Public Transport Links Research Articles

Urban space use for outing before and during the pandemic: A case study of Daejeon, South Korea using social media posts

This study aims to investigate the popularly visited places and their spatial characteristics during the pandemic. To achieve this objective, semantic network analysis (SNA) and GIS spatial analysis were conducted using place-based words collected from Instagram posts from 2018 to June 2021 with the hashtag ‘Daejeon Nadri.’ The findings indicate that during the pandemic, the eigenvector centrality of words related to city centers decreased significantly, while words related to suburban areas increased. Before the pandemic, there was approximately a 10 km distance from the central node to the farthest node in the same modularity class. However, during the pandemic, the visited places were limited to their neighboring areas in the same modularity class. This study found that visited places during the pandemic were predominantly located in suburban areas, particularly around stream and forest areas. Green areas situated in city centers did not show a significant increase in visits during the pandemic. This indicates that people tended to visit less crowded green areas in suburban areas and showed a tendency to visit nearby places during the pandemic. These changes suggest that suburban green areas are also crucial for cities, not just for green areas in cities. In planning for future epidemics, easy access to green areas is crucial. Such accessibility can be made by allocating small green areas, creating linear green belts to link main greens, and strengthening public transport links to suburban areas. Management implicationsThe results of this study imply that individuals tend to prefer natural green spaces with low population density for their outings amid the COVID-19 crisis. This finding underscores the significance of green spaces that accommodate urban residents' leisure activities during specific circumstances such as epidemics. It is worth considering appropriate allocation of green spaces within the city to ensure equal access to public green in urban planning. Another challenge is to enhance the public transportation network to connect major green spaces in the outskirts and suburbs of the metropolitan region.

Navigating spatial inequalities: The micro-politics of migrant dwelling practices during COVID-19 in Antwerp

The COVID-19 pandemic and its multiple lockdowns disrupted city life, while restrictions on physical distancing and urban activities highlighted the importance of our living environment and its links to our well-being. As part of the COVINFORM research project, this case study uses a micro-political lens to explore the specific spatial challenges which migrants faced in two of the more socially deprived neighbourhoods in Antwerp, Antwerpen-Noord and Borgerhout. This study aims to understand the specific spatial challenges migrants encountered during the pandemic and examine how they navigated and asserted agency within the confines of their living situation during this period. We combine participant observation with 25 semi-structured interviews with migrants living in two neighbourhoods in Antwerp (Flanders, Belgium), namely Borgerhout and Antwerpen-Noord. Findings show that the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced urban spatial disparities, where people’s strategies of adaptation were suddenly disrupted. Lower-income migrants were particularly affected, living in crowded housing without access to private open space. Access to public and green spaces, as well as facilities and public transport links, became more important during the pandemic, especially for those in poorer housing conditions. Within this context of spatial inequalities, migrants deployed their agency through claiming access to the city, shifting dwelling practices, and leveraging neighbourhood and community networks.

Extrapolations and catalysts in relation to the COVID-19 epidemic and implications on viable urban transport

The Global Pandemic announced COVID-19 on 11 March 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). As of 26th March, nearly 2.6 billion people (including 1.3 billion people in India alone). Many countries have closed their borders and enforced curfews – which contributes, at national and continental level, to steep decline in transport demand. The epidemic of corona viruses is extremely probable to influence our actions and lifestyle, our way of living, eating and moving, indefinitely.Also if the economic consequences of the mass transit and social mobility crisis have not yet to be fully measured, they have extremely probable to be substantial (such as ride-hail, ride-pool, scooter sharing. Since public transport links directly to economic development and is dependent on fares and subsidies, revenue losses are most likely unavoidable. This research article helps to get the idea in addition to lack of income and extra financial pressures for public transit providers will also contribute to higher expenses of regular maintenance of vehicles and facilities and rising rail speed for a prolonged period of time.In spite of currently perceived risk and reduced take-off of public transport, the sector must be encouraged to move masses effectively and reduce carbon emissions after the virus. This article describes the effects of COVID-19 during and after the lockdown in the transport sector, as well as a long-term plan for the development and future management capacity for public transport.

