Knowledge-workers and the sustainable city: the travel consequences of car-related job-perks

Attracting firms in knowledge and technology intensive (KTI) sectors is highly desired at both the national and the regional level as a powerful engine of economic growth. Due to fierce competition in KTI sectors and national taxation policies, KTI firms often attract high-quality employees by offering car-related job perks as additional incentives to wage. In Canada, car allowance is offered by 46% of the employers to attract highly-skilled workers. In Israel, 61% of knowledge-workers in the KTI sectors receive a company-car with respect to 16% of workers in other sectors. In the U.K., car-related job perks are offered by 18% of the employers. This study focuses on the impact of car-related job-perks on the travel behavior of knowledge-workers. The importance of this issue derives from the impact of the travel behavior of knowledge-workers on congested transportation networks in metropolitan areas, as knowledge-based economy tends to concentrate mainly in metropolitan regions. This study applies discrete choice models in order to analyze the impact of company-cars and car allowances (reimbursement of fuel and parking expenses) on commute and leisure travel of knowledge-workers. The analyzed data consist of 750 observations, retrieved from a revealed-preferences survey among KTI workers who work and reside in the Tel-Aviv metropolitan area in Israel. Results show that car-related job perks are associated with (i) high annual mileage, (ii) high propensity of using the car as main commute mode, (ii) long commute distances and travel times, (iii) high trip chaining frequency in commuting trips, and (iii) high frequency of long-distance weekend leisure trips. Result also show that KTI workers generally prefer the car or non-motorized transport modes over the bus system. These results suggest that the development of sustainable knowledge-based cities should consider (i) the replacement of car-related job perks by other incentives, (ii) the provision of pedestrian and cyclist friendly infrastructures, and (iii) public transport improvements.

A survey of joint activities and travel of household members in the Greater Copenhagen Metropolitan Region

The traditional approach for modeling transport-related choices in Denmark refers to individual decision makers. However, in daily activities and travel choices individuals function according to the commitments as family members, and thus their choices derive from the welfare needs of other family members. A family-based approach enables to capture intra-household interactions and the priorities of household members in scheduling their daily activities, thus adding to the realism and the predictive strength of transport models. Joint activities and travel occur in order to maximize efficiency and family quality time, within a daily schedule. The current study unveils the joint activity and travel patterns of household members in the Copenhagen area, as part of the ACTUM research project, funded by the Danish Strategic Research Council, for the development of a new generation of activity-based models in Denmark

The choice to report cycling crashes in Denmark: The role of attitudes, norms and perceived difficulty

This study explores the behavioral factors underlying the reporting intentions of cycling accidents. The proposed analytical framework is an adapted version of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), accounting for the linkage between attitudes and the perceived difficulties, in order to understand the barriers impeding cycling accident reporting intentions. The barriers consist of attitudes that accident reporting is useless, preference to allocate time to other activities, concerns about family distress and social image, distrust in the police, and medical consultation aversion. The framework was validated by means of a survey, which yielded 1,512 complete responses from cyclists. The estimated structural equation models revealed: (i) the perceived difficulties are related to reporting intentions, to attitudes that accident reporting is useless, and to the reference to allocate time to other activities; (ii) medical consultation aversion has a higher weight than distrust in the police in demotivating cycling accident reporting intentions; (iii) the latent factors are mainly related to the socio-economic characteristics and the characteristics of the last cycling accident; (iv) information provision regarding the societal benefits of accident reporting is important for increasing the reporting rate

Paving the road from transport models to “new mobilities” models

For half a century, tremendous efforts have been invested in developing transport models as a decision aid for policy makers in designing effective policy interventions and deciding among costly public projects for the benefit of the population. Transport and activity-based models are often criticized for neglecting the “new mobilities” turn (Urry 2007, Cresswell 2006), namely multiple mobility aspects and rationales, including social, cultural, material, aesthetic and affective, in analyzing travel behavior. This paper aims at taking a tentative first step in bridging the gap between the traditional transport modeling approach and “new mobilities” research by suggesting a model framework that considers non-instrumental transport rationales, personal latent traits and intra-household decision dynamics

Paving the road from transport models to “new mobilities” models

For half a century, tremendous efforts have been invested in developing transport models as a decision aid for policy makers in designing effective policy interventions and deciding among costly public projects for the benefit of the population. Transport and activity-based models are often criticized for neglecting the “new mobilities” turn (Urry 2007, Cresswell 2006), namely multiple mobility aspects and rationales, including social, cultural, material, aesthetic and affective, in analyzing travel behavior. This paper aims at taking a tentative first step in bridging the gap between the traditional transport modeling approach and “new mobilities” research by suggesting a model framework that considers non-instrumental transport rationales, personal latent traits and intra-household decision dynamics