Occupational Travel Research Articles

Analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic on preferences of transport modes

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the entire world and changed many aspects of daily life, including transportation behaviour and preferences. This study examines the situation of transportation behaviour and preferences before and after the Covid-19 pandemic process through a survey study. A total of 471 people participated in the survey, and 30 questions were posed to participants regarding transportation modes preference, daily usage habits, public transportation usage rate, income status, perceived risk level of transportation systems, preferences before and after the pandemic process, and more. The answers were classified, evaluated and statistically analysed. The results showed that users were significantly affected by the Covid-19 process and changed their transportation mode preferences. The use of buses in urban journeys decreased, and the use of private vehicles significantly increased after the Covid-19 process. Hygiene was the key factor in travel, followed by the vehicle occupancy rate, ventilation, fare and travel time factors. The perceived risk levels of public transportation systems were ranked as metrobus, minibus (paratransit), bus, metro, tram and ferry. The study suggests that future transportation system designs should consider user preferences, as well as changes in education and working conditions, and pandemic conditions.

Data-driven cooling, heating and electrical load prediction for building integrated with electric vehicles considering occupant travel behavior

The access of electric vehicles facilitates in the fluctuation and diversification of building load, accurate load prediction contributes to investigating the operation and optimization of energy supply systems for building integrated with electric vehicles (EVs). This study proposes a multivariate load prediction model for building/EVs considering occupant travel behavior. Firstly, travel variables of dissimilar occupants are obtained by fitting distribution, Markov chain and machine learning method. Besides, these variables are sampled to construct the occupant travel behavior model based on Monte Carlo method. In addition, occupancy rate and hourly load of different buildings are determined according to the occupant travel behavior. Ultimately, data-driven approaches, such as artificial neural network, long short term memory network (LSTM) and LSTM with temporal pattern attention (TPA-LSTM), are applied to construct the load prediction model for building/electric vehicles. Results indicated that building load constructed in accordance with the occupancy rate of occupants' travel behavior exhibits a favorable cooperativity with the EVs charging load. TPA-LSTM model has a high prediction accuracy, and the maximum correlation coefficient reaches 0.987. In general, this study provides an effective tool for accurate load prediction of building integrated with EVs.

Restraint Use for Child Occupants in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The overall objective of the current study was to investigate the behaviours and knowledge of parents/carers in relation to safe child occupant travel in the Emirate of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A community survey was completed by 786 participants who were responsible for the safety of 1614 children (aged 10 years and younger). The survey included questions related to the type, frequency and appropriateness of restraint use for their eldest child. Overall, 24 percent of participants reported that they ‘never/almost never’ restrained their eldest child while travelling in a motor vehicle, with this proportion increasing with child age. For example, though 89 percent of participants reported that they restrained their infants (<1 year) in an ‘appropriate’ restraint for their age, this rate was much lower for children aged between 5 and 7 years (10%). Overall, these findings suggest that a large proportion of child occupants, especially those aged five years and older, are not appropriately restrained in vehicles, and therefore are at an increased risk of death or serious injury in the event of a crash. Future research will validate this self-reported child restraint use data with objective data from observations of real-world child restraint use behaviour in the UAE.

A pre-evacuation study using data from evacuation drills and false alarm evacuations in a university library

Performance-based fire design can be carried out by comparing results from fire simulations and evacuation simulations. Simulating evacuation of buildings requires engineers to have access to several sets of evacuation data, including occupant travel speeds, flow rates, and pre-evacuation time. Especially in building types where people may take longer before beginning travel to the exits, pre-evacuation behaviours and times are among the most important data required for reliable evacuation simulation output.This work provides new pre-evacuation data collected in four evacuations of the same university library. Two of these evacuations were pre-planned (unannounced) drills, while the other two were unplanned evacuations due to false alarms. In this study, the pre-evacuation behaviour and times of 497 students were analysed using the CCTV videos of these four evacuations. The results illustrate that un-planned evacuations had higher pre-evacuation times. Further, the data analysis shows that the type of evacuation (pre-vs unplanned), the performance of certain actions (e.g., collecting items), evacuating in groups, and evacuees' location explain 29% of the variance of the observed pre-evacuation times.

