Long-distance Travel Research Articles

Affordable and sustainable transportation: Key drivers and policy choices for a megacity in India

The city of Bengaluru is one of the latest entrants to the list of 33 mega cities in the world. The transportation infrastructure of the city is expanding to accommodate the rapidly increasing population. As such, there is a need to reevaluate public transport policies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 11.2. In this study, we conducted a socio-economic survey of 1350 households belonging to the low and low-middle income categories in Bengaluru city to understand their travel behaviour and transportation mode choices in the event of changing transport infrastructure dynamics of the city. While two-wheelers are the dominant mode among employed working males in the age group of 18–45 years, buses are preferred for long-distance travel. Metro ridership is low even where metro stations are accessible at the start of the journey because low- and middle-income groups are unable to afford metro services. Additionally, we used Random Forest model to assess the contribution of each explanatory variable in mode choice determination. The results shows that travel cost followed by travel time and travel distance are the most important explanators in determining the mode choice for our sample population. Based on these findings, the authors have created two scenarios to assess the impact of metro fare rationalisation on metro ridership. This study quantifies the co-benefits of the proposed policy changes in terms of economic benefits to the operators and the avoidance of air pollution and CO2 emissions.

International Arbitration: Towards Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection

The paper considers the problem of transition to more environmentally friendly arbitration, which involves reducing the carbon footprint left by arbitration proceedings through the adoption of three main measures: 1) the use of renewable energy; 2) reducing or eliminating long-distance travel and air travel for the purposes of arbitration proceedings; 3) reducing waste and eliminating the use of paper documents. An important role in achieving this goal is taken by green protocols containing specific practical measures to ensure sustainability and environmental protection, addressed to certain participants in the arbitration community (arbitrators, law firms, service providers and arbitration centers), as well as initiatives of the arbitration centers themselves. However, given the advisory nature of the green protocols adopted as part of the Campaign for Greener Arbitration, as well as the possibility of derogation from the provisions of the arbitration rules providing for the transition to electronic document flow and online hearings, parties concerned about protecting the environment are recommended to include (or arbitration agreement) special green clauses.

To move or not to move? Manganese oxide procurement during the Archaic period in the Atacama Desert

This paper investigates the possible sources of manganese (Mn) acquisition for the Chinchorro population of Arica, in northern Chile. To accomplish this, we analyse Mn distribution using digital geological map data and SEM/EDX and XRD analysis to chemically characterize twenty-five samples. Of these, eighteen were taken from geological sediments and seven from black pigments related to the Chinchorro mummification tradition (ca. 6950–2950 BP) from the archaeological sites of Maestranza 1, Morro 1, and Playa Miller 8. In contrast with previous highland Mn acquisition hypotheses, our results show that the lowland and coastal geological sediments near the Lluta river mouth have high Mn concentration, with a granular form that was easy to mine and process. The archaeological samples show that the Chinchorro used a high-grade Mn, without the need to use large mining tools (e.g. hafted hammers). This supports the proposition that there was a local (lowland and coastal) acquisition of good quality Mn, minimizing long-distance travel to the highlands for Mn procurement. The abundance of local finely-ground Mn sources can explain the cultural centrality of this pigment for several millennia during the Archaic period.

Carbon footprint effects of shifting from flights to night trains for Swedish tourism

Changes in travel behaviour are needed to tackle the climate impact associated with long-distance flights, including a switch to sustainable transport modes. In this paper, we analyse scenarios of carbon footprint reduction associated with a switch from flights to night trains for holidays in Europe for the case of Sweden, including outbound, inbound and domestic tourism. We use a prospective lifecycle assessment framework combined with results from a stated preference experiment to determine the impact of future mode shift behaviours. Our results indicate that a mode shift could be triggered by progressive night train policies resulting in (i) fewer transfers and (ii) price levels similar to those of flights. The shifts from flights to night trains could result in 9% lower cumulative carbon footprint in relation to a baseline travel demand scenario for the period 2025–2050. Decarbonization of long-distance travel in line with the Paris Agreement would likely require a combination of many different types of measures including a shift to low-carbon fuels.

