Exploring the potential for sustainable accessibility across settlement types : a Swedish case

The potential for residents of smaller urban and rural areas to benefit from sustainable accessibility is an under-researched area. This paper explores accessibility to important every-day amenities within short travel times and how this differs across geography and mode of travel. The analysis draws on a combination of novel open-source data of the transport system and official Swedish register data of the total population of individuals and workplaces geocoded at a 100-meter resolution. The findings show considerable variation in accessibility to everyday amenities by travel mode for different settlement types. While the car provides good accessibility, short trips by bicycle are a very competitive alternative in urban and suburban areas. Access to every-day amenities by active travel modes is limited outside urban areas. Employing accessibility analysis by settlement type offers a powerful policy support tool for planners charged with developing measures to address sustainable accessibility for small urban and rural areas

The distribution of maser stars in the inner Milky Way: the effect of a weak, rotating bar

We derive the distribution of maser stars in the inner Milky Way (MW) based on an analysis of lV-diagrams (lVd) for two samples of maser stars: 771 OH/IR stars and 363 SiO-maser stars. They are all close to the plane of the MW and have long. from -45 to +45deg. The two lVds are compared and found to be very similar. They also compare well with the lVd of interstellar CO, but there are significant differences in detail between the stellar lVds and that of the ISM. Based on the qualitative discussion we divide the lVds into seven areas. In each area we compare the number of stars observed with those predicted by an assumed set of orbits in a galactic potential. This potential is axially symmetric but a weak rotating bar has been added. We conclude that the maser stars move on almost circular orbits outside of about 3.5 kpc, but that the orbits become more and more elongated when one goes deep inside our MW. We find a strong effect of the Corotation (CR) resonance (res) at 3.3 kpc, we see a small but noticeable effect of the Outer Lindblad res at 5 kpc and no effect of the Inner Lindblad res at r=0.8 kpc. We find a set of 6 groups of orbits that together predict counts in agreement with the counts of stars observed. We then calculate the trajectory of each orbit and so find the distribution of the maser stars in the plane of the MWG. This distribution has two new (but not unexpected) features. The first is a bar-like distribution within 2 kpc from the GC outlined. These orbits explain the high-vel stars near l=0deg in the forbidden and the permitted quadrants. The second feature are two "croissant"-like voids in the distribution close to the CR radius (3.3 kpc), which are the consequence of the presence of the CR res. We find excellent agreement with an earlier reconstruction by Sevenster (1999)

The changing role and importance of the built environment for daily travel in Sweden

Geography, in terms of the built environment and location patterns, was traditionally, and still is, emphasized by many scholars, policymakers, and planners as greatly influencing people’s daily travel behaviour. However, taking recent decades of rapidly increasing mobility capabilities (physical as well as virtual) into account, and the related increase in individual choice opportunities, others argue that the importance of geographic factors has gradually dissolved. Starting from this discussion, the overall aim of this thesis is to examine the current role and relative significance of the built environment for the geographical extension of individuals’ daily travel in Sweden. The thesis is based on three empirical studies in which particular attention is paid to detailing the impact of geographic factors on various daily travel activities (paper I); exploring possible changes over time in the importance of the built environment for home–work distances (paper II); and the potential relaxing of the relationships between locational structures and travel behaviour when people regularly use ICTs and telework (paper III). All three papers apply multivariate quantitative approaches to a unique combination of detailed, high spatially resolved micro-data, including the national travel surveys and register data of the total population. An overall conclusion of the thesis is that the proximity of various aspects of the built environment to home still plays an important role in how far people in Sweden travel daily. However, the analyses, informed by theory emphasizing everyday spatiotemporal constraints, reveal that these relationships have become relaxed in several important respects. First, the specific time–spatial constraints associated with different daily activities that motivate trips and travel are key and also differentiating factors. When considering trips taken during holidays and for everyday leisure purposes, the built environment is less important for the observed daily travelled distance. Whereas service trips to a greater extent is associated with the built environment surrounding home, and work trips even more. Second, important changes occur over time, here examined in the case of work trips. Workers living in the same neighbourhood increasingly travel divergent distances between home and work. This suggests a continued decrease in the influence of the built environment on work related travel. Third, in terms of time-spatial relaxation, a rapid increase of telework lately is an important case. The built environment influences teleworkers’ daily travel to a lesser extent than it does regular workers’ daily travel since telework allows for the freer scheduling of daily activities in time and space. Conclusively, the results confirm the importance of considering spatiotemporal constraints related to daily activities when exploring the role of the built environment and its importance for daily travel. More generally, the thesis also remind us that the importance of the built environment changes as an integral part of larger societal transformations connected with development of mobility technologies and profound socio-economic and demographic changes

