Local Transport Policy Research Articles

Students’ commuting habits to the university: Transportation choices during the Covid-19 era

This paper seeks to analyse the drivers behind students’ commuting choice in the context of a medium-sized public university (University of Urbino Carlo Bo) in Italy. The study accounts for changes in commuting preferences and choices occurring during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results are based on a 2020 survey on students analysed by means of a mixed multinomial logit model and a latent class model. The University of Urbino is an interesting case study for several reasons. First, it has a higher number of enrolled students (approximately 15,000) than there are residents in the municipality (less than 15,000). Second, Urbino is located far from main roads and transport infrastructures. Third, there are commuting options to and from the city, meaning that local transport policies have a relevant impact on the entire territory. Personal characteristics, distance from home, and price of the transportation mode influence the choice of students. The estimates for the two post-Covid-19 scenarios showed no particular changes in students’ transport habits, except when the number of household members was taken into account. The study provides valuable insights into the attitudes towards change in transportation choices that have recently emerged among a specific student population after an extended lockdown, that is now faced with making decisions marked by evident uncertainty about the possible developments of the Covid-19 virus.

Evaluating the travel impacts of a shared mobility system for remote workers

Given the rapid rise of remote work, there is an opportunity for new shared mobility services designed to meet the needs of passengers with multiple possible work locations. This paper develops a new optimization model to enable shared mobility systems to match drivers and passengers when passengers have flexible destinations. Constraints representing employer policies, such as mandatory co-location of colleagues and limited capacity of satellite offices are introduced in order to explore the impact of employer remote work policies on travel demand. A case study using historical demand data demonstrates that incorporating flexible work locations can increase ride-pooling participation by up to 6.7% and reduce vehicle-kilometers traveled by 4.9%. Outcomes are found to be significantly affected by employer policies. The implications of the results for shared mobility business models, employer remote work plans and local transportation policy are discussed.

Identification and Classification of Bus and Subway Passenger Travel Patterns in Beijing Using Transit Smart Card Data

Urban public transit has been rapidly developed in recent years. However, given increases in travel volume, the level of service still needs to be improved to meet the satisfaction of passengers. Transit service providers and researchers have focused on improving transit devices, but the service level of public transit has not yet been effectively improved, so more and more research is interested in analyzing the travel patterns of passengers. Compared with traditional survey methods, smart card collection systems—which can collect spatial-temporal information about passengers’ trips—are convenient for the study of bus and subway passengers’ travel patterns. However, the data provided by smart cards have not yet been fully explored. Therefore, this paper proposed a multistep methodology to gather information on the travel patterns of bus and subway passengers in Beijing, China. We conducted statistical analyses and used an unsupervised clustering method to study and classify passengers based on travel patterns. Four groups have been identified: standard commuters, flexible commuters, and two types of low-frequency passengers. Then, a comprehensive analysis was conducted. We also discussed the changes of passengers’ travel time consumption before and after the implementation of customized bus for high-frequency passengers. The analyses indicated that passengers’ travel patterns can provide useful information for transit service providers and can help improve the level of service of urban public transit by promoting the promulgation of local public transport policies and the implementation of customized services.

Turin, Rome and Genoa: comparison of the level of maturity of three large Italian cities towards Mobility as a Service

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is the new urban mobility paradigm which, through a digital platform, makes all types of public and private transport services available to users. This contributes to increasing sustainability in cities and the quality of citizens' mobility. However, several factors influence the success of MaaS implementation: openness and data sharing of transport operators; citizens’ familiarity and willingness to pay; policy, regulation and legislation; transport services, and infrastructures. Many of these factors are strictly related to the features of the city where MaaS has to operate, and more specifically to its maturity (including multimodality, integration, flexibility, and user-oriented approach). To this end, target users and their willingness to pay for MaaS operations require a specific assessment. This paper compares three large Italian cities - Turin, Rome and Genoa, very different in terms of size, complexity, local transport policies and potential for MaaS application-, with the final goal of outlining common and specific drivers, barriers and requirements for the successful adoption of MaaS. The research findings can provide useful insights to urban mobility decision-makers to avoid the unsuccessful implementation of MaaS, especially when dealing with cities with conservative mobility policies, such as Rome, or where MaaS is a novelty.

