International Journal of Sustainable Transportation最新文献

Dynamic charging has the potential to overcome the barriers to electric vehicle (EV) adoption by converting road segments into powered lanes (electric roadways or ERs). This paper focuses on examining public acceptance by determining the factors that affect the short-term and long-term intention to purchase an EV and drive on ERs; identifying the clusters of the technology acceptance; and assessing the value of travel time savings (VTTS) for driving on ERs, in general, and for different clusters. A survey was conducted in Los Angeles, California and distributed online, gathering 600 responses. The results showed that respondents’ innovativeness, lifestyle and environmental consciousness significantly affect the intention to drive on ERs in the short- and long-run. Public acceptance, in general, seems to be related to charging patterns, safety of commute route, and safety concerns for ERs, among other factors, and depends on the implementation time of the technology. Higher VTTS were found for electrified lanes exclusive for EVs on interstate and arterial roads. People who were classified as positive toward ERs had higher VTTS for ERs followed by those who were neutral and those who were concerned about ERs. This paper can help policymakers and transport operators devise strategies to accelerate EV adoption by appropriately implementing the ER technology.

The intention-behavior relationship is examined in a keep-left experiment involving interactions of pedestrians and cyclists on a shared footpath in Singapore as a case study. Data collection entailed before-and-after on-site perception surveys and naturalistic observations from field-recorded video footages. The perception surveys involved 120 pedestrians and 119 cyclists in the before period, and 59 pedestrians and 60 cyclists in the after period. Movement profiles were captured for 303 pedestrians, 148 cyclists, and 90 pedestrian-cyclist interactions for the before period, and 262, 174, and 76, respectively for the after period. The findings suggest that the “keep left” markings on the footpath are generally effective in improving users’ behavioral intention in keeping left. However, whereas cyclists did change their behavior, pedestrians did not do so which is rationalized as being due to their previously formed habit. The findings reveal a weak intention-behavior relationship for pedestrians’ habitual behavior. As consistent with the unchanged pedestrians’ behavior, no distinct changes in the pedestrian-cyclist interaction patterns were observed after the “keep left” treatment. There was no significant change in the perceived conflict level and the safety level as well.

The continued growth and utilization of ride-sourcing services have reshaped traditional perceptions of urban mobility. As the popularity of this relatively novel mode of travel has continued to grow, there has been a greater focus on the effect that the adoption and use of ride-sourcing have on the utilization of more traditional modes of transportation. With a few notable exceptions, prior studies on the topic often rely on descriptive statistics to understand the modes that are replaced by ride-sourcing for specific trips. This study utilizes structural equation models to investigate the factors influencing the decision to choose public transit and taxi as their so-called substitute alternative mode for a recent ride-sourcing trip, using data from a web-based survey of Toronto residents. The results indicate that socio-economic and trip-related attributes influence the selection of the substitute alternative mode, and to a lesser extent, attitudes toward ride-sourcing services. In particular, students, persons from lower-income households, and transit pass owners were found to be more likely to substitute ride-sourcing for public transit, while older respondents and persons from wealthier households were more likely to select taxi instead. The study outcomes shed light on the types of transit trips that are more likely to be replaced in favor of ride-sourcing services and the attributes of individuals who are more likely to make this replacement. This information can inform policies that aim to reduce the substitution of ride-sourcing for public transit, which can worsen both congestion and emissions.

The urban population are increasingly suffering from rising transport costs, worsening air quality, longer commuting time, and traffic congestion. Although much scholarly attention has focused on modeling urban traffic congestion, news contents about traffic jam have rarely been examined systematically. This study selects 12 large metropolitan cities across Asia (Beijing, Bengaluru, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Singapore), Oceania (Auckland and Sydney), Europe (London) and North America (Los Angeles and Toronto) for an in-depth content analysis. More than 40,000 pieces of congestion-related articles in the 2009–2018 period have been identified in the local news media of these cities. We apply techniques of text analytics to analyze underlying themes in relation to sustainable transport and congestion-mitigation measures. Also, a sentiment analysis is conducted to examine the level of frustration expressed. Results show that traffic congestion is no longer perceived to be primarily an economic issue. Concerns over the environmental impacts of traffic congestion were increasingly discussed. Based on the content analysis, cities in Asia mentioned a lot about congestion-related PM_2.5 pollution and climate change was a recurrent theme among non-Asian cities. Economic cost related to traffic congestion has received much more attention in high-income cities. With regard to congestion mitigation measures, terms related to promoting public and active transport was the most popular, followed by restriction and regulation measures, and then intelligent transport system (ITS) or smart mobility adoption. It is noteworthy that road capacity expansion has attracted the lowest coverage. Generally, high-density cities discussed more about public and active transport in alleviating traffic jams; and police enforcement was seen as important in tackling traffic congestion across all cities. In relation to the sentiment, there is a positive association between the overall traffic congestion level and the congestion frustration level expressed in local news.

Cities worldwide are developing and implementing strategies to promote the bicycle as a viable and competitive mobility option, to foster the development of resilient, livable, accessible, inclusive, and low-carbon societies. Nevertheless, empirical evidence has shown that equity issues have been far less addressed during bicycle planning and decision-making processes, regardless of the importance of the social dimension within the sustainable mobility policy.

Therefore, to explore the distributional impacts of bicycle-related benefits in cities around the globe, this article delves into the current literature encompassing distributive justice frameworks and equity-oriented assessments. Our review revealed that often the distributional effects of bicycle planning are context-dependent, with projects and investments targeting central, advantaged, and wealthy areas of cities. Quantitative assessments identified that bicycle benefits such as infrastructure coverage, cycling trips, accessibility, and health gains are unevenly distributed in cities, not addressing the needs of disadvantaged and vulnerable population groups.

