Non-business Travel Research Articles

Study on Induced Passenger Flow Forecast for Intercity High-Speed Rail

To forecast the induced passenger flow of intercity high-speed rail, two related multinomial logit models are applied to describe travelers’ travel choice behavior under changes in the travel environment. The first model describes different choices of travel mode by travelers between origin–destination pairs, while the second model describes the choice of travel frequency by different travelers. By introducing the consumption surplus variable of travelers, the two selected models are correlated and the model is calibrated using data from a behavioral survey and an intention survey. The results show that the polynomial logit model is applicable for forecasting induced passenger flow after changes in the travel environment. The consumption surplus of travelers is the key factor influencing changes in travel frequency, and the social characteristics of travelers and the economic development features of origin and destination cities have significant impacts on travel frequency. In-transit time is the key factor affecting the demand elasticity of travel frequency. The range of demand elasticity for short-distance business and non-business travel is between −0.61 and −0.79. The results of the demand elasticity analysis were applied to predict that the travel frequency of people from Nanjing to Huai’an, Suqian, Lianyungang, and Yancheng will increase by about 45% after the opening of the Nanjing-Huai’an intercity high-speed railway.

Decarbonizing the academic sector: Lessons from an international research project

Research activities generate considerable carbon emissions. Some universities and research centers have implemented voluntary measures to reduce academia's carbon footprint. To contribute to the debate on pathways to decarbonize the academic sector, this work calculates the carbon emissions of an international research project in relation to 1) research-related travel, 2) researchers' non-business travel derived from the international nature of the team, 3) researchers' commuting, and 4) project's digital footprint. The work then simulates the project's carbon potential reduction under two scenarios and discusses emissions reduction alternatives and their potential side-effects. The project examined emitted an estimate of 161 tons CO2-eq, which could have been largely reduced to 92 tons CO2-eq (or 53% of the emissions) by applying a standard set of measures already proposed by scholars aiming to decarbonize research (“Reduced emissions scenario”) or to 4 tons CO2-eq (or 2.4% of the estimated emissions) by applying more strict measures aiming to reach carbon neutrality (“Net-zero emissions scenario”). Most emissions reductions come from reducing travel. While the measures proposed could indeed save a substantial amount of emissions, they might have also impacted project's academic outputs, economic costs, and researcher's work-life balance. Although collateral impacts of decarbonizing measures are yet little understood, they are likely not negligible and should be considered in a decision-oriented context to discern acceptable from unacceptable rules. The article discusses reliance on individual or voluntary action as the major bottlenecks that hamper the application of measures to decarbonize the academic sector and calls for the development of normative standards of scientific research practice that encourage, value or even impose the reduction of carbon emissions.

Modelling the Passenger Choice Behaviour of Buying High-Speed Railway Tickets

Passenger choice behaviour of buying tickets has a great impact on the high-speed rail (HSR) revenue management. It is very critical to find out the sensitive factors that prevent passengers with high willingness to pay for a ticket from buying low-price tickets. The literature on passenger choice behaviour mainly focuses on travel mode choice, choice between a conventional train and a high-speed train and choice among high-speed trains. To extend the literature and serve revenue management, this paper investigates passenger choice behaviour of buying high-speed railway tickets. The data were collected by the stated preference (SP) survey based on Beijing-Hohhot high-speed railway. The conditional logit model was established to analyse influencing factors for business travel and non-business travel. The results show that: business passengers have the higher inherent preference for full-price tickets, while non-business passengers have the higher inherent preference for discount tickets; the number of days booked in advance and frequent passenger points have a significant impact on the ticket choice of business travellers, but not on non-business travellers; passengers are unwilling to buy tickets that depart after 16:00 for non-business travel; factors have different effects on the passengers' choice in business travel and non-business travel. The results can provide parameters for revenue management models and references for the ticket-product design.