Implementing bicycle-friendly transport policies: Examining the effect of an infrastructural intervention on residents’ perceived quality of urban life in Frankfurt, Germany

In recent years, many European cities have developed strategies to improve the quality of urban life by reducing car traffic and increasing the attractiveness of alternative modes and the built environment for residents. Frequently, at least in German cities, improvements to the cycling infrastructures play a key role in this transformation of urban spaces. One of those transformative interventions took place in 2020 in Frankfurt am Main (Germany). The city redesigned an arterial road close to the city centre, the Friedberger Landstrasse, by converting two car lanes to bicycle lanes. It is the aim of this study to analyse the effects of this change on the quality of urban life of its residents using a quantitative before-and-after study. The results demonstrate the expected improvements in the perceived quality of urban life for residents after the intervention. A more detailed analysis, however, shows that the residents’ perceptions vary according to their own mode use on the Friedberger Landstrasse and other sociodemographic characteristics. Thus, better cycling infrastructure does not only improve conditions for cyclists, but also contributes to a higher quality of urban life for residents and, therefore, improves the liveability of a city in two ways. We conclude that local transport policies are not only relevant for a modal shift, but also for the quality of urban life and, thus, related urban development strategies.

Airports as Sensitive Areas to Mitigate Air Pollution: Evidence from a Case Study in Rome

The environmental concerns are behind urban and regional mobility plans, with one of the goals being to manage surface traffic to reduce emissions. Yet, in sensitive areas such as those around airports, the contribution to the emissions generated by air traffic are commonly not considered. The research goal of this paper is to quantify and compare the magnitude of the emissions generated by both air and surface traffic, taking the second airport in Rome as an example, in the awareness that a proper knowledge of the emission phenomena might help steer local transport policies towards more appropriate and sustainable solutions. The paper describes the case study’s regulatory and land use frameworks both affecting the current traffic patterns around the airport and the emission generation, along with the methodology adopted to quantify the emission magnitude of both air and surface modes; as a result, air traffic emissions are not even comparable in magnitude to those from surface modes. In light of that, implications for surface transport policies are presented, leading to a revision of current mobility plans, and solutions to minimize emissions during land and take-off operations suggested, although problems for their implementations are acknowledged in the conclusions. All within the additional goal to advance the research further afield.

The role of current transport expenditure in mitigating the risk of modal shift during Covid-19 – Lessons from Polish cities

This article shows that current expenditure allocated by local authorities for the routine maintenance of public transport (i.e., providing passengers with clean and frequent services) is crucial to effectively limit the modal shift from public transit to private cars during the Covid-19 pandemic. In our analysis, we define public transport as the bus, tram, metro and trolley operations which are ordered and funded by 11 local authorities in Poland; we also assume that the modal shift is reflected in the growth of traffic congestion. Taking into account these assumptions and considering the long-term financial data from 2010 to 2020, we then conduct hierarchical linear regression and state that cities with a higher share of current expenses in cities’ total annual transport expenditure have registered during the pandemic a lower number of weeks with congestion level exceeding the pre-pandemic level. We argue that this is due to the allocation of current expenditure to cleaning services and the transport service supply, which could have a significant impact on perceptions of crowding and safety on public transport. Both issues belong to the essential determinants of the quality of public transport services and could play a key role in mitigating the modal shift by reducing the fear of catching Covid-19. In contrast to this finding, we also show that investment expenditure (allocated to improvements of transport infrastructure) does not have a similar impact on the congestion during the pandemic. In this context, we emphasise that cutting spending on cleaning services and the transport supply service as a response to the reduced number of passengers would be more devastating for public transport than postponing new infrastructure investments. Based on the results achieved in the analysis, we provide recommendations for local authorities that can help implement new funding models and reframe local transport policy, namely: (1) close the funding gap resulting from lower revenues to local budgets, (2) provide resources for maintaining the infrastructure investments and adapting them to a “new normality”, (3) maintain the attractiveness of public transport post-Covid.

Mobility functional areas and COVID-19 spread

This work introduces a new concept of functional areas called Mobility Functional Areas (MFAs), i.e., the geographic zones highly interconnected according to the analysis of mobile positioning data. The MFAs do not coincide necessarily with administrative borders as they are built observing natural human mobility and, therefore, they can be used to inform, in a bottom-up approach, local transportation, spatial planning, health and economic policies. After presenting the methodology behind the MFAs, this study focuses on the link between the COVID-19 pandemic and the MFAs in Austria. It emerges that the MFAs registered an average number of infections statistically larger than the areas in the rest of the country, suggesting the usefulness of the MFAs in the context of targeted re-escalation policy responses to this health crisis. The MFAs dataset is openly available to other scholars for further analyses.

Using Photovoice to Explore Teenagers’ Public Transit Experiences in a Suburban City

For many children, the transition to adolescence coincides with the expansion of everyday activities with teenagers taking up transit use to facilitate greater independent mobility and spatial exploration. This paper describes a photovoice exploration of public transit travel of 28 teenagers, 13 to 19 years of age, in Mississauga, Canada. The recorded experiences are grouped under four themes: access; safety; comfort and flexibility; and activity stacking. Findings may offer insights into local transport policies aimed at improving level of service for teenagers and other patrons including reduced group fares, design improvements, and onboard Wi-Fi connectivity.

