Modeling commuting systems through a complex network analysis: a study of the Italian islands of Sardinia and Sicily

This study analyzes the inter-municipal commuting systems of the Italian islands of Sardinia and Sicily, employing weighted network analysis technique. Based on the results obtained for the Sardinian commuting network, the network analysis is used to identify similarities and dissimilarities between the two systems

The structure of Inter-Urban traffic: A weighted network analysis

We study the structure of the network representing the interurban commuting traffic of the Sardinia region, Italy, which amounts to 375 municipalities and 1,600,000 inhabitants. We use a weighted network representation where vertices correspond to towns and the edges to the actual commuting flows among those. We characterize quantitatively both the topological and weighted properties of the resulting network. Interestingly, the statistical properties of commuting traffic exhibit complex features and non-trivial relations with the underlying topology. We characterize quantitatively the traffic backbone among large cities and we give evidences for a very high heterogeneity of the commuter flows around large cities. We also discuss the interplay between the topological and dynamical properties of the network as well as their relation with socio-demographic variables such as population and monthly income. This analysis may be useful at various stages in environmental planning and provides analytical tools for a wide spectrum of applications ranging from impact evaluation to decision-making and planning support.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables; 1 missing ref added and minor revision

Land-Use Transport Interaction: State of the Art

This paper investigates innovative approaches to the integration of land-use and transport planning in urban regions. Engineering, economic and social-science based theories and empirical studies are analyzed regarding their ability to explain the interaction between land use and transport - that land use determines traffic flows and that transport infrastructure changes land-use patterns. In addition, this paper provides an overview of the state of the art of computer models for the simulation of land use and transport. Based on these theories and models the effectiveness of policies to influence land use and transport in urban regions is assessed.Urban location theory, transportation research, land use- transport interaction, urban simulation modeling, location choice

Measuring spatial separation processes through the minimum commute : the case of Flanders

The average distance covered by individual commuting trips increases year after year, regardless of the travel mode. The causes of this phenomenon are diverse. Although increasing prosperity is often invoked as the main reason, the discipline of spatial planning also points to the relevance of land-use policies that enable processes of suburbanization and sprawl. By calculating time series of spatially disaggregated theoretical minimum commuting distances, this paper offers a method to identify and quantify the process of spatial separation between the housing market and the job market. We identify the detected spatial separation as one of the possible indicators for the contribution of spatial processes to the growth of traffic. In the case study area of Flanders and Brussels (Belgium), it is found that over time the minimum commuting distance increased in many municipalities, especially where population is growing faster than job supply, or where traditionally high concentrations of employment still increase. Decreases are noticed in suburban areas that are getting a more urban character by acquiring a considerable functional mix. For the study area in its entirety, we do indeed register an increasing spatial separation between home and work locations. However, this separation evolves less rapidly than the increase in commuting distances itself. Regarding the methodology, we find that the use of municipalities as a spatial entity is suitable for grasping regional transformations of the economy and intermunicipal forms of suburbanization and peri-urbanization. However, a similar methodology, applied at a more detailed geographical scale, could be used to detect processes of sprawl in the morphological sense

A demand-based methodology for planning the bus network of a small or medium town

This work aims at developing a demand-based methodology for designing the bus network of a small or medium town. The proposed modelling tool adopts a multi-agent objective function which evaluates performance in the context of different stakeholders: the surplus of travellers (car and bus users); the bus service provider’s revenues and operation costs. This approach was applied to an existing bus network, serving Trapani, which is a medium town in the south of Italy (Sicily), with 100000 inhabitants. The busbased public transport system attracts only about 5% of commuter trips within Trapani (source: National Institute of Statistics, 2005). This paper reports on an analysis of the application of the proposed multiagent modelling tool to two planning scenarios: the first is short-term and characterized by a budget constraint (slight changes in the availability of drivers and vehicles) and the second long-term with new investments in new buses to improve services and increase patronage. In both cases, the impact of the recent car park charging policy launched by the local administration was considered. The decision variables for the optimisation procedure were route, service frequency and capacity of each bus line. A random utility model was employed to forecast the mode choices for trips within Trapani and the travel demand-supply equilibrium was obtained using the DUE (deterministic user equilibrium) assignment algorithm, for private transport, and the hyperpath network loading algorithm, for public transport. The optimisation procedure led to a more efficient bus network characterized by increase in bus frequencies and a better performance in terms of reduced travel time, especially for trips bound for the “old town” in the morning. In addition, a higher number of origin-destination pairs were served, at the expense of the need to interchange between the inner more frequent and the outer less frequent services. This implied that the number of transfers from one bus line to another significantly increased

