Toward more sustainable behavior : an investigation into the mobility responses to an involuntary workplace relocation of 10,000 employees in Montreal, Canada

Despite traffic congestion, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the connection to road crashes and physical inactivity, the car remains the prevalent mode of transport in North America. This over-reliance on cars relative to public and active transport modes is even more evident during peak hours. However, evidence suggests that the habit of car use is likely to be disrupted in important life-changing situations such as the birth of a child, or the relocation of a workplace. In such circumstances, attentiveness to alternative solutions and transport modes will increase, hence, a higher probability of a conscious (re)consideration of current travel behavior and a change is expected. From a policy planning perspective, these moments are highly valuable as they open up a “window of opportunity” for introducing and encouraging the use of sustainable transportation alternatives and for promoting health and environmental concerns. Whether it is voluntary or involuntary, uprooting and moving an activity to another location is a complex event from a socio-psychological perspective. It exposes people to a novel situation regarding geographical accessibility to home, work, amenities, transport services, parking, bike lanes, as well as other contextual characteristics including diversity of population and security, all of which can trigger the need for mobility rearrangement. Furthermore, relocation can stimulate travel behaviour change by influencing individual’s attitudes, values, and habits. In fact, modal choice is a very complex decision process determined by a wide range of spatial, economic, social, and psychological factors. In this context, a deeper understanding of individual’s daily travel behaviour and modal choices is necessary in order to take adequate policy measures to guide mobility towards more sustainable behaviors. In this context, this dissertation targets the travel behaviour of more than 10,000 employees of the McGill University Health Center (MUHC), Montreal, who experienced a significant life-changing event when five different work locations within the downtown core were merged into one peri-central location, the Glen Site, in 2015. One of the largest employment relocations in North American history, the super-hospital situated near the Vendome intermodal station is a strategic opportunity to advance basic knowledge on sustainable travel demand management. The underlying principle is to derive benefit from the disruption of habits and identifying the barriers of using low-carbon transport modes and to offer green transport opportunities in situations where there is increased attentiveness to alternative modes. Accordingly, this dissertation will answer the following research question: In an attempt to guide mobility towards a more sustainable future, how do the travel-related impacts of involuntary workplace relocation help improve our understanding of the choice of household’s daily mobility in metropolitan territory? To answer this question, the following objectives will be pursued through the production of three journal papers built on one another: 1. To develop a comprehensive presentation of modal choice determinants, and in particular factors affecting commuting behaviour during the process of workplace relocation as well as effective measures that incentivize sustainable commuting. 2. To examine the extent to which commute mode choice and satisfaction are interdependent by looking at socio-demographic characteristics, residential location and car ownership in the context of a major involuntary workplace relocation. 3. To expand our understanding of the complex causalities and rationales underlying travel-related choices and changes as well as their links to travel attitudes, dissonance and satisfaction. 4. To understand how individuals rank and prioritize their travel-related attitudes and values within the various domains of life in order to maximize their life satisfaction when experiencing a context change. Using both quantitative (n=1977, ~26% response rate) and qualitative (n=19) methods, we collected and analyzed data on before- and after-the-move decisions made by the employees regarding: 1) their travel patterns, 2) barriers of using low-carbon transport modes, and 3) the underlying rationales for change (or not). Whereas research in this field is dominated by quantitative analyses, few studies have applied mixed method approaches where a qualitative approach provides a deeper insight into the complex causal relationships between subjective psychological concepts that quantitative methods are often unable to address thoroughly. The overarching finding indicated that, while the existence of a regional train (in addition to metro and bus) at a major workplace has a positive impact on reducing private automobile use (15 percent increase in public transit use and 10 percent increase in travel satisfaction), the simple existence of alternatives is insufficient and further efforts are needed to encourage the use of low-carbon transport modes for daily commute. These efforts are most effective and functional if they are made at