The impact of road infrastructure failures on traffic conditions and travel behaviour in urban areas – the case of the Lazienkowski Bridge in Warsaw

This article deals with the problems of failures of transport infrastructure sections and their consequences. The article presents the research problem of assessing the impact of the fire on Lazienkowski Bridge, in Warsaw, on the travel behaviour of city residents as well as traffic conditions in the city. Changes occurring directly after the bridge’s failure during the period up to several months after the event were analysed. In order to assess the consequences of the failure, data obtained from traffic measurements on selected bridge crossings and interview surveys carried out among city residents were used. The results of the surveys proved that the exclusion of the Lazienkowski Bridge from traffic resulted in a significant increase in traffic volumes on other bridges, especially neighbouring ones, and resulted in longer rush hours on the bridge crossings in question. 42% of the city‘s residents felt the negative consequences of the failure in the form of worse conditions of travel and 36% of the residents reported a longer travel time to work/school. The failure also caused changes in travel behaviour as regards the choice of means of transport, travel route or not travelling altogether. The consequences of the failure affected, to the greatest extent, the residents of areas most functionally connected with the bridge

The Application of the Multiple Criteria Decision Aid to Assess Transport Policy Measures Focusing on Innovation

The sustainable development of transport is fostered by innovations. To implement innovations, the European Commission issues different regulations, programs and initiatives and the European Transport Policy has a significant impact on transport policy in the member states. At the same time, transport policy is dynamic and requires new solutions that will allow the planned goals to be achieved. In this context, it is important to analyze the effectiveness of the current innovation policies, and to create recommendations for future actions that bring innovations to the market. This article concerns the subject of innovation policy in the transport sector. It illustrates the possibility of applying one of the methods of the multiple criteria decision aid, i.e., the simple additive weighting (SAW) method to assess the European Union (EU) and national policy measures in surface transport in terms of their influence on the market take-up of innovations. The use of this method allows for the analyzed policy measures to be contemplated in terms of various criteria and to identify those that best meet the adopted criteria, and thus those that could contribute the most to the stimulation of innovation. The article focuses on the method itself, indicating its flexibility and ease of use, while the analyzed collection of policy measures constitutes only the background of the deliberations

The Travel Behaviour of Polish Women and Adaptation of Transport Systems to Their Needs

Although knowledge of women’s travel behaviours is essential to guarantee equality in transport, there is still a lack of awareness of gender-differentiated behaviour and gender issues are not often incorporated into urban policy. The aim of the article is to present a first attempt at a wider-scale diagnosis of women’s travel behaviours and needs as well as existing barriers to transportation access for woman in Poland, with respect to current findings. Documents on history, culture, social factors and labour market data were reviewed to indicate factors that may explain travel behaviours. The data of the Travel Studies for seven Polish cities were analysed to diagnose gender differences in travel. Public policies and initiatives were analysed to examine the level of awareness of women’s needs and the adaptation of transport to these needs. The results proved that the greatest differences in the trip purpose was observed for age group 25–49, in which women make more trips for errands, and men for work. Women travel more, which is observed among 25–59-year-olds, if the main occupation is considered. Women travel more on foot and by public transport, while men by private car and the results indicate that it is mostly visible for people aged 25–59. The age groups 39–49 for women and 30–49 for men are the most dependent on the car. The differences may be explained by historical, cultural and social factors, and these factors can be also seen as barriers to achieving equal access to transport. A low level of awareness of women’s mobility needs is one of the reasons that Polish transport systems are not fully adapted to their needs

CORRELATIONS OF URBAN SPRAWL WITH TRANSPORT PATTERNS AND SOCIOECONOMICS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN CRACOW, POLAND

Urban sprawl is considered as a western urban development pattern, which is common in different cities around the world. Although, a large number of studies have focused on urban sprawl, modelling urban sprawl has been less emphasised, especially in various geographical contexts. This study aims to investigate urban sprawl and its determinants in a post-socialist country and model urban sprawl based on disaggregated data. In addition, the correlations of urban sprawl with travel patterns were examined, along with the socioeconomic characteristics of university students in Cracow, Poland by applying the Weighted Least Square (WLS) regression model. The WLS regression model was fitted based on the data from 1,288 online questionnaires targeting university students. Furthermore, urban sprawl around the home and the university for each student who indicated the nearest intersection to their home and university were separately estimated by employing the Shannon entropy. Based on the findings, urban sprawl around homes was correlated with 14 transport patterns and socioeconomic features such as gender, age, driving license, financial dependency status, gross monthly income, number of commute trips, mode of transportation for commuting, number of trips for shopping or entertainment, daily shopping area, mode choice for shopping and entertainment trips inside and outside the neighbourhoods, frequency of public transport use, the attractiveness of shops inside the neighbourhoods, and the length of time living in the current home. Additionally, urban sprawl around the university was significantly correlated with age, car ownership, number of commute trips, and a sense of belonging to neighbourhoods, entertainment place, and residential location choice. Finally, a positive correlation was reported between urban sprawl with higher income, elderly student, financial dependent students, and car dependency trips, while urban sprawl was negatively related to the use of public transit