Accessibility to health care facilities in Montreal Island: an application of relative accessibility indicators from the perspective of senior and non-senior residents

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Geographical access to health care facilities is known to influence health services usage. As societies age, accessibility to health care becomes an increasingly acute public health concern. It is known that seniors tend to have lower mobility levels, and it is possible that this may negatively affect their ability to reach facilities and services. Therefore, it becomes important to examine the mobility situation of seniors vis-a-vis the spatial distribution of health care facilities, to identify areas where accessibility is low and interventions may be required.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Accessibility is implemented using a cumulative opportunities measure. Instead of assuming a fixed bandwidth (i.e. a distance threshold) for measuring accessibility, in this paper the bandwidth is defined using model-based estimates of average trip length. Average trip length is an all-purpose indicator of individual mobility and geographical reach. Adoption of a spatial modelling approach allows us to tailor these estimates of travel behaviour to specific locations and person profiles. Replacing a fixed bandwidth with these estimates permits us to calculate customized location- and person-based accessibility measures that allow inter-personal as well as geographical comparisons.</p> <p>Data</p> <p>The case study is Montreal Island. Geo-coded travel behaviour data, specifically average trip length, and relevant traveller's attributes are obtained from the Montreal Household Travel Survey. These data are complemented with information from the Census. Health care facilities, also geo-coded, are extracted from a comprehensive business point database. Health care facilities are selected based on Standard Industrial Classification codes 8011-21 (Medical Doctors and Dentists).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Model-based estimates of average trip length show that travel behaviour varies widely across space. With the exception of seniors in the downtown area, older residents of Montreal Island tend to be significantly less mobile than people of other age cohorts. The combination of average trip length estimates with the spatial distribution of health care facilities indicates that despite being more mobile, suburban residents tend to have lower levels of accessibility compared to central city residents. The effect is more marked for seniors. Furthermore, the results indicate that accessibility calculated using a fixed bandwidth would produce patterns of exposure to health care facilities that would be difficult to achieve for suburban seniors given actual mobility patterns.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The analysis shows large disparities in accessibility between seniors and non-seniors, between urban and suburban seniors, and between vehicle owning and non-owning seniors. This research was concerned with potential accessibility levels. Follow up research could consider the results reported here to select case studies of actual access and usage of health care facilities, and related health outcomes.</p

Assessing planning decisions by activity type during the scheduling process

Existing activity-based models still make assumptions about scheduling decision processes that are not well-informed by empirical evidence. In this article, a step forward is taken to better understand the activity-scheduling process and to improve activity-based models. In particular, different planning decision mechanisms depending on several activity type classifications are explored. First, models describing the planning of several aggregate activity types are considered. For these activities, three planning decisions are studied: location, planning time horizon and rescheduling. The 'with whom' planning decision is also studied when subtypes of recreational/entertainment activities are investigated in depth. Significant differences are found in modelling results for each activity type and subtype and each planning decision. These results confirm the existence of different mechanisms underlying the activity-travel decision process when activity types and subtypes are considered. Important conclusions related to the improvement of microsimulation models are highlighted.Ruiz Sánchez, T.; Roorda, MJ. (2011). Assessing planning decisions by activity type during the scheduling process. Transportmetrica. 7(6):417-442. doi:10.1080/18128602.2010.520276S4174427

Toronto area car ownersyhip study, a longitudinal survey and a preliminary analysis of results

grantor: University of TorontoThe Toronto Area Car Ownership Study was conducted to define the state-of-the-art in car ownership modelling, to design and administer a longitudinal survey to fulfill the data requirements for such a model, to validate the survey results and to conduct preliminary analysis on those results. An in-depth retrospective telephone survey design was chosen to allow a dynamic nested logit vehicle transactions model to be estimated. The survey was conducted with the help of a computer aid and was found to produce results consistent with prior beliefs about car ownership behaviour. Simple univariate analyses were conducted on the data to determine the relationship between characteristics of the household and the occurrence of vehicle transactions, the choice of vehicle type, the number of years a vehicle is held, and the degree of consumer loyalty to different types of vehicles.M.A.Sc

Autonomous vehicle parking policies: A case study of the City of Toronto

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) can eliminate the burden of finding a parking spot upon arrival to the destination. AVs can park at a strategic location or cruise until summoned by their users. In this study, we investigate AV users’ parking decision considering their cost and time constraints. Each users’ decision has impacts on congestion which can change feasible options of other users. Hence, we use an agent-based simulation model to study AV parking policies. Results show that travelers consider sending their vehicles to park at home if they have to pay to use a parking facility. Also, our analysis for downtown Toronto shows that AVs would travel on average 12 min and a maximum of 47 min to park in cheaper parking lots. We also find that assigning the same parking price across all the parking facilities would exacerbate the congestion by motiving more AVs to cruise instead of choosing the closest parking lot. However, we show that a toll for zero-occupant AVs leads to a tradeoff between parking cost and distance that would decrease the VKT by 3.5% in downtown Toronto

Truck-Only Lanes on Urban Arterials: A Value of Time Approach

This conference paper is published by Elsevier in Procedia – Social and Behavioural Sciences in 2014 and is available online at dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.1457.This study evaluates the travel cost benefits of truck-only lanes (TOL) on arterial roads, from a value of time perspective. A simple three-lane TOL corridor is developed and demand and value of time scenarios are systematically analysed using a user equilibrium assignment procedure. It is concluded that implementing a TOL when truck proportions are too low results in significantly higher travel costs than if all lanes are left as general purpose lanes. Implementing a TOL when truck proportions are too high also does not result in travel cost benefits. Based on travel cost considerations, TOL on arterial roadways appear to be marginally justifiable only under quite specific traffic volume, truck percentage and value of time conditions

Cruising for Parking with Autonomous and Conventional Vehicles

Parking is a cumbersome part of auto travel because travelers have to search for a spot and walk from that spot to their final destination. This conventional method of parking will change with the arrival of autonomous vehicles (AV). In the near future, users of AVs get dropped off at their final destination and the occupant-free AVs search for the nearest and most convenient parking spot. Hence, individuals no longer bear the discomfort of cruising for parking while sitting in their vehicle. This paper quantifies the impact of AVs on parking occupancy and traffic flow on a corridor that connects a home zone to a downtown zone. The model considers a heterogeneous group of AVs and conventional vehicles (CV) and captures their parking behavior as they try to minimize their generalized travel costs. Insights are obtained from applying the model to two case studies with uniform and linear parking supply along the corridor. We show that (i) CVs park closer to the downtown zone in order to minimize their walking distance, whereas AVs park farther away from the downtown zone to minimize their parking search time, (ii) AVs experience a lower search time than CVs, and (iii) higher AV penetration rates reduce travel costs for both AVs and CVs.Peer Reviewe

Past Presidents\u27 Award for Merit in Transportation Engineering: Assessing Transportation Policy Using an Activity-Based Microsimulation Model of Travel Demand

For over 50 years, travel demand models have provided decision support for transportation infrastructure planning. However, the current emphasis on travel demand management policies, which allows for more efficient use of existing road and transit capacity, requires improved methods of analysis. This paper presents a new operational prototype microsimulation model of travel and activity scheduling for household agents (TASHA). This model provides more precise outputs than current state-of-practice models with little increase in supporting data requirements. The functionality of the model is summarized. The model is well-suited to assess alternative hours (e.g., flexible working hours and telecommuting), high-occupancy vehicle lanes and intelligent transportation system initiatives. The model is applied to several transportation policy problems in Toronto to demonstrate the potential benefits of the TASHA modeling approach. The model shows significant promise, although more research is needed before the TASHA system is ready for large-scale implementation