Characterizing the polycentric spatial structure of Beijing Metropolitan Region using carpooling big data

Polycentric metropolitan regions are a high-level urbanization form characterized with dynamic layout, fuzzy boundary and various human activity performances. Owing to the complexity of polycentricity, it can be difficult to understand their spatial structure characteristics merely based on conventional survey data and method. This poses a challenge for authorities wishing to make effective urban land use and transport policies. Fortunately, the presence and availability of big data provides an opportunity for scholars to explore the complex metropolitan spatial structures, but there are still some research limitations in terms of data use and processing, unit scale, and method. To address these limitations, we proposed a three-step method to apply the carpooling big data in metropolitan analysis including: first, locating the metropolitan sub-centers; second, delimiting the metropolitan sphere; third, measuring the performance of polycentric structure. The developed method was tested in Beijing Metropolitan Region and the results show that the polycentric metropolitan region represents a hierarchical regional center system: one primary center interacting with seven surrounding secondary centers. These metropolitan centers have a strong attraction, which results in the continuous expansion beyond the administrative boundary to radiate more adjacent jurisdictions. Furthermore, the heterogeneity of human activity performance and role for each regional center is remarkable. It is necessary to consider the specific role of each sub-center when making metropolitan transport and land use policies. Compared with previous studies, the proposed method has the advantages of being more reliable, accurate and comprehensive in characterizing the polycentric spatial structure. The application of carpooling big data and the proposed method would provide a novel perspective for research on the other metropolitan regions

Re-Assessing TOD Index in Jakarta Metropolitan Region (JMR)

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is believed to be able to overcome the issues of urban transport. However, in practice, the current TOD in Jakarta  Metropolitan Region (JMR) is still a deficiency in accommodating the needs of transportation movement and not in facilitating services in terms of TOD function. The objective of this paper was to re-assess the service quality of actual TOD in 54 commuter railway stations. The paper performed criteria-indicators and measured a composite TOD index by using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)-multicriteria model, statistics test, and Geographical Information System (GIS) application. TOD index was found that urban areas have a high TOD index. On the other hand, the suburban areas have a low TOD-index. The statistical test showed that there was a strong correlation between different criteria. This paper concluded that most of the stations which were located in the suburban area had a low index thus need improvement. Consequently, the station areas needed to have a policy relevance. &nbsp

Organ Psychol Rev

In this introduction to the special issue about commuting, we invite readers to consider how this frequently occurring worker activity should be integrated and investigated within the organizational sciences. Commuting is ubiquitous in organizational life. Yet, despite this centrality, it remains one of the most understudied topics in the organizational sciences. This special issue seeks to remedy this oversight by introducing seven articles that review the literature, identify knowledge gaps, theorize through an organization science lens, and provide directions for future research. We introduce these seven articles by discussing how they address three cross-cutting themes (Challenging the Status Quo, Insights into the Commuting Experience, The Future of Commuting). We hope that the work within this special issue informs and inspires organizational scholars to engage in meaningful interdisciplinary research on commuting going forward.R01 OH011772/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States

Optimization of ITS Construction Scheme for Road Network under the Restriction of Different Transports’ Passenger Person-Kilometers

Diversified transport modes and increased personal transportation demands have increased in urban traffic problems such as traffic congestion and environmental pollution. To cope with traffic problems, advanced transportation technologies are being developed as intelligent transportation system (ITS). There is a growing trend to coordinate varying kinds of transportation modes. However, the effective construction and application of ITS in urban traffic can be affected by many factors, such as transport mode. Therefore, how to reasonably construct ITS by consideration of different transport modes’ characteristics and requirements is an important research challenge. Additionally, both costs and negative effects must be minimized and application efficiency is required to be optimal in the construction process. To address these requirements, a multiobjective optimization model and a fuzzy selecting optimum model were combined to study the construction scheme based on optimization results. The empirical analysis of Beijing, China, suggested several considerations for improvements to future road network ITS construction with controlled costs. Finally, guidelines are proposed to facilitate ITS construction, improve ITS application efficiency, and transform and innovate strategies to cope with urban traffic