The complex interface between occupational health, public health and travel medicine

The complex interface between occupational health, public health and travel medicine

Cohort profile: the Mâncio Lima cohort study of urban malaria in Amazonian Brazil

PurposeThis population-based open cohort study aims to investigate biological and sociodemographic drivers of malaria transmission in the main urban hotspot of Amazonian Brazil.ParticipantsNearly 20% of the households in the northwestern...

U.S. vehicle occupancy trends relevant to future automated vehicles and mobility services

Objective Identifying current occupant travel patterns can inform decision making regarding the design, regulation, and occupant protection systems helpful for automated vehicle systems and mobility services. Methods Two travel data sets were analyzed to quantify travel patterns: the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), which provides data on household trips logged for a 24-h period, and the 2011–2015 National Automotive Sampling System–General Estimates System (NASS-GES), which contains data sampled from police-reported crashes. Analysis identified trends with driver age and gender, occupant age and gender, time of day, day of week, trip purpose, trip duration, vehicle type, as well as occupant role as solo driver, driver of others, single passenger, or multiple passengers. Results In NHTS, the median trip duration is 15 min; only 10% of trips last longer than 40 min. Trip duration does not vary with occupant role or vehicle type. Variations with trip time of day and day of week show a unimodal pattern for weekends, as well as weekday trips for those aged 55 years and older and non-solo occupants aged 18 to 29 years. Other occupant groups have a bimodal weekday travel pattern with peak trips corresponding to morning and evening rush hours. In GES, approximately half of occupants are solo drivers. Female drivers aged 55 and older travel alone 60% of the time, and drivers under age 18 and female drivers aged 30 to 54 drive alone on less than 45% of trips. Approximately 13% of occupants are single passengers, and 16% travel with a driver and at least 1 other passenger. About 16% of occupants are front seat passengers. Conclusions This analysis of vehicle occupancy provides insights on what ridership of future automated vehicles and expanded ride-hailing services may look like. Because half of occupants are solo drivers, only 16% are multiple passengers, and median trip length is just 15 min, proposed alternative seating arrangements intended to promote comfort and passenger interaction may not represent the typical future vehicle use case in the United States. Knowledge of current occupancy patterns can help automated vehicle designers and regulators develop safe seating scenarios that meet customer needs.

The cost of sharing bikes and docks: Quantifying rent and work requirements between four bike sharing systems in North America

Despite the popularity of bike sharing systems (BSS), few studies have quantified cost of service of BSS and how travel behavior may be influencing it. As such, much debate exists about the potential of bike sharing, with some studies advocating benefits from increased utilization while other studies warning of costs from excessive rebalancing operations. This paper introduces a new metric to quantify cost of service in BSS as theinfrastructure rent(for bikes and docks) and rebalancing work required to mobilize a pattern of trips, and it presents a comparative study between four BSS in North America during one month of operations, focusing on four questions: What would be the infrastructure rent requirements of each system’s trip pattern if no rebalancing work were done? What were the resulting infrastructure rent requirements of each system’s trip pattern based on the rebalancing work that was done? How effective was the rebalancing work that each system did in reducing the infrastructure rent requirements of its trip pattern? How does occupancy variability and travel pattern asymmetry influence cost of service? Results show that service requirements and, thereby, potential, vary substantially between systems based on the spatiotemporal characteristics and asymmetry of their trip patterns and that each system responded differently to these requirements in terms of infrastructure capacity and rebalancing work.

