International Journal of Sustainable Transportation最新文献

Equitable access to diverse opportunities for everyone is essential to public transportation. While the mobility for veterinary care visit is pivotal to One Health, pets and their owners often face various barriers in transportation. Despite Hong Kong’s well-received transit-oriented development, pets are strictly prohibited in the major modes of public transport, which is rarely discussed in the literature regarding equitable transportation planning. Therefore, this study examined the variation in Taxi fares to access four different types of veterinary services (general, 24/7, low-cost, and 24/7 low-cost) in Hong Kong using network routing and Geographic Information System. We found that most inaccessible communities to veterinary care mainly include remote rural villages. Moreover, a higher neighborhood household income was associated with a lower Taxi fare to the nearest 24/7 low-cost service in the new growth and rural areas. We further explored several policy recommendations, such as allowing pets on public transport, mobile services, and pet ambulance. Although the effect of travel costs on veterinarian-seeking behavior is inconclusive, this study showcases a novel and holistic examination of transportation barriers to veterinary care through the geographical and financial lens.

Despite the development of alternative modes of urban transport, the private car is still the most popular transport option in many regions around the world. Various spatial and socio-economic characteristics of metropolitan areas (MAs) seem to be generally correlated with levels of car use, and thus with car dependency. In this research, we study car dependency in a subgroup of global MAs, that are characterized profiles of car dependency, and are therefore considered outliers. Drawing on data that are available from the Mobility in Cities Database (MCD), we consider 56 MAs and use Mahalanobis distance to identify 7 outlier MAs that are either more, or less car dependent than anticipated by the regression model. We investigate the driving forces behind unpredicted levels of car use and position the outlier MAs in a catalogue of mobility profiles. A combination of urban form, convenience of car use, availability of alternative modes to car and car ownership characteristics were found to contribute to the level of car dependency in these MAs.

E-scooters have exploded in popularity across the United States in recent years. Understanding the effects of shared micromobility on society, as well as understanding how one shared micromobility mode can affect other travel modes is valuable for decision making and evaluation. In this study, the effects of introducing E-scooters on a preexisting bike-sharing system were evaluated using real-world data. A no-ride zone policy for E-scooters around the University of Arizona (UA) effectively created policy-based control and treatment groups to observe the effect of E-scooters on the bike-sharing system. A difference-in-differences regression model was used to estimate the change in the number of bike-sharing trips after the E-scooters were introduced for nonmembers and members, finding that after the introduction of E-scooters, member bike-sharing system trips were decreased by 1.5 trips per station per day in the area where E-scooters were introduced. Furthermore, a temporal and spatial analysis was conducted to evaluate the behavioral change exhibited by bike-sharing users after the introduction of E-scooters. E-scooter data was used to compare the similarity between bike-sharing and E-scooter usage patterns, indicating that E-scooters reduced the number of spontaneous trips taken by bike-sharing users. The number of nonmember bike-sharing trips decreased for all locations, indicating that E-scooters became the more popular option for leisure activities. Furthermore, member bike-sharing system users were found to travel less on weekends than nonmembers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted non-motorized mobility in the U.S. since March 2020. Many trail facilities have served as a venue for both recreational and commuting options for pedestrians and bicyclists. With social distancing, as well as the promotion of physical health and wellness during the pandemic, trail facilities serve as alternatives for travel for pedestrians and cyclists. Since 2011, Phase 1 of the Buffalo Valley Rail Trail has been open to users as a pedestrian and cycling connection in central Pennsylvania. In 2015, Phase 2 was developed in order to provide direct connection into downtown Lewisburg. This study evaluates trail usage at four counters over a period of 10 years using a six-step process. The results show that the 2 years with the highest trips over the entire 10-year period were in 2020 and 2021 (the 2 years during the COVID-19 pandemic). In addition, the highest recorded daily count for one of the counters over the entire 10-year period occurred on one of the days during the week of Pennsylvania’s stay-at-home order period (in March 2020). By developing and implementing the six-step method on the BVRT, this study serves as a foundation for exploring trail demand on facilities throughout the United States and applications with regard to evaluating pandemic impacts.

