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Travel Demand Management (TDM) initiatives are widely applied by transport planners to establish and enable appropriate use of critical transport infrastructure. Less attention has been given to the specific case of TDM in an education precinct (university) context. Travel Plans have been promoted as a means for an organisation to encourage sustainable travel choices by their employees, visitors and customers. This paper offers an empirical contribution to the literature through a comparative qualitative evaluation of selected University Sustainable Travel Plans (USTPs) in Australia to identify the most important questions that a USTP should address explicitly. The evaluation comprised identification of a set of evaluation questions, completion of a template for each USTP considered and application of a simple scoring exercise. We also identify TDM measures that have been introduced as part of a USTP in response to the typical travel patterns exhibited in university settings. A contribution of this paper is to create a means of comparison of USTPs and to establish the components of a comprehensive travel plan. • Conducts a comparative analysis of University Sustainable Travel Plans. • Explores international experience of Travel Demand Management (TDM) in an education precinct context. • Key components of University Sustainable Travel Plans are identified. • The important role of regular surveys of staff and student travel behaviour is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decision to initiate medication is complex and is influenced by a variety of factors. There is limited information on the relative importance of factors that influence the initiation of ADHD medication. To investigate the factors, and their relative importance, that influence the decision to initiate medication in adults, and parents of children, with ADHD. A discrete choice experiment was conducted using eight choice tasks made up of five attributes that described the outcomes of initiating medication. A mixed multinomial logit model was used to estimate preferences for medication. Respondents' overall preferences for initiating medication were negative (Mean (β)= −0.72705, p < 0.1), however, significant heterogeneity was noted in preferences (SD: 0.93604, p < 0.001). Side-effects were the most important factor for both adults (Relative importance (RI) = 40.39%) and parents (RI = 41.99%). Improvement in education had a greater weighting in adults' decision-making compared to parents (RI = 36.93% vs 30.47%) while improvement in aggressive (RI = 14.38% vs 11.84%) and social behaviour (RI = 12.59% vs 10.37%) was more important to parents. Important differences in preferences of patients and parents were identified, highlighting that the decision to initiate medication is influenced differently in different individuals and groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tyres are an expensive input into the cost of a bus business, yet very little is known about what impact an improvement in the performance of tyres, linked in part to improved maintenance practices, might have not only in reducing the costs of tyres but its impact on fuel consumption and overall maintenance costs. This paper uses data collected over a 12 month period from a bus operator in Sydney where we fitted sensors on all tyres of 35 buses monitored on a monthly data capture plan, which together with data obtained from a telematics system installed in each bus and other data describing the operating environment, enabled us to develop a system of equations to identify endogenous and exogenous influences on tread depth loss of each tyre and fuel consumption, and to map this into implications on maintenance costs. The estimated model system is built into a decision support system to investigate ways in which a bus business can improve its cost efficiency through a changed tyre-related maintenance and operating regime. The findings suggest significant opportunities to improve cost efficiency by a careful review of the decisions related to the practices associated with tyres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As COVID-19 slowly dissipated after 30 months since March 2020, working from home (WFH) continues to be popular, with support from notable numbers of employees and employers. There is growing evidence that we have either reached, or appear to be close to, a level of WFH − to some extent − that might be described as an equilibrium outcome going forward. Hence, there is a need to update any travel behaviour response models that have been developed during the passage of the pandemic. This paper sets out a commuter model for each day of the week for the Greater Sydney Metropolitan Area as of September 2022; where the alternative responses are to not work, WFH, or commute by one of ten modes available. Given the probability of WFH obtained from a mixed logit model, we construct a mapping equation to establish the sources of statistical variance by origin and destination locations that influence the incidence of WFH. The evidence is used as the basis of commenting on what this means for longer-term structural changes in network performance, the likely move to a greater focus on living locally, and the need (or otherwise) for employers to retain office space. A significant return to the office has recently been promoted by some employers, and we comment on this as to what it might mean for the future of a hybrid working location model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adherence to medication for attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is less than optimal. Previous studies have primarily focused on qualitative assessment of factors that influence medication adherence. Objective: This study aimed to quantify the factors that influence patient and parent preferences for continuing ADHD medication. Method: A discrete‐choice experiment was conducted to investigate preferences. Adults, and parents of children, with ADHD were presented with eight hypothetical choice tasks of three options (Medication A, Medication B, No Medication) described by six attributes related to medication outcomes. Preferences were estimated using a mixed multinomial logit model. Results: Overall, respondents' preferences (n = 216) for continuing medication were negative (mean [β] = −1.426, p <.001); however, a significant heterogeneity in preferences was observed amongst respondents (standard deviation = 0.805, p <.001). Improvements in education, aggressive behaviour, social behaviour and family functioning, and side effects and stigma, influenced respondents' decision to continue taking medication. The respondents were willing to continue medication if they experienced positive effects, but side effects (even moderate) were the strongest concern for not continuing medication. While side effects were the most important factor for both adult patients and parents of children with ADHD, improvement in education was relatively more important for adults and improvement in aggressive behaviour, social behaviour and family functioning was relatively more important for parents of children with ADHD. Parents were more likely to not continue a medication with severe side effects even at the highest level of improvement in education. Conclusions: Side effects are the most important factor that influenced preferences for continuing medication for both adults with ADHD, as well as parents of children with ADHD. While overall the respondents preferred not to take/give medication, discrete‐choice experiment showed that the relative importance of factors that influenced continuation of medications was different for the two groups. Patient and Public Involvement: Adults, and parents of children, with ADHD participated in this study by completing the online questionnaire. The questionnaire was based on findings of research in the literature, as well as earlier focus groups conducted with adults, and parents of children, with ADHD. The face validity of the questionnaire was determined by asking parents of children, and adults, with ADHD (n = 3) to complete the survey and participate in a short discussion on their understanding of the questions and their recommendations on improving the clarity of the survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to recognise and account for the influence of working from home on commuting activity has never been so real as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only does this change the performance of the transport network, it also means that the way in which transport modellers and planners use models estimated on a typical weekday of travel and expand it up to the week and the year must be questioned and appropriately revised to adjust for the quantum of working from home. Although teleworking is not a new phenomenon, what is new is the ferocity by which it has been imposed on individuals throughout the world, and the expectation that working from home is no longer a temporary phenomenon but one that is likely to continue to some non-marginal extent given its acceptance and revealed preferences from both many employees and employ where working from home makes good sense. This paper formalises the relationship between working from home and commuting by day of the week and time of day for two large metropolitan areas in Australia, Brisbane and Sydney, using a mixed logit choice model, identifying the influences on such choices together with a mapping model between the probability of working from home and socioeconomic and other contextual influences that are commonly used in strategic transport models to predict demand for various modes by location. The findings, based on Wave 3 (approximately 6 months from the initial outbreak of the pandemic) of an ongoing data collection exercise, provide the first formal evidence for Australia in enabling transport planners to adjust their predicted modal shares and overall modal travel activity for the presence of working from home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the start of 2020, we have seen major changes in the way communities operate. Mobility behaviour has been drastically impacted by work from home (WFH) and by lockdowns and restrictions in different jurisdictions. This study investigates the influence of WFH and different lockdown patterns on commuting and non-commuting trips in Australia by workers between early 2020 and late 2021. The data includes three waves of data collection to represent different lockdown periods. A multiple discrete–continuous extreme value (MDCEV) model is estimated to represent the number of one-way trips undertaken weekly with different purposes (commuting, work-related, education, shopping, personal business/social recreation), and by different modes (car, public transport, active modes). Explanatory variables include socioeconomic characteristics, location, the time period during the pandemic (i.e., waves). In addition, latent variables were included representing underlying attitudes such as satisfaction towards life or concern about the use of public transport – which might certainly play an important role in understanding individual weekly travel behaviour decisions. The model structure has the advantage that it estimates commuting and non-commuting activity together, allowing for a substitution effect between them. The results suggest that across all waves and jurisdictions, respondents who WFH more are more likely to have a higher number of shopping trips and personal business/social recreation trips, perhaps substituting these trips in replacement of their lesser commuting trips. Interestingly, all other influences held constant, individuals who are more concerned about the use of public transport are more likely to undertake commuting trips by all modes, more likely to do shopping trips, and less likely to undertake personal business/social recreation trips – suggesting they are prioritising essential trips rather than social/personal trips and perceive the risk of COVID-19 to be higher due to this travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decisions made by businesses on where to locate or relocate are typically given less consideration than residential location in integrated transport and land use modelling systems. This is surprising given the important role that businesses play in defining employment opportunities, and hence the travel patterns of workers and any travel associated with accessing firms. As part of a larger study on giving firm location choices an endogenous representation in an integrated model system, this paper reviews the existing literature on the drivers of location and relocation decisions in various geographical jurisdictions. The findings provide a starting position in the design of future firm-specific surveys, and especially the attributes that are candidates for stated choice experiments and for inclusion in firm location utility equations embedded in integrated strategic model systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Inclusion of decision process heterogeneity together with preference heterogeneity. • Value learning process and relative advantage maximisation strategies. • Links between process rules and random parameters under standard LPAA. • Tested with Monte Carlo simulations. • Influence on elasticities examined. Abstract Discrete choice studies, with rare exception, commonly assume that agents act as if sources of observed utility are captured through a linear in parameters and additive in attributes (LPAA) form, with some interactions. A growing number of transport (and other) choice studies have investigated one or more alternative processing rules adopted by agents in arriving at a choice, raising interest in how best to represent the utility expressions in a joint process and outcome choice model. Given the popular and appealing random parameter treatment of LPAA in mixed logit as a way of identifying non-systematic preference heterogeneity in a sample, this paper considers the possibility that we might be able to interact specific process heuristics with LPAA to uncover sources of systematic preference heterogeneity hidden in the standard LPAA form, and hence establish a link between the LPAA form and candidate process heuristics, offering a way to embellish and hence clarify the contributions to preference heterogeneity attributable to the presence of process heterogeneity. Specifically, we are interested in the extent to which there is a systematic relationship between the simple LPAA form and the more complex (albeit behaviourally realistic) process heuristics emerging in the transport literature which we call conditioning by random process heterogeneity (CRPH). In this paper, in addition to LPAA, we consider two process heuristics - Value Learning, and Relative Advantage Maximisation - with an overlay to account for risk attitudes, perceptual conditioning, and overt experience. The findings, using two data sets, suggest that empirically there exists a significant attribute-specific relationship between preference heterogeneity identified through specific process heuristics and through the LPAA assumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 had unprecedented consequences in our daily routines and habits. From a transportation context, there is the potential for unintended positive consequences on sustainability made possible by working remotely or from home (WFH) which reduced mobility significantly. However, there were some significant negative effects such as the increase of car use leading to congestion and erosion of sustainability gains. This paper uses data collected during the three years of the pandemic (2020, 2021 and 2022) in two metropolitan areas in Australia to estimate the changes in workers' daily decision to not work, WFH or to commute by different modes of transport with a special focus on active modes and public transport. A hybrid choice model is estimated which includes three latent variables: life satisfaction, concern towards the use of public transport, and social-meeting loving attitude. Results suggest that WFH has settled as a valid and efficient alternative to a regular workplace, given the reduced stigmas employers increasingly support this flexible hybrid working model. Moreover, results show that the majority of these "saved" commuting trips were previously by car, and not by more sustainable options such as public transport and active modes. If respondents do not have the option to WFH and thus have to attend the workplace, the increase in commuting trips tends to be by car, despite evidence of some amount of return to public transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing interest, in the discrete choice modelling literature, in alternative behavioural paradigms that represent ways in which individuals make choices when faced with a choice set of alternatives. We see an increasing number of studies using process heuristics such as attribute non-attendance, relative advantage maximisation, extremeness aversion and value learning. With some exceptions, the study of each heuristic has been undertaken in isolation from other candidate heuristics; the exceptions being joint investigation into a fully compensatory model defined by a linear additive in attributes and parameters specification and one process heuristic, commonly using latent class models. This paper investigates the role that two behaviourally appealing decision rules play jointly in explaining choice making, both of which reflect risk attitude in different ways. We jointly estimate a model that accounts for extremeness aversion and an extended expected utility transformation for an attribute that accounts for risk attitude and perceptual conditioning under fully compensatory attributes. We use a stated choice experiment associated with a car choice between tolled and non-tolled roads in Australia. The findings suggest that the mean VTTS from the multiple-rule model is higher than the mean estimates obtained from each of the stand-alone models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study integrates multiple decision process strategies (Attribute Non-Attendance and Value Learning) with risk attitudes, perceptual conditioning and overt experience, which, to the best of our knowledge, has not been done before. We propose a way to include multiple heuristics as an alternative to current dominant paradigms, which supports a behavioural view that more than one heuristic simultaneously is at play in attribute and alternative processing. Our results show that including multiple decision process strategies, and integrating of all these components, significantly improves the model’s performance and enhances our understanding of how preferences are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Multi-step: LCV driver 1st decides no. of stops & sequentially decides next stop. • Identify destination decisions depending on the no. of stop & total stop count. • LCV drivers: more sensitive to time & distance in 1st stop & decreases after. Freight delivery modelling has made significant progress in the past few decades. In this study we propose to use an aggregate multi-step approach to gain a better understanding of the tour-based trips of light commercial vehicles in Sydney, Australia. The paper identifies differences in destination choice-making given by the number of stop and the stop count of the trip, defined by the total number of stops in the tour-based trip. The findings suggest that estimating a separate model for each number of stops and stop count provides a better understanding on how destination choices are made. Different scenarios were simulated to show how the probability of choosing a certain destination depending on the number of stop and stop count changes due to variations in travel time and distance. Results show that light commercial vehicles are more sensitive to the generalised cost (defined by travel time and distance) in the first stop, and the sensitivity decreases as the trip is completed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Understand underlying attitudes in the decision to WFH or to commute during COVID. • Two latent variables: concern towards the use of PT and attitude towards WFH. • Occupation or income have a high influence on WFH, relative to travel times. • PT concern is moderated by regular and reliable services. • Balance between WFH and office is preferred. The decision to work from home (WFH) or to commute during COVID-19 is having a major structural impact on individuals' travel, work and lifestyle. There are many possible factors influencing this non-marginal change, some of which are captured by objective variables while others are best represented by a number of underlying latent traits captured by attitudes towards WFH and the use of specific modes of transport for the commute that have a bio-security risk such as public transport (PT). We develop and implement a hybrid choice model to investigate the sources of influence, accounting for the endogenous nature of latent soft variables for workers in metropolitan areas in New South Wales and Queensland. The data was collected between September-October 2020, during a period of no lockdown and relatively minor restrictions on workplaces and public gatherings. The results show that one of the most important attributes defining the WFH loving attitude is the workplace policy towards WFH, with workers that can decide where to work having a higher probability of WFH, followed by those that are being directed to, relative to other workplace policies. The bio-security concern with using shared modes such as public transport is a key driver of WFH and choosing to commute via the safer environment of the private car. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we go about our daily lives in ways that are unlikely to return to the pre-COVID-19 levels. A key feature of the COVID-19 era is likely to be a rethink of the way we work and the implications on commuting activity. Working from home (WFH) has been the 'new normal' during the period of lockdown, except for essential services that require commuting. In recognition of the new normal as represented by an increasing amount of WFH, this paper develops a model to identify the incidence of WFH and what impact this could have on the number of weekly commuting trips. Using data collected in eight countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and South Africa), we developed a Poisson regression model for the number of days individuals worked from home during the pandemic. Simulated scenarios quantify the impact of the different variables on the probability of WFH by country. The findings provide a reference point as we continue to undertake similar analysis at different points through time during the pandemic and after when restrictions are effectively removed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decisions made by businesses on where to locate or relocate are typically given less consideration in integrated transport and land use modelling systems than residential location. This is surprising given the important role that businesses play in defining employment opportunities, and hence the travel patterns of workers and any travel associated with accessing firms. This paper studies business location decisions in the Greater Sydney Metropolitan Area (GSMA) through two types of models. The first one, referred to as an attribute-non-attendance (ANA) model, is used to identify the influences on location decisions that are attended to and those that are typically ignored. The second model is a mixed multinomial logit model with ANA to capture differences in preferences as a way of investigating the key drivers of business location. The findings suggest that the main drivers vary across the GSMA, making specific locations an important determinant of choice, with businesses located in Sydney being especially concerned about access to public transport and the distance of other locations to the current location; businesses located in Wollongong placing great importance on client accessibility; and businesses located in Newcastle being very sensitive to the distance to their current location. Simulated scenarios are presented in this study to illustrate the degree of behavioural responsiveness to changes in important attributes such as accessibility, location and office characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Business location decision choice experiment with stated process strategies' questions. • Model formulation proposal including multiple stated process strategies. • Attribute non-attendance, value learning and majority of confirming dimensions. • Willingness to pay outcomes comparison across models. • Median WTP estimates are influenced by heterogeneity in process rules in choice making. Discrete choice studies are increasingly used in urban planning to understand preferences and to make informed decisions based on its outcomes. Traditional discrete choice modelling approaches have evolved in a setting in which some very specific behavioural assumptions are made in specifying decision-making. These assumptions have given rise to the study of alternative process strategies in decision-making, such as majority of confirming dimensions (MCD), attribute non-attendance (ANA), or value learning (VL). In this paper, a stated choice experiment was designed to understand business location decisions, where a location specialist had to compare their current location with two alternative locations. After each choice task, respondents were asked whether they used ANA in processing the choice tasks, and at the end of the experiment a number of questions were asked to identify whether specific process heuristics were used such as MCD and VL. Choice models were estimated to compare the influence of including different stated heuristics responses as conditioning effects. The results show that the model which included the stated heuristics responses is superior in terms of the goodness of fit and in the estimates' significance levels than the model that assumes everyone might be using the heuristics. The willingness to pay estimates derived from a traditional model were statistically equivalent to the ones derived from the stated multiple heuristics model. However, the median WTP derived from the stated multiple heuristics model was slightly lower and the confidence intervals higher than in the traditional model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to recognise and account for the influence of working from home on commuting activity has never been so real as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given a recognition that WFH activity during the pandemic has reduced the amount of commuting activity compared to pre-COVID-19, the inevitable question is raised as to what this might mean for some of the crucial inputs in the appraisal of transport initiatives. One critical value used in benefit-cost analysis is the value of time which converts time into monetary units in the calculation of user benefits. We are interested in whether reduced commuting activity is associated with higher or lower willing to pay to save time. We investigate this possibility with data from the Greater Sydney Metropolitan Area in late 2020 when working from home was at a high level. The findings of a higher average commuter VoT have major implications for the VoT used in transport appraisal given that time savings are the largest user benefit. We suggest a percentage adjustment required to align with the 'new normal' as currently known. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first 22 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, from March 2020 to December 2021, we witnessed a seismic change in the way in which work was undertaken given the restrictions implemented by government to curb the spread of the virus; most prominent has been the rise in working from home (WFH) as a more acceptable work location. In this paper, we explore preferences for and attitudes towards WFH in great detail, leveraging two waves of data to explore the remarkable and globally unique situation of three metro areas (Greater Sydney Metropolitan Area, South-East Queensland, and Melbourne) who despite entering lockdown at the same time in 2021, follow significantly different trajectories with respect to the severity and duration of the lockdowns. We find that irrespective of the degree of severity of the lockdown and the duration thereof, employee preferences for working from home, and importantly productivity, remained unchanged. Rather than diminishing the desire to WFH, evidence indicates that as periods of lockdown extend the desire to continue WFH only seems to intensify. While all workers express a preference to continue WFH in an unrestricted world, more often than they did prior to the pandemic, we further identify three broad segments of workers based primarily on how much of a balance they can strike between the benefits and challenges of WFH, which dictates how often they would like to WFH. Given that the desire to WFH more and the positive externalities of increased WFH, we argue that measures to support ongoing WFH are important to sustainable cities and the people who live in them, across several dimensions. • Three cities in Australia all initiated a lockdown at approximately the same time in 2021. • The lockdowns in each city followed different trajectories and durations. • Longer lockdowns result in greater desire to continue to WFH in the future. • Three segments of workers are revealed who wish to WFH to differing extents. • Potential implications of increased WFH for cities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is seen as a transition from mobility being satisfied by a dominant car ownership model to a service model where mobility needs are met by a multimodal suite of services. The research environment of MaaS is heavily driven by the younger generation's travel behaviour which appears to be less dominated by car ownership (following the peak car literature) and by their interest in all things technological, particularly their smart phones. However, this paper is looking at a different but very specific segment of the population in Australia that have their accessibility provided by Community Transport (CT), focusing specifically on New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (QLD). Arguably, this population segment is the complete antithesis of the younger generation in terms of chasing technological change but in other ways, for example, a lack of access to private cars, shows some similarities. This paper is motivated by likely changes in funding for CT providers. Currently CT providers receive a supply side subsidy but there are plans to introduce funding to be placed directly with clients, in the form of person centred funding (PCF). Clients will then have a single budget to purchase mobility along with other services they require. The paper investigates the mobility services which comprise bundles that CT clients would be willing to pay in the new era of PCF. Five participating CT providers from a cross section of operating areas recruited clients to take part in a stated choice experiment, processed by a computer assisted personal interview (CAPI). Advanced choice models are used to develop models using the behavioural data collected by the CAPI and estimates of a CT client's willingness to pay (WTP) for the MaaS bundle are presented. WTP provides a ceiling for pricing the elements within a MaaS bundle which is an important part of the CT providers' future strategy. The WTP estimates were much smaller than the CT providers' unit costs of providing the service. This poses a challenge for CT providers in the creation of mobiltiy bundles which cover costs, suggesting that the possible transition to PCF using MaaS bundles will not be an easy process and will require significant education as to the cost of provision. The paper concludes with some suggestions as to how CT providers could make the transition to PCF building on the evidence of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mobility is a fundamental requirement for social inclusion in low density rural/regional Australia. • Pre-school children emerge as a new regional group at risk of mobility-related social exclusion. • Increasing trip rates and building bridging social capitalare key ways to reduce exclusion risks. • Public transport services can support regional mobility and reduce exclusion risk. Mobility is a fundamental requirement for well-functioning regions and for socially included residents. The paper first examines the role of mobility in promoting social inclusion of regional residents. Discussing the groups of regional people most likely to be at risk of social exclusion, because of poor mobility opportunities, the paper notes pre-school children as a new focus for policy and research attention. It then highlights the importance of trip making and building bridging social capital to reduce the risk of social exclusion in a regional setting, showing that, while regional people at high risk of social exclusion may achieve relatively high trip making (mobility, often via active travel), they may still have problems taking trips that build their bridging social capital. Public transport services can play a supportive role here, with indicative service levels outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The positive effects that Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is envisioned to have on transport can only be reaped if people are using MaaS. Yet, the understanding of the user perspective on MaaS is incomplete and primarily based on experiments with non-users. To address this shortcoming, this paper reports user experiences from a trial of a high-level MaaS service in Sydney, Australia. Based on questionnaires and interviews, it analyses who participated in the trial and why, and whether the trial experience satisfied their motives. The contribution to the literature on MaaS is three-fold. Firstly, most of the people that participated in the trial were frequent users of both public transport and private cars. This supports the notion that multi-modal travellers are likely early adopters of MaaS and contradicts the fear that MaaS does not appeal to private car users. Secondly, a desire to contribute to innovation and curiosity about MaaS were the main motives for signing up for the trial, which highlights the important role an inviting setting for experimentation, such as a trial, can play in stimulating MaaS adoption. Thirdly, many participants struggled with making the trialled service work for them and on average they seemed to value the support and feedback functions higher than other service features. This underscores the novelty of MaaS, compared to existing service models, and reiterates the notion that more than an app and a few subscription plans is needed to make MaaS useful for users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public transport authorities and service providers place great emphasis on information provision to travellers both before and during travel. Information provided prior to travel has included printed timetables, newspaper advertisements, telephone services and marketing campaigns. During the trip, providers have tended to offer maps at public transport stops (i.e. bus stops, train stations, ferry wharves, etc.) as well as timetables static, dynamic or real-time. Some of these channels are still used but improvements in digital technology has led to a wider range of information distributed using different digital media. Whilst Transport for NSW and transport operators continue to provide the more traditional information, there has been a plethora of third party applications which are accessible on the move. The literature recognises that the need for information and the importance of information provision differs at the various stages of the trip, from planning, to entry into the system, to wayfinding during the trip and egress from the system. However, no systematic research exists as to how information preferences and usage differ between customer segments. It is important for operators and regulators to identify the segments and their information preferences so as to promote public transport use. This paper addresses this important issue by presenting the results of an internet survey of the public’s awareness and usage of public transport information, focussing on commuters. The paper looks at awareness and usage of information sources and how this varies by stage of journey and frequency of usage of public transport. Factor analysis is used to identify segments of customers by attitudes towards public transport and usage of information sources. The paper uses an ordered choice modelling approach and finds few differences between frequent and infrequent users but confirmed the role of attitudes in framing the respondent’s identification of their satisfaction with the overall public transport trip and with the information sources provided. The paper also identifies the importance of recognising the non-homogeneity of information sources. The paper concludes how the type of information preferred by travellers varies by public transport mode and varies by trip segment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing interest in recognising the role that active and micro-mobility modes play in the full suite of modal-based activities. While the idea of the 'next normal' since the heady days of COVID-19 remains unclear, there are signs that living locally and the impact of increased working from home, has generated greater interest in active travel and micro-mobility for local trips, but also as ways to access and/or egress modes for longer trips. A new travel and mobility survey has been designed in which revealed and stated preference data are collected to identify current and future interest in using motorised and non-motorised modes in a typical week. It considers mode use for all stages of a door-to-door journey in an extensive number of trip profiles. Trip frequency over a 7-day week is much more informative than the more traditional choice of a mode survey approach for a typical day. We estimate a series of negative binomial models on the stated preference (SP) scenario data to gain an understanding of the role that active and micro-mobility modes play as access, egress, and linehaul modes in an origin–destination trip. The descriptive profiles and estimated models provide a way to identify and hence focus the treatment of active and micro-mobility modes in government policy settings designed to support the move to more sustainable modes for all local passenger trips. The modes showing the most potential from the SP inquiry include EV car driver, car passenger, walk and E-bike/E-Scooter, if external conditions allow (i.e., similar to SP scenarios when external restrictions are removed). This growing interest in non-public transport opportunities looks like adding challenges to growing public transport patronage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pace of direct electrification vs indirect electrification for public transit bus fleets is accelerating internationally. Clear targets have been established by transport policymakers to achieve a zero-emission bus target as early as 2030 in some jurisdictions. Two prominent choices are battery-driven electric buses and fuel-cell electric buses. We draw on evidence on these current and future developments to provide an assessment of the two types of technology on emission reduction, capital, maintenance and energy costs, and other aspects. We apply a decision support system to compare a number of scenarios for different electrification plans of bus fleets using Australian data. Comparing scenarios such as slow versus fast take up and different mixtures of energy technologies in future zero emission fleets provides evidence on the reductions in carbon dioxide emissions and costs in converting a diesel bus fleet to a fully green, at tailpipe, fleet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the short-term reduction in money and time costs associated with a reduction in car and public transport commuting activity in the Greater Sydney Metropolitan Area (GSMA) during a period of the COVID-19 pandemic in which Australia started to see an easing of restrictions (see Beck and Hensher 2020a). As of late May 2020, three months after COVID-19 resulted in restrictions in Australia, we saw an annual travel time reduction for car and public transport commuters in the GSMA of $5.58 billion, representing a 54.02% reduction in the Pre-COVID-19 total time costs, much of which we would suggest can be associated with reductions in congestions costs. Adjusting further for reduced employment volumes relative to pre-COVID-19 levels, to take into account reduced commuting activity due, in part, to a lower volume of work associated with a loss of employment or lower employment hours, the annual time cost reduction for all commuters who still have regular pre-COVID-19 levels of employment are estimated as $4.4 billion. Hence there is $1.17 billion worth of reduced time costs associated with significantly reduced employment hours, including a loss of employment. The implications for road investment linked to congestion in particular is profound, and shows how much of an increase in benefit to society, through congestion busting, can be obtained by more flexible work arrangements, even allowing for some switching into car out of public transport. Whether the current decrease in travel costs will be long-lasting is unknown, but it does support the appeal of working from home, if it is sustainable, as a policy lever to reduce levels of congestion on the roads and crowding in public transport. • Estimates the short-term reduction in money and time costs associated with commuting activity during a period of the COVID-19 pandemic. • Annual travel time reduction for all car and PT commuters of $5.58 billion, a 54.02% reduction in the Pre-COVID-19 total time costs. • The implications for road investment linked to congestion in particular is profound. • Shows how much of an increase in benefit to society, through congestion busting, can be obtained by more flexible work arrangements. • Support the appeal of working from home as a policy lever to reduce levels of congestion on the roads and crowding in public transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]