K-prototypes 군집분석 알고리즘을 적용한 코로나19 팬데믹 전후의 국내 여행행태 비교 연구

The purpose of this study was to apply the k-prototypes algorithm, capable of handling both continuous and categorical variables, to gain insights into the changes in travel patterns between the pre- and peri-COVID-19 pandemic periods. For the empirical analysis, data from the National Travel Survey conducted from 2018 to 2021 were extracted, specifically focusing on respondents in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon (n=21,161). A comparison between the pre- and peri-COVID-19 pandemic periods revealed significant changes, including an increase in visits to short-distance destinations, a decrease in the number of travel companions and travel spending, an increased reliance on personal experiences as a source of travel information, and a decrease in travel among the elderly population. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of travel pattern clusters demonstrated that six travel pattern clusters, namely ‘long-distance travel group’, ‘high-frequency travel group’, ‘friend/couple group’, ‘travel group with children’, ‘high-spending group’, and ‘group traveler’, remained consistent during the peri-COVID-19 period, except for the ‘group traveler’ cluster. The implications of the research findings are discussed, along with suggestions for future research directions.

Association of Rural Residence With Surgical Outcomes Among Infants at US Children's Hospitals.

Disparities in pediatric health outcomes are widespread. It is unclear whether rurality negatively impacts outcomes of infants with surgical congenital diseases. This study compared outcomes of rural versus urban infants requiring complex surgical care at children's hospitals in the United States. Rural and urban infants (aged <1 year) receiving surgical care at children's hospitals from 2016 to 2019 for esophageal atresia, gastroschisis, Hirschsprung's disease, anorectal malformation, and congenital diaphragmatic hernia were compared over a 1-year postoperative period using the Pediatric Health Information System. Generalized linear mixed effects models compared outcomes of rural and urban infants. Among 5732 infants, 20.2% lived in rural areas. Rural infants were more frequently white, lived farther from the hospital, and lived in areas with lower median household income compared with urban infants (all P < .001). Rural infants with anorectal malformation and gastroschisis had lower adjusted hospital days over 1 year; rural infants with esophageal atresia had higher adjusted odds of 30-day hospital readmission. Adjusted mortality, hospital days, and readmissions were otherwise similar between the 2 groups. Outcomes remained similar when comparing urban infants to rural infant subgroups with the longest hospital travel distance (≥60 miles) and lowest median household income (<$35 000). Despite longer travel distances and lower financial resources, rural infants with congenital anomalies have similar postoperative outcomes to urban infants when treated at children's hospitals. Future work is needed to examine outcomes for infants treated outside children's hospitals and to determine whether efforts are necessary to increase access to children's hospitals.

Temporal and spatial shifts in the chemical composition of urban coastal rainwaters of Kuwait: The role of air mass trajectory and meteorological variables

The rainwater chemistry encompasses the signatures of geogenic and anthropogenic processes along the regional air mass movement apart from the local sources. The predominance of dust events and anthropogenic emissions in arid regions facilitate new particle formation. Further, rain events of different seasons depict moisture sources from diverse regions reflecting variation in the regional geochemistry with respect to seasons. Hence, to characterize the geochemical composition of rainwater, the study has focused on an integrated approach by considering regional transport, meteorological components and possible local sources. A total of 74 rainwater samples were collected from 27 rain events in 2018, 2019, and 2022, representing urban coastal areas of Kuwait predominantly of Ca-SO4-HCO3 type. The average pH and electrical conductivity of the rainwater were 7.18 and 140 μS/cm, respectively. The sea salt fractions calculated relative to Kuwait seawater ranged from 25.6 to >100 %, with higher values attributed to anthropogenic sources. Sea salt fraction, ion ratios, principal component analysis and factor scores revealed the terrestrial and anthropogenic sources apart from marine contributions. In addition, new particle formation and aerosols contributed to the rainwater chemistry involving SOx, NOx, and photochemical reactions during higher relative humidity and lesser wind speed. The HYSPLIT reflected that the moisture sources were largely from western regions of the study area, and those of December and January events had long-distance travel across the Azores high originating from northeast America. The trajectories of the November events are observed to originate from the Caspian/Black Sea region in the northeastern part of Kuwait with a relatively shorter distance of travel. The rainfall samples had higher ionic concentrations, and saturated with aragonite and calcite minerals in a few locations specifically after the dust events, while the subsequent rain events were less polluted.