Borrowed sizes: A hedonic price approach to the value of netowrk structure in public transport systems

Property prices are known to be higher in places with high accessibility, such as in proximity to train stations and especially to commuter rail, than in places without this access. This study provides a better understanding of how regional accessibility, through the structure of railway networks, can influence local agglomeration economies by providing accessibility to large labor markets. Previous literature has shown a positive impact of proximity to railway stations on housing prices, and our study adds to the literature by analyzing the impact of network structure. We argue that public transport systems can support the benefits of city networks in line with Alonso’s concept of borrowed sizes (1973). Using network theory to measure accessibility provided by the network, we show that stations that provide accessibility to large labor markets across the region are perceived as more attractive by households. Cities in proximity to other cities are strengthened through their public transport links, which allow agglomeration benefits to be exploited by residents.

Economic, Social, and Environmental Sustainable Operation of Roadways within the Central Business District (CBD) sector at Hilla City Incorporated with Public Transport

The maintaining of sustainability is a constant challenge. Sustainability can be achieved by maintaining road traffic safety or preventing collisions and using pollution-free vehicles and safe transporting of goods. This research addresses the assessment of measuring transport sustainability based on economic, social, and environmental indicators for public transport routes. The methodology of this research can be described by collecting data (air pollution, noise, number of incidents, and volumes of traffic) from 15 public transport links within the central business district (sector 2) in the city of Hilla through collaboration with the departments concerned. To avoid the problem of utilizing several evaluation indicators, this research is developing a procedure to obtain a sustainable composite index to available data collection. The indicators of sustainability for urban transportation addressing the economic (delay), social (safety), and environmental (noise, air pollution) aspects depend on existing data. Indicators are combined in the economic, social, and environmental indicators into a composite sustainability index, in a way that overcomes the restrictions of normalization, weight, and aggregation. It is an attempt to estimate the sustainability of transport within the CBD sector No.2 in Hilla, which is integrated with public transport. According to the ICST (Composite Sustainability Transportation Index) value for roads associated with public transportation in Sector No.2 of the CBD Hilla City, the overall assessment for sustainability operation is from moderate level (9 links) to low (5 links) and a high level (1 link).

Integrating GIS spatial dimension into BREEAM communities sustainability assessment to support urban planning policies, Lisbon case study

Local governments face increasing pressure to define land-use policies to enhance local sustainable development. This requires the development of urban planning tools that can help them in selecting measures and priority intervention areas within their cities.The tools currently available only address this problem partially. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have been widely used in urban planning for handling spatial data but have limited capacities for representing choice and priority among the conflicting objectives for sustainable urban planning. Meanwhile, urban sustainability assessment systems, such as BREEAM-Communities (BREEAM-CM), can help to choose the most sustainable measures under such conflicting objectives, although they are typically non-spatial by assuming a spatial homogeneity within the study area, therefore, they cannot be used to identify priority intervention locations.This paper proposes bridging the gap between urban sustainability assessment and spatial analysis by combining GIS and BREEAM-CM. Instead of the traditional use of BREEAM-CM to assess a single neighbourhood, we applied this system to all Lisbon city subsections with the support from GIS. It resulted in the identification of priority intervention areas for sustainable development within the city including: attracting new businesses to the north area; implementing energy efficiency strategies and new green areas in the old town and central avenues; and improving public transport links in the north and western areas. These findings show that the proposed model can be a valuable tool for evaluating and defining local sustainable development strategies.

