Environmental Justice Applications in Transport: The International Perspective

This paper focuses on the application of environmental justice principles specifically in the transport context. It begins by giving a background of the environmental justice movement and a definition, and proceeds to describe current legislative mandates in the United States. A holistic approach to transport planning is introduced to highlight the importance of the interrelationships between transport and land use planning. Current practices adopted in terms of environmental justice are illustrated from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission report as well as a description of the data limitations that result from the models used in current analyses. The paper concludes by providing some recommendations on the areas that need to be developed to address environmental justice principles adequately, and the applicability of these principles internationally

Mobility patterns of the elderly tourist in Algarve

The present work is part of the Project for Scientific Research and Techno-logical Development "Accessibility for All in Tourism" focuses on modal in-terfaces designed according to the concepts of "Universal Design" and "Age Sensitive Design". In this project 851 surveys were carried out for elderly tourists, who arrived in Algarve (Portugal) through the international Airport of Faro, in the summer of 2018, with a view to understanding their prefer-ences and needs in terms of mobility. It presents the characterization of the senior tourist in Algarve, according to: gender, age, academic qualification, situation in the relation to the profession, nationality, disability and/or disa-bilities that affects mobility and the need to use technical aids to move. It analyses and compares, from the point of view of sustainable mobility, the mobility of the elderly tourist, by gender and age group, in the country where they reside and in the Algarve region. This information is useful for local au-thorities and for transport operators in order to make the mobility of elderly tourists, in Algarve, more sustainable from a social, economic and environ-mental standpoint.The Research Project ACCES4ALL - Accessibility for All in Tourisminfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Vulnerable Users’ Perceptions of Transport Technologies

As the global population continues to grow, age and urbanize, it is vital to provide accessible transport so that neither ageing nor disability constitute barriers to social inclusion. While technology can enhance urban access, there is a need to study the ways by which transport technologies - real-time information, pedestrian navigation, surveillance, and road pricing - could be more effectively adopted by users. The reason for this is that some people, and particularly vulnerable populations, are still likely to reluctantly use (or even avoid using) technologies perceived as 'unknown' and 'complicated'. Based on evidence from British and Swedish case studies on older people's perceptions of the aforementioned transport technologies, as well as on a Swedish case study of visually impaired people's perceptions, this article makes the case that technology is only one tool in a complex socio-technical system, and one which brings challenges. The authors also suggest that although vulnerable populations are not homogeneous when expressing attitudes towards transport technologies, their assessment criteria tend to be 'pro-social' as they usually consider that the societal benefits outweigh the personal benefits. Emphasising aspects linked to the technologies' pro-social potential or relevance to the individual user could increase acceptance

Heuristic Priority Ranking of Emergency Evacuation Staging to Reduce Clearance Time

Hazardous events, both natural and human-made, present tremendous risks to communities throughout the world. These events typically necessitate the evacuation of local or regional populations to safe destinations or shelters and have warning times ranging from minutes to hours or even days. The size and scope of these events present a challenge to the emergency management or agency personnel who must see to the health and safety of those living or working in their jurisdiction. This study evaluated various heuristic strategies to improve evacuation of an at-risk region by using a representative traffic roadway network. Finding evacuation strategies that reduce clearance time would lead to saving lives, time, and money. For the given test network, population density, or total number of trips, has an effect on overall clearance times; as densities (trips) increase, a greater potential for improved clearance time is indicated. Six different shift strategies were evaluated, each strategy based on origin-to-destination distances. For departure volumes greater than five vehicles per acre (approximately 12 vehicles per hectare), clearance times showed statistically significant improvements when departure times were shifted for groups within the network. In addition, the amount of the departure shift has an effect on clearance time

Exploring public transport usage trends in an ageing population

Travel behaviour, Public transport, Elderly, Travel, Trends,