Is Bike Sharing Competitor, Relief or Supplement to Public Transport?

In many cities the growing popularity of bicycle-sharing schemes has added additional options to the transport regime. A significant amount of research has been stipulated by data recorded from lending and returning bicycles at geographically diverse stations. In this contribution, focus will be laid on the relationship that the bike-sharing system of the City of Vienna (CityBike Wien – CBW) has with its well developed public transport system. Does bike-sharing serve as competitor, relief or supplement? By surveying the total CBW trip data of 2015 – about 1 million records – we approach to answer this question. We cleanse and route all bicycle trips and compare them with routed alternative public transport trips in terms of travel time ratios. In interviews of 1,389 CBW users conducted in July and September/October of 2016, we ask about the purpose of their trip, the position of the CBW as part of their door-to-door trip, the role of CBW as substitute for other means of transport and the reasons for this substitution. The age group that has the highest number of users among CBW and the shares of tourists/visitors and locals using CBW is identified. Identifying the top 10 of trips from the cleansed dataset and mapping them emphasizes the role that we identify for Vienna’s bike-sharing system in the inner city: A supplement to public transport

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5–19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI <18·5 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). For schoolaged children and adolescents, we report thinness (BMI <2 SD below the median of the WHO growth reference) and obesity (BMI >2 SD above the median). Findings From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining underweight or thinness. Interpretation The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesit

The effects of rising fuel prices on the mobility of Austrian households

Abweichender Titel laut Übersetzung der Verfasserin/des VerfassersZsfassung in engl. SpracheDie Fehler in der Raumplanung der vergangenen Jahre und Jahrzehnte manifestieren sich in der immer stärkeren Abhängigkeit von motorisierten Verkehrsmitteln. Die Auto-Orientierung unserer Gesellschaft, mitbegründet bzw. begünstigt durch die gebauten und rechtlichen Strukturen, schlägt sich in steigenden Distanzen und wachsenden Kosten des Verkehrssystems nieder.Im Rahmen der Arbeit werden die Auswirkungen steigender Treibstopreise bzw.steigender Verkehrsausgaben der Haushalte auf deren Mobilitätsverhalten untersucht. Nach ausführlichen Haushalts- und Pendlerstatistiken werden sämtliche Kostenkomponenten im Verkehrswesen in ihrer zeitlichen Entwicklung dargestellt. Aufbauend darauf werden Prognosen der wichtigsten Kenngrößen erstellt bzw. zitiert, deren Auswirkungen auf das Konsumverhalten und die Verteilung der Anteile der Haushaltsausgaben abgeschätzt sowie die Einkommens- und Preiselastizitäten berechnet.Die errechneten Preiselastizitäten bewegen sich zwischen -0,37 und -0,60, Werte die mit jenen aus der Literatur durchaus übereinstimmen.Als am stärksten von Treibstopreissteigerungen betroffene Bevölkerungsgruppe werden Männer-Singlehaushalte identiziert, dicht gefolgt von Haushalten mit 3 oder mehr Pkw und Haushalten in dünn besiedeltem Gebiet.Die steigenden Wohnungsausgaben durch wachsende Ölpreise treffen einkommensschwache Haushalte am stärksten, die ohnehin schon einen Großteil ihres Haushaltsbudgets für Wohnen und Beheizung ausgeben, wie Pkw-lose Haushalte, Frauen-Singlehaushalte und Haushalte des untersten Ausgabenquartils.In the past years and decades, lots of errors have been made in the regional planning which led to an increasing dependency on motorised means of transport. The car-orientation of our society, partly caused as well as furthered by the built and legal structures, causes growing distances and rising costs of the traffic system.In the course of this master's thesis, the effects of rising fuel prices and higher traffic expenses on the households' mobility behaviour are analysed. Following detailed statistics on households and commuters, all cost components of the traffic system are shown in their chronological progression. Forecasts of the most characteristic parameters are cited or calculated based upon these timelines to estimate their impacts on the consumer behaviour as well as to calculate the elasticities of incomes and prices.The elasticity of price is computed to a value between -0,37 and -0,60, which is quite consistent with the literature available.The population segment most affected by the rising fuel prices are single-man-households, followed by households which possess 3 or more cars and by households in sparsely populated areas.The growing household expenses caused by higher oil prices strike low-income-households most, which already spend the better part of their budget for housing and heating, like households without cars, single-woman-households and those of the lowest quartile of expenditure.9

How to measure capabilities within corridors?