Is high-speed rail socially exclusive? An evidence-based worldwide analysis

The extent to which high-speed rail (HSR) could be socially egalitarian has been disregarded, despite evidence that upper social-occupational groups are the primary users of high-speed trains (HSTs). In this context, this review aims to fill the gap by investigating the social attributes of HSR passengers based on worldwide, available ex post data derived from surveys at both national and corridor levels. The study’s results converge to conclude that HSR passengers are predominantly male, higher income, highly educated and belonging to higher social-occupational groups. Key indicators of social inequalities (i.e. income, occupational group and education) show a much sharper differentiation in HSR use than gender and age. Social inequalities arguably shape the uneven use of HSR through available income compared to HSR fares; through income compared to total expenditure on non-business travel; and through travel purposes, considering the high share of business travel aboard HSTs. Our findings highlight “greener” transport means and policies may not be socially inclusive. They also raise the issue of facilities (co-)funded by taxpayers that do not benefit the masses.

Willingness to pay for preferred seat selection on UK domestic flights

This study employs a stated preference method to elicit and explore customer willingness to pay for airline ancillary products, specifically seat selection fees. Bivariate correlations are used to investigate linkages between passenger attributes and opinions with stated values for seat selection under a range of scenarios on UK domestic services.The sensitivity of consumers to ticket fares, for both business and non-business travel, is found to be negatively correlated with the stated willingness to pay for their preferred seat. On the other hand, customer perceptions of airline reputation and convenience of flight times is positively correlated to willingness to pay for seat selection on non-business travel. Additionally, the previous purchase of a seat selection product is strongly correlated to future willingness to pay for seat selection on both business and non-business travel. This is deemed to be the result of consumers being better able to value the benefits of their chosen seat from past experience.This research expands on the current literature regarding the growing importance of airline ancillary revenue. The results provide an evidence base for the development of revenue management and the marketing of seat selection fees as an ancillary product.

Rates of colonization with extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli in Canadian travellers returning from South Asia: a cross-sectional assessment.

A previous study in Calgary showed that travel to India was associated with high risk of community-onset infections with extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli. We performed a follow-up study to determine the rate of rectal acquisition of ESBL-producing E. coli among travellers to South Asia and to identify the behaviours putting such travellers at high risk for acquiring ESBL-producing E. coli. METHODS: The study was performed at a travel clinic in Calgary. Travellers 18 years or older who were planning to visit South Asia for a period of at least 5 days were included. Three rectal swabs were obtained, and 2 questionaires were administered (before and after travel). A total of 149 travellers participated between January 2012 and July 2014; of these, 116 (78%) provided rectal swabs upon return to Calgary and completed both pre- and post-travel questionaires. Of the 109 travellers without colonization with ESBL-producing E. coli upon enrollment, 70 (64%) acquired ESBL-producing E. coli during travel. Of the 90 participants who visited India, 66 (73%) were positive for ESBL-producing E. coli upon their return to Calgary. Most ESBL-producing E. coli specimens were identified as producing the enzyme CTX-M-15. Behaviours associated with a statistically significant risk of acquiring ESBL-producing E. coli included visiting India (odds ratio [OR] 19.9, 95% confidence interval [CI] 4.5-88.8), consuming meals with the local population (OR 6.9, 95% CI 1.2-39.6), taking any type of antibiotic during travel (OR 4.3, 95% CI 1.3-14.3) and travelling for any purpose other than business (OR 12.4, 95% CI 2.8-55.2). In this study, travel to India was associated with the highest risk of acquiring ESBL-producing E. coli relative to travel to other countries in South Asia. Nonbusiness travel, consuming foods with the local population and the use of antibiotics while travelling were associated with an increased risk of acquiring these antibiotic-resistant organisms while in India. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, no. NCT01296165.

The digital revolution and worthwhile use of travel time: implications for appraisal and forecasting