High-speed train drivers’ operation performance: Key factors, models, and management implications

High-speed train (HST) is a fast, reliable, and environmental-friendly transportation means for medium to long-distance travel. HST drivers need to continuously keep alert for a few hours, detect potential hazards in time and make quick reactions, and strictly follow standard operating procedures. The objectives of this study were to identify the key factors that are related to HST drivers' operation performance, to propose a validated prediction model, and to provide practical management suggestions to improve performance. Six focus groups with 22 HST drivers and 18 frontline managers and a questionnaire survey with 243 HST drivers were conducted to collect qualitative and quantitative data concerning the potential influencing factors. A prediction model with seven key predictors was then developed and validated to distinguish high and low-performance HST drivers. Accordingly, management guidelines were proposed based for HST frontline managers to improve their drivers' operation performance by optimizing the three scheduling factors, such as adjusting sleep duration, intermittent rest duration, and HST-type switching frequency; and managing the four non-scheduling factors, such as periodically checking HST drivers’ health condition, frustration, and fatigue, and providing corresponding interventions. Relevance to industryFindings of the study provide practical management guidelines based on the obtained high-speed train drivers' operation performance prediction model.

Fetal Health Assessment Through Remote Fetal Phonocardiography and Electrohysterography: Wearable Wireless Device Using Shakti Processor

Pregnant women and neonates are the most affected demographic group by the shortfall of accessible healthcare. In this work, we aimed to improve obstetric facilities in rural India by proposing a remote maternal health monitoring device in which pregnant women can avail healthcare services without long-distance travel. We designed and developed a prototype of the proposed device using the open-source Shakti processor to provide remote real-time monitoring of the fetal heart rate and uterine contractions for the detection of any abnormalities. Fetal phonocardiography signal was picked up using an acoustic sensor while the electrohysterography signal was acquired using surface electrodes placed on a pregnant woman. The placement of the sensor and electrodes was referred by an obstetrician. The system was placed on 10 pregnant women in their last trimester with their informed consent and the monitored parameters were validated by a clinician. The obtained fetal heart rate and uterine contractions were compared with that from standard clinical devices and the results from the proposed device were observed to be comparable with that of the standard devices.

In search of ancient pre-Roman imperial roads: state of research and some methodological recommendations

In recent decades, there has been a considerable growth of scientific interest in the question of travel and mobility in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. As far as the southern Levant is concerned, this interest has yielded much research about travel and mobility in Late Antique Palestine (including the Roman imperial road network), leaving the question of pre-Roman travel and mobility a much-understudied field of study. However, recent archaeological discoveries have revolutionized our state of knowledge about material remains of pre-Roman roads, which were once believed to not have been preserved. Namely, remains of several pre-Roman roads have been discovered on the ground in modern Jordan and Israel: the Aroer Ascent, “Glueck’s Road,” Naqeb Dahal, the Wadi Zarqa-Main road, the Callirrhoe–Machaerus road, and the Masada–Hebron road. In this context, the aim of this paper was, first, to study the spatial and archaeological features of the archaeologically attested ancient pre-Roman roads, and second, to evaluate all of the available types of remote data as tools serving in the detection of artifacts (especially archival cartographic, aerial, and satellite data; archaeological data; and least-cost simulations of Geographic Information Systems [GIS]). As a result, several conclusions are suggested. First, old topographic maps are a very promising source of data for potential new discoveries since they contain both explicit and implicit hints at the existence of ancient roads. Second, information about archaeological data and the Roman imperial road network may also offer important reference points if the quality of databases is improved in the future. Third, the use of GIS simulations based on 30 m digital elevation models has very substantial limitations. In particular, the use of least cost paths and corridors for simulating short-distance travel has turned out to be fruitless. At the same time, the use of least cost corridors for predicting long-distance travel offers some promising results.

