London 2012: changing delivery patterns in response to the impact of the Games on traffic flows

The paper addresses road freight transport operations during the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012. It presents work carried out prior to the Games to understand pre-Games patterns of freight deliveries in London (for both light and heavy goods vehicles) and the results of modelling work carried out to assess the likely impacts of the Games road restrictions on freight operations. The modelling results indicated that increases in total hours travelled carrying out collection and delivery work would range from 1.4% to 11.4% in the six sectors considered. The results suggested increases in hours travelled in excess of 3.5% in four of the six sectors modelled. The possible actions that could be taken by organizations to reduce these negative impacts were also modelled and the results indicated that such actions would help to mitigate the impact of the road restrictions imposed on operators during the Games. The actual impacts of the 2012 Games on transport both in general terms and specifically in terms of freight transport are also discussed, together with the success of the actions taken by Transport for London (TfL) to help the road freight industry. The potential freight transport legacy of the London 2012 Games in terms of achieving more sustainable urban freight transport is considered and the steps being taken by TfL to help ensure that such a legacy can be realized are discussed. Such steps include policy-makers continuing to collaborate closely with the freight industry through the ‘London Freight Forum’, and TfL's efforts to encourage and support companies revising their delivery and collection times to the off-peak; improving freight planning in the design and management of TfL-funded road schemes; electronic provision of traffic information by TfL to the freight industry, and the further development of freight journey planning tools

Diversifying and normalising cycling in London, UK: An exploratory study on the influence of infrastructure

This article examines the extent to which protected infrastructure is associated with greater diversity and normalisation of cycling. In the UK, cyclists are predominantly male and often wear distinctive cycle clothing rather than everyday clothes. This is not the case in higher-cycling countries such as the Netherlands and Germany. It has been argued that the UK's demographic skewing may be partly due to poor quality infrastructure which can be off-putting for many, but particularly for women, children and older people. Route choice studies tend to confirm that women are more likely than men to choose routes with greater levels of separation from motor traffic. Other work suggests that if cycling feels unsafe, cyclists may wear specialised cycle clothing such as helmets, which then may itself support a perception of cycling as dangerous. This small-scale exploratory study examines age, gender, and use of specialist clothing in relation to infrastructure type, comparing a recently improved route with separate space for cyclists to parallel busy streets without protected cycle infrastructure. The separated route showed better, though still unequal, demographic balance and a reduced tendency for cyclists to wear helmets and sporty clothing, though not high-visibility items. Infrastructure type is only one factor in route choice, particularly if there is relatively little good infrastructure along key desire lines. However this paper suggests that infrastructure for cycling could help to improve perceptions of safety and the need to wear specialist cycle clothing. In turn this could promote a better demographic balance and normalise cycling

The scope for pavement porters: addressing the challenges of last-mile parcel delivery in London

The UK parcel sector generated almost £9 billion in revenue in 2015, with growth expected to increase by 15.6% in 2019 and is characterized by many independent players competing in an ‘everyone-delivers-everywhere’ culture leading to much replication of vehicle activity. With road space in urban centers being increasingly reallocated to pavement widening, bus and cycle lanes, there is growing interest in alternative solutions to the last-mile delivery problem. We make three contributions in this paper: firstly, through empirical analysis using carrier operational datasets, we quantify the characteristics of last-mile parcel operations and demonstrate the reliance placed on walking which can make up over 60% of the round time; secondly we introduce the concept of ‘portering’ where vans rendezvous with porters who operate within specific ‘patches’ to service consignees on-foot, potentially saving 86% in driving distance on some rounds; finally, we highlight the wider practical issues and optimization challenges associated with operating driving and portering rounds in inner urban areas

Lighting for cycling in the UK : a review

While UK governments have recently sought to increase cycling activity, it remains a minority interest. One reason for this is the perceived danger of cycling on roads filled with traffic. There is statistical evidence to support this perception; for equal exposure, cyclists are more likely to be seriously injured than either drivers or pedestrians. Lighting has a role to play in reducing the hazards of cycling by enhancing the visibility and conspicuity of cyclists. Unfortunately, it is not at all clear that the current lighting regulations and recommendations for cycling and cyclists are the best that can be achieved or are even adequate for these purposes. A number of actions are suggested that should enable lighting’s contribution to the safety of cyclists to be realized

Improving bus service reliability: The Singapore experience

In February 2014, Singapore embarked on a 2-year trial of a Bus Service Reliability Framework (BSRF) to improve en-route bus regularity and reduce instances of bus bunching and prolonged waiting times. Based on London's Quality Incentive Contract, the Singapore model also imposes penalties or provides incentives to operators for increases/reductions of Excess Wait Time (EWT) beyond a certain route-specific baseline. Drawing on insights derived from research on performance-based contracts, this paper describes some key considerations surrounding this particular innovation in Singapore's overall bus regulatory framework. We also discuss an important advancement in our understanding of how bus users value reliability improvements through estimates obtained from stated preference data. At the same time, early indications from the trial have been encouraging

