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Public transport fare is a central feature of transit operations and is a key indicator to reflect transport demand. Yet, relatively little is known about how fare influences on ridership dynamics, including for which types of fare incentives, who accepts it, and how passengers’ travel patterns are changed. This information is particularly important considering concerns about a decline of public transport ridership due to the aging population and pandemic. In this paper, we employ a flat-rate public transport fare as an urgent measure to revive the demand for public transport in rural areas of Japan. A discrete-continuous model is applied to describe the relationship between the intention to use flat-rate public transport and trip frequency. A stated preference survey was conducted with citizens living near the station and bus stops in Kochi Prefecture. This study contributes to the literature by providing firsthand insights about how demand for flat-rate public transport fares is formed and how different policy implications can be made accordingly. The results indicate that a flat-rate fare has proven effective in increasing the frequency of use of public transportation, which will lead to the revitalization of the public transport system. The outcome of this study is anticipated to inform and equip city authorities and operators with advanced knowledge about the benefits of flat-rate fares which can help to change fare policies in the near future.

Motorcycle ownership in Vietnam has increased exponentially during the last two decades. As a result, traffic congestion, emissions, and traffic safety have been on the rise. Of particular concern is the significant increase in the number of traffic accidents due to higher traffic volume that is stimulated by economic development and improved households’ economic mobility. During this time frame, many programs, such as traffic safety awareness campaign, have been developed and implemented by transportation agencies to reduce traffic fatalities. This study seeks to understand the long-term effect of policy intervention on traffic fatalities. This is accomplished by developing a log-linear regression model which the response variable is the number of traffic fatalities between 1990 and 2019 and the independent variables include Human Development Index (HDI), motorcycle ownership, and policy interventions. The model estimation results indicate that: (1) a higher degree of economic development (HDI) corresponds to lower traffic fatalities, (2) the motorcycle helmet law has lowered the number of annual traffic fatalities since its enactment, and (3) a higher number of motorcycle trips corresponds to a higher number of traffic fatalities. Based on this study’s findings, it is recommended that transportation agencies in Vietnam develop and promote an alternative transportation mode.

Understanding vehicle choice and utilization is increasingly considered in addressing motorcycle-related challenges by policymakers. However, the linkage between the discrete-continuous decisions has not been examined across income groups. This study measures the interdependence between vehicle choice and utilization for income groups in a Vietnamese medium-sized city. Model estimation results show that contributing factors to households’ motorcycle ownership include individual and household characteristics and some aspects of the built environment. However, differences exist in motorcycle ownership and utilization between low- and medium-income groups. Results from this study may suggest that households may be more likely to buy an extra motorcycle as their incomes increase and this may generate more motorcycle-related issues in the future. On the positive side, we found that the non-motorized mobility resources available in the low-income group played a key role in reducing motorcycle ownership and usage. Therefore, we suggest that medium-sized cities should develop cycling infrastructure to facilitate the mobility of low-income groups as well as promote well-established travel behavior from cyclists; then, they may be less willing to switch to motorized vehicles as their income increases.

The present study identifies the determinants of traffic crashes as well as the role of crash experiences in mode choice when commuting to school in Can Tho, a medium-sized city in Vietnam, based on self-reported travel behavior data. In Vietnamese medium-sized cities, the fatality rate has been reported to be 8% higher than the national rate and 19% higher than in larger cities. In addition, private vehicles account for over 90% of travel demand in these cities due to uncontrolled urbanization and the people inhabiting these cities are dependent on motorcycle as a mode of travel. Motorcycle and bicycle riders are the most vulnerable road users, hence those commuting to school by these vehicles are often at risk for crashes. In the present study, a total of 4,358 samples, categorized by ‘self-driving’ and ‘pick-up’ subgroups, were collected and used in the analysis. Of the 2,227 participants in the self-driving group, 313 persons (14.05%) experienced by at least one crash in the preceding year. In the pick-up group, with 2,131 participants, 193 persons (9.06%) experienced at least one crash in the preceding year. Crash model estimation results indicate that the household location, gender with specific age group, motorcycle license, travel characteristics and population density have significant impacts on different levels of the crash outcome in each group. In the mode share model, variables representing crash prevalence, household size, the mobility sources available in the household (for example, the number of bicycles, motorcycles, or cars), household location, gender with specific age group, occupation levels, trip rate, levels of school travel distance, build environment, and some variables of perception, also show significant impacts on different levels of mode choice outcomes in each group. The present study provides an insightful understanding of the behaviors and perception of individuals taking school trips in a medium-sized motorcycle-dependent city. Our results indicate that the culture of using motorcycles is firmly entrenched among citizens and policymakers should attempt to redesign road infrastructure to ensure the safety of motorcycle users in parallel with improving walking and cycling infrastructure.