Understanding the quality of life of people living with HIV in rural and urban areas in Indonesia.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a major global public health issue that affects the quality of life (QoL) of people living with HIV (PLHIV) globally and in Indonesia. As a part of a large-scale qualitative study investigating HIV risk factors and impacts on PLHIV and facilitators of and barriers to their access to HIV care services in Yogyakarta and Belu, Indonesia, this paper describes their in-depth views and experiences of the influence of HIV on their QoL. Ninety-two participants were recruited using the snowball sampling technique. Data were collected using in-depth interviews. In addition, the World Health Organisation Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-HIV BREF) was also distributed to each of them to fill out prior to the interviews. Chi-Square analysis was used to analyse data from the survey and a framework analysis was applied to guide qualitative data analysis. The findings reported several factors affecting the QoL of the participants. These included (i) environmental factors, such as living in rural areas, the unavailability of HIV care services and public transport, and long-distance travel to healthcare facilities; (ii) personal beliefs associated with HIV; (iii) sexual and social relationships and their influence of the QoL of participants; and (iv) level of independence and physical health condition following HIV diagnosis. The findings indicate the need for intervention programs that address the availability and accessibility of HIV care services to PLHIV within rural communities and support various physical, psychological, and financial needs of PLHIV. These can be implemented by providing supplements and nutritious food, HIV counselling and door-to-door/community-based ART service delivery to PLHIV, which may increase their engagement in and adherence to the treatment and improve their physical and psychological condition and QoL.

Understanding How Personal Climate-Conscious Beliefs Influence Air Travel Behavior and Modeling Its Potential Impact on Air Travel Volumes

As concerns about the impacts of travel-related carbon emissions continue to grow, understanding how air travel volumes may change in response to public perceptions, industry actions, or governmental intervention is critical for forecasting impacts on the airline industry. This paper aims to determine: (a) how prevalent personal climate-conscious beliefs are in the United States; (b) whether these beliefs, specifically carbon emission-consciousness, are linked to air travel behavior; and (c) how carbon emissions-focused changes in the airline industry might influence air travel and expenditures. This was achieved by (a) collecting and analyzing a unique U.S. nationally-representative climate-conscious and long-distance travel survey and (b) conducting eight Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate how carbon emissions-focused changes in the airline industry could change air travel and expenditures on a subset of the U.S. population for simulated agents of Georgia, Nebraska, and Washington. This research’s findings suggest that increases in ticket pricing, absence of carbon emission-reducing actions by airlines, and/or increase in public concern for airplane emissions could reduce U.S. air travel volumes. While both work and vacation travel volumes—and associated expenditures—could reduce, vacation volumes could see a greater reduction on average than work travel. Overall, results suggest that carbon emissions concerns may reduce U.S. air travel volumes if certain actions, or inactions, are taken. It is thus suggested that further research be done on the influence of personal climate-conscious beliefs on air travel behavior to better inform the air travel industry, lawmakers, and other decision-makers.

Impact of Community Privilege on Access to Care Among Patients Following Complex Cancer Surgery.

