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This work considers the sensitivity of commute travel times in US metro areas due to potential changes in commute patterns, for example caused by events such as pandemics. Permanent shifts away from transit and carpooling can add vehicles to congested road networks, increasing travel times. Growth in the number of workers who avoid commuting and work from home instead can offset travel time increases. To estimate these potential impacts, 6-9 years of American Community Survey commute data for 118 metropolitan statistical areas are investigated. For 74 of the metro areas, the average commute travel time is shown to be explainable using only the number of passenger vehicles used for commuting. A universal Bureau of Public Roads model characterizes the sensitivity of each metro area with respect to additional vehicles. The resulting models are then used to determine the change in average travel time for each metro area in scenarios when 25% or 50% of transit and carpool users switch to single occupancy vehicles. Under a 25% mode shift, areas such as San Francisco and New York that are already congested and have high transit ridership may experience round trip travel time increases of 12 minutes (New York) to 20 minutes (San Francisco), costing individual commuters $1065 and $1601 annually in lost time. The travel time increases and corresponding costs can be avoided with an increase in working from home. The main contribution of this work is to provide a model to quantify the potential increase in commute travel times under various behavior changes, that can aid policy making for more efficient commuting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the characteristics of passenger vehicle use is the prerequisite for effective urban management. However, it has been challenging in the existing literature due to the lack of continuously observed data on passenger vehicle use. Thanks to the advances in data collection and processing techniques, multi-day vehicle trajectory data generated from volunteered passenger cars provide new opportunities for examining in depth how people travel in regular patterns. In this paper, based on a week's operation data of 6600 passenger cars in Shanghai, we develop a systematic approach for identifying trips and travel purposes, and classify vehicles into four categories using a Gaussian-Mixed-Model. A new method is proposed to identify vehicle travel regularities and we use the Z Test to explore differences in travel time and route choices between four types of vehicles. We find that commercially used vehicles present high travel intensity in temporal and spatial aspects and the use intensity in elevated roads is higher for household-used commuting vehicles than semi-commercially used vehicles. The methodologies and conclusions of this paper may provide not only theoretical support for future urban traffic prediction, but also guidance for employing customized active traffic demand management measures to alleviate traffic congestion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distinguishing bicycle market segments is relevant to promote bicycle use, as customised policy strategies can be targeted to each submarket. This paper aims to adopt the attitudinal market segmentation approach to identify potential markets of bicycle commuters and their travel behaviour differences. A survey was conducted among 902 commuters in Quelimane, Mozambique. Factor analysis is used to identify key latent factors. Two-step cluster analysis is used to segment the bicycle commuting market into several submarkets. Then, Mann-Whitney U test is used to compare pairs of segments based on a set of travel behaviour factors such as cycling frequency, travel time and commuting mode. Three segments are obtained: Reluctant cyclists (S1), Livelihood cyclists (S2), and Demanding cyclists (S3). The study reveals that S1 cycle less frequently when compared to S2 and S3. S1 can be motivated to cycle more frequently by promoting educational campaigns to increase their perception towards cycling benefits. S1 and S3 commute long hours when compared to S2, thus, promoting distribution of land-use activities to reduce travel distance could motivate bicycle use. S1 frequently walk commute compared to S2 and S3, therefore policies to increase bicycle use were pointed to making bicycles more accessible to Reluctant cyclists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing the temporal competitiveness of public transit (PT) over private cars is a crucial strategy for promoting PT mode share and alleviating traffic congestion, especially for commuter trips. However, to our best knowledge, previous studies have rarely considered the impact of time reliability and analyzed the critical stages (e.g., accessing, waiting, transferring) that affect PT competitiveness. To fill these research gaps, we develop a comprehensive set of indicators to evaluate the effect of temporal reliability on the competitiveness of PT compared to private cars for commuter trips. We then conduct a detailed examination of the commuting competitiveness of PT at both the Origin-Destination (OD) and Traffic Analysis Zone (TAZ) levels by combining data from various sources obtained from Hangzhou, China. The results show that the average competitiveness of PT increases after considering reliability. Metro competitiveness rises significantly, and bus competitiveness increases for short trips but decreases for long trips. Furthermore, the bus is far less competitive than the metro, and TAZs near the metro stations could be highly competitive. Moreover, in-bus time affects bus competitiveness primarily, and improving the accessibility of metro stations is essential to enhance metro competitiveness. In