population able to rapidly access specialized Neurocritical Care Units (NCUs) in the United States is currently unknown. We sought to quantify geographic access to NCUs by state, division, region, and for the US as a whole. In addition, we examined how mode of transportation (ground or air ambulance), and prehospital transport times affected population access to NCUs. Data were obtained from the Neurocritical Care Society (NCS), US Census Bureau and the Atlas and Database of Air Medical Services. Empirically derived prehospital time intervals and validated models estimating prehospital ground and air travel times were used to calculate total prehospital times. A discrete total prehospital time interval was calculated for each small unit of geographic analysis (block group) and block group populations were summed to determine the proportion of Americans able to reach a NCU within discrete time intervals (45, 60, 75, and 90 min). Results are presented for different geographies and for different modes of prehospital transport (ground or air ambulance). There are 73 NCUs in the US using ground transportation alone, 12.8, 20.5, 27.4, and 32.6% of the US population are within 45, 60, 75, and 90 min of an NCU, respectively. Use of air ambulances increases access to 36.8, 50.4, 60, and 67.3 within 45, 60, 75, and 90 min, respectively. The Northeast has the highest access rates in the US using ground ambulances and for 45, 60, and 75 min transport times with the addition of air ambulances. At 90 min, the West has the highest access rate. The Southern region has the lowest ground and air access to NCUs access rates for all transport times. Using NCUs registered with the NCS, current geographic access to NCUs is limited in the US, and geographic disparities in access to care exist. While additional NCUs may exist beyond those identified by the NCS database, we identify geographies with limited access to NCUs and offer a population-based planning perspective on the further development of the US neurocritical care system.

Using Fast-Time Simulations for Designing and Operating Airport Terminals as Nodes of Intermodaltransport

Ever growing traffic in air transport with associated capacity constraints brings problems to air passenger flows at airports. There is strong link between quality of airport ground access system and airport terminal operations. However, this aspect remains underestimated in the development plans of many airports all over the world, which results in underutilization of both planed and existing infrastructure. In efforts for improvement, the higher level of synchronization and coordination between air and ground transport needs to be achieved. For this purpose, a computer model enabling to simulate passenger flows within airport's catchment area has been developed by the Air Transport Department, University of Zilina. Thanks to this simulation model, it is possible to perform comprehensive operational, economic and environmental assessment of the innovative airport ground access concepts and thus facilitate designing and operating airports as nodes of intermodal transport.

Analysis of ground access modes choice King Khaled International Airport, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Airports are vital to the transportation system because air travel is the fastest means of transporting people and goods around the world. Airports also connect aviation systems with other modes of transportation.As a result, access modes to airports are critical to the aviation system, and studying air passenger decisions regarding mode choice is an essential part of airport management and system planning.Though there has been systematic analysis of car use to access airports, there has been less systematic attention to the use of the public transport system, especially the taxi service. The aim of this study is to identify King Khaled International Airport (KKIA) access mode characteristics and users, which has not been investigated previously concentrating on the mix between car and taxi using data collected specifically for this research.More than half (55.5%) of the travelers surveyed arrived at KKIA by private car; taxi and limousine passengers accounted for 42.2% of the sample. The Saudi Public Transit Company (SAPTCO), transported only 2.3% of the air passengers surveyed. These results are similar to findings for an airport in the United States and very different from findings for an airports in the East (e.g., Hong Kong).A binary logit model was developed to evaluate the access mode choice. It was found that income, luggage, travel access time, and nationality significantly affect mode choice.Results provide insight for improved planning of access to KKIA.

Light Rail Rapid Transit systems for more sustainable ground accessibility of airports

This paper investigates the potential of Light Rail Rapid Transit (LRRT) to mitigate the environmental and social burden of ground access systems of an airport. This implies, on the one hand, LRRT's capability in mitigating externalities in terms of noise, air pollution/climate change, traffic incidents/accidents and congestion of airport ground access systems and, on the other, the provision of sufficient capacity to accommodate generally increasing volumes of both air passenger and airport employee demand by connecting the airport to its core catchment area. A methodology for assessing the capability of LRRT operating as an airport ground access system is developed. This methodology consists of models to analyze and predict demand and capacity for an LRRT system and models to quantify the externalities of particular airport ground access systems as well as assessing their prospective savings thanks to the introduction of an LRRT system. The methodology is applied to a large European airport – Amsterdam Schiphol (the Netherlands) – using a ‘what-if?’ scenario approach.

The Impact of Travel Time Reliability and Perceived Service Quality on Airport Ground Access Mode Choice

This study makes two contributions to existing airport ground access mode choice models. The first is an assessment of travel time reliability on air passenger airport ground access mode choice decisions. Revealed preference questions were asked to determine the safety margin allowed for ground access journey to airports. The larger the safety margin allowances, the less reliable the passenger perceived the mode to be. Stated preference questions were also used to determine the impact of travel time reliability on mode choice decisions. The second contribution of this research is the incorporation of air passenger perceived service quality in the calibration of airport ground access mode choice model. With the use of the survey data, the effects of safety margin allowances, travel time reliability, and perceived service quality on ground access mode choices to Hong Kong International Airport are quantified by a multinomial logit-type mode choice model. For strategic planning, the calibrated model can be used by the airport authority and various transport operators for evaluating the changes in the service attributes on modal split pattern in international airports, hence improving the access mode services.