different stages during the process of the relocation, i.e., before, during, and after the relocation. The quantitative part also provided valuable insights into the importance of considering commuter’s travel-related characteristics (including home location, car ownership, and other socio-economic status) when planning for major workplace relocations. Furthermore, results from our in-depth interviews shed light on the concept of weighted decision-making by discussing how individuals maximize their (travel and life) satisfaction by attributing different value and attitudinal weights to their choice alternatives. The perspective of weighted decision-making helped improve understanding of that satisfaction in various travel-related domains are interdependent and each can affect or be affected by overall life satisfaction. Among the respondents, the majority of the relatively low-income households (e.g., service jobs) lived in areas with low accessibility to adequate public transit, whereas many high-income employees (e.g., doctors and specialists) lived in affluent transit-oriented residential neighbourhoods allowing them to commute by low-carbon transport modes compared to the former group who felt forced to commute by car or endure frustrating commutes with multiple transfers between lines. Moreover, the construction of motorway interchanges and the corresponding heavy congestion around the Glen site has resulted in commute dissatisfaction for drivers, bus users, bicyclists and even pedestrian commuters. This dissertation calls for the contribution of key urban-transportation planners to tackle commute challenges in an attempt to increase subjective well-being, work satisfaction, and quality of life and guide mobility towards a more sustainable future.Les embouteillages, le prix élevé des carburants, la pollution atmosphérique et la contribution importante des voitures individuelles aux émissions de gaz à effet de serre, aux accidents de la route et à l’inactivité physique ne semblent pas troubler la grande majorité des propriétaires de voitures des sociétés occidentales, car la voiture reste le mode de transport le plus utilisé. Cette importante dépendance à l’égard de la voiture par rapport aux modes de transport publics et actifs est encore plus évidente aux heures de pointe, lorsque les trajets domicile-travail impliquent une lourde charge sur les réseaux routiers et aux infrastructures. Or, la recherche a montré que l’habitude de l’utilisation d’une voiture individuelle est susceptible d’être perturbée lors de situations significatives qui changent le cours de la vie, comme la naissance d’un enfant ou le déplacement d’un lieu de travail, type de situations qui est l’objet de cette thèse. Dans de telles circonstances, l’attention portée aux solutions et aux modes de transport alternatifs augmente, d’où une plus grande probabilité de (re)considérer les comportements de déplacement actuels et d’éventuellement les changer. Du point de vue de la planification des politiques, ces moments sont très précieux, car ils ouvrent une « fenêtre d’opportunité » pour introduire et encourager l’utilisation de solutions de transport durables et pour promouvoir les préoccupations en matière de santé et d’environnement. Qu’ils soient volontaires ou involontaires, le déracinement et le déplacement d’une activité vers un autre lieu sont des événements complexes d’un point de vue socio-psychologique. Cela expose les gens à une situation nouvelle en ce qui concerne l’accessibilité géographique au domicile, au travail, aux équipements urbains, aux services de transport, au stationnement, aux pistes cyclables ainsi qu’à d’autres dimensions contextuelles, notamment la diversité de la population et la sécurité, ce qui peut alors déclencher le besoin de réaménager la mobilité. En outre, un déménagement peut stimuler le changement de comportement en matière de déplacement en influençant les attitudes, les valeurs et les habitudes des individus. En fait, le choix modal est un processus de décision très complexe déterminé par un large éventail de facteurs spatiaux, économiques, sociaux et psychologiques. Dans ce contexte, il est pertinent de mieux comprendre le comportement quotidien des individus en matière de déplacements et leurs choix modaux afin de prendre des mesures politiques adéquates pour orienter la mobilité vers des comportements plus durables. Dans ce contexte, ce projet de recherche de doctorat s’intéresse aux comportements de déplacement de plus de 10 000 employés du Centre universitaire de santé McGill (CUSM), à Montréal, qui ont vécu en 2015 un événement important qui a changé leur vie lorsque quatre lieux de travail différents du centre-ville ont été fusionnés en un seul lieu péricentral au site Glen. Ce super-hôpital, situé près de la gare intermodale Vendôme, est l’une des plus importantes délocalisations d’emplois de l’histoire en Amérique du Nord. Il constitue une opportunité stratégique de faire progresser les connaissances fondamentales sur la gestion durable de la demande de transport. L’idée principale est de tirer profit de la rupture des habitudes et de l’identification des obstacles à l’utilisation de modes de transport à faible émission de carbone pour offrir des possibilités de transport écologique dans des situations