We sought to define the impact of community privilege on variations in travel patterns and access to care at high-volume hospitals for complex surgical procedures. With increased emphasis on centralization of high-risk surgery, social determinants of health play a critical role in preventing equitable access to care. Privilege is a right, benefit, advantage, or opportunity that positively impacts all social determinants of health. The California Office of State-wide Health Planning Database identified patients who underwent esophagectomy (ES), pneumonectomy (PN), pancreatectomy (PA), or proctectomy (PR) for a malignant diagnosis between 2012 and 2016 and was merged using ZIP codes with the Index of Concentration of Extremes, a validated metric of both spatial polarization and privilege obtained from the American Community Survey. Clustered multivariable regression was performed to assess the probability of undergoing care at a high-volume center, bypassing the nearest and high-volume center, and total real driving time and travel distance. Among 25,070 patients who underwent a complex oncologic operation (ES: n=1216, 4.9%; PN: n=13,247, 52.8%; PD: n=3559, 14.2%; PR: n=7048, 28.1%), 5019 (20.0%) individuals resided in areas with the highest privilege (i.e., White, high-income homogeneity), whereas 4994 (19.9%) individuals resided in areas of the lowest privilege (i.e., Black, low-income homogeneity). Median travel distance was 33.1 miles (interquartile range 14.4-72.2). Roughly, three-quarters of patients (overall: 74.8%, ES: 35.0%; PN: 74.3%; PD: 75.2%; PR: 82.2%) sought surgical care at a high-volume center. On multivariable regression, patients residing in the least advantaged communities were less likely to undergo surgery at a high-volume hospital (overall: odds ratio 0.65, 95% CI 0.52-0.81). Of note, individuals in the least privileged areas had longer travel distances (28.5 miles, 95% CI 21.2-35.8) to reach the destination facility, as well as over 70% greater odds of bypassing a high-volume hospital to undergo surgical care at a low-volume center (odds ratio 1.74, 95% CI 1.29-2.34) versus individuals living in the highest privileged areas. Privilege had a marked effect on access to complex oncologic surgical care at high-volume centers. These data highlight the need to focus on privilege as a key social determinant of health that influences patient access to and utilization of health care resources.

An optimization model of on-demand mobility services with spatial heterogeneity in travel demand

We propose an optimization model that predicts the required fleet size of on-demand mobility (ODM) services at various service levels for a range of demand patterns. Both customer waiting time and spatial heterogeneity in demand are considered when formulating the flow conservation equation for the system’s steady state. The demand–supply imbalance problem is solved through vehicle relocation. Vehicle relocation is reformulated into a simple linear programming problem, and the objective function is set to minimize the number of relocation vehicles. Furthermore, indicators were defined to more effectively explain the effects of spatial heterogeneity of travel demand on the required fleet size. The analysis results show that even among regions with the same average demand rate, the required fleet size may vary depending on the spatial demand pattern of origins and destinations. The higher the ratio of long-distance travel and the greater the need for vehicle relocation, the larger the fleet size required. Furthermore, the user travel time reduction effect is maximized at the minimum fleet size and then steadily decreases as fleet size increases. Cost minimization requires more vehicles than fleet size minimization. Cost minimization may be an advantageous goal for operation of an ODM service as a driverless vehicle service. The simultaneous consideration of both fleet size minimization and cost minimization provides a required fleet size range. Although the proposed model is simple and includes approximations, it helps provide insight into ODM service design and investment decision-making. Thus, the proposed model can be used by governments or agencies to design policy or operationally optimized services. Moreover, the model can serve as the basis for the practical implementation of planned services.