Modelling transport energy demand : a socio-technical approach

Peer reviewedPostprin

Motor traffic on urban minor and major roads: impacts on pedestrian and cyclist injuries

This article compares per-mile risks posed by motor traffic to pedestrians and cyclists on urban major and minor roads. Carrying out new analysis of police injury data from 2005-15, the paper finds that per billion vehicle miles, motor vehicles on minor roads create more pedestrian casualties than motor vehicles on major roads. Specifically, for KSI (killed or seriously injured) injuries the rate per billion motor vehicle miles is 17% higher on minor roads (47 versus 40 KSIs per billion vehicle miles), while for slight injuries it is 66% higher (188 vs. 123 slight injuries per billion vehicle miles). Examining the costs of injuries sustained, these are 7.4% higher for pedestrians per motor vehicle mile travelled on urban minor roads, compared to major roads. For cyclists, injury costs are slightly higher (4.2%) on major roads per mile driven, compared to minor roads. These results suggest that re-routing motor traffic to major roads in urban areas may reduce pedestrian casualties. However, if cyclist safety on major roads is not improved, shifting motor traffic from minor to major roads may result in unintended negative injury consequences for cyclists

Modern prejudice and strength of conjunction error : overestimating proportions of minority employees

Modern prejudice was examined as a potential predictor of overestimating proportions of minority employees in gender-typed occupations. Strength of conjunction error was considered as an indicator of distorted perceptions of these proportions. Furthermore, we investigated whether the association between modern prejudice and strength of conjunction error was weaker for gender-untypical than for gender-typical targets. Modern prejudice was considered as a predictor of overestimations of black female employees in Study 1 (N = 183) and black female older employees in Study 2 (N = 409). Data was collected using internet-mediated questionnaires. In Study 1, modern racism, but not modern sexism, was associated with greater strength of conjunction error when respondents were presented with gender-typical targets. In Study 2, using a sample scoring higher on modern prejudice than in Study 1, modern racism, but not modern sexism and modern ageism, was associated with greater strength of conjunction error, irrespective of target occupation. Furthermore, there was an unexpected association between lower sexism and greater strength of conjunction error for gender-typical targets, but not for gender-untypical targets. The findings lend support to the ethnic-prominence hypothesis in that modern racism, but not modern sexism or modern ageism, was associated with greater strength of conjunction error. Furthermore, empirical evidence suggests that target non-prototypicality can dilute the effect of modern prejudice on strength of conjunction error. This is one of the rare studies examining attitudes and conjunction error in a work-relevant context, thereby bridging the gap between social cognition and applied psychology

The Journey Experience of Visually Impaired People on Public Transport in London

The use of public transport is critical for Visually Impaired People (VIP) to be independent and have access to out-of-home activities. Despite government policies promoting accessible transport for everyone, the needs of VIP are not well addressed, and journeys can be very difficult to negotiate. Journey requirements can often differ from those of other categories of people on the disability spectrum. Therefore, the aim of this research is to evaluate the journey experience of VIP using public transport. Semi-structured interviews conducted in London are used. The results show that limited access to information, inconsistencies in infrastructure and poor availability of staff assistance are the major concerns. Concessionary travel, on the other hand, encourages VIP to make more trips and hence has a positive effect on well-being. The findings suggest that more specific policies should be introduced to cater to the special needs of particular disabilities rather than generalising the types of aids available. It is also concluded that the journey experience of VIP is closely related to an individual’s independence and hence inclusion in society

A rail network performance metric to capture passenger experience

For passenger rail operators worldwide a common concern is to better understand and improve passenger experience. Based on factors including train movement times and crowding, the Journey Time Metric and Disutility Metric can be used to quantitatively assess the journey experience of individual passengers. However an assessment of overall network performance is also desirable. This paper presents a whole-network assessment metric that captures passenger experience by aggregating and normalizing individual journey assessments. The newly developed metric is validated against customer satisfaction data measured in passenger surveys of the London Underground Limited Victoria Line with a statistically significant correlation (P < 0.005) between the predictions and the measurements. It is found that there is a high degree of correlation (ρ = 1.00, P < 0.005) between the network scores calculated using the new whole-network assessment metric with either the Journey Time Metric or Disutility Metric despite their different formulations and countries of origin. Through development of the new metric it is identified that many commonly used network assessment metrics (e.g. Public Performance Measure and the end-to-end journey time of passengers) are insensitive to crucial aspects of passenger experience. The newly developed metric could be used by rail operators to better select strategies for improving passenger experience