Savings in travel time and more specifically their monetary value typically constitute the main benefit to justify major investment in transport schemes. However, worthwhile use of travel time is an increasingly prominent phenomenon of the digital age. Accordingly, questions are increasingly being asked regarding whether values of time used by countries around the world based on their appraisal approaches are too high. This paper offers the most comprehensive examination of our theoretical and empirical understandings of international appraisal approaches and how they account for worthwhile use of travel time. It combines the economics perspective with wider social science insight and reaches the conclusion that past revolutions in transport that have made longer and quicker journeys possible are now joined by a digital revolution that is reducing the disutility of travel time. This revolution offers potential economic benefit that comes at a fraction of the cost of major investments in transport that are predicated on saving travel time. The paper highlights the challenges faced in both current and indeed potential alternative future appraisal approaches. Such challenges are rooted in the difficulty of measuring time use and productivity with sufficient accuracy and over time to credibly account for how travel time factors into the economic outcomes from social and working practices in the knowledge economy. There is a need for further research to: establish how improvements in the opportunities for and the quality of worthwhile use of travel time impact on the valuation of travel time savings for non-business travel; improve our understanding of how productive use of time impacts on the valuation of time savings for business travellers; and estimate how these factors have impacted on the demand for different modes of travel.

Modeling of Intercity Travel Mode Choice Behavior for Non-Business Trips within Libya

This study is pioneer in investigating mode-choice behavior of inter-city traveler for non-business trips in Libya, for this we have successfully developed and validated disaggregate behavioral inter-city non-business travel mode choice model, based on a binary logit structure. Four major inter-city corridors in Libya were the source of the data required for the development of the model. Data was collected based on interviews with 576 respondents. Majority of these data (nearly two-thirds) were used for calibrating the model, whereas, the remaining data were used for validating the model. This study, which is the first of its kind in Libya, investigates the intercity traveler’s mode-choice behavior for non-business trips. The proposed model elucidates car/air transport users’ behavior and investigates their responses to the scenario of enhancing intercity transport. We have also investigated the prospect of car drivers shifting to air transport, based on a case of a diminution in airplane out-of-vehicle travel time (access time to airport, waiting time at airport and egress time from airport). We deem that the findings of this study will facilitate all the levels of decision-makers to sensibly allocate resources for the enhancement of air transportation.

Exploring characteristics of airport access mode choice: a case study of Korea

This paper explores air passengers' behavior of airport access mode choice and develops airport access mode choice models for two major domestic airports in Korea, Gimpo Airport and Daegu Airport. First, descriptive analyses are conducted to identify whether the key explanatory variables such as trip purpose, travel time, and travel cost are statistically different among airport access modes. Second, logistic regression models are proposed for three types of airport access mode choices: auto and public transit, auto and bus, and auto and subway. The model results indicate that the choice of airport access mode is significantly affected by travel characteristics and sociodemographic variables. This study also estimates access mode choice models for business and nonbusiness travel, indicating that access mode choice is significantly more affected by demographic characteristics of nonbusiness travel air passengers than those for business travel passengers.

지역간 여가통행의 시간가치 산정 연구

주 5일 근무제 시행과 소득수준 향상 등으로 인하여 지역간 통행에 있어서 여가통행의 비중이 높아짐에 따라 철도사업의 합리적 평가를 위한 여가통행의 시간가치 산정 및 적용방안 등의 마련이 필요하게 되었다. 이에 따라 본 연구에서는 업무, 여가, 여가제외 비업무 통행에 대하여 수단선택모형을 구축하여 한계대체율법에 의한 시간가치를 산정하고, 이를 기초로 업무통행 대비 여가통행, 비업무통행의 비율을 도출하여 최종적으로 한계임금율법에 의한 통행목적별 시간가치를 산정하였다. 분석결과 여가통행은 타 비업무목적 통행에 비하여 시간가치가 높은 것으로 분석되었으며, 이를 사례분석에 적용한 결과에서도 비업무통행 시간가치를 적용하는 기존 방법론에 비하여 편익이 다소 증가하는 것으로 나타났다. The relative importance of leisure trip has been increased after adopting the five-day workweek system and considering the higher income level. Thus, the value of travel time for intercity leisure trips should be estimated to conduct a reasonable benefit/cost analysis for railway construction projects. In this paper, the value of travel time was estimated separately for each trip purpose such as business, leisure, and other non-business than leisure. The estimated values of leisure travel time ranged from 5,310 to 14,185 (won/hr) by altering travel mode, and were increased by 42-107% when comparing with those of non-business travel time. Besides, how to apply the value of intercity leisure travel time for B/C analysis of railway projects was suggested. For the construction case of a railway connecting Chuncheon and Sokcho, the estimated benefit was increased by 2.3%.