Modeling and Analyzing the Impact of Different Operating Conditions for Electric and Conventional Vehicles in Malaysia on Energy, Economic, and the Environment

Given the significance of the transportation sector to the economy of a country, major companies and government-linked entities have invested in infrastructure and transportation services. Nonetheless, the sector faces issues relating to traffic congestion, energy consumption, and environmental impacts such as air pollution and carbon emissions. To address and analyze these issues, the current study employed microscopic modeling using the AIMSUN software, which allowed for detailed modeling and simulation. The current study examined the impacts of different operating conditions, namely: internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs), on energy consumption, energy savings, cost savings, and emissions traveling on a total of six (6) routes: (i) long-distance highway travel, (ii) short-distance highway travel, (iii) long-distance urban travel, (iv) short-distance urban travel, (v) long-distance suburban travel, and (vi) short-distance suburban travel. The impacts of the traffic management systems, such as traffic lights, roundabouts, and road altitude, were also analyzed in this research. The current study discovered that, on average, EVs consumed 30 percent less energy than ICEVs and a 26 percent energy cost saving for long-distance highway travel. On long-distance urban travel, EVs experienced higher energy and cost savings than ICEVs, with 86 percent and 64 percent, respectively. In addition, EVs had lower carbon dioxide emissions than ICEVs. This study concludes that EVs offer positive impacts on energy cost savings and carbon dioxide emissions reduction for all six (6) simulated routes in Malaysia compared to ICEVs, thereby contributing to the existing literature on EVs in Malaysia.

Service Utilization for Parent Management of Early Childhood Behavior Problems in a Private Outpatient Behavioral Clinic: The Impact of Out-of-Pocket Cost, Travel Distance, and Initial Treatment Progress.

Poorly-managed early childhood disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) have costly psychological and societal burdens. While parent management training (PMT) is recommended to effectively manage DBDs, appointment adherence is poor. Past studies on influential factors of PMT appointment adherence focused on parental factors. Less well studied are social drivers relative to early treatment gains. This study investigated how financial and time cost relative to early gains influence PMT appointment adherence for early childhood DBDs in a clinic of a large behavioral health pediatric hospital from 2016 to 2018. Using information obtained from the clinic's data repository, claims records, public census and geospatial data, we assessed how owed unpaid charges, travel distance from home to clinic, and initial behavioral progress influences total and consistent attendance of appointments for commercially- and publicly-insured (Medicaid and Tricare) patients, controlling for demographic, service, and clinical differences. We further assessed how social deprivation interacted with unpaid charges to influence appointment adherence for commercially-insured patients. Commercially-insured patients had poorer appointment adherence with longer travel distances, or having unpaid charges and greater social deprivation; they also attended fewer total appointments with faster behavioral progress. Comparatively, publicly-insured patients were not affected by travel distance and had higher consistent attendance with faster behavioral progress. Longer travel distance and difficulty paying service costs while living in greater social deprivation are barriers to care for commercially-insured patients. Targeted intervention may be needed for this specific subgroup to attend and stay engaged in treatment.

Using WhatsApp as a medium of postgraduate instruction in a private university in Nigeria: fall-outs of the Covid-19 Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a global lockdown and the cessation of all academic activities on-site. Higher education in Nigeria was not exempt, as a paradigm shift was required for university officials to explore non-conventional teaching methods to prevent students from wasting time and to keep them intellectually engaged. During the pandemic, our research examines how a private institution in Ede, Osun State, Nigeria, utilised the social networking platform WhatsApp for Ph.D. student seminars. The study obtained data from ten doctoral students in the Department of Library and Information Science at Adeleke University via online interviews. The difficulties faced by the students and the benefits of utilising ICT were highlighted. Due to the constant insecurity and poor road network in Nig eria, as well as the risk of long-distance travel, especially for postgraduate students who are not always resident on campus, we recommend the continued use of E-learning platforms in Higher Education Institutions as a solution to reducing transportation costs.

