Case Studies on Transport Policy最新文献

In response to the escalating demands of urban logistics and the environmental impacts of last-mile deliveries in cities, this study assesses the transition to electric vehicles (EV) in the last-mile delivery transportation sector. We developed a methodology to project last-mile fleets and assess whether electrification considering a scrappage policy makes economic sense. This method utilizes socio-economic, geographic, and technical data to assess annual delivery volumes, travel distances, total ownership costs, and breakeven analysis for diesel and electric vehicles, focusing on Brazilian urban centers. Results show that in 2030, in all urban densities, EV have lower operating costs, and they are the more economical choice for all cities or lifespans by 2035. EVs stand out, particularly with extended vehicle lifespans and increased delivery frequencies. Our findings provide a versatile method for assessing the technical and economic feasibility of electric vehicles across diverse demographic areas.

Speed limits that change as per real time traffic, road, and weather conditions are termed as Dynamic Speed Limits (DSL). Road users are informed of speed limit changes in DSL scheme by electronic signs or Variable Message Signs (VMS) placed above the lanes or side-mounted along highways. In India, most of the highways have static speed limits. The speed limits are kept lower at locations or stretches adjacent to roadside schools, market areas, bus stops and intersections, for enhancing safety of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs). This causes higher travel time to through traffic while travelling through these stretches. DSL has the potential in reducing the travel time and the variability of speed of vehicles, thus helps in enhancing road safety. The present work investigates the feasibility of DSL on various segments of a typical Indian highway passing through various roadside developments and human activities using cost-benefit analysis. The travel time benefits due to DSL are estimated by comparing the travel times with static and dynamic speed limit conditions. The results indicate that there is a significant amount of saving in aggregate travel time of all vehicles passing through the stretch due to the application of DSL. The benefit cost ratios greater than unity indicated that it is beneficial to deploy DSL on several segments of the highway passing through roadside schools, market areas, bus stops and intersections. The Benefit-Cost Ratio is also used advantageously to prioritize viable locations for deployment of DSL. The findings from the present work are likely to be of interest to policy makers in different developing countries where infrastructure/facilities for VRUs are deficient, road safety is a major concern and speeding is identified as a major problem.

Despite the key role that global supply chains (GSC), and more specifically, the transport and logistics function, might play in the performance of regions, there is a lack of analytical tools that turn the data generated by supply chain operations into quantitative metrics allowing policymakers to identify early signals of potential vulnerabilities and assess how resilient the GSC are at regional level. In an effort to fill this gap, we present a Transportation Resilience Index (TRI) that permits evaluating how transport chains affect supply chain resilience and, consequently, regional resilience. Our index, based on publicly available data –statistics on foreign trade flows provided by the Spanish Customs, the World Bank’ Logistics Performance Index and the UNCTAD’ Bilateral Liner Shipping Connectivity Index − differentiates between the determinants over which the company has direct decision-making control, and those linked to the selection of the supply market (market and macro dimensions). The TRI is applied to the Spanish regions (NUTS2) by using the Benefit-of-the-Doubt (BoD) approach to Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and applying a Common Set of Weights (CSW) for the selection of the weights to the index components. In our specific analysis, the market and macroeconomic components account for 84% of the total weight of the TRI. Despite the lower relative weight of the company dimension, the high degree of homogeneity in the market and macroeconomic scores means the company dimension plays a key role in the relative resilience of the Spanish regions.

Controversial transport policies, such as the proposed ban on non-electric motorbikes in Hanoi, Vietnam, often challenge the status quo and spur resistance among road users. This paper aims to unpack the causal implications of the motorbike ban, with an emphasis on elucidating potential transformations in urban mobility patterns and public sentiment in Hanoi. The research methodology is rooted in an mixed-methods approach. It begins by applying Spatial Propensity Score Matching (SPSM) to a bespoke transport survey to mitigate geographical confounding in the identification of the ban’s causal effects on societal attitudes and behaviours. Subsequently, it applies Ordinal Logistic Regression to quantify the causal influences of diverse socio-economic and demographic factors on public opinion towards the motorbike ban. Together, these methods yield a robust analysis of the policy’s prospective impacts.

Through this framework, the study provides insights into the key factors influencing individual’s opinion on controversial transport policies, such as the motorbike ban in Hanoi. Specifically, the approach reveals 4 key geographical insights into socioeconomic status, public transport perception, motorbike dependency, and automobile affinity among people in Hanoi.

In Dakar, the capital of Senegal, the urban transport policy aims to restructure and modernize the supply of public transport. The implementation of this policy since the years 2000 has led to the creation of the public bus company Dakar Dem Dikk and the replacement and reorganization of a number of minibuses owned by informal operators, which locally go under the name of Tata. However, this new supply still coexists with older, more or less informal, transport modes, mainly “Cars Rapides” and “Ndiaga Ndiaye” minibuses, collective clandestine taxis, and “yellow and black” taxis. The question then arises as to the impact of the new public transport supply on the mobility practices of the city’s residents. Data from two household mobility surveys, undertaken respectively in 2000 and 2015, in the Region of Dakar is used to conduct a diachronic analysis of mobility behavior. The results highlight the extent to which changes in public transport supply have modified flows and mode use for different categories of urban residents, in a context where daily mobility is highly dependent on public transport.

The development of urban public transport systems today has focused on increasing their operability, trying to minimize travel times and mobilize the greatest number of users by increasing operational speed, renewing the vehicle fleet, and increasing frequencies, among others. However, in addition to restructuring the operating distance and the location of the bus stops, this process of increasing operational capacity has paid little attention to the people's perception of these stop systems’ location and coverage. This causes, largely, users’ apathy to take advantage of the system, promoting the use of other means of transport, or in the least cases, to make stops within the system in unauthorized locations.