conclusion, the proposed methodology presents a comprehensive approach to assess the competitiveness of PT versus cars, including travel time reliability. This methodology enables a more nuanced understanding of the factors influencing PT competitiveness and offers valuable insights for strategically intervening to enhance its performance effectively. • Public transport is more competitive than cars when travel time reliability is considered than when it is not. • Metro is more competitive than the bus, especially considering travel time reliability. • It is not the case that the higher density of the public transit stops, the more competitive the PT is. • Long in-bus and transferring time, low accessibility of station decreases the bus and metro competitiveness, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of "consumer city" has reshaped the growth and prosperity of major cities in the world. Although the literature has extensively documented the role of central cities in generating jobs, there has been limited empirical evidence on how those cities have developed into agglomerations of consumption opportunities by offering metropolitan residents high-quality consumer goods and services. We use large-scale cellular signaling data to distinguish commuting and consumption connections between the Shanghai City and a suburban town Huaqiao. Through the clustering algorithm, we categorize residents of Huaqiao into groups according to their frequency of visiting Shanghai and length of the visits. Results show that while travel time does not differ across the three groups of trips, non-commuters' consumption trips are more spatially expansive and intensive than the others. The average per capita visit frequencies also indicate the outstanding role of consumption-oriented travel. Spatial lag models suggest that although non-commuters are more sensitive to travel time than commuters, they are still willing to make long consumption trips to access the consumer goods and services the central city can provide. The findings would encourage city managers and planners to reconsider the roles of major cities, and redefine them as space that best match the changing demand of people. • Concept of "consumer city" is tested with cellular signaling data in Shanghai. • Commuting and consumption travel of residents in a suburban town are studied. • Core city accommodates demand for accessing various socioeconomic opportunities. • Non-commuters' consumption trips are more expansive and intensive than commuting trips. • Non-commuters are willing to make long consumption trips to the core city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Floods influence upon the volume of traffic on the roads, its fluency, and the selection of an optimum route. • Author's application can be used to react accordingly for non-typical obstructions. • The greatest changes in vehicle traffic density during flood regard the Warsaw. Abstract The purpose of this article is to determine the size and spatial structure of changes in traffic density within the regional road network following an occurrence of a flood in the Mazovian Voivodeship, Poland. The use of the application developed for the purpose of this article – offers a possibility to react accordingly when there are non-typical obstructions (here: a flood). On the basis of the conducted study, it has been stated that the greatest changes in vehicle traffic density (the analysis of commute traffic) regard the capital of Mazovian Voivodeship, which – first of all – stems from the fact that it is Warsaw that the largest number of employees commute to. Secondly, it is influenced by the location of the capital city in relation to the river system. In the case of the analysed voivodeship and in 'normal' circumstances (no flood), commuting to work remains approximately within the 160-min isochrone. In the second variant, this time would extend nearly eightfold, and in the remaining scenarios fivefold. As far as 'normal' circumstances (no flood) and commuting in the Mazovian Voivodeship are concerned, the greatest load refers in particular to the following road classes: main road of accelerated traffic, main road and cumulative road. In this case, express and motorways play a marginal role. On the other hand, in the remaining scenarios, the importance of the class of main road of accelerated traffic decreases at the expense of the classes of main road and cumulative road. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly 15 percent of workers in Australia live within a cyclable distance of their workplace but commute by private vehicles. Adopting the concept of cycling dissonance, we investigate the role of modality styles alongside built environment characteristics on commuters' travel mode choice for work trip chains. Using travel survey data and employing latent class choice modelling, results reveal two modality styles: (1) driving and walking oriented commuters; and (2) multimodal commuters. Commuters in the first modality style are mostly those who are aged 20 and above, have dependent children, own a motor vehicle(s), and are insensitive to trip chain complexity. The second modality style captures those who are younger, relatively inelastic to mode-specific travel time, and prefer sustainable transport including cycling for non-complex trip chains. High population density around home residences encourages the choice of cycling for commuters falling within the second modality style, indicating that they are the most likely candidates to undergo a mode shift from motorised transport to cycling. Findings enable us to distinguish commuters by their latent modal preference and better identify the spatial concentrations of candidate commuters with a greater potential for a mode shift, which may be helpful for