Cracks in the wall of a car-oriented local mobility system – Results of an urban living lab

This paper focuses on evaluating the effects of an Urban Living Lab (ULL), which aims to promote the sustainable transition of a local mobility system through civic engagement within a multi-actor cooperation network. For this purpose, an approach is presented on how to measure and evaluate the impacts of a ULL on different levels. Therefore, a framework integrating the transition management approach and the multi-level perspective is developed and used for a mixed-methods evaluation approach of a ULL in a small rural town. The empirical results provide some evidence that after one year, the ULL activities cause some ‘cracks in the wall’ of the currently car-use dominated local mobility system: A significant decrease in the perceived social support of a local transport policy prioritizing car user needs is observed, as well as a significant decrease in the perceived social support for policy measures aiming to upgrade the existing car use infrastructure. Furthermore, citizens now perceive a higher local descriptive norm in favour of walking and cycling. However, ULL activities are not associated with a significant reduction of personal car use. Implications of the evaluation results for the further development of this specific local ULL as well as ULLs in general are discussed. Moreover, lines of psychological research aimed at supporting a better understanding of effective ULLs are described.

Note from the Editor

Note from the Editor

Policies for Reducing Car Traffic and Their Problematisation. Lessons from the Mobility Strategies of British, Dutch, German and Swedish Cities

The objective of the paper is to explore whether particular problematisations of cars and car use lead to sets of solutions that may not deal with all problems associated with car use, and whether this leads to any internal conflicts within the chosen policies. The paper is based on a review of local transport policy documents from 13 cities in four countries using the lens of policy problematisation as an analytical framework. Some critiques of policy problematisation are discussed in the paper but it is nonetheless shown to be helpful for this analysis. The paper finds that the problems most typically highlighted in the strategies reviewed are poor accessibility (as a “bad” in itself, but also because it is seen to compromise economic growth); the negative impacts of traffic on liveability of the central part of the city and therefore its ability to attract inhabitants, especially those needed to support a knowledge economy; local air and noise pollution; and road safety. The resulting visions are for urban areas less dominated by private cars, with more green and public space, in order to maximise accessibility and liveability to attract economic development; and most cities also seek to reduce car travel as a proportion of trips. However, in many cities this vision covers mainly the central city, with car use set to remain dominant in outer cities and for regional trips. In almost all cities, only one measure, parking management, is proposed as a means of cutting car use. The differing sets of measures envisaged for outer areas of cities threatens to undermine those envisaged for more central cities.

Challenges in local governance: Public-private partnerships as an instrument for local transport policies

Public-private partnerships (PPP) as suppliers for public services have been increasingly used as an instrument for improving public policy, mostly when it comes to reducing costs and improving public transport. The purpose of this paper is to carry out a comparative analysis between two metropolitan areas in Mexico and to identify the main causes that explain the performance and difficulties of a hybrid supplying model. The transport sector was chosen not only for its great importance in urban areas but also due to its representativeness to highlight the specificities of PPPs. The Mexican experience has shown that infrastructure projects tend to underestimate their costs and to overestimate their demand, even with supposed formal validation processes. In this sense, even though PPPs have been generally promoted by international organizations, there is a prevailing need to explore the implications and challenges that emerge from this kind of governance tools. Process tracing was conducted as a methodological technique within a comparative approach using qualitative information.

Identifying barriers to implementation of local transport policy – Lessons learned from case studies on bus policy implementation in Great Britain

Previous work by the authors has addressed the issue of local bus policy implementation in Britain outside London by studies of local transport documents, survey and interviews of local transport officers working in local authorities. The findings from these studies highlight that some of the key elements to successful implementation could be understood in more depth by taking a case study approach. This paper analyses four case studies of the implementation of specific bus policy measures in four different cities in Great Britain: the Quality Contract Scheme (QCS) in Tyne and Wear, the Fastlink Scheme in Glasgow, a Bus Priority Scheme in Solihull and a Smart Ticketing Scheme in Dundee. The findings in this paper show that policy champions, collaboration and interaction help to build a relationship between the parties involved, ensure limited changes due to bureaucratic power and changes to the policy, and help to overcome opposition, conflict and ambiguities. It is important that those involved in the policy process are provided with relevant training, supervision and support to help overcome the staffing difficulties and to deal with barriers external to the implementing organisation such as economic, social and political conditions.

Influencing Public Transportation Policy Through Community Engagement and Coalition Building: Process and Preliminary Outcomes.

Public transportation is a social determinant of health and is crucial to aspects of health like access to healthcare, employment, and nutrition. Existing health inequities are exacerbated by inefficient or inaccessible public transportation systems. To provide a detailed analysis of the issues and concerns related to public transportation in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and describe how coalition-building was used to influence positive change in transportation policy. Members from various organizations aligned with local transit riders to create the Transportation Coalition and advocate for extended night and weekend services for the Winston-Salem public transportation system. Partnerships between community-based organizations are crucial to identifying and addressing the needs of a community. The Transportation Coalition will continue its work in local public transportation policy. A long-term policy objective is fare-free transit on the city bus system.