Considering the above, the aim of this research is to analyze the overage variation of bus-stop sets, based on the perception of users in normal and eager conditions, through the application of an analysis of population and zonal coverage, in which physical and operational variables of interest are considered, complemented with geostatistical models and digital tools that allow implementing a set of bus stops creating an inclusive environment with a broader vision of the ideal conditions for the definition of bus-stop sets. Within the research process, it is necessary to structure a statistical sampling, which allows for characterizing the population of public transport systems. Therefore, Manizales, the capital of the department of Caldas − Colombia, through its 12 district clusters and 378,000 inhabitants, is taken as a focus of study. However, due to the conurbation agreement with the municipality of Villamaría, the inclusion of its urban framework is carried out, resulting in a total population of 424,300 inhabitants.

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) projects are being increasingly adopted worldwide as a way to promote the coordination between transport and land-use planning. However, little attention has been given to how TOD projects are associated with socioeconomic and spatial inequalities and its effects on people’s access to economic activities and public services, particularly in the Global South. In this paper we analyze how socio-spatial inequalities have been shaped by transport and land-use planning in Curitiba (Brazil), a city internationally recognized for its TOD planning based on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). We examine how the spatial organization of the BRT system is associated with the distribution of population densities, socioeconomic groups, and real-estate values and its implications in terms of inequalities of access to employment opportunities and health services. The results show that Curitiba's TOD has had limited influence on population densities, but contributed for the unequal distribution of its benefits, privileging high-income classes and premium real-estate along its main BRT corridors. These effects contribute to push low-income communities to peripheral urban areas with limited accessibility benefits from the transit system. Our findings suggest that Curitiba’s success story should be seen as a cautionary tale about the consequences of TOD planning, which perpetuate the spatial concentration of resources and reinforce inequalities of access to opportunities. The broader lesson of this study is that TOD planning must be constantly evaluated by its socials and environmental impacts, and be guided by mixed housing, and social inclusion to avoid potential consequences in terms of segregation and peripheralization of poorer communities.

This study aims to identify the potential determinants of people's willingness to adopt autonomous vehicle (AV) taxis, with or without a backup driver, using Binary Logistic Regression in combination with the enhanced Random Forest attribute selection method. The results indicate that young men with frequent use of ride-sharing services, walk frequently, and have household incomes of approximately $150,000 − $200,000 are more likely to be interested in using AV taxis regardless of the presence of a backup driver. The study finds that previous travel habits (use of different modes) can greatly influence individuals' interest levels in using AV taxis. The study points AV taxi service providers should address female passengers' concerns to pursue a larger market. This study innovatively uses individuals’ preferences for their residential locations, such as proximity to workplace, walkability, and affordability. Through the inclusion of these variables in the analysis, this study offers a more comprehensive insight into the potential users of AV taxis, thus enabling policymakers and planners to pursue a transportation system that is sustainable, equitable, and responsive to the diverse needs and preferences of different populations. The study has limitations in that it lacks users' perceived benefits and their specific needs pertaining to AVs. Finally, the study emphasizes the importance of examining the causes of inequality and promoting equitable access to AV technology, particularly for vulnerable groups.

Obtaining a driver’s license can be a stressful task for autistic drivers because of autism related characteristics. Due to the absence of an autism-tailored driving training program in Qatar, instructors may lack the expertise and skills to apply a personalized approach. The current study investigated improving the learning-to-drive process for autistic learners in Qatar. The study consisted of three progressive phases: (1) Assess driving instructors' prior knowledge and practices regarding autism and driving. (2) Explore driving instructors' knowledge on autism and driving before and after an evidence-based workshop. (3) Compare the learning-to-drive process for autistic learners following 28 days of driving lessons from trained driving instructors to non-trained driving instructors. Eighty-four male driving instructors and six male autistic learners were included in the study. Results from the assessment phase indicated that most instructors lacked theoretical and practical knowledge about autism and driving. During the training phase, the workshop improved the driving instructors' knowledge on autism and driving. After the practice phase, trained driving instructors reported that they could better match their lessons to their autistic learners than non-trained driving instructors. Moreover, autistic learners who received driving training from the trained instructors showed a more positive attitude toward driving, had fewer driving concerns, and experienced less perceived stress compared to those who received training from non-trained instructors. The current results support the idea of a customized driving training program for autistic learners.

Whether large-scale COVID-19 tightening policies related to public transit contribute to slower rises in COVID-19 infection rates remains debatable. Therefore, this article extracted text data on urban bus control strategies in 211 Chinese cities and recorded active confirmed cases per million persons per day in each city. The Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA test (K samples) and accompanying pairwise comparisons were conducted using SPSS. Analysis shows that there are noticeable regional differences in the northern and southern parts of China during the pandemic in the control of public transit. Furthermore, based on the economic scale of the same population level, a comparison was made between all cities with high control intensity and some with low control intensity. We find no significant differences in the number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 between the two pairs of some of the compared cities, indicating that the public transport control strategies of some cities are overly strict and questionable. The heat maps of pairwise comparisons show that city pairs with no significant differences in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases account for many city clusters in the same interval. Additionally, in the comparative analysis of cities with the same population base, the proportion of no significant difference in the statistical analysis results of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased with the decrease of the economic level of the cities. This pattern reflects the overly strict bus control strategies of some less economically developed cities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, in the face of large-scale epidemics in the future, policies should formulate control strategies based on reality.