où l’on est de plus en plus attentif aux modes alternatifs. En conséquence, l’objectif principal de cette thèse est de contribuer à la compréhension de la logique, de l’arbitrage et du choix de la mobilité des ménages sur le territoire métropolitain, en répondant à la question de recherche suivante : dans le but d’orienter la mobilité vers une perspective plus durable, comment un déménagement (involontaire) du lieu de travail contribue-t-il à améliorer notre compréhension des (changements de) comportements de déplacement des individus ? Pour répondre à cette question, les objectifs suivants sont visés grâce à la réalisation de trois articles scientifiques construits successivement : 1. Développer une présentation approfondie des déterminants du choix modal, et en particulier des facteurs affectant le comportement de déplacement pendant le processus de délocalisation du lieu de travail ainsi que des mesures efficaces qui incitent à des déplacements durables. 2. Examiner dans quelle mesure le choix du mode de transport et la satisfaction sont interdépendants en examinant les caractéristiques sociodémographiques, le lieu de résidence et la possession d’une voiture dans le contexte d’une relocalisation involontaire du lieu d’emploi. 3. Élargir notre compréhension de causalité complexes qui sous-tendent les choix et les changements liés aux déplacements, ainsi que leurs liens avec les attitudes, la dissonance et la satisfaction en matière de déplacements. 4. Comprendre comment les individus classent et hiérarchisent leurs attitudes et valeurs liées aux déplacements dans les divers domaines de la vie, afin de maximiser leur satisfaction dans la vie lorsqu'ils confrontés à un changement de contexte. En utilisant des méthodes quantitatives (n=1977, taux de réponse d’environ 26 %) et qualitatives (n=19), nous avons recueilli et analysé des données sur les décisions prises par les employés avant et après la relocalisation : 1) leurs habitudes de déplacement, 2) les obstacles à l’utilisation de modes de transport à faible émission de carbone et 3) les raisons sous-jacentes de tout changement (ou non). Alors que la recherche dans ce domaine est dominée par les analyses quantitatives, peu d’études ont appliqué des approches de méthodes mixtes où une enquête qualitative permet de mieux comprendre les relations causales complexes entre des concepts psychologiques subjectifs que les méthodes quantitatives souvent incapables d’aborder de manière approfondie. Le résultat principal montre que, si l’existence d’un train de banlieue (en plus du métro et du bus) vers le lieu de travail important a un impact positif sur la réduction de l’utilisation de l’automobile individuelle (augmentation de 15 % de l’utilisation des transports publics et de 10 % de la satisfaction des navettes quotidiennes), la simple existence d’une alternative à la voiture est insuffisante et des efforts supplémentaires sont nécessaires pour encourager l’utilisation de modes de transport à faible émission de carbone pour les trajets quotidiens. Ces efforts sont d’autant plus efficaces et effectifs lorsqu’ils sont déployés à différents stades du processus de relocalisation, c’est-à-dire avant, pendant et après la relocalisation. La perspective quantitative a également fourni des indications pertinentes sur l’importance de prendre en compte les caractéristiques des déplacements des navetteurs (notamment le lieu de résidence, la possession d’une voiture et d’autres statuts socio-économiques) lors de la planification de relocalisations à grande échelle de lieux d’emplois. En outre, les résultats de nos entretiens approfondis de la perspective qualitative ont mis en lumière le concept de prise de décision pondérée en examinant comment les individus maximisent leurs satisfactions (de mobilité et de la vie) en attribuant différentes valeurs et pondérations attitudinales à leurs choix. La perspective de la prise de décision pondérée a permis de mieux comprendre comment la satisfaction dans divers domaines liés aux navettes est interdépendante et que chacun des domaines peut affecter ou être affecté par la satisfaction globale de la vie. Parmi les répondants, la majorité des ménages à faible revenu relatif (par exemple, les emplois de services) vivaient dans des zones peu accessibles aux transports en commun, tandis que de nombreux employés à revenu élevé (par exemple, les médecins et les spécialistes) vivaient dans des quartiers résidentiels favorisés et orientés vers les transports en commun, ce qui leur permettait de se déplacer par des modes de transport à faible émission de carbone, alors que le premier groupe se considérait obligé de se déplacer en voiture ou d’endurer des déplacements frustrants avec des correspondances multiples. En outre, la construction d’échangeurs autoroutiers et la forte congestion autour du site de Glen ont entraîné une insatisfaction des conducteurs, des utilisateurs de bus, des cyclistes et même des piétons. Cet enjeu a eu une influence négative sur la satisfaction au travail et la qualité de vie des employés. Ce projet de doctorat souligne ainsi le rôle clé des principaux planificateurs des transports urbains pour relever les défis liés aux déplacements afin d’accroître le bien-être subjectif et d’orienter la mobilité vers un avenir plus durable