prioritising cycling-supportive investment in policymaking. • Cycling dissonance used to capture non-cycling commuters. • Delineated modality styles in terms of travel modes and the built environment. • Mapped spatial clusters of commuters with different modality styles. • Revealed the modality style with greatest mode shift potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perceptions and attitudes of commuters toward the behavioral thresholds for commuting time are of great significance for understanding their commuting patterns and possible changes in those patterns. This study focuses on the tolerance threshold of commuting time and presents the empirical evidences using the data from Kunming, China. The descriptive statistics of the tolerance thresholds of commuting time are presented. The statistical results demonstrate that the tolerance threshold of commuting time peaks at the interval of [30,40) min and the actual commuting time of 44.3% commuters is approximately equal to or exceeds the tolerance threshold. Furthermore, the determinants of the tolerance threshold of commuting time are identified using an ordered logistic model. The results demonstrate that age, gender, education level, household income, the presence of children, travel mode and residential location have a significant impact on the tolerance threshold of commuting time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The journey to work receives a great deal of research attention due to the peak demand on the transport system. Cities are increasingly concerned with managing traffic congestion and reducing pollution and most of the focus of this research has been on cars, public transport, walking and cycling. In contrast, the role of powered two-wheelers (PTWs), including motorcycles and scooters, in commuting has received little attention, particularly in the context of cities in the developed world. This paper provides new insight into commuting by PTW by drawing on census journey to work data from Australia's three largest cities (Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane) combined with an intercept survey of PTW commuters in Melbourne. It explores the extent of, and changes in, PTW commuting as well as the demographics of PTW commuters. While PTWs account for only a small percentage of urban commuting in Australian cities, their use is growing rapidly and there is a concentration of commuting by PTW into city centres. PTW commuters tend to be high-income males in skilled professional and technical professions. The implication of these findings for transport policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daily travel time has increased in Europe during the last decade. Some commuters show unusual commuting behaviours, so-called extreme commuting, which is defined as spending more than 100 min commuting a day. This paper aims to explain these commuting patterns from the point of view of the extreme commuters themselves. Based on a qualitative survey conducted in three European regions - Lyon, Brussels and Geneva - among individuals that spend at least two hours a day commuting, this study shows that extreme commuting is determined by complex interplay between the individual's working and private life and issues related to travel. Among our sample, the choice of public transportation modes assisted long-duration commuting. Our results also highlight the paradox that rapid transportation networks are used intensively to allow people to remain rooted — both residentially and socially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased availability of transit schedules from web sites or travel planners as well as more disaggregate data has led to a growing interest in creating individual public transportation accessibility measures. However, used extensively, standard GIS software does not have direct capabilities to integrate transit schedules into multimodal networks and measure space–time-based accessibility. This has caused authors to either simplify travel time elements or develop tools to overcome these challenges. In this paper we aim to describe and implement a method that enables integrating time-table data from a travel planner into a multimodal network model using simple SQL (structured query language) programming and standard GIS. The method presented here integrates all parts of travelling by public transportation from individual home addresses to all reachable transit stops within different travel time thresholds. The method is used successfully to create a multimodal travel-time network model of the Capital Region of Denmark comprising bus, train, light rail, metro, and ferry as well as integrating walking or cycling to stops. Here, the individual accessibility is defined as accessibility areas. The accessibility areas are created at morning rush hour for a study population of 29 447 individuals and a few examples of accessibility areas are presented. The results show a big difference in individual public transportation accessibility in the region. In addition, how the transit network is accessed, whether it is at the nearest stop or at all stops within 1 km walking distance or 3 km cycling distance, leads to very different accessibility areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we focus on the spatial distribution of travel time differences between car and public transport during peak and off-peak hours using geospatial methods and circular statistics. To that end, we combine two origin-destination matrices: one contains the number of simulated commuting trips and the other contains accurate travel times measured using either Floating Car Data or transit data. The combination of both matrices reveals that differences in travel time during peak and off-peak hours are high for intra-city