Traditional methods of measuring the capacities of infrastructures are usually based on indicators like passenger car units (PCU). It is quite clear that these methods of capacity evaluation (categories of roads, calculation procedures, capacity limits, e.g. defined in the HCM – Highway Capacity Manual) cannot be used to picture the intermodality of the traffic system. The first step has to include the intermodality (modal split) in the cross section of a road (pedestrians, bicycles, public transport, private vehicles), and in a further step it is necessary to account for all alternatives within the corridor, like parallel routed railways or public transport lines, to reach an intermodal point of view. Finally it is also necessary to include the effects on the settlement structure. Beside intermodality, any new method also has to consider cost effectiveness, a comprehensive consideration of feedbacks in the traffic system, as well as compatibility to CBA. As a result it is necessary to find new indicators (instead of car units) to define passenger and freight flows. There are guidelines in progress auditing transport operations and infrastructure conditions of roadways. A revision of these guidelines aims to integrate different modes of transport by changing the key-indicators (e.g. incline, curviness, roadway width, capacity utilisation) and to use a system approach which includes indicators like modal split, car occupancy or utilised capacity of lorries. The procedure presented in this paper can be seen as one building block to meet the demands of future assessments within corridors

Geometry and Topology

This report treats a few selected topics from Riemannian geometry and algebraic topology. It consists of three parts. The first part discusses basic homotopy theory, until the covering spaces and the Seifert-van Kampen theorems. As another topic, smooth manifolds and their CW-structure are explored. The second part outlines a fairly new discipline, algebraic ditopology, arriving at a discussion of the fundamental category for ordered topological spaces. The third part contains a thorough treatment of Riemannian geometry, finishing with the Hopf-Rinow theorem

Smartness of urban mobility and "quality of life" in Vienna

The concept of “smartness” is based on expectation. “Quality of Life” is based on experience. The “learning process” between expectation and experience in Vienna was accompanied by scientific analyses over many decades. They show the chances and the risks – and also the luck – that the city had in the past. In a dynamic city there are always intentions for decisions and projects from the inside and the outside which have to be analysed, whether the outcome will have positive or negative effects on the future development of the city. The future will need more cooperation than competition between cities to keep transport and quality of life in balance not only in the city but also with the surrounding region."br" This paper will give a comprehensive insight into the content of the studies of the processes based on the experience and data from the past, the stability of the existing situation of the urban structure of Vienna city and its internal dynamics, and the outlook into the opportunities and risks of the future of the city, as far as scientific methods allow

Predicted congestions never occur. On the gap between transport modeling and human behavior

This paper presents an introduction to meso-scale transport modeling and issues of human behaviour in transport systems. Along with other examples of the human ability to learn in transport systems we look at the comparison of real life data and the prediction of modeling tools for the closure of Vienna’s inner ring road during the 2008 European Football Championship (EURO 2008). Some light is shed on the scientific question, whether currently used modeling tools are able to adequately reproduce the real-life behaviour of human beings in the transport system and should be used for transport policy decision making

Geometry and Topology

This report treats a few selected topics from Riemannian geometry and algebraic topology. It consists of three parts. The rst part discusses basic homotopy theory, until the covering spaces and the Seifert-van Kampen theorems. As another topic, smooth manifolds and their CW-structure are explored. The second part outlines a fairly new discipline, algebraic ditopology, arriving at a discussion of the fundamental category for ordered topological spaces. The third part contains a thorough treatment of Riemannian geometry, nishing with the Hopf-Rinow theorem

Biosensors for Detection of Mercury in Contaminated Soils

Biosensors based on whole bacterial cells and on bacterial heavy metal binding protein were used to determine the mercury concentration in soil. The soil samples were collected in a vegetable garden accidentally contaminated with elemental mercury 25 years earlier. Bioavailable mercury was measured using different sensors: a protein-based biosensor, a whole bacterial cell based biosensor, and a plant sensor, i.e. morphological and biochemical responses in primary leaves and roots of bean seedlings grown in the mercury-contaminated soil. For comparison the total mercury concentration of the soil samples was determined by AAS. Whole bacterial cell and protein-based biosensors gave accurate responses proportional to the total amount of mercury in the soil samples. On the contrary, plant sensors were found to be less useful indicators of soil mercury contamination, as determined by plant biomass, mercury content of primary leaves and enzyme activities

Geometric methods for estimating representative sidewalk widths applied to Vienna’s streetscape surfaces database

Space, and in particular public space for movement and leisure, is a valuable and scarce resource, especially in today’s growing urban centres. The distribution and absolute amount of urban space—especially the provision of sufficient pedestrian areas, such as sidewalks—is considered crucial for shaping living and mobility options as well as transport choices. Ubiquitous urban data collection and today’s IT capabilities offer new possibilities for providing a relation-preserving overview and for keeping track of infrastructure changes. This paper presents three novel methods for estimating representative sidewalk widths and applies them to the official Viennese streetscape surface database. The first two methods use individual pedestrian area polygons and their geometrical representations of minimum circumscribing and maximum inscribing circles to derive a representative width of these individual surfaces. The third method utilizes aggregated pedestrian areas within the buffered street axis and results in a representative width for the corresponding road axis segment. Results are displayed as city-wide means in a 500 by 500 m grid and spatial autocorrelation based on Moran’s I is studied. We also compare the results between methods as well as to previous research, existing databases and guideline requirements on sidewalk widths. Finally, we discuss possible applications of these methods for monitoring and regression analysis and suggest future methodological improvements for increased accuracy.1571741