Interurban Travel Research Articles

The effect of interurban movements on the spatial distribution of population

Understanding how interurban movements can modify the spatial distribution of the population is important for transport planning but is also a fundamental ingredient for epidemic modeling. We illustrate this on vacation trips for all transportation modes in China during the Lunar New Year and compare the results for 2019 with the ones for 2020 where travel bans were applied for mitigating the spread of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19). We first show that inter-urban travel flows are broadly distributed and display both large temporal and spatial fluctuations, making their modeling very difficult. When flows are larger, they appear to be more dispersed over a larger number of origins and destinations, creating de facto hubs that can spread an epidemic at a large scale. These movements quickly induce (in about a week for this case) a very strong population concentration in a small set of cities. We characterize quantitatively the return to the initial distribution by defining a pendular ratio which allows us to show that this dynamics is in general very slow and even stopped for the 2020 Lunar New Year due to travel restrictions. Travel restrictions obviously limit the spread of the diseases between different cities, but have thus the counter-effect of keeping high concentration in a small set of cities, a priori favoring intra-city spread, unless individual contacts are strongly limited. These results shed some light on the statistics of interurban movements and how they modify the national distribution of populations, a crucial ingredient for devising effective control strategies at a national level.

Criminal nomadism: A neglected dimension of spatial mobility in sex offending

PurposeThis study investigates criminal nomadism—an individual's propensity to engage in continuous or intermittent interurban travel as a way to cope with the consequences of their criminal lifestyle and/or as a strategy to adapt to the reality of being a “career criminal.” MethodsThe criminal-career itinerary across Canada of 448 men convicted of sex offenses was reconstructed through individual interviews and analysis of detailed criminal records. Five distinct components of criminal nomadism (i.e., trips, nodes, paths, range, and mesolevel activity space), inspired by crime pattern theory, are suggested and analyzed. ResultsResults show that criminal nomadism is the reality of young and educated Whites who have a prolific criminal career interspersed with long incarceration sentences. Nomadic offenders did not wander freely and randomly, but rather seemed to be looking for opportunities and privacy. Sex-offending variables did not make a significant contribution to predictions, suggesting that criminal nomadism is more a general offending phenomenon than something specific to sex offending. ConclusionsThis study provides supporting evidence that an extensive criminal career is generally associated with a geographically scattered and nomadic lifestyle. Implications for public policies and future studies are discussed.

Transportation habits and opinions of railway users in Athens, Greece

The Greek economic crisis of 2009 onwards has affected all aspects of social and economic life of the country, including transportation. Taking into account the link between the economic crisis and transportation, the present study aims to investigate the way that the economic crisis has affected the interurban travel rail habits of the citizens of Athens, the capital of Greece. We conducted a study, using a questionnaire survey with 400 participants, to investigate the general trends concerning the purpose and the frequency of railway travelling and the restrictions of their travel activities due to the economic recession. The results of this study show that more than half of respondents declared that there is not any great difference in their use of rail as transport during last years, while they express a positive opinion as they attribute it to the higher safety and comfort of railway compared to other transportation modes. However, the cost of the ticket and the provided level of service are two significant factors for the participants for the choice of their transportation mode.

Viral geographies: Megaregions as extra‐urban disease catchments

Epidemiologists, medical geographers, and public health experts have long focused on city‐centred data in the description of epidemic occurrences. While incidence is collected locally, it is typically aggregated to first a city and from there to a regional resolution. Urban researchers have long noted that interurban travel flow directly affects urban populations and thus models based on a stable urban entity. Some have proposed that a “megaregion,” based on one or another urban exchange network, is a more appropriate vehicle for the study of dynamic disease events. In this preliminary study, megaregions based on American commuter flow are used to study the early spread of H1N1 Type‐A Influenza in 2009—from three principal cities to surrounding towns and cities. The question was, first, whether these catchments would adequately capture the incidence of viral expansion in a region. Second, the question was whether a “wave‐like” pattern of orderly disease progression would be observed.

English

Inter-urban travel forms one of the main spatial and economic features of any nation’s economic landscape. Understanding and forecasting inter-urban movement is a crucial input for urban and regional transportation planning. This study therefore was carried out to develop trip generation model of selected cities in Niger State. Questionnaire survey was carried in three main urban centres in the state namely; Minna, Bida and Suleja. Four (400) copies of questionnaires were administered at the three major public motor parks where travelers usually board vehicles for inter-city travels Niger state.  Using multiple stepwise regression model analysis, six independent variables namely; travel distance (TD), travel time (TT), population (PP), public institution (PI) and fare charged (FC) were regressed against the dependent variable (Y) which is inter urban travel flow (ITF). However, only 2 independent variables; that is population (PP) and fare charged (FC) were good and significant for explaining the variation in the flow of inter urban trips in the state. Two variables record R2 of 1.00 which implies 100% contribution to explanation of the variation in the inter-urban travel in Niger State. The study also discovered that Minna-Suleja route constitutes the heaviest traffic corridors in the state. In view of these findings, it was recommended that adequate public transport provision should be made to meet inter urban travel needs within the state by NSTA and a more comprehensive regional transportation planning for the entire state is recommended to cover other important towns that could not be covered in this study.   Key words: Inter urban, travel, pattern, flow, generation, attraction.

