Breaking Down the Daily Use of Places - A Space-Time Typology of Temporary Populations in the Netherlands

In a network society, spurred on by technological, social, and economic factors, the process of land use deconcentration has resulted in various new urban forms such as edge cities and edgeless cities. While the consequences of this process for the distribution of the residential population and travel patterns have been extensively described and analyzed, there has as yet been little investigation of its effect on visitors’ use of places. The aim of this study is to develop a typology of urban, suburban, and rural municipalities located in monocentric and polycentric urban systems on the basis of dimensions of diurnal weekday variations in visitor populations. The dimensions used in this study have been derived from the 1998 Netherlands National Travel Survey. A two-step cluster analysis resulted in five types of municipality: ‘central place’, ‘contemporary node’, ‘self-contained’, ‘mobile children’, and ‘local children’. The results reveal that, compared with monocentric urban systems, settlements in polycentric urban systems are more networked; that is, suburbs in these systems are capable of attracting a substantial share of working visitors who have their residence in the core city (‘contemporary node’) and school children from other suburban and central city communities (‘mobile children’). Outside the urban systems the ‘self-contained’ type, which contains people at work, learning, and in recreation locally and lacks the inflow of visitors from outside, is over represented.

Shopping online and/or in-store? A structural equation model of the relationships between e-shopping and in-store shopping

Searching product information or buying goods online is becoming increasingly popular and could affect shopping trips. However, the relationship between e-shopping and in-store shopping is currently unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate empirically how the frequencies of online searching, online buying, and non-daily shopping trips relate to each other, after controlling for sociodemographic, land use, behavioral, and attitudinal characteristics. Data were collected from 826 respondents residing in four municipalities (one urban, three suburban) in the center of the Netherlands, using a shopping survey. Structural Equation Modeling was used to give insight in the mutual dependencies of the endogenous variables, and in direct and indirect effects between variables. The findings suggest that complementarity or generation between e-shopping and in-store shopping seems to be more likely to occur than substitution. The more often people search online, the more shopping trips they tend to make. Frequent in-store shoppers also buy frequently online. Shop accessibility has a negative effect on the frequency of online searching; the more shops are nearby, the less often persons search online. However, shop accessibility influences the frequency of online buying positively; the more shops are nearby, the more often persons buy online. Urbanisation level affects e-shopping indirectly via Internet use: urban residents shop online more often than suburban residents do, because urban residents use the Internet more often.

The impact of metropolitan structure on commute behavior in the Netherlands: a multilevel approach

The effect of decentralization of land uses on travel behavior remains an unresolved issue in the academic literature. Some US researchers argue that a tendency towards polycentrism is associated with decreasing commute times and distances. Others have, however, suggested and shown the opposite commute times and distances tend to be longer in polycentric than in monocentric urban areas. Using this controversy as a starting point, we analyse how monocentric and polycentric urban structures affect commuting in the Netherlands with data from the 1998 National Travel Survey. Four kinds of urban systems are distinguished: one monocentric and three polycentric systems. In contrast to most previous work, we use multilevel regression analysis to take adequate account of the effects of individual and household attributes. The results indicate that urban structure influences most dimensions of commuting considered here. Yet, individual and household level variables are more important determinants than characteristics of the residential and workplace environment. Gender, household type and their interaction effects remain important determinants of commute behavior in the Netherlands; particularly women in two-earner households commute less than average. Education and income are both positively related to the amount of commuting. Further, the effects of mono- and polycentrism on commuting are more complicated than the literature makes us believe. When individual and household level factors are taken account of, polycentrism does not always result in more efficient commute patterns than monocentric urban structures: in most polycentric urban areas commute distances and times are longer than in monocentric ones. Only when polycentric regions consist of several relatively independent and self-contained development nodes are commute distances shorter than elsewhere. Commute times are in that case comparable to those in monocentric urban areas. The impact of urban structure disappears when commute time is related to the time spent on work activities; the ratio between commute time and work duration is not much affected by the type of urban system in which workers reside. The fact that commute times and distances are not lower in polycentric urban areas may be attributed to the specific situation in the Netherlands: strong spatial planning policies may have obstructed the relocation of employment and housing in close proximity of each other. However, the longer commute in most policentric regions may also indicate that workers and their households not always behave as urban economic theory predicts. In any case, the results show that it is necessary to distinguish several types of polycentric systems instead of merely using a dichotomy of monocentric and polycentric in the analysis of commuting.

Urban Governance and Infrastructure: Coping with Diversity, Complexity and Uncertainty

In this concluding chapter, we discuss how these two perspectives on urban infrastructures and urban performance could be linked to each other. For this purpose, the next section proposes a framework for an integrated approach. Section 'Learning from theoretical and practical experiences' combines the most important issues raised in the contributions to this book. In the concluding section, we formulate some suggestions for research in the near futur

Employment deconcentration in European metropolitan areas: A comprehensive comparison and policy implications

This chapter features a cross-national comparison of economic deconcentration in 12 European metropolitan areas analysing two attributes of employment deconcentration: the magnitude, which refers to the scale of deconcentration; and the physical form. The discussion is positioned in the framework of two dimensions of governance systems: welfare-state regime and central-local government relations. Our expectation that deconcentration would take place on a smaller scale and in a more concentrated form in comprehensive welfare state systems than in liberal regimes is confirmed for one decentralized comprehensive welfare state case and three decentralized liberal state metropolitan areas, but not for the other seven cases. Arguments accounting for this mismatch are put forward. In addition, the effects of deconcentration on the quality of life and the impact of policies are discussed

Consumer Car Preferences and Information Search Channels

In this paper, we measure the relations between stated and revealed car preferences and the use of information sources in the car purchasing process, based on a survey of households in the Netherlands. The analysis showed that attitudinal and behavioral constructs are found for ‘environmental’, ‘performance’, and ‘convenience’ preferences, but that there is a ‘gap’ between attitude and behavior. The results show that people with a positive environmental attitude who also show environmentally friendly behavior have more involvement with cars than people who do not translate their environmental attitude into the corresponding behavior. This leads to the idea that not only environmental knowledge but also involvement with cars is a prerequisite for buying an environmentally friendly car.car purchase, involvement, attitude–behavior gap, information search

Involvement and use of multiple search channels in the automobile purchase process

In this study we investigate the relationship between involvement and use of multiple search channels in the case of pre-purchase information search for automobiles. We derive theoretical hypotheses by combining arguments from both an economic or cost/benefit approach and a motivational perspective. Our theoretical framework is tested on a sample of 1392 Dutch consumers using a structural equation model approach. We find that interpersonal sources and retailers are relatively often consulted and their use is not strongly related to involvement. The use of channels such as the World Wide Web and mass media is instead strongly related to involvement, because their specialized content is best appreciated by highly involved consumers. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.car purchase, involvement, pre-purchase information search

Творчі зв'язки України та Естонії на теренах історичної науки

Mobility management measures taken by firms could potentially result in more sustainable transport choices and hence reduce traffic congestion and emissions. Fringe benefits offered to employees are a means to implement those measures. This paper explores the most common commuting-related fringe benefits currently provided by employers in the Netherlands, namely telework, flextime and allowance types like public transport passes, bicycle contribution, company cars and general financial compensation. By using the Dutch National Time Use Survey (TBO) 2005/2006, interrelationships among fringe benefits and correlations between company, employee, and (home and work) location characteristics and those employee benefits could be investigated. Logistic regressions and Tobit models are used for several estimations indicating the provision and the use of fringe benefits. The results show that relationships among fringe benefits exist, mainly between telework and flextime, but also between those flexible work arrangements and some types of commuting allowance. Furthermore, numerous job, person and geographical variables affect the probability of receiving and using the fringe benefits. For example, in the non-profit and the public sector sustainable commuting benefits are more often provided, the use of fringe benefits is strongly influenced by household composition and several allowance types show a significant correlation with the number of cars in the household. Moreover, firm location, in particular firm density, is highly related to mobility management measures taken by firms

Корпоративна соціальна відповідальність у системі корпоративного управління

Although there is ample evidence that the way we feel and anticipate feeling in certain situations or places can assert great influence on our behavior, this emotional component of the space–time path has for the most part remained external to time geographical analyses. Working from within a time geographical framework, this paper shows that spatio-temporal and emotional boundaries are both relevant and interacting while persons travel their paths through time and space. To that purpose we suggest a reinterpretation of authority constraints and to take into account the biological and cultural expressions of individuals. The rather static conceptualizations of the poverty–context relationship in poverty studies could benefit from an emotionally sensitive time geography. We draw from a small case study of lowincome single mothers in San Francisco, California

Behoeften, mogelijkheden en gedragskeuzen met betrekking tot het verplaatsingsgedrag: een multidisciplinair perspectief

De problemen inzake verkeer en vervoer zijn niet goed to begrijpen zonder inzicht in het verplaatsingsgedrag van mensen. Een beter begrip van dat verplaatsingsgedrag leidt eveneens tot meer inzicht in onderwerpen als het functioneren van vervoersystemen en de invloed van ruimtelijke inrichting op verkeer en vervoer. Over dat gedrag gaat dit hoofdstuk. We zullen vragen beantwoorden als: Waarom verplaatsen wij ons? Wat zijn de drijvende krachten achter het verplaatsingsgedrag? Wat is de relatie tussen verplaatsingsgedrag en andere mobiliteitskeuzen, zoals de keuze van de woonplek en de aanschaf van vervoermiddelen? Welke factoren zijn van invloed op deze gedragskeuzen? We zullen deze vragen beantwoorden vanuit psychologische, economische en geografische perspectieve