Cycling during youth is characterized in many countries by two trends: its decline over the course of several decades (termed the generation effect) and its decline over the life course of individuals (the age effect). This paper addresses the age effect through a survey carried out among young people aged 12–20 (n = 1,358) in a Swiss city. It goes beyond the cyclist/non-cyclist dichotomy and identifies several cases in terms of skills (ability to ride a bike), access (ownership of a bike), and uses (reasons for and frequency of cycling). While most young people (98%) learned how to ride a bike as a child, an important minority do not continue cycling beyond childhood. Among those who continue, the use of the bike often changes over time to become less utilitarian and more recreational and occasional. The main determinants explaining cycling practices among young people are socialization (the parents’ cycling practices and level of education), gender, and the spaces of everyday life (place of residence and school). The results point to several levers to foster cycling among young people, to anchor sustainable mobility practices for years to come.

Whether micromobility is hurting or boosting transit ridership remains a matter of debate. Previous studies on this topic mainly use either individual level data or system level data. This paper provides insights into this debate through analyses of the connection between bike-share use and transit use at both the individual-level and the system-level. The analysis uses data from an intercept survey of bike-share users and system-level data on bike-share trips from the Sacramento region’s dockless electric bike-share system prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our individual-level analysis results suggest that people in the Sacramento region are more likely to replace their transit use with bike-share than to use bike-share as a first- or last-mile transit connector. Certain socio-demographic groups, however, are more likely to use bike share to connect to transit compared to others. Analysis of the system-level data shows that the number of bike-share trips that begin or end near transit stops is positively associated with transit boarding or alightings at those stops conditional on variables known to directly influence transit ridership. In this study, individual- and system-level analyses lead to different conclusions about the relationship between bike-share and transit, suggesting that reliance on system-level data alone may not provide an accurate assessment of the relationship between bike-share and transit use. A detailed understanding of the relationship using both sources of data can assist in better policy formulation that benefits both modes.

The aim of this study is to analyze the dynamic relationship between tourism, transport energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions in the United States from the 1^st quarter of 1995 to the 4^th quarter of 2019. To this end, we utilize the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), the Wavelet Coherence Approach (WCA), and the Breitung-Candelon spectral granger causality approaches. The empirical outcomes confirm that the variables included in the model exhibit cointegration. The estimations of the wavelet coherence approach confirm that tourism stimulates transport energy consumption, whereas both tourism and energy consumption bolster carbon emissions in the United States. The outcomes for the Breitung-Candelon spectral granger causality approach suggest that our variables exhibit causal associations at various frequencies. These are findings are also robust to alternative econometrics specifications. These empirical outcomes underscore the fact that tourism propel both transport energy consumption and carbon emissions. Our study helps policymakers in regards to revisiting the role of tourism and transport energy consumption concerning emissions in order to cope with environmental challenges in the United States.

Passenger cars contribute considerably to total emissions of greenhouse gasses. In this article, we develop scenarios for the Swedish passenger car fleet in 2030, achieving a 70% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as compared to 2010. The number of shared and electric cars, how they are combined, and levels of biofuel use differ between the scenarios. Transport volumes, car access, battery use, indirect emissions, and fleet development are evaluated and compared. Conclusions based on the scenarios include:

• Target-fulfillment requires a reduction in kilometers traveled by passenger cars. The reductions are 21%–47% per capita in six scenarios.

• Major changes to both removal rate and new car sales are needed, highlighting a policy challenge for the coming decade.

• Total battery capacity in the vehicle fleet increase from 1 GWh 2018 to 73–168 GWh in the six scenarios. This implies a need for careful consideration regarding resource scarcity and production capacity. A new metric, vehicle kilometers/(kWh*year), is developed and tested to explore efficiency in battery use.

• Reducing direct emissions through a high production of electric cars causes tensions in relation to the European Emissions Trading System due to the indirect emissions that arise. It is therefore important to consider indirect emissions in policymaking.