Using strategic niche management to evaluate and implement urban transport policy instruments

Strategic Niche Management (SNM) is rooted in organisational innovation diffusion theory and provides a structure to evaluate and manage the introduction of new transport technologies. In brief, SNM involves: • Formation of a ‘technological niche’. • Identification and introduction of appropriate protection measures that support the new technology. • Analysing the technological regime of the ‘experiment’ (demonstration project). -Promotion and examination (by actors/partners) of 'second order' learning processes within the protected experimental space. • Management of experiment to encourage innovation diffusion. An existing transport case study is presented to demonstrate how Strategic Niche Management could be used in the development of new and innovative transport technologies. These were conducted as part of a research project for the CEC DG XII Strategic Niche Management as a Tool for Transition to a Sustainable Transport System. This paper briefly introduces Strategic Niche Management and focuses on the new research by Petros Ieromonachou that is seeking to use SNM to evaluate and manage radical local transport policy package measures. The possibility of producing an implementation guidance tool based on this concept is discussed.

Cars. Problematisations, measures and blind spots in local transport and land use policy

Goals concerning reduced car traffic are found in most European cities, indicating a potential change in local transport policy and land use planning, which have traditionally been very car-centric. This paper analyses goals and measures to reduce car traffic in Swedish municipalities’ long-term transport and land use plans. Theoretically, the paper is based on an understanding of policies as parts of ‘problem representations’ that create particular ways of understanding car traffic as a policy problem, which in turn influence the measures seen as appropriate or inappropriate. The results indicate that changes are underway. At the heart of these changes are narratives about city development in which municipalities understand the ‘attractive city’ as one where cars are defined as a problem to be addressed. However, the dominant policy problematisation produce several ‘blind spots’. Regional car trips, including travel to out-of-town shopping areas, are left unproblematised in this representation of the problem, meaning that measures addressing such trips are ignored in policy making. The paper builds our understanding of how policy practices influence the potential for change towards sustainability by discussing whether municipalities are doing enough to address the big problems with cars.

The characteristics of oasis urban expansion and drive mechanism analysis: a case study on Ganzhou District in Hexi Corridor, China

Ganzhou District is an oasis city in the Zhangye Municipality of Gansu Province,China.Based on multi-temporal TM and ETM satellite remote sensing data in 1985,1996,2000,and 2012,and by using corrected figures of land use status over the same periods,the spatial area of Ganzhou District since 1985 was extracted with statistical methods,and urban spatial expansion was measured by quantitative research methods.The characteristics of spatial expansion of Ganzhou District were analyzed by urban expansion rate,expansion intensity index,compactness,fractal dimension,and the city center shift method.The results showed that the built-up area of Ganzhou District increased by 3.46 times during 1985–2012.The expansion in 1985–1996 was slow,during 1996–2000 it was rapid,and during 2000–2012 it was at a high speed.This city mainly expanded to the northeast and northwest.Government decision making had a decisive influence on urban expansion.Initially the expansion was uniform,but later the local transportation,economy,resources,population,and national policies factors had an obvious influence on urban expansion.

The role of reporting mechanisms in transport policy implementation by local authorities in England

The UK Transport Act 2000 made a number of reforms, requiring all local transport authorities in England, outside of London, to produce a local transport plan (LTP). A separate annual delivery report was also required to show how the LTP was progressing, however this system of close monitoring was abandoned in 2008. This paper analyses and compares the LTP 2001–2006 and the LTP Delivery Report for three UK cities in order to obtain an insight into the importance of reporting in the implementation of local transport policy. Analysis of why some policies were not implemented successfully is based on the application of a new hybrid theory of policy implementation combining top-down and bottom-up perspectives. Findings reveal that the reporting process in the three case cities misses some key information which limits the ability of local authorities to monitor their policy implementation. Moreover, applying the hybrid theory reveals that even in cases of good reporting, some important elements needed to evaluate the implementation of transport policy are lacking. The paper provides recommendations for effective implementation and better decision making that will aid local authority staff.

Identifying barriers to implementation of local transport policy: An analysis of bus policy in Great Britain

This research aims to identify barriers to the implementation of local transport policy by exploring bus policy implementation in Great Britain. The methodology is based on an online survey with 56% of local authorities and follow-up interviews with 10 of those officers, analysed via a ten-point hybrid theory. The greatest challenges faced by local authorities included the availability of financial and staff resources, the existence of a clear policy document and inter-organisational communication. The relationship between setting policy objectives, selecting suitable measures to achieve those objectives, and setting and monitoring targets was identified as key to successful policy implementation.