commuting and low for inter-city commuting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commuters who live spatially proximate to their workplaces have the greatest potential to commute by cycling. Employing the concept of cycling dissonance— the mismatch of individuals who can commute by cycling given a cyclable distance between home and the workplace but travel by other modes —we examine the role of the street-scale environment in commuters' travel mode choice via a lens of modality styles. Drawing on the household travel survey data for Greater Brisbane, Australia and employing latent class choice modelling, two modality styles are unveiled: (1) car oriented; and (2) multimodal but walking averse. Commuters falling within the first modality style are typically middle-aged adults from households that own motor vehicles. Commuters belonging to the second modality style are younger, less likely to own a car, relatively inelastic to travel time, and less sensitive to street-scale environment settings. While commuters in the first modality style predominantly use cars to commute, their propensity for cycling-to-work would likely be markedly higher if the street-scale environment of their route to work could include cycleways and is relatively flat. Those belonging to the first modality style have a higher potential to shift mode from car to cycling given their likely response to shifts in the street-scale environment. By mapping the residential locations of the two modality style groups across the case study context, we spatially delineated locales where cycling dissonance could be reduced by improving the street-scale environment, which has the capacity to inform place-based strategies in prioritising cycling-supportive investment. • Cycling dissonance employed to capture non-cycling commuters with cycling potential. • Revealed the association between the street-scale environment and travel mode choice. • Delineated the modality style with the greatest potential of shifting mode to cycling. • Identified part road network that might most need cycling-supportive investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commuting to work by shared bicycle is an increasingly popular transportation option. We examine the trip data from Citi Bike, the shared bicycle program of New York City, restricting the analysis to morning rides into the Wall Street area, a destination for which workers are likely to be sensitive to their arrival time. Among the frequent commute origins, commuting later in the morning lengthens the time on the road, while demographic variables such as gender, age and subscription also significantly predict commute time. Congestion appears to increase for bicycle commuters directly before financial markets open. Weather-related factors have a small impact on biking commute time compared to other factors. When considering the model specifications as potential user models of commute time, the bicycle commuters outperformed the models for shorter commutes and for commutes occurring later in the morning, which is consistent with the ability and incentive to increase efforts to reduce their riding time under these conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to investigate the issues in measurement of value of travel time savings (VTTS), the willingness-to-accept (WTA) for the private car owner is studied by using surveyed data. It is convincing that trip purpose, trip length, time savings, cost savings, income, and allowance from employee have effects on the WTA. Moreover, influences of these variables are not the same for different trip purposes. For commuting trips, effects of income and allowance from employee are significant while time savings and cost savings are dominated for leisure and shopping trips. It is also found that WTA is much higher than expected which implies that there are a group of drivers who are not prone to switching to other trip modes other than passenger car. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We study parents’ decisions about long distance travel with young children. [•] We explore attitudes and perceptions using semi-structured in-depth interviews. [•] Long distance travel with children is valued as a positive quality time experience. [•] Convenience is the overwhelming factor influencing most respondents to opt for car. [•] Potential exists to capitalise on positive attitudes to rail to instigate modal shift. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Background: Population dependence on car use has adverse health consequences including road traffic injury, physical inactivity, air pollution and social severance. Widespread car dependence also entrenches lifestyles that require unsustainable levels of energy use. Most transport policies explicitly include goals for public health and sustainability. Transport interventions can therefore be seen as complex public health programmes, and assessing their outcomes against health and sustainability goals is vital. Using organisational travel plans (OTPs) as an example, we demonstrate how best practice epidemiological systematic reviews can be used to assess the existing evidence to inform transport policy. Such a synthesis of the evidence for OTPs has not been undertaken previously. Methods: We undertook a rigorous systematic review in accordance with a peer reviewed protocol to assess the effects of OTPs on individual and population health. We defined OTPs as travel behaviour change programmes conducted in a workplace or education setting. We included published and unpublished randomised controlled trials and controlled before and after studies, where the measured outcomes included change in travel mode or health. Results: 17 studies were included. One study directly measured health outcomes, and