The factors influencing car use in a cycle-friendly city: the case of Cambridge.

Encouraging people out of their cars and into other modes of transport, which has major advantages for health, the environment and urban development, has proved difficult. Greater understanding of the influences that lead people to use the car, particularly for shorter journeys, may help to achieve this. This paper examines the predictors of car use compared with the bicycle to explore how it may be possible to persuade more people to use the bicycle instead of the car. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the socio-demographic, transport and health-related correlates of mode choice for work, shopping and leisure trips in Cambridge, a city with high levels of cycling by UK standards. The key findings are that commuting distance and free workplace parking were strongly associated with use of the car for work trips, and car availability and lower levels of education were associated with car use for leisure, shopping and short-distanced commuting trips. The case of Cambridge shows that more policies could be adopted, particularly a reduction in free car parking, to increase cycling and reduce the use of the car, especially over short distances

Activity compensation and activity synergy in British 8-13 year olds

Objectives. To examine whether children compensate for participating in physically active behaviors by reducing activity at other times (the 'activitystat' hypothesis); or alternatively become more active at other times (activity synergy).Methods. In 2002-2006, 345 British children (8-13 years) completed activity diaries and wore accelerometers. This generated 1077 days of data which we analyzed between-children (comparing all days) and within-child (comparing days from the same child).Results. On week and weekend days, each extra 1% of time in PE/games, school breaks, school active travel, non-school active travel, structured sports and out-of-home play predicted a 0.21 to 0.60% increase in the proportion of the day in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). None of these behaviors showed evidence of reduced MVPA at other times, i.e. activity compensation (all p>0.15). Moreover, each 1% increase in weekday non-school active travel predicted 0.38% more time in MVPA at other times (95% CI 0.18, 0.58). This activity synergy reflected children using active travel for playing and visiting friends.Conclusions. Contrary to the 'activitystat' hypothesis, we found no evidence of activity compensation. This suggests that interventions increasing activity in specific behaviors may increase activity overall. The activity synergy of non-school active travel underlines the need for further research into this neglected behavior

Gender, mental health and travel

This paper examines gender differences in travel behaviour by people with mental health conditions based on the results of an on-line survey. Responses from 363 people have been weighted by figures from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014 to make them representative of the population with mental illness in England. The evidence from the surveys presented in this paper shows that more women than men have panic attacks, but that more men than women have communication difficulties. More women than men are prevented by their mental health condition from leaving home, using bus, rail and metro and from buying rail tickets in advance. Significantly more women than men suffered from the following anxieties when travelling: the need for support, wayfinding, interacting with fellow travellers and concerns about the failure of the bus, train or car. For women, the greatest need seems to be policies and actions that will increase their confidence when travelling such as access to staff when assistance is required and clear information when travelling, plus the opportunity to receive travel training. More men than women wanted improvements to the travelling environment, such as less clutter on the street. Summing up, implementing improvements to increase confidence when travelling could help to reduce gender inequalities

Structure of linkages between transport and land use

It is widely accepted that there is a two-way relationship between land use and transport. The effects of land use on transport can be modeled at both aggregate and disaggregate levels using well-established methodologies. However, there is no established representation of the converse relationship. A number of models exist that represent this two-way relationship, and many of them have been compared within the research program of the International Study Group on Land-Use Transport Interaction (ISGLUTI). However, the results from that work suggest not only that many mechanisms represent the linkages, but also that their dynamic behavior is not well understood. This paper focuses on the analysis of these mechanisms, drawing on experience from the ISGLUTI study. The representation of the response to a change in transport costs is analyzed for three integrated land-use transport models in terms of such topics as modal choice, locational choice, car ownership and the effects on the location of physical infrastructure.

Visualizing childrens walking behaviour using portable global positioning (GPS) units and activity monitors

Previous behavioural research involving walking has mainly focused on the personal and social factors that can affect physical activity. More recently, studies have been increasing which argue that the built environment has also strong impacts on personal physical activity level, although there is a poor understanding between urban form and physical activity association in children. Nowadays children enjoy less freedom in the urban setting than previously, and it is becoming clear that less independence and mobility constrain children’s development. A decline of children’s physical activity level is also apparent, which parallels the increase of overweight / obesity and sedentary activities. Thus, there is an urgent need to understand better children’s movement patterns as users of the built environment. In these studies, traditional methodologies (e.g. observation, self-reported, questionnaire and so on) are difficult to use in accurately investigating children’s outdoor movement. However state-of-art portable Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has made studies of children’s outdoor movement possible. In our study, nearly 160 children from 2 local primary schools in the British town of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire have been monitored over a period of four days from September 2005 to June 2006 by fitting children with portable GPS Units and energy monitors. In this paper, 3D geovisualisation is shown to be a very effective tool to display the local travel that children make on foot, the places children go to, and the places where children are most physically active. Children’s daily movement pathways are then characterized using a variety of measures, such as gender, age, energy expense, land use location, turning angles, travelling speed and so on. The results shown in this paper indicate how children interact differently with their local environment when they are with adults and or other children and compare these to activity when they play alone. In this way, the level of energy expended under different circumstances can be visualised

Comments on 'the limitations of transport policy'

This paper has been written as a response to the paper of Metz (2002) on 'The limitations of transport policy'. It is argued that the issues involved are more complex than Metz implies, and that many current travel patterns stem from decisions made previously about lifestyles, as a result of changing patterns of work, the availability of home-computing facilities, and increasing aspirations and income. Neither the models nor the data sources available to transport planners reflect these trends, and transport policy tends to be simplistic. Many of the transport policy issues stem from increasing car dependency, with its implications, particularly for the elderly and for the young. It is argued that transport policy has not been very effective in the past, and it is likely to be even less so in the future. Hence, there is a need to redefine the role of the transport planner and recognize the limitations of transport policy. © 2002 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved

THE IMPACT OF NEW URBAN PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEMS: WILL THE EXPECTATIONS BE MET?

There is increasing concern about dependence on the car and the need to improve the environment in many cities. One approach is to construct new public transport systems. Many of these are being planned and constructed in cities around the world. This paper is concerned with the way in which decisions are made about such systems, in particular the rationale underlying the decision-making process and the implications for the city in terms of travel demand, urban development and the environment. The analysis is based upon a worldwide survey carried out as part of a project to investigate the decision-making process involving the selection of the most appropriate technology for an urban transport system

Developing new urban public transport systems : An irrational decision-making process

The decision-making process for planning new urban public transport systems in the UK is examined by studying 11 new and planned systems. The objectives of building the systems relate to transport and development issues. A number of key factors are taken into account during the decision-making process: forecast demand, image, deregulation of buses, technological innovation, private sector involvement and the funding mechanism. The requirement for proven technology and the forecast demand for the systems reduces the choice to one of light rail or bus. The effects of bus deregulation, funding and image, essentially reduce that choice to light rail or nothing. Cost should be kept low, which suggests a bus based system, but current legislation favours more expensive light rail systems. The conclusion is that although transport planners make rational decisions within the current political framework, the framework, and therefore some of the decisions, are not rational.