Perceived comfort and values of travel time savings in the Rhône-Alpes Region

Based on choice experiments conducted in the Rhône-Alpes Region (France), we estimate an Integrated Choice and Latent Variable model that addresses heterogeneity in values of interurban travel time. We evaluate how sensitivity to travel time by public transport is distributed according to the level of comfort. Comfort is modeled as a function of objective attributes and individual perceptions about it: whether a seat is guaranteed, quality of trip experience (feelings experienced), (perceived) use of travel time during the trip, and overall ease of using public transport (perceived behavioral control). The results show that the last two play a significant role in the choice of a public transport mode and that the value of time function is downward sloping with higher levels of objective and perceived comfort. We discuss public policy implications and show that the most effective measure, in terms of economic benefits, would be to optimize and target investments in seat capacity supply.

Living in the metropolitan area. Correlation of interurban mobility with the structural cohesion of personal networks and the originative sense of community

This study analyzed the metropolitan lifestyle with a representative personal networks survey of the population of Alcalá de Guadaíra (n=403), in the urban environment of Seville (SW Spain). A factorial analysis with density, centralization, number of cliques and the number of components allowed differentiating two dimensions of variability in personal networks related to cohesion and fragmentation of the network structure. The frequency of interurban travel plays a decisive role in the development of a metropolitan lifestyle, and is associated with a lower structural cohesion of personal networks and with some moderation in the original sense of community. Based on the results, we question the hypothesis of community decline in metropolitan contexts.

Special Issue on New Frontiers in Accessibility Modelling: The Effect of Access Time on Modal Competition for Interurban Trips: The Case of the Madrid-Barcelona Corridor in Spain

This paper analyses the effect of access and egress time to train stations and airports on modal competition in the Madrid-Barcelona corridor, (Spain), where a new high speed train started to operate in the year 2008. The analysis is based on the estimation of a Nested Logit model that uses a mixed revealed/stated preference data set that provides information on travellers’ behaviour in the available modes. We obtained the value of the different components of the travel time, as well as the willingness to pay for other service attributes. We then analysed demand response to different policies that consider variation in access time to train stations and airports and other attributes. The results highlight the important role that access time to terminals may play in terms of modal competition between rail and plane for interurban travel passengers.

Investigation of Whether Value of Travel Time Increases as Travel Time Increases

This paper analyzes the variation in the value of travel time savings (VTTS) over travel time by applying the method of empirical discrete choice analysis with nonlinear utility functions. First, it formulates the time allocation model and derives VTTS from the model. The theoretical consideration shows that it is impossible to identify the conditions determining the monotonic change in VTTS over travel time. The paper then examines the variation in VTTS over travel time by using empirical data on choices of interurban travel modes in Japan. The empirical analysis assumes constant marginal utility with respect to income for the first case using the model with a nonlinear utility function and assumes nonconstant marginal utility for the second case using the model with a nonlinear utility function. The first case analysis shows that VTTS decreases as travel time increases. The second case shows that variations in the estimated VTTS over travel time appear to be neutral in the case of rail and airplane users, whereas the estimated VTTS appears to decrease as travel time increases in the case of automobile users. If it is acknowledged that VTTS decreases as travel time increases, the marginal benefit arising from the marginal travel time savings would increase as travel time declines, which implies that society will require additional travel time savings as travel time decreases.

Inter-urban rail demand, elasticities and competition in Great Britain: Evidence from direct demand models

Abstract The aim of this research was to extend direct demand models to analyse elasticity variation in more detail, and in particular to examine the interaction between rail and competing modes. Relatively little is known about the interaction between modes in the inter-urban travel market. We have obtained plausible, precise and reliable estimates of elasticity variation with regard to both the level a variable takes and with respect to the degree of competition from car and coach. These relationships have been freely estimated rather than imposed and would in many instances imply appreciable differences in demand forecasts in comparison with models which do not include competitive effects. As a result of this research, British Rail has amended its forecasting procedures to include competitive effects. We recommend the more widespread use of direct demand models to examine elasticity variation.

Changes in travel time across modes and its impact on the demand for inter-urban rail travel

Analysis of the demand for inter-urban rail travel has received little attention in contrast to the large number of studies on urban travel demand. The studies on inter-urban rail demand usually emphasise the effects of monetary costs. Occasionally, changes in rail travel time are considered. However, the central aspect in our study is the impact of changes in road travel time on the demand for rail. This paper specifies and empirically estimates, an explanatory model to evaluate the impact of travel time changes on inter-urban rail demand. The change in rail passenger traffic between two periods on various routes is compared to the change in travel times on these routes. That is, it is a model estimated on the change in cross-section traffic volumes between the two periods. The empirical analysis confirms the explanatory power of changes in the intermodal structure of travel times, and shows the need to introduce the impact of these changes when studying the demand for inter-urban travel.

Congestion theory and transport demand

A general theorem for the analysis of transport modal choices is derived and applied to a representative bus- versus-auto modal choice. Other applications of the model are also discussed, including analysis of the demand for freeways versus local streets, choices between jitneys and taxis, and interurban travel by air versus rail. Comparisons are drawn between cross-elasticities of demand in American and European communities. /HRIS/