Design Principles for Carbon Emissions Reduction Programs

Thegoal,articulatedbyPresidentObamain2009,ofreducingU.S. carbon emissions 17% from the 2005 level by 2020 iseminentlyachievablewithoutnewtechnologyorappreciablesacrifice by energy users. However, achieving it will in partrequire sophisticated energy efficiency and conservationprograms.Toovercomeinstitutionalandbehavioralbarriers,these programs will need to implement six principles ofeffectivedesignderivedfrom30yearsofbehavioralandsocialscience research. We focus on the household sector, butbelieveourgeneralconclusionslikelyapplytoothersectorsas well.We recently developed an analysis for the householdsector senergy use in homes and for nonbusiness travel ofwhat we call Reasonably Achievable Emissions Reductions(RAER) (

Household actions can provide a behavioral wedge to rapidly reduce US carbon emissions

Most climate change policy attention has been addressed to long-term options, such as inducing new, low-carbon energy technologies and creating cap-and-trade regimes for emissions. We use a behavioral approach to examine the reasonably achievable potential for near-term reductions by altered adoption and use of available technologies in US homes and nonbusiness travel. We estimate the plasticity of 17 household action types in 5 behaviorally distinct categories by use of data on the most effective documented interventions that do not involve new regulatory measures. These interventions vary by type of action and typically combine several policy tools and strong social marketing. National implementation could save an estimated 123 million metric tons of carbon per year in year 10, which is 20% of household direct emissions or 7.4% of US national emissions, with little or no reduction in household well-being. The potential of household action deserves increased policy attention. Future analyses of this potential should incorporate behavioral as well as economic and engineering elements.

‘60-20 emission’—The unequal distribution of greenhouse gas emissions from personal, non-business travel in the UK

Relatively little is known about the composition of greenhouse gas emissions from personal, non-business travel at the disaggregate levels. This paper aims to give insights into the distribution of emissions amongst the UK population. When including non-carbon climate effects air travel dominates overall greenhouse gas emissions. There is a huge range in emissions, with the highest 20% of emitters producing 61% of emissions. This ‘60-20 emission’ rule is surprisingly similar across units and scale of the analysis. Disaggregated data tell a different story than aggregated data. While income, working status, age and car ownership are significantly related to overall emissions, factors related to accessibility, household location and gender are not.

A practical approach to identifying the market potential for high speed rail: A case study in the Sydney-Canberra corridor

This paper presents the methodology and selective empirical results from a study of the demand for a high speed rail system serving the Sydney-Canberra corridor currently dominated by air travel for business trips and car travel for non-business trips. We outline the steps involved in the study from problem specification, data needs, development of base year trip tables, model specification and estimation to establish switching behaviour in the presence of a new mode and calculation of induced demand for current travellers. A stated choice heteroskedastic extreme value switching model is used to evaluate the choice of fare type for business and non-business travel given the current mode used in the corridor for each sampled traveller conventional train, charter coach, scheduled coach, plane or car. Starting with the current travel profile, patronage can be predicted under alternative fare regimes, taking into account diverted traffic, induced traffic and growth. Treating fare class as endogenous enhances the real choice context facing potential patrons.

Study of Airport Access Mode Choice

This paper reports on an investigation of air traveler behavior in choosing a mode of access to the airport. Data from a 1980 survey of departing air passengers in the San Francisco Bay Area were used to study the characteristics of access mode choice for local residents. Separate models were developed for business and non-business travel. The analysis demonstrates that air travelers are highly sensitive to access travel time, and become more so with increasing flight time. Price sensitivities are about the same as for conventional work trip mode choice. Values of time for airport access appear considerably higher than commonly is assumed in transport project evaluation, suggesting that substantial investments in airport access improvements might be justified.

Price Elasticities of Nonbusiness Air Travel Demand

This paper describes a study of the historic evolution of nonbusiness air travel in the United States. A model is constructed and calibrated to describe this evolution. The purpose of the study is to investigate the sensitivity of this type of air travel to price changes using the elasticity as a measure. It is concluded that both short run and long run elasticities of demand are less than unity. Air travel demand appears to have been determined primarily by the developments in income and consumption levels.