all studies measured change in travel mode. The overall methodological validity of studies was poor. The highest quality studies reported mixed effects on travel mode in the school setting. An isolated randomised controlled trial in a workplace suggests that reductions in car use are possible by people already contemplating or preparing for change to active travel. Conclusions: Despite widespread implementation, there is insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of organisational travel plans for improving health or changing travel mode. Given the current lack of evidence, new OTP programmes should be implemented in the context of robustly-designed research studies, accounting for potential adverse effects such as child pedestrian injury. Cochrane systematic review methods used in partnerships between public health and transport planners can help achieve transport policy goals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper discusses the uniqueness of user equilibrium in transportation networks with heterogeneous commuters. Daganzo (1983) proved the uniqueness of (stochastic) user equilibrium when commuters have heterogeneous tastes over possible paths, but identical disutility functions from time costs. We first show, by example, that his result may not apply in general networks if disutility functions are allowed to differ. However, for "simple" transportation networks, we show that user equilibrium is always unique and weakly Pareto efficient (cf. the Braess example) for a general class of utility functions. We investigate whether this result applies to more general networks. We also show that user equilibrium is unique in a dynamic bottleneck model with a simple network. We discuss an interesting relationship between the following two problems: the existence of user equilibrium in a finite model and the uniqueness of user equilibrium in a continuum model. In the appendix, we also provide a proof of a slightly generalized version of Daganzo's theorem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite decades of research, it is unclear under which circumstances travel is most onerous. While studies have found that some individuals derive positive utility from aspects of commuting, others have shown that traffic congestion can entail important time, monetary, and mental stress costs. Moreover, responses to traffic congestion-related stressors differs by individual characteristics. In response, this research captures how exposure to traffic congestion events, the duration of this exposure, and individual trait susceptibility to congestion affect the utility of commuting. Working through the lens of individual satisfaction with the duration of their commute, we show that not every minute of travel is valued the same by car commuters in Canadian cities. Results suggest a complex relationship between travel time, congestion, and individual predisposition to congestion-related stress. While improvements in travel time matter for increasing commute satisfaction, it is reductions in travel in congested conditions that matter most, particularly among those susceptible to congestion-related stressors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on cities in Europe and the United States have demonstrated that travel behaviour is influenced by urban form. Based on these findings policies steering the shape of cities have been proposed to reduce urban transport emissions and limit congestion. Such policies can also be relevant for the rapidly growing and motorising Chinese cities. Yet, empirical evidence on the relationships between urban form and car usage is scarce for the specific Chinese context that is characterised by high densities, fast development and strong government steering. Using novel crowd-sourced datasets we study the impact of several urban form variables (city size, urban density, land-use mix, polycentricity and spatial clustering) on the cost of commuting expressed in time and distance. The results show that city size and spatial clustering are important determinants of commuting: large cities without clear clusters of businesses and other facilities have longer average commuting times and distances. Increased prosperity also adds to longer and lengthier commutes. Spatial planning measures that maintain or reinforce high-density clusters can help limiting commuting distance and time. Current sprawled urban development may have long-term, negative consequences for the accessibility and liveability of Chinese cities and could hamper their economic potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Across the world, there is increasing interest in managing car traffic. One approach developed for addressing the journey to work is known as ‘workplace travel planning’. This paper primarily reports on 20 case studies of UK employers undertaking travel planning, who had cut commuter driving by an average of 18%. It concludes that considerable behavioural change can be achieved in a variety of contexts – but employers usually need an overall strategy that addresses car parking, in addition to improving alternative travel modes. Moreover, a more comprehensive national strategy is needed, if travel planning is to achieve its potential. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The value given by commuters to the variability of travel times is empirically analysed using stated preference data from Barcelona (Spain). Respondents are asked to choose between alternatives that differ in terms of cost, average travel time, variability of travel times and departure time. Different specifications of a scheduling choice model are used to measure the influence of various socioeconomic characteristics. Our results show that travel time variability is valued on average 2.4 times more than travel time savings. Heterogeneity among commuters in terms of restrictions about the starting work time is shown to have significant effects on the value of travel time variability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper describes the results of an online survey that examined commuting patterns, potential for change and barriers and motivators affecting transport decisions in a University population (n=1040 students, n=1170 staff). Overall, 21.5% of staff and 46.8% of students at The University of Western Australia regularly used active modes, and potentially an additional 30% of staff and students would switch to active modes. The results suggested that reducing barriers to using active modes, in particular reducing actual and perceived travel time by bus and bicycle would have the greatest impact on commuting patterns. Some policy applications appeared to hold particular promise, including an implementation of a subsidised public transport pass (U-Pass), increased student housing on or near campus, increased cost of parking, and improved bus services and cycle networks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper investigates travel time attributed to non-work stops in multi-purpose commuting trips. Travel time is explained by socio-demographics and spatial attributes, mode shift is also included to analyze the extra travel time, and its trade-off with activity time for four types of non-work stops—eating out, shopping, leisure/social activities, and family/personal/other. Data come from the “Daily Activity and Travel Survey of Beijing 2012”. Descriptive analysis shows that almost 20% of the multi-purpose commuting trips include a mode shift toward a more motorized transport mode than their direct counterparts. Regression results indicate that extra travel time due to detours is significantly related to the activity durations. Regardless of the activity type, longer work duration reduces the travel time. Furthermore, the interaction terms between personal/trip/spatial factors and activities durations show the impacts differ across the activity types. Gender difference is found only for eating out, which suggests that male commuters travel longer for the same amount of activity time. Concerning spatial factors, a greater mix of facilities near workplaces helps to reduce the extra travel time invested for a time unit of shopping and family/personal/other activities. Compared with public transit users, active mode users have shorter travel time for eating out. Timing, work duration and commuting duration as time-budget-related variables show negative impacts on the extra travel time for eating-out, shopping and family/personal/other activities. However, mode shift does not show any significant impact as the hypothesis proposed. Instead of rebalancing the trade-off between travel and activity time, commuters may relocate activity with an expanded opportunity choice set given by a higher mobility level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A few studies have found associations between the exposure to traffic-related air pollution at school and/or home and cognitive development. The impact on cognitive development of the exposure to air pollutants during commuting has not been explored. We aimed to assess the role of the exposure to traffic-related air pollutants during walking commute to school on cognitive development of children. We performed a longitudinal study of children (n = 1,234, aged 7–10 y) from 39 schools in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) who commuted by foot to school. Children were tested four times during a 12-month follow-up to characterize their developmental trajectories of working memory ( d’ of the three-back numbers test) and inattentiveness (hit reaction time standard error of the Attention Network Test). Average particulate matter ≤2.5 μm (PM 2.5 ), Black Carbon (BC) and NO 2 concentrations were estimated using Land Use Regression for the shortest walking route to school. Differences in cognitive growth were evaluated by linear mixed effects models with age-by-pollutant interaction terms. Exposure to PM 2.5 and BC from the commutes by foot was associated with a reduction in the growth of working memory (an interquartile range increase in PM 2.5 and BC concentrations decreased the annual growth of working memory by 5.4 (95% CI [-10.2, -0.6]) and 4.6 (95% CI [-9.0, -0.1]) points, respectively). The findings for NO 2 were not conclusive and none of the pollutants were associated with inattentiveness. Efforts should be made to implement pedestrian school pathways through low traffic streets in order to increase security and minimize children's exposure to air pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carpooling is an environmentally friendly and sustainable emerging traveling mode that enables commuters to save travel time and travel expenses. In order to co-travel, individuals or agents need to communicate, interpret information, and negotiate to achieve co-operation to find matching partners. This paper offers the scheme of a carpooling model for a set of candidate carpoolers. The model is interpreted using an agent-based simulation to analyze several effects of agents' interaction and behavior adaptations. Through communication and negotiation processes, agents can reach dynamic contracts in an iterative manner. The start of the negotiation process relies on the agents' intention to emit an invitation for carpooling. The realization of the negotiation process depends significantly on the departure time choice, on the agents' profile, and on route optimization. The schedule or agenda adaptation relies on the preferences among the realistic schedules of the agents and usually depends on both the participation of the trip and on the time of day. From the considerations, it is possible to reveal the actual representation of the possible carpoolers during the simulated period. Experiments demonstrate the nearly-polynomial relationship between computation time and the number of agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a dynamic system-optimal control model (DSOCM) for commuting corridors which consist of both freeway and surface street segments. Need to implement effective traffic control; Complex interactions among freeway, surface street and diversion flows; Computation of the optimal time-dependent ramp metering rate.