Exploring nonlinear effects of the built environment on ridesplitting: Evidence from Chengdu

Ridesplitting, a form of ridesourcing services that matches riders with similar routes to the same driver, is a high occupancy travel mode that can bring considerable benefits. However, the current ratio of ridesplitting in the ridesourcing services is relatively low and its influencing factors remain unrevealed. Therefore, this paper uses a machine learning method, gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) model, to explore the nonlinear effects of built environment on the ridesplitting ratio of origin–destination pairs (census tract to census tract). The GBDT model also provides the relative importance ranking of all the built environment factors. The results indicate that distance to city center, land use diversity and road density are the key influencing factors of ridesplitting ratio. In addition, the non-linear thresholds of built environment factors are identified based on partial dependence plots, which could provide policy implications for the government and transportation network companies to promote ridesplitting.

Travelling Distance for Evacuee in Multi-Storey Residential Building

The study on evacuation safety often an emphasis on the total evacuation time where only few research consider the distance and path needed for evacuee to evacuate the building. Thus, this study focuses on the maximum and average travelling distance need for the elderly and other evacuees in the multi-storey residential building. Pathfinder software is used in this study, and 162 simulations were tested. Results show that the escape route design and staircase condition plays a significant contribution towards occupant travel distance. Other factors such as occupancies and elderly resident also contribute to the increase in travelling distance. Keywords: Multi-Storey, Escape Route Design, Evacuation eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bsby e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning &amp; Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5iSI3.2549

System Dynamics Perspective of the Apps-based Transportation Ecosystem

Along with the development of ICT, transportation domain in Jakarta is evolving. The blooming of apps-based transportation has become an interesting alternative transportation mode for the citizens. This mode of transportation is diverting the usage of single occupancy travel to a more occupancy travel, such that it is expected to give positive contributions in reducing the traffic congestion. In this regard, policy intervention to the apps-based transportation ecosystem is being implemented by the government to ensure the conducive situation with the other transportation mode. This study provides an analysis of the policy intervention impact to the traffic congestion in Jakarta. A simulation model capturing the dynamic of the apps-based transportation ecosystem is developed using system dynamic approach. The main aspects considered in the model are including the usage of apps-based transportation, the traffic congestion, and the number of vehicles on the road. The simulation of the model is conducted based on four scenarios of policy intervention, namely, empowering, control, limited, and block. By using the data that are relevant to the situation in Jakarta, the simulation result shows that the traffic congestion level will significantly decline when the policy related to the apps-based transportation is supportive.

Bilevel Programming Model of Urban Public Transport Network under Fairness Constraints

In this paper, the bilevel programming model of the public transport network considering factors such as the per capita occupancy area and travel cost of different groups was established, to alleviate the urban transportation equity and optimize the urban public transport network under fairness constraints. The upper layer minimized the travel cost deprivation coefficient and the road area Gini coefficient as the objective function, to solve the optimization scheme of public transport network considering fairness constraints; the lower layer was a stochastic equilibrium traffic assignment model of multimode and multiuser, used to describe the complex selection behavior of different groups for different traffic modes in the bus optimization scheme given by the upper layer. The model in addition utilised the noninferior sorting genetic algorithm II to validate the model via a simple network. The results showed that (1) the travel cost deprivation coefficient of the three groups declined from 33.42 to 26.51, with a decrease of 20.68%; the Gini coefficient of the road area declined from 0.248 to 0.030, with a decrease of 87.76%; it could be seen that the transportation equity feeling of low-income groups and objective resource allocation improved significantly; (2) before the optimization of public transport network, the sharing rate of cars, buses, and bicycles was 42%, 47%, and 11%, respectively; after the optimization, the sharing rate of each mode was 7%, 82%, and 11%, respectively. Some of the high and middle income users who owned the car were transferred to the public transportation. It could be seen that the overall travel time of the optimized public transport network reduced, enhancing the attraction of the public transport network to various travel groups. The model improves the fairness of the urban public transport system effectively while ensuring the travel demand of the residents. It provides theoretical basis and model foundation for the optimization of public transit network, and it is a new attempt to improve the fairness of the traffic planning scheme.

Mefloquine for preventing malaria during travel to endemic areas.

Mefloquine for preventing malaria during travel to endemic areas.

