Designing TOD precincts: accessibility and travel patterns

This paper reports on a research study that investigated the travel behaviour of residents in three case study station precincts located along a new railway in Perth, Western Australia. The precincts were selected for comparison, representing the different development opportunities ranging from planned transit-oriented development (TOD) to station precincts acting primarily as origin stations or transit interchanges. Accessibility measures and the actual travel patterns of residents in each station precinct were compared, in order to consider the degree to which different station precinct designs have led residents to reduce their motorised travel and to substitute it with both public transport within the region, and walking or cycling within the local neighbourhood. We draw on two surveys: a household survey, including a travel diary, examining behaviours after the railway opened; a detailed survey measuring both local and regional accessibility using a suite of over 30 measures of multi-modal accessibility. The results highlight the dual role of public transport and land—use planning in changing mobility patterns, using a temporal perspective. We found a positive relationship between improvements to accessibility by public transport and residents reducing car-based travel. Residents also increased the spatial reach of their travel and many converted from uni-modal to multi-modal travellers. At the local level (station precinct), however, we found an accessibility mismatch between infrastructure and proximity to facilities, whereby neighbourhoods with a high standard of infrastructure for walking and cycling do not have corresponding facilities that they may walk or cycle to and vice versa

Customer-supplier perspective of the antecendents and value outcomes of business relationships

In this study, a three-phase structural equation modeling technique is developed to explore similarities and differences in the antecedents and value outcomes in customer and supplier relationships. While both parties were found to share antecedents and value outcomes, the means by which value was conferred was significantly different

Implications of antibiotic exposure among children in low-income and middle income countries

Günther Fink and colleagues are to be congratulated for their analysis of antibiotic exposure among children younger than 5 years in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) with a range of common illnesses, including cough, fever, diarrhoea, and malaria.1 The authors explain that their study1 is the first to use a robust method to comprehensively quantify cumulative antibiotic exposure among children in LMICs by obtaining nationally representative data from surveys of households and formal-sector health-care facilities. Quantifying exposure is important, as previous surveys have only had limited coverage in low-income settings, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries, which have the highest incidence of infectious diseases globally.2,3 However, quantifying true antibiotic use in LMICs might be difficult if antibiotics are frequently purchased without a prescription due to issues with affordability and access. Obtaining antibiotics in this way accounts for up to 93% of all antibiotics dispensed in some LMICs.4,5 The remaining 7% or more include antibiotics obtained from ambulatory care and inpatient hospital care.2 Antimicrobial resistance is a growing publi

The psychosocial impact of vaginal delivery and cesarean section in primiparous women

The aim of this study was to identify how the method of delivery and birth experience interfere with maternal psychological status early after puerperium. We conducted a prospective study on 148 women after puerperium from November 2017 to January 2018 in Bucur Maternity Hospital. Women that delivered vaginally mobilized in the first 6 hours in 73.7% of the cases, but for cesarean section after 12- 24 hours in 43.6% of the cases. Women described good support from the obstetrician in 58.1% of the cases. 90.5% of the women reported that the method of delivery did not have an impact on infant care and 73% had no lactation problems. The majority described little trauma, in 32.4% of the cases. 70.3% of the patients reported that they wanted to have more children and 59.5% of them desired the same method of delivery. Negative feelings, lactation, and taking care of the baby were not influenced in this study by the method of delivery, but by prematurity of birth and the complications that women experienced at birth

Travellers' attitudes towards Park-and-Ride (PnR) and choice of PnR station: Evidence from Perth, Western Australia

An attractive transport alternative that combines the efficiency of public transport with the flexibility of cars, with the potential to reduce traffic congestion and become integral part of the transit-oriented developments, PnR received much interest in the last decade. This is particularly relevant to Australian urban landscape and especially Perth, where the low urban density means thatmore than 90% of residents live outside of 800 m distance from train stations. Drawing on an intercept survey, we identified PnR and basic facilities within the station perimeter as key differentiating factors of access and service across rail corridors. Then, using discrete choice models we found that paid parking bays, bike lockers, access mode and time-of-day were the most influential in determining the choice of train station, more so than the distance. Notably, there were two classes of travellers, one seeking stations with good facilities, and the other being more interested in quick access to the station

Test bench configuration to facilitate gas turbine in-situ combustion experimentation

The present technology in gas turbine engines is to burn fuel in the combustion chamber and occasionally in the postcombustion chamber. Current conventional developments of gas turbine aero-thermodynamics provide small efficiency and power increase, because with the present technology one reached an asymptotical convergence to the upper limit of the gas turbine performance. An interesting and almost unexploited possibility is to continue combustion in the turbine, option that, up until recently, has been considered undesirable for a number of reasons. A turbine-combustor is defined as a turbine in which fuel is injected and combusted. The process of combustion in the turbine is called in situ reheat. Thermodynamic cycle, (a hybrid between the Ericsson and Brayton cycles) analyses have demonstrated the benefits of using reheat in the turbine in order to increase specific power and thermal efficiency

Enhanced Huff Model for Estimating Park and Ride (PnR) Catchment Areas in Perth, WA

A train station catchment area delineates the spatial territory from which the users of a train station are drawn. The size and shape of this catchment can be influenced by a variety of factors, such as the transport network, the location of stations and the service quality they offer, as well as the land use density and diversity in the transport corridor. Although numerous studies have been conducted to understand the size of catchment areas, limited research has focused on determining the spatial boundary (shape) of train station catchments. This paper develops a framework for deriving a spatial boundary of a Park and Ride (PnR) catchment area by incorporating the Huff model and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies. The approach is staged, firstly determining the PnR station choice as a function of the attractiveness of a train station and the cost of access between the origin (such as a suburb) and the destination of a trip (such as the Perth CBD). Linear referencing method is then applied to re-define the origins to train stations based on the derived station choice probability. Finally, the spatial boundary of a catchment area is determined according to the adjusted origins, using GIS technologies. The model outputs were evaluated against licence plate survey of station users, where the Kappa coefficient (0.74) and overall accuracy (0.88) statistic suggested that the model's results are robust. The paper then shows how catchment area data can be used to better manage travel demand and plan design solutions aimed at increased accessibility to train stations

Place vs. Node transit: Planning policies revisited

A core contemporary planning approach is the promotion of transit-oriented developments (TODs) and in recent times cities have committed substantial financial investment to encourage sustainable precincts around public transport. Evaluation of the success of TODs is key for continuing the planning efforts. A frequently applied framework for characterizing TODs draws on Bertolini's Node-Place (N-P) model, enriched through application in various contexts. We offer here an extension to the N-P model, using a case study in a low-density city, Perth,Western Australia. A typology of railway stations is developed using 43 indicators and then linear models are applied to ascertain the association between patronage and station precinct features. The results show that various types of measures are required to increase public transport ridership for the four clusters that emerged from the analysis. Density alone does not lead to increased use of public transport; it must be associated with city-wide accessibility, as well as access/egress to and from the station