This paper uses automatically-recorded vehicle number plate data from a network of 22 cameras in Dorset, UK, to investigate the extent to which regular trip making can be determined using the regularity of individual vehicle arrival times across the same sites and time intervals over extended periods of several months and illustrates how a cohort of recognised regular vehicles may provide indicative evidence of traffic delays. Regularity was defined based on minimum numbers of observations over a given period and with specified maximum values of standard deviation in arrival time, with sensitivity to different values being tested. It was found that around one-fifth of all vehicles were regular during the morning peak where the definition required at least 30 observations out of 210 working days and with a standard deviation in arrival time of no more than ten minutes; significantly fewer vehicles were found to be regular in the afternoon peak. The turnover, or churn, of regular vehicles was found to be considerable, with only one-tenth of defined regular vehicles being continuously regular throughout the period and with identified pools of regular drivers halving in size every three months, as vehicles ceased to be regular and where the pool was not updated. This suggests that any database of regular drivers should be updated at least quarterly to ensure that new regular vehicles are included and that old ones are discarded. These findings may have inferences for traffic information systems tailored for different driver groups according to assumed levels of network knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the pandemic, office workers were abruptly pushed into a home-based work life , as working from home became mandatory, full time, and digitally coordinated. The transition revealed an untapped potential of telework to reorganize daily life and facilitate resource-efficient adaptations. This study investigates the adjustments that took place, how daily life and mobility was remade in time and space, how change was experienced, and whether new preferences and habits were established. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 28 office workers, we examine whether and why the confined work-from-home pattern will have lasting influences on how and where people choose to live, work, relocate, and travel. Theoretically, we view the mandated working from home as a work-life shock event, causing a disruptive, novel, and critical experience of adaptation. We employ time geography to enhance a spatiotemporal understanding of shock events, i.e., how daily life and the local order of home are rearranged under new constraints. Our findings indicate a remarkable shift in the willingness to continue the home-based work life, essentially caused by valued experiences of heavily reduced travel time, a sense of always being 'in place', and a calmer pace of life. Felt spatial, digital, and emotional crowding at home challenge the new order, and residential relocation as a strategy to sustain a home-based work life is frequently mentioned. Although working from home is perceived as mostly efficient, the loss of informal social contact is driving a partial return to the office. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous mobility of citizens implies the need for movement. Public transport helps and allows residents perform activities of daily living caused by commuting and has great significance in the functioning and connecting different parts of the city. Low-floor buses are becoming increasingly popular in the public transport system compared to standard buses with steps. The number and height of stairs buses, as well as number of doors, affecting the slower entry and exit of passengers from buses, accumulation of passengers, longer standing buses on the stations, prolonged travel time, disorder intervals and timetables. Time losses cumulatively grow and can't be recovered. On the other hand, using low-floor buses may eliminate most of negative elements. This paper will compare these two types of buses in terms of the retention time on the bus stop due to the changes of passengers.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a new centrality measure, nominated by the authors as mobility centrality ( C), which arose during the study of the interregional road network in Greece. The proposed measure is constructed by the use of the anagogic method considering the formula of the kinetic energy of a particle in Physics and adjusting its mathematical analogue to the case of the interregional road network. The new centrality measure is estimated to be useful for the operational analysis of a network (such as the analysis of network flows), since it characterizes as central these vertices that appear to have the greatest tendency to attract or expel network flows. The ability of the proposed centrality measure to illustrate flow tendencies was examined empirically by correlating and regressing mobility centrality to the commuting status of the Greek interregional network and to four of the most common existing centrality measures (betweenness, closeness, straightness and degree centrality) of the available data