Income Effects and Other New Findings on Complexity of Transit Tours

Tours involving the use of public transit have always been viewed as less complex—including fewer stops and types of activities within a tour—than tours made by automobile or other modes. However, this traditional hypothesis was developed and supported by household travel surveys that included a relatively small subsample of transit users. The authors present a report on recent onboard transit ridership surveys in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Columbus, Ohio, that were used to collect information on the complexity of transit riders\u27 tours. The results suggested that, contrary to common belief, transit tours were at least as complex as tours by other modes, on the basis of household surveys of the same regions. Results of the new surveys also revealed that income and vehicle ownership had a significant and opposite effect on the complexity of transit tours than they had on tours by other modes. Thus, the traditional hypothesis of simpler transit tours held for more affluent transit users but did not hold for a typical, less affluent transit user. Comparisons of the results of the onboard and household surveys further suggested that the traditional hypothesis of simple transit tours might have arisen from a bias toward more affluent riders in the subsample of household travel surveys that contained transit. The overall finding that transit tours may actually be more complex and involve more types of activities than previously thought has important implications for transit planning

Hierarchical ordering of nests in a joint mode and destination choice model

Discrete choice models, Mode choice, Destination choice, Demand, Elasticity, Hierarchical nesting, Integrated models,

Performing physiocracy: Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours and the limits of political engineering

The story of Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours has often been described as one of success. The man was a well-known statesman, economist and entrepreneur in late eighteenth-century France and his main legacy, the famous and still thriving Du Pont company, suggests a brilliant trajectory. The aim of this paper, however, is to analyze Du Pont's failure in performing the political and economic doctrine of which he was an active promoter all through his life: physiocracy. In all of his very diverse activities, be they scientific, political, or entrepreneurial, Du Pont indeed deliberately attempted to enact this original liberal doctrine. He tried, along with fellow physiocrats, to introduce freedom of trade and enterprise in Old Regime French minds and economic practices. Later, when emigrating to the United States, he devised a plan for a physiocratic colony. But none of these ventures was actually a success during Du Pont's lifetime: the performation of some of physiocracy's main propositions only came later, in a diffuse and partial way. We contend that this relative failure of performativity can be explained by Du Pont's specific type of agency: one relying mainly on political engineering, based on personal ties and reputations, as well as on a strict distinction between ends and means