Moreover, despite the current predominance of quantitative frameworks to examine the equity impacts of cycling, a considerable increase in qualitative and alternative approaches has been observed, including the role of bicycle advocacy, individual characteristics, and institutional perspectives in the distributive process.

Whereas empirical evidence suggests that bicycle planning and decision-making processes often overlook equity issues, this article discusses methodological strengths and limitations and future research pathways to support planners, politicians, and practitioners toward more equitable approaches.

Online food delivery has transformed the last-mile of food and grocery delivery, with unnoticed yet often significant impacts upon the transport and logistics network. This new model of food delivery is not just increasing congestion in urban centers though, it is also changing the contours and qualities of those doing delivery—namely through gig economy work. This new system of food consumption and provision is rapidly gaining traction, but assessments around its current and future sustainability tend to hold separate the notions of social, environmental and economic sustainability—with few to date working to understand how these can interact, influence and be in conflict with one another. This paper seeks to work with this broader understanding of sustainability, whilst also foregrounding the perspectives of gig economy couriers who are often marginalized in such assessments of the online food delivery system. We make use of systems thinking and Campbell’s conflict model of sustainability to do this. In assessing the online food delivery in this way, we seek to not only provide a counternarrative to some of these previous assessments, but to also challenge those proposing the use of gig economy couriers as an environmentally sustainable logistics intervention in other areas of last-mile logistics to consider how this might impact the broader sustainability of their system, now and in the future.

This study provides a comprehensive review of the significant elements in sustainable transportation systems with shared mobility. The main subsets of shared mobility includes ridesharing, carsharing, shared micromobility, on-demand ride services, and shared autonomous vehicles (SAVs). This paper revisits the related studies in the last decade since shared mobility spread via the emergence of smartphones and numerous applications. A framework is proposed to describe the shared mobility systems and understand the interactions among various elements in shared mobility systems, such as the supply and demand relationship between users and enterprises. Based on this framework, many fundamental research problems of shared mobility systems are summarized to cover travel behavior, enterprise supply, government policy, and sustainability. With the sustainability theme of shared mobility, we review the literature on the impacts of shared mobility on transportation sustainability. It is discovered that shared mobility has many advantages and improves urban transportation systems in many aspects, but these benefits vary with travel behavior and enterprise supply. We also discuss how government policies regulate travel behavior and enterprise supply in the sustainable development of urban transportation systems.

In alignment with climate change, the European Union endeavors to accelerate the electrification progress of the public transit system. In particular, Copenhagen in Denmark and Oslo in Norway develop a blueprint to have 100% public transit electrification by 2030 and 2028, respectively. In this study, the lifecycle approach is applied to explore the role of electric buses in the electrification progress of the public transport system in different European countries. To better model the energy/fuel consumption, we integrate the theoretical model of human thermal comfortable temperature into our proposed framework. We take into account the effects of weather, the daily operation characteristics, and the energy mix of different European counties, and evaluate the lifecycle environmental and economic performance of electric buses. The result shows that the public transportation system with both hybrid and electric buses can be good compensation between financial and environmental needs instead of using electric buses to replace all the conventional buses. Moreover, the operational plan of the public transportation system mixed with electric and hybrid buses may be adjusted according to the seasonal temperature variation so as to maximize the environmental benefits. Considering the different economic and environmental scenarios of energy sources, some EU countries would be able to reduce or remove the incentives for electric buses.

The widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is one of the keys to achieving carbon-neutral by mid-century. This research examined the Americans’ perception of Chinese-brand electric vehicles (CBEVs) made in the US via structural equation modeling. The authors contracted a professional web survey company, which surveyed 400 Californian respondents in December 2020. We focused on California because the state has the greatest EV registration and accounts for approximately 260,000 or 47 percent of the US’s entire EV population. There are two unique approaches to this research, (1) proposing a mediation model and (2) examining country-of-origin effects in evaluating the factors influencing EV purchase intention in California households. The study results revealed that eco-consciousness does not directly invoke consumers’ purchase intention. Instead, the influence of eco-consciousness on purchasing behavior is mediated by quality judgment and the product's perceived value. The study also found that consumers’ animosity affects purchase intention indirectly by eroding consumers’ perceived value of CBEVs. Even though many foreign EV makers are attempting to increase their market presence and product adoption in the US market, their market share is still insignificant compared to conventional vehicles. Understanding factors that increase consumer acceptability of EVs is inevitable for building a successful market penetration.

Heavy-duty trucks emit >25% of the CO₂ of the European road transport sector despite representing ≈2.5% of its fleet. Escalating temperatures associated to global warming will increase the use of air-conditioning (AC) in heavy-duty trucks, further raising their fuel consumption and emissions. Thus, sustainable solutions are needed to reduce the thermal loads affecting the truck cabins, to minimize the need for AC and decrease the sector’s costs and environmental footprint. We assessed the economic and environmental impact of AC use in the European heavy-duty transportation fleet, for realistic environmental conditions throughout the year, across the different European regions. Potential reductions were estimated for various changes in the optical properties of the cabin external paints and glazing elements (windshield and side-windows). The use of high-reflectivity paints in the cabin external surfaces and low-transmissivity glazing can reduce fuel costs by ≈€195 million/year across Europe (i.e., ≈0.1% of the total fuel costs of the European heavy-duty fleet), and decrease CO₂ emissions by 1% of the reduction target set for 2025. These potential reductions highlight the importance of engaging with transportation stakeholders (e.g., workers unions, vehicle manufacturers, policymakers, and regulating bodies), to raise awareness about the potential benefits for the European transportation sector and the environment, and to promote the necessary adaptation in the transportation fleets.