•Motorcycles are considered as the preeminent transportation mode in last-mile delivery services in Vietnam.•The aims of this study were to examine and clarify the factors associated with the incidence of traffic crashes and the perceived risks in a representative sample of cargo MC drivers. Among 726 cargo motorcycle drivers in Hanoi, 42.01% of respondents had crash experience within one year and 13.37% had been involved in at least one major traffic crash.•Crash severity varied depending on the number of years that the drivers had worked in LMD, job type, income perception, delivery pressure, smoking and drinking habits, and mobile phone usage.•The findings are suggested to have important implications for freight transportation and public health planning in urban areas.

Rural cities in Japan need to maintain public transport services because the proportion of elderly people in the population is increasing. However, measures to reduce the frequency of public transport services are under consideration in such cities because the number of passengers and the income necessary to keep services in operation are both decreasing. This study empirically analyzes the change in the number of tram passengers after the frequency of service was reduced in the study area. Especially, an analysis is applied to a survival time model using smart card data to evaluate what origin–destination pairs between tram stops (tram OD) can maintain a suitable number of passengers. The parameters estimated in the model show that a reduction in the number of trams does not directly lead to a change in the number of tram OD passengers. However, the average number of tram OD passengers and its variance are significant factors in explaining the decrease in the number of tram OD passengers. Sensitivity analysis by using the estimated model during the period of study shows that a tram OD pair that originates in a suburban area and terminates in a city center tends to have a higher probability of survival, but a tram OD pair originating from a city center tends to have a lower probability of survival. The results of this study are fundamental materials for a discussion on which tram OD pairs should be considered by public transport authorities to maintain or increase the number of passengers.

This study investigates what types of passengers in the rural city of Kochi, Japan are most likely to reduce their use of buses and trams. In the analysis, two main efforts are made. First, a Cox proportional hazard model is fitted to data from public transport smart cards to identify the “at risk” users, where the risk is identified based on a consecutive reduction of public transport use. This allows us to distinguish changes in the frequency (i.e., lasting reductions of public transport use) from variations of the frequency (i.e., temporal fluctuation of public transport use) in a coarse but simple manner. Second, we develop a set of indicators to characterize the passengers’ travel patterns, allowing us to make policy implications for promoting public transport use. In an empirical analysis, the impact of a reduction in tram frequency by public transport authorities on usage of transport services is initially examined using the model and is found not to have any significant short-term effects. Factors affecting public transport use are then identified and discussed. Based on the analysis, suggestions are made to encourage use of public transport in rural cities by selected demographics and travel patterns.

Segway and other two-wheeled personal mobility vehicles (PMVs) are gaining remarkable popularity as an alternative transport mode in urban environments particularly for short distance trips. The designs of shared sidewalks and implementation policies should be properly evaluated before authorizing PMVs on shared sidewalks, particularly in cities with high pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Properly calibrated microscopic simulation tools can facilitate such purposes. In this study, the applicability of social force model is tested. The findings suggest that, under uncongested situations, the avoidance patterns of Segway riders and cyclists are adequately captured by the calibrated social force model.

This research proposes a method of evaluating transfer nodes based on smart card data with the objective of making a contribution to public transportation restructuring in regional cities. The study seeks to better comprehend the use of public transportation systems (trams and buses) in central Kochi City in Japan based on the transportation mode transfers recorded on user Smart Cards. Specifically, this study seeks to use the Data Envelop Analysis (DEA) model, which allows us to reference multiple indices, in order to evaluate the efficiency of user transfers between transportation systems while also considering transfer times and user age groups. The study results show that efficiency varied according to the time of day and user age groups, even at the same transfer nodes, and identified the need for more thorough understanding of the properties of each transfer point based on the efficiency values of multiple indices.

Traditional screening using chemicals or flow cytometry (FCM) alone is not sufficient to isolate the high glutathione (GSH)-producing yeast strains used in food production. Therefore, to improve screening efficiency, we investigated a combination of both methods. A mutated Saccharomyces cerevisiaestrain was labeled with 5-chloromethylfluorescein diacetate and sorted by FCM according to emitted fluorescence intensity. Moderate GSH (1%–2%)-producing mutants were isolated, whereas high GSH (>2%)-producing mutants were not. Traditional screening using cerulenin resulted in similar findings, but a combination of both methods resulted in a 40% increase in the screening yield of high GSH-producing mutants. An analysis of model strains indicated that the ratio of high GSH-producing cells in a sample affected the FCM results. By combining FCM with traditional screening using chemicals, we succeeded in isolating high GSH-producing mutants from several parental strains.