Implementation Plan of MaaS according to Various Public Transport Links

Implementation Plan of MaaS according to Various Public Transport Links

An analysis of the factors influencing journey time variation in the cork public bike system

The Cork Public Bike System was opened in December 2014. This system consists of a total of 330 bikes across 31 stations in Cork, with the scheme serving all the main trip attractors in the city. By using datasets of all trips taken in the scheme during 2015 and 2016, a number of new spatial and temporal variables were assigned to all 560,000 trips that have been used for the analysis in this research, in addition to a journey time that has been predicted by Google Maps for each individual route combination. These journey times from Google Maps were then compared with the actual journey times recorded in the dataset to create a new variable called Extra Travel Time.Trips to and from stations that had a lower number of shops within walking distance were also found to be likely predictors of the trips with lowest extra travel time. The stations with above average public transport links also are associated with quicker trips suggesting that users of public bikes will take quick, direct journeys if they are trip-chaining with other transportation modes such as bus or rail.

Changes to commute mode: The role of life events, spatial context and environmental attitude

It has been suggested that commuting behaviours become habitual and that changes to commute mode are more likely at the time of major life events. However, evidence to support this has so far been limited to analyses of small-scale samples. To address this evidence gap, we use two waves of panel data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009/10 and 2010/11) to identify and explain the prevalence of individual change in commute mode from year to year amongst a representative sample of the English working population (n=15,200). One third of those that cycle or get the bus to work, and one quarter of those that walk to work, are shown to change commuting mode by the following year. Car commuting is more stable, with only one in ten car commuters changing mode by the following year. Commute mode changes are found to be primarily driven by alterations to the distance to work which occur in association with changing job or moving home. Switching to non-car commuting becomes much more likely (9.2 times) as the distance to work drops below three miles. High quality public transport links to employment centres are shown to encourage switches away from car commuting and mixed land uses are shown to encourage switches to active commuting (walking and cycling). Switches away from car commuting are found to be more likely (1.3 times) for those with a pro-environmental attitude. The attitude orientation is shown to precede the behaviour change, demonstrating evidence of ‘cause and effect’. Overall, the study shows that changes in commuting behaviour are strongly influenced by life events, spatial context and environmental attitude.

G278(P) Experience of Video Linking Neonatal Training Days over a Perinatal Network

AimsThere 17 trusts spread over the regional neonatal network which is roughly 109 × 103 miles in geographical dimension. Road networks and public transport links across this region are somewhat...

Animating the Future Seamless Public Transport Journey

This paper considers the possibilities for the development of the future seamless public transport journey in 2030, drawing on the SYNAPTIC project (Synergy of New Advanced Public Transport Solutions Improving Connectivity in North West Europe), funded by the EU INTERREG IVB programme. Investment in public transport and other transport modes tends to be based largely on travel as an instrumental experience, i.e. we seek to speed travel up, make it more convenient, or influence the cost of travel. Using a survey of international and regional public transport journeys, we see that the quality of the journey, particularly the affective factors (such as the enjoyment or productivity of travel, happiness, 'stress' and wider experiential factors), are poorly understood, and overlooked in the design, and initial appraisal, of public transport links and interchanges. The enhancement of the journey experience is critical to the future public transport journey, particularly if viewed from the user perspective. An animated journey from Preston (UK) to Delft (the Netherlands) is presented and discussed to illustrate the future public transport possibilities in 2030.

Competition in multi-modal transport networks: A dynamic approach

We analyze the behavior of market participants in a multi-modal commuter network, where roads are not priced, but public transport has a usage fee, which is set while taking the effects on the roads into account. In particular, we analyze the difference between markets with a monopolistic public transport operator, which operates all public transport links, and markets in which separate operators own each public transport link. To do so, we consider a simple dynamic transport network consisting of two serial segments and two parallel congestible modes of transport. We obtain a reduced form of the public transport operator’s optimal fare setting problem and show that, even if the total travel demand is inelastic, serial Bertrand–Nash competition on the public transport links leads to different fares than a serial monopoly; a result not observed in a static model. This results from the fact that trip timing decisions, and therefore the generalized prices of all commuters, are influenced by all fares in the network. We then use numerical simulations to show that, contrary to the results obtained in classic studies on vertical competition, monopolistic fares are not always lower than duopolistic fares; the opposite can also occur. We also explore how different parameters influence the price differential, and how this affects welfare.