Greater Patient Travel Distance is Associated with Perioperative and One-Year Cost Increases After Complex Aortic Surgery

With increasing regionalization of complex aortic surgery within fewer US centers, patients may face increased travel burden when accessing aortic surgery. Longer travel distances have been associated with inferior outcomes after major surgery; however, the impacts of distance on reinterventions and costs have not been described. This study aims to assess the association between patient travel distance and longer-term outcomes including costs and reinterventions after complex aortic surgery. A retrospective review was conducted of all patients in the Vascular Implant Surveillance and Interventional Outcomes Network database undergoing complex endovascular aortic repair including internal iliac or visceral vessel involvement, complex thoracic endovascular aortic repair including Zone 0-2 proximal extent or branched devices, and complex open abdominal aortic aneurysm repair including suprarenal or higher clamp sites. Travel distance was stratified by Rural-Urban Commuting Area population-density category. Multinomial logistic regression models, negative-binomial models, and zero-inflated Poisson models were used to assess the association between travel distance and index procedural and comprehensive first-year costs, long-term imaging, and long-term reinterventions, respectively. Between 2011 and 2018, 8,782 patients underwent complex aortic surgery in the Vascular Implant Surveillance and Interventional Outcomes Network database, including 4,822 complex endovascular aortic repairs, 2,672 complex thoracic endovascular aortic repairs, and 1,288 complex open abdominal aortic aneurysm repairs. Median travel distance was 22.8 miles (interquartile range 8.6-54.8 miles, range 0-2,688.9 miles). Median age was 75years for all distance quintiles. Patients traveling farther were more likely to be female (26.8% in quintile 5 [Q5] vs. 19.9% in Q1, P<0.001) and to have had a prior aortic surgery (20.8% for Q5 vs. 5.9% for Q1, P<0.001). Patients traveling farther had higher index procedural costs, with adjusted odds ratio (OR) 2.34 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.86-2.94, P<0.0001) of being in the highest cost tertile versus lowest for patients in Q5 vs. Q1. For patients with ≥ 1-year follow-up, those traveling farther had higher imaging costs, with adjusted Q5 OR 1.55 (95% CI 1.22-1.95, P=0.0002), and comprehensive first-year costs, with adjusted Q5 OR 2.06 (95% CI 1.57-2.70, P<0.0001). In contrast, patients traveling farther had similar numbers of reinterventions and imaging studies postoperatively. Patients traveling farther for complex aortic surgery have higher procedural costs, postoperative imaging costs, and comprehensive first-year costs. These patients should be targeted for increased care coordination for improved outcomes and healthcare system burden.

A world of fully autonomous mobility options: On long-distance travel mode choice

What might long-distance travel behaviour look like in a world of fully autonomous mobility options? Within this context, which of the transportation options, including autonomous cars, pilotless planes, driverless trains, and driverless buses would people choose for their long-distance travel? We examine the extent to which people's attitudes towards fully autonomous mobility options, habits, and the level of satisfaction with current travel modes, as well as individual and socioeconomic variables, influence the choice/preference for fully autonomous modes. Data for this study were collected through an online survey (n = 811). A choice model was used to analyse the effects of attitudinal factors and other variables on the probability of choosing four fully autonomous alternatives. The results of the model show that (1) the preferred order of autonomous mobility options is: Autonomous Car (AC), Autonomous Train (AT), Autonomous Flight (AF), and Autonomous Bus (AB), (2) AT was evaluated the safest, most relaxing, and most economical alternative, and (3) both attitudes and habit influence the choice of fully autonomous vehicles. However, sensitivity analyses show that attitudes will have a greater impact on travel behaviour compared to habits. Policy-wise, a demographically differentiated campaign for changing attitudes can be employed.

Battery Charging Systems

The growing demand for clean and sustainable transportation and energy solutions has spurred significant advancements in charging technology. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of battery charging systems its importance in electric vehicle (EV) technology and future prospects. The first part of the paper explores the historical development of battery charging systems, starting from the early manual charging methods to the emergence of advanced smart chargers. The components of a battery charging system is detailed in the next section. The paper then discusses the importance of battery charging systems in the era of electric vehicles. It highlights the critical role of charging infrastructure in promoting EV adoption and enabling long-distance travel. The paper also addresses the challenges faced by battery charging systems, including charging speed, interoperability, standardization, lifespan, environmental impact and grid management. In the last section, the paper presents a glimpse into the future of battery charging systems.