Real-Time Optimal Control of Seat-Belt Systems

This work presents a real-time implementable, computationally light algorithm for semi-active seat-belt systems. It consist of a linear feedback loop on the belt force that is cascaded by an algebraic reference governor. The governor is based on the explicit solution to a widely used optimization problem regarding optimal control of seat-belts. The algorithm is applied to a prototype semi-active hydraulic seat-belt actuator and is demonstrated on an experimental setup simulating frontal collisions. In comparison to an uncontrolled experiment, the controlled one managed to reduce the injury criterion with 15%, without increasing the occupant travel. When twice the travel was allowed, the criterion was reduced by 51%, showing the effect of variable settings to occupant/vehicle dimensions. However, the injury criteria were still 2.0 - 2.5 times the optimal injury criterion, as calculated with perfect future knowledge of the crash event.

Understanding the occupational traveller profile towards malaria prevention enables directed health promotion and preventive practices

Aim/background: Increased migration and expatriation to malaria endemic countries has been appointed as contributing factor to the increasing imported malaria hospitalizations recently observed in Portugal. This study sought to profile this traveller and understand the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) towards malaria prevention as necessary first step to improve and suit risk reduction strategies. Methods: A cross sectional questionnaire based study was conducted at the Lisbon International Airport aiming to characterize the Portuguese occupational traveller to Angola. Travel and travellers’ characteristics associated to not seeking travel health advice and KAP towards malaria were specifically studied. Results: Occupational travellers represented 92,6% (n= 374/404) of the Portuguese travellers to Angola that participated in the survey. The profile found was that of an occupational traveller experienced in developing destinations to urban settings for long periods. The knowledge regarding malaria risk and prevention was good but the same was not observed for preventive practices. Those with chronic health conditions and those living in Angola or both in Portugal and Angola tend not to seek pre-travel medical advice and to be at higher malaria risk, considering their KAP towards malaria. Conclusions: Increasing watchfulness concerning occupational travellers and expatriates need to be in the public health agenda and suited interventions are needed.

County-Level Effects of Prehospital Regionalization of Critically Ill Patients: A Simulation Study.

Regionalization may improve critical care delivery, yet stakeholders cite concerns about its feasibility. We sought to determine the operational effects of prehospital regionalization of nontrauma, nonarrest critical illness. King County, Washington. Discrete event simulation study. All 2006 hospital discharge data, linked to all adult, eligible patients transported by county emergency medical services agencies. We simulated active triage of high-risk patients to designated referral centers using a validated prehospital risk score; we studied three regionalization scenarios: 1) up triage, 2) up and down triage, and 3) up and down triage after reducing ICU beds by 25%. We determined the effect on patient routing, ICU occupancy at referral and nonreferral hospitals, and emergency medical services transport times. A total of 119,117 patients were hospitalized at 11 nonreferral centers and 76,817 patients were hospitalized at three referral centers. Among 20,835 emergency medical services patients, 7,817 patients (43%) were eligible for up triage and 10,242 patients (57%) were eligible for down triage. At baseline, mean daily ICU bed occupancy was 61% referral and 47% at nonreferral hospitals. Up triage increased referral ICU occupancy to 68%, up and down triage to 64%, and up and down triage with bed reduction to 74%. Mean daily nonreferral ICU occupancy did not exceed 60%. Total emergency medical services transport time increased by less than 3% with up and down triage. Regionalization based on prehospital triage of the critically ill can allocate high-risk patients to referral hospitals without adversely affecting ICU occupancy or prehospital travel time.