Who Is Eligible for Telework? Exploring the Fast-Growing Acceptance of and Ability to Telework in Sweden, 2005–2006 to 2011–2014

The share of Swedish employees eligible for telework, that is, when work tasks and contractual agreement allow, increased from 22% in 2005–2006 to 35% in 2011–2014. This article explores this fast diffusion of telework eligibility. Micro data from representative national surveys are used to examine how increasing opportunities for telework have spread among different groups of employees and different parts of the labour market and to examine the factors that increase or decrease the probability of being eligible for telework. We find significant increases in telework eligibility in almost all categories of workers and all labour market sectors. However, employees are clearly grouped into those achieving rapid gains in telework eligibility and those achieving such gains much more slowly. Telework continues to be primarily available to high-status segments of the labour market. Information and communication technology and technical solutions increasingly appear to be key factors enabling telework

Is a car necessary for active aging? Relationships between aging, car use, and time spent on activities that sustain health and well-being

The aging population of the Global North is increasingly car dependent, with repercussions for health and well-being. This article analyzes how car use interacts with living an active life and how this has changed over time in Sweden. National time use data were used to analyze change in two cross sections of older people (65–84 years old) over a ten-year period (2000/01–2010/11). Previous studies concentrated on the relationship between travel behavior as such and older adult’s access to driver’s licenses and cars. We offer an integrated approach that includes all daily activities as we explore the changing social distribution of car use, as well as how different levels of car use are associated with time spent on active aging activities that benefit individuals and society.We conclude that an increasing proportion of the older population in Sweden are moderate to heavy car users and identify convergence over time between car use by older women and older men. We also find that heavy car users spend more time traveling to active aging activities. At first glance, this finding suggest that older people in Sweden are dependent on a car for living an active life. However, examination of how much time is actually spent on active activities after travel time is excluded reveals that few significant differences remain. This nuances the idea that access to a car is a necessity for spending time in activities that contribute to society and to personal well-being in old age

Movers and Stayers : A Study of Emigration from Sweden 1993–2014

A standard proposition in the migration literature is that emigrants are not drawn randomly from their source population, but rather compose a self-selected group in terms of labour market characteristics. Such self-selection refers to observed characteristics, such as education, or occupation, as well as unobserved characteristics such as cognitive abilities. However, due to data limitations, most previous studies on selectivity have analysed immigrants’ characteristics at destinations rather than using data from their source countries. This paper assesses emigrants’ selectivity patterns by following the full-risk population of natives over a long period of time (over 20 years). It also includes an innovative measure of selectivity on unobserved characteristics—namely, school performance—as a proxy for individual motivation and cognitive abilities, and it compares it to the widely used measure of income residuals. We use Swedish register data and assess the probabilities of leaving Sweden between 1993 and 2014 among men and women born in Sweden between 1975 and 1978. We further look for differences among Swedish emigrants who chose different countries of destination. The findings suggest that emigrants are positively self-selected in terms of their observed characteristics, whereas selectivity patterns in terms of unobserved characteristics are more complex. When we assess unobservable characteristics using compulsory school grades as a proxy, emigrants are found to be positively self-selected, while when using income residuals, we find that the effect is U-shaped. Individuals leaving to non-Nordic countries are also found to be more positively self-selected than those heading to neighbouring countries. We discuss these findings and their implications in light of economic and sociological theories

A multi-modal, multi-activity, multi-scalar analysis for sustainable accessibility planning

This paper explores the question of accessibility and sustainable mobility by the use of accessibility measures that combine transport mode, settlement type and amenity category. The overarching question is how to better understand the potential for sustainable living through good access to important every-day amenities within short travel times and how this differs across different geographies and modes of travel. The analysis is focused on region Västra Götaland, Sweden and draws on a unique combination of novel open-source data of the transport system and official Swedish register data of the total population of individuals and workplaces geocoded at a 100-meter resolution. The results are presented with a variety of different maps and multidimensional plots and confirm the strengths of the car as provider of good accessibility. However, for short trips of 10 minutes the bicycle provides a very competitive alternative in urban and suburban areas. Access to every-day amenities by slow modes is limited outside the built-up areas. Public transport is not a viable alternative until travel times are reaching 25-30 minutes. Results are discussed with emphasis on how measures relate to the interests of planning practice. For example, the selection of parameters and its problems, limitations and need for further development as well as the potential to develop measures that might respond to planners need for policy support. By way of conclusion, this paper is contributing with an exploration of measurement for comparison of all modes, in a detailed geography of settlement categories together with an in-depth consideration of the destination component of accessibility in terms of different activities/amenities