Rural transport and social inclusion: The DalesBus Initiative

The importance of rural transport in addressing social exclusion has been acknowledged for some time. We report and comment on one particular case in North Yorkshire, a predominantly rural county in England, of how state, non-state and third/societal sectors worked together to market and improve public transport links and reduce social exclusion. The article examines the outcomes of a SIS (Stimulating Innovation for Success) project: a leisure-based public transport network located in North Yorkshire. It comments on the efficacy of this relationship and in particular with one agency, the Dales and Bowland Community Interest Company.

Competition in Multi-Modal Transport Networks: A Dynamic Approach

We analyse the behaviour of market participants in a multi-modal commuter network where roads are not priced, but public transport has a usage fee, which is set while taking the effects on the roads into account. In particular, we analyse the difference between markets with a monopolistic public transport operator, which operates all public transport links, and markets in which separate operators own each public transport link. To do so, we consider a simple transport network consisting of two serial segments and two parallel congestible modes of transport. We obtain a reduced form of the public transport operator's optimal fare setting problem and show that, even if the total travel demand is inelastic, serial Bertrand-Nash competition on the public transport links leads to different fares than a serial monopoly; a result not observed in a static model. This results from the fact that trip timing decisions, and therefore the generalized prices of all commuters, are influenced by all fares in the network. We then use numerical simulations to show that, contrary to the results obtained in classic studies on vertical competition, monopolistic fares are not always higher than duopolistic fares; the opposite can also occur. We also explore how different parameters influence the price differential, and how this affects welfare.

Development of Transit Evaluation Indicators for the efficient operation of public transport links

Development of Transit Evaluation Indicators for the efficient operation of public transport links

Women's preferences for the delivery of the National Health Service Breast Screening Programme: a cross-sectional survey

To elicit women's preferences for delivery of the National Health Service (NHS) Breast Screening Programme. Interview survey. Private households in the UK. Five hundred and ninety-seven women aged 45-75 interviewed as part of the National Statistics Omnibus Survey, December 2008 and January 2009. Preferred setting (hospital or community) and preferred type of screening unit (mobile or permanent). Rated importance of distance, time, convenience and cost of travelling to a screening unit. Forty per cent of women did not mind whether the screening unit was based in a community or hospital setting, and 52% did not mind whether the unit was permanent or mobile. Among those who expressed a preference, 59% preferred a hospital to a community setting, and 62% preferred a permanent to a mobile unit. Many women (63%) said distance to a breast screening unit was an important factor, as was time to travel (58%). Among those with access to a car, 80% regarded the availability of parking as important, but only 40% regarded the cost of car travel as important. Among women with no access to a car, there was a similar pattern for ease of public transport (76%) and cost of public transport (48%). Many women were unconcerned about the type and setting of breast screening units. Among those who were concerned, most preferred hospital over community settings and permanent over mobile units, but nonetheless most women said time and distance were important. Well-situated units with advanced publicity about public transport links and parking facilities may encourage greater uptake.

Land use planning in Ireland—a life cycle energy analysis of recent residential development in the Greater Dublin Area

Background, aim, and scope One third of the total housing stock in the Republic of Ireland has been built in 10 years up to and including 2006 and of this approximately 34% was built in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA). Much of the housing was low-density with poor public transport links leading to doubts over its sustainability—particularly in terms of energy use. Although the country is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 13% above 1990 levels by the period 2008–2012, by 2005, emissions were already 25.4% higher than the baseline and current projections are that this figure will rise to 37% over the period. The residential sector is estimated to contribute to approximately 24.5% of energy-related CO2 emissions. This paper estimates total emissions from residential developments in the GDA constructed between 1997 and 2006.

Interlinking the region with its centre: The example of the Karlsruhe region in Germany

A regional transport coordinating body was set up in the Karlsruhe region in Germany in 1992. Improved public transport links between the city and the surrounding region have attracted many new passengers. The case study is described, its possible suitability as a role model is discussed, and some general conclusions are drawn.