Work-life interface of Portuguese international business travelers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the narratives of the work-life interface (WLI) of Portuguese international business travelers. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews with 14 Portuguese international business travelers were conducted to expose the narratives of the WLI in terms of demands, resources, and coping and how these work-life events shape work-identity. Findings The findings show that: work-life events are interconnected and are sources of conflict and enrichment; work-life boundaries are personally managed and socially enacted; and WLI shapes work-identity. The analysis shows that occupational travel can be both a source of positive self-regard and fulfillment that entails high work-identity and low boundary control or a source of conflict and identity threat. In either case, work-life coping is devised to prompt self-worth. Originality/value Following the findings from this exploratory study, several research propositions are outlined for international business travelers, highlighting the interactions between work-life centrality, work-life boundary management and work-identity. In extending the work-life research to international business travelers this study reveals the extent to which the advancement of work-life research benefits from the theoretical and empirical contributions of the literature on work-identity.

An analysis of evacuation travel paths on stair landings by means of conditional probabilities

This paper analyses data on occupants׳ movement on stair landings collected during an evacuation drill performed in a six-storey office building in the United States. A total of 215 occupant travel path trajectories were filmed and time on the stair landings and egress behaviours were analysed. Data were analysed using a probabilistic approach, i.e., the probability of different occupant travel paths were calculated in relation to two different factors: (1) crowding on the landings, and (2) the type of interactions between occupants (e.g., merging flows, deference/overtaking behaviours, etc.). Results showed that a higher number of occupants on stair landings caused an increase in the probability for (1) longer travel paths and (2) usage of the outer boundaries on the stair/landing connections. This paper highlights that data and modelling assumptions should be used after a careful evaluation of their field of applicability. In the case of a low occupant load and non-homogenous merging streams (a higher number of people entering the landing from the stairs than the door), floors tend to be emptied from the top to the bottom.

Joint Optimization of Electric Vehicle and Home Energy Scheduling Considering User Comfort Preference

In this paper, we investigate the joint optimization of electric vehicle (EV) and home energy scheduling. Our objective is to minimize the total electricity cost while considering user comfort preference. We take both household occupancy and EV travel patterns into account. The novel contributions of this paper lie in the exploitation of EVs as dynamic storage facility as well as detailed modeling of user comfort preference, thermal dynamics, EV travel, and customer occupancy patterns in a concrete optimization framework. Extensive numerical results are presented to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed design. Specifically, we show that the proposed design can achieve significant saving in electricity cost, allow more flexibility in setting the tradeoff between cost and user comfort, and enable to reduce energy demand during peak hours. We also demonstrate the benefits of applying the proposed framework to a residential community compared to optimization of individual household separately.

Parents’ attitudes, knowledge and behaviours relating to safe child occupant travel

This study investigated parents’ attitudes, knowledge and behaviours relating to safe child occupant travel following new Australian legislation regarding child restraint system (CRS) and motor vehicle restraint use for children aged 7 years and under. A questionnaire exploring attitudes, knowledge and behaviours regarding general road safety, as well as safe child occupant travel, was completed by 272 participants with at least one child aged between 3 and 10 years residing in the Australian state of Victoria. Responses to the questionnaire revealed that participants’ attitudes, knowledge and behaviours towards road safety in general were fairly positive, with most participants reporting that they restrict their alcohol consumption or do not drink at all while driving (87%), drive at or below the speed limit (85%) and ‘always’ wear their seatbelts (98%). However, more than half of the participants reported engaging in distracting behaviours ‘sometimes’ or ‘often’ (54%) and a small proportion of participants indicated that they ‘sometimes’ engaged in aggressive driving (14%). Regarding their attitudes, knowledge and behaviours relating to safe child occupant travel, most participants reported that they ‘always’ restrain their children (99%). However, there was a surprisingly high proportion of participants who did not know the appropriate age thresholds’ to transition their child from a booster seat to an adult seatbelt (53%) or the age for which it is appropriate for their child to sit in the front passenger seat of the vehicle (20%). Logistic regression analyses revealed that parents’ knowledge regarding safe child occupant travel was significantly related to their attitudes, knowledge and behaviours towards road safety in general, such as drinking habits while driving and CRS safety knowledge. Based on the findings of this study, a number of recommendations are made for strategies to enhance parents’ attitudes, knowledge and behaviours relating to safe child occupant travel, as well as for future research.