Centrality and connectivity in public transport networks and their significance for transport sustainability in cities

The promotion of public transport as a backbone of mobility in urban agglomerations, or at least as an alternative to the dominance of the automobile, has become a prominent policy focus in most large cities around the world. However, while some cities have been successful in shifting car journeys onto rail and buses, others are struggling despite considerable effort to make public transport more attractive. This paper provides a brief overview of success factors for public transport and then takes the configuration of public transport networks as a vantage point for policy evaluation. The development of centrality and connectivity indicators for the public transport network of Melbourne's north-eastern suburbs delivers an instrument for assessing the congruence of the systems with the geographical structure of central areas and urban activities in these cities. It is hypothesised that a higher number of convenient transfer points and a choice of routes to users (network connectivity), as well as a high degree of spatial overlap and integration between public transport infrastructure and urban activity centres and corridors (centrality of facilities) will lead to a greater role for public transport in the mobility patterns of the city as a whole

Factors influencing walking distance to the preferred public transport stop in selected urban centres of Czechia

One of the ways of improving the attractiveness of public transport is to bring it closer to its potential users. A long walking distance from a stop is often one of the critical factors limiting its more frequent and extensive use. Studies dealing with the accessibility of transport networks usually work only with the closest stop. This article analyses the actual walking distance from the place of residence to the preferred stop. The survey used a questionnaire method and was conducted in two cities in the Czech Republic-Ostrava and Olomouc. Based on the results of the study, the average walking distance was assessed and the impact of demographic characteristics (gender, age, education, number of members in the household, economic activity, the presence of a child in the household, and car ownership), transport behavior (preferred mode of transportation, car convenience and opinions on public transport), and urban characteristics (prevailing housing type) on the walking distance were analyzed. The main findings prove a significant impact on walking distance by a number of these factors, but the preferred use of a car for commuting or unemployment does not significantly affect walking distance. Highlights for public administration, management and planning: The public transport stop reported as being closest to a respondent's residence was used by only 51% of all respondents in the survey. Another 20% of residents used the second closest stop, 11% the third stop. Travellers select the stop based on number of connections; seamless connection; the speed of connection; potential delays; equipment of stops and nearby areas; the comfort of the vehicle; avoiding overcrowded stop; other personal factors. The average walking distance to the preferred stop is 568 metres in Ostrava while only 439 metres in Olomouc. Significantly shorter distances refer to the female population in Ostrava, retired and unemployed. Assumption of the negative influence of the higher number of family members, higher salaries, car ownership and worse education (blue collar) was not proved.Web of Science131301

Revisiting Factors Associated with the Success of Ballot Initiatives with a Substantial Rail Transit Component, Research Report 10-13

This report presents the replication of an MTI study conducted in 2001 by Peter Haas and Richard Werbel. That research, itself a continuation of an earlier project completed in 2000, included an analysis of transportation tax elections in 11 urban areas across the nation and culminated in the identification of 17 community-level factors with potential impact on the success of ballot measures for sales tax increases to fund transportation packages with substantial rail components. Trends observed in these more recent case studies were generally highly consistent with the following findings from the 2001 study. Thus this analysis reaffirms the importance for community consensus amongst the business, elected and environmental communities, and accompanying depth of financial support. Once again, the difficulty of passing an initiative without well-funded, effective use of multimedia was validated, as was the importance of utilizing experienced campaign consultants. Some factors seemed less important in the current study than in 2001, including the effectiveness of presenting a multimodal package, the perception of benefits of a package being distributed throughout the voting district, the experience gained in recent transit elections, and the credibility of the transit agency. Finally, this compilation includes an exploration of “rebound” elections – those instances in which a failed measure is quickly followed by a successful one – and the factors that seem linked to achieving success in such instances

A methodology for the incorporation of social inclusion into transport policy

4-8 July 2004. Istanbul, Turke

The role of public transport in the achievement of urban sustainable mobility in mid-sized cities

Mid-sized cities or villages often have important issues associated with the relation between demand and supply of transport, due to its own spatial dimension and also due to the territory sprawl derived from years of deficient land use planning. Traditionally, public transport was mainly designed to cover and serve the entire municipality, giving a rural character to this service. Presently, some of these cities are sufficiently large to support the adoption of an urban public transport. The main question is how to create a public transport service in mid-sized cities integrated with the existing transport and parking system, so that more sustainable patterns of mobility can be achieved. For this purpose, a case study will be presented regarding the creation and planning of an urban public transport service for the city of Barcelos, located in Northern Portugal

Urban fiscal austerity, infrastructure provision and the struggle for regional transit in 'Motor City'

Studies suggest that urban fiscal crises trigger the institutional separation of strategic services from general purpose municipal functions. Traditional reformists have highlighted the economic benefits of regional approaches. Global austerity has created fiscal problems for central cities and suburbs alike, transforming the motives for regional solutions. This paper examines how the City of Detroit engineered a new regional arrangement with the surrounding suburbs to raise debt for the delivery of mass transit infrastructure. It represents a dual 'spatial fix' in the form of (i) a 'state territorial fix' providing fiscally stressed municipalities access to municipal bond markets and (ii) a 'speculative spatial fix' that benefits the Detroit growth coalition by linking regional mass transit to the prospect of land-use intensification. © The Author 2014

Improvements to the Nottingham-Newark-Lincoln rail service: evidence to support a business case

A review of evidence to support a business case to improve the frequency of the rail service between Nottingham and Lincoln, on behalf of Nottingham-Lincoln Stakeholder Boar

Delay Tolerant Networking over the Metropolitan Public Transportation

We discuss MDTN: a delay tolerant application platform built on top of the Public Transportation System (PTS) and able to provide service access while exploiting opportunistic connectivity. Our solution adopts a carrier-based approach where buses act as data collectors for user requests requiring Internet access. Simulations based on real maps and PTS routes with state-of-the-art routing protocols demonstrate that MDTN represents a viable solution for elastic nonreal-time service delivery. Nevertheless, performance indexes of the considered routing policies show that there is no golden rule for optimal performance and a tailored routing strategy is required for each specific case