Bat Mortality and Activity at a Northern Iowa Wind Resource Area

Abstract We examined bat collision mortality, activity and species composition at an 89-turbine wind resource area in farmland of north-central Iowa from mid-Apr. to mid-Dec., 2003 and mid-Mar. to mid-Dec., 2004. We found 30 bats beneath turbines on cleared ground and gravel access areas in 2003 and 45 bats in 2004. After adjusting for search probability, search efficiency and scavenging rate, we estimated total bat mortality at 396 ± 72 (95% ci) in 2003 and 636 ± 112 (95% ci) in 2004. Although carcasses were mostly migratory tree bats, we found a considerable proportion of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus). We recorded 1465 bat echolocation call files at turbine sites ( = 34.88 call files/detector-night) and 1536 bat call files at adjacent non-turbine sites ( = 36.57 call files/detector-night). Bat activity did not differ significantly between turbine and non-turbine sites. A large proportion of recorded call files were made by Myotis sp. but this may be because we detected activity at ground leve...

Airport ground access mode choice behavior after the introduction of a new mode: A case study of Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan

To improve airport ground access at Taoyouan International Airport (TIA) in Taiwan, the government of Taiwan is constructing a mass rapid transit system (TIA MRT) to connect the airport and important traffic hubs such as the Taipei train station and the Taoyouan High Speed Rail station. Using revealed and stated preference data, we investigate the airport ground access mode choice behavior of air passengers who are traveling overseas from Taiwan. A mixed logit model is estimated to identify the preferences of air passengers for the new mode. The results indicate that while out-of-vehicle travel time and in-vehicle travel time are two important factors in affecting outbound travelers’ choice of airport access mode, the amount of overall time-savings and the user-friendly nature of the modal offers are also crucial attributes. We show the extent to which travel time improvements associated with public transportation reduces the market share of private transportation and taxi.

Incorporating passenger perceived service quality in airport ground access mode choice model

This article presents the incorporation of air passenger perceived service quality in the calibration of airport ground access mode choice model. Structural Equation Modelling is used to construct a ‘satisfaction’ latent variable to relate air passenger perception on the airport ground access modes with the characteristics of the trip and of the passengers themselves. The ‘satisfaction’ latent variable is incorporated into the discrete choice model, which is used for evaluating the ground access modal split pattern at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA). The model results indicated that satisfaction level is associated with mode utility. By incorporating the ‘satisfaction’ latent variable into the discrete choice model, air passenger ground access mode choice behaviour is then modelled more precisely. Hence, a better understanding on the demand for various ground access mode choices at HKIA can be obtained.

Applying Benefit–Cost Analysis for Airport Improvements

Benefit–cost analysis (BCA) is widely used for airport investment analysis, for both ranking of alternatives and funding decisions. Although the technique is theoretically straightforward, its application can become complicated by a series of factors that are particularly problematic for aviation applications. For one, the requirement for ground access makes air travel intrinsically multimodal. In addition, the speed of air travel attracts classes of users and dependent parties with particular speed sensitivities and delay consequences. When BCA is applied to airport project proposals, it can raise issues of how to handle competing modes and intermodal interactions, and the definition of the real users and beneficiaries of airport improvements. To examine these issues, the authors compared benefit–cost guidance for airports with counterpart guidance for other travel modes and conducted a review of the current state of practice of benefit–cost studies for airport improvements. The findings point to challenges for improving methods of airport BCA.

Analyses of orbital lifetime and observation conditions of small lunar satellites

The Moon's gravitational field shows large inhomogeneities that strongly influence the shape of an orbit and can severely influence the orbital lifetime and observation conditions of any spacecraft orbiting the Moon. Small lunar spacecrafts are especially affected by those unstable orbits because their limited mass leaves little to no fuel reserves for excessive orbit maintenance maneuvers. Therefore, it may be favorable to choose an orbit, which features not the ideal observation conditions, but requires less Δ V for orbit maintenance. These limitations have to be considered during mission design as they affect both the potential capabilities and the lifetime of the satellite. To characterize these limiting factors, simulations and analyzes based on up-to-date high degree and order gravity models were conducted with regard to the upcoming small lunar satellite Lunar Mission BW1 of the Institute of Space Systems (IRS) of the Universitaet Stuttgart. The cubical-shaped spacecraft with an edge length of 1 m and a mass of approximately 200 kg will use its own all-electrical propulsion system to reach a high-inclined low lunar orbit. Due to the limited fuel mass and operational lifetime of the thrusters, we consider the orbit maintenance capabilities of the probe to be minimal. Measures to maximize orbital lifetime with the least amount of propellant have to be taken and target orbits have to be examined carefully. This paper shows the results of simulations, which analyze ground coverage and access times, as well as simulations of orbital lifetime and changes in orbital parameters. Additionally, suitable, long lasting target orbits for small lunar spacecrafts are discussed.