Storing, caring and sharing: Examining organisational practices around material stuff in the home

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Homes are a much discussed, but little empirically examined resource for action. Material stuff at home offer resources for social, organisational and individual activities that we routinely encounter and use on an everyday basis. Yet their purposes, storing and sharing practices of use and roles in social and organisational actions are hardly touched upon within Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) academic literature. As a consequence of this, there are critical gaps in understanding home organisation and management methods as a means of informing the design of novel technologies. This thesis is an examination of everyday routines in home, paying particular attention to tidying, storing, retrieving and sharing practices. To examine these practices at home, this thesis presents a combination of two qualitative studies using ethnographically oriented methods. Study one (Home’s Tidying up, Storing and Retrieving) concerns the topic of home storage in practice; investigating how householders create and use domestic storage practices and the methods used to manage their storage at home. Study two (Social Interaction around Shared Resources) concerns social interaction around shared resources, and the methods used to manage sharing practices at home. Semi-structured interviews, fieldwork observation, tour around a home, and a photo diary were undertaken to produce a ‘rich’ description of how householders collaborate in storing and sharing set of practices to manage their everyday routines. Several key finding emerged from the research, that are used to identify important implications for design of home organisational technologies, for example to support effective lightweight interactions, providing user controlled mechanism to make different levels of privacy protection for family members, offering effective awareness of family communications and notifications of the activities of other people around these organisation systems, and making available a range of flexible options for family members to access a shared resource. The thesis make the case that flexible systems should be designed allowing people to categorise things in different ways, and have the values of home asserted in technologies, considering factors such as emotion around the use of space in home organisation to make homes become the unique places that they are understood to be

Urban sprawl pattern and effective factors on them: the case of Urmia city, Iran

Urban sprawl has become a remarkable characteristic of urban development worldwide in the last decades. Urban sprawl refers to the extent of urbanization, which is a global phenomenon mainly driven by population growth and large scale migration. In developing countries like Iran, urban sprawl is taking its toll on the natural resources at an alarming pace. The purpose of this paper is to study urban growth and effective factors on them in the city of Urmia, Iran. We used quantitive data of the study area from the period between 1989 and 2007, and population censuses of Urmia. To measure the model of urban growth, Holderness and Shannon’s entropy were employed. The Urmia case is interesting for several reasons: first, it is a case of very fast urban growth even for a developing country; second, it illustrates how the fastest rates of urban sprawl may correspond to middle size cities rather than to large centers. Third, it portrays a land substitution process in which agricultural land is not the primary provider of urban land which is relatively rare in urban contexts, and fourth, it also illustrates how urban sprawl may also hide important internal land uses such as the presence of agricultural plots within urban boundaries

Design and Development of a Self-contained and Non-Invasive Integrated System for Electricity Monitoring Applications

Growing interest in improving the energy consumption efficiency in residential and commercial buildings has led to the emergence of intelligent energy management systems. This growing technology allows the transformation of the outdated electric distribution network within buildings to a smart and intelligent system. A major challenge in the development of such infrastructure is the need for low cost, integrated, self-contained, and non-invasive wireless sensor nodes. While an electric meter provides the utility company with information regarding the total energy consumption, no information is provided to the consumers regarding the energy consumed by individual appliances. Such visibility can provide consumers with the ability to better control and manage their energy usage leading to a reduced overall energy consumption. This work explores the design and development of a self-contained and non-invasive integrated system intended for real-time electricity monitoring within residential and commercial buildings. The proposed system includes an Energy Harvester, an electric current sensor, a Micro-controller Unit, and a wireless communication device. The proposed system is self-powered and non-invasive, which offers a promising solution in providing real time information regarding the energy distribution within buildings. The design featured in this work provides an innovative approach in the development of a customized interface circuitry that is designed to collect and regulate the energy from the Energy Harvester. The entire sensor node will operate under a power budget in the range of microwatts collected by the Energy Harvester. A Wireless MCU is programmed to acquire, process, and transmit the data from the sensor to the central hub via Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity. The real-time data transmitted to the central hub provides detailed information regarding the energy consumed by individual appliances within the building

Biological traits and life table parameters A and B biotype of Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) on cotton and rapeseed

The aim of this work was to construct life table of Bemisia tabaci (Gen.) A and B (silverleaf whitefly B. argentifolii Bellows and Perring) biotype (Hem.: Aleyrodidae) on two host plants; cotton, (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and rapeseed, (Brassica napus L.). Experiments were conducted in a growth chamber under 24 ± 2ºC, 55±3% RH and 16:8 (L:D) h photoperiod on caged plants of cotton G. hirsutum L. (Varamin 76 variety) and rapeseed B. napus L. (global variety. The intrinsic rate of natural increase (rm), net reproductive rate (R0) and mean generation time (T) for B. tabaci A biotype was 0.1010 females per female per day, 18.4075 females per female and 30.079 day (d) on cotton; 0.1286, 30.6760 and 26.77 d on rapeseed; and for B biotype (B. argentifolii) those above respective parameters averaged 0.1033, 27.8426 and 32.74 d on cotton and 0.1750, 40.75 and 21.27 d on rapeseed. The total survival of A and B biotype from the egg to adult on cotton was 22.08 and 22.25, respectively. The results showed significant differences between the two biotype reared on either host plant for gross reproductive rate (GRR), net reproductive rate (R0 or NRR), intrinsic rates of increase (rm), finite rate of increase (λ), doubling time (DT) and mean generation times (Tc). To obtain a better understanding of the biology of these biotypes, Stable age distribution (Cx) and some other aspects of life history related to their hosts were also studied. Based upon the results, both biotypes showed a greater reproduction capacity on rapeseed than on cotton. Thus, rapeseed was more suitable host than cotton for two biotypes and this was an important factor in host plant selection for optimizing the control strategies of these major pests.Mohammad Amin Samih, Mehdi Zarabi, Maryam Yazdani and Mohammad Rouhani

Storing, caring and sharing : examining organisational practices around material stuff in the home

Homes are a much discussed, but little empirically examined resource for action. Material stuff at home offer resources for social, organisational and individual activities that we routinely encounter and use on an everyday basis. Yet their purposes, storing and sharing practices of use and roles in social and organisational actions are hardly touched upon within Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) academic literature. As a consequence of this, there are critical gaps in understanding home organisation and management methods as a means of informing the design of novel technologies. This thesis is an examination of everyday routines in home, paying particular attention to tidying, storing, retrieving and sharing practices. To examine these practices at home, this thesis presents a combination of two qualitative studies using ethnographically oriented methods. Study one (Home’s Tidying up, Storing and Retrieving) concerns the topic of home storage in practice; investigating how householders create and use domestic storage practices and the methods used to manage their storage at home. Study two (Social Interaction around Shared Resources) concerns social interaction around shared resources, and the methods used to manage sharing practices at home. Semi-structured interviews, fieldwork observation, tour around a home, and a photo diary were undertaken to produce a ‘rich’ description of how householders collaborate in storing and sharing set of practices to manage their everyday routines. Several key finding emerged from the research, that are used to identify important implications for design of home organisational technologies, for example to support effective lightweight interactions, providing user controlled mechanism to make different levels of privacy protection for family members, offering effective awareness of family communications and notifications of the activities of other people around these organisation systems, and making available a range of flexible options for family members to access a shared resource. The thesis make the case that flexible systems should be designed allowing people to categorise things in different ways, and have the values of home asserted in technologies, considering factors such as emotion around the use of space in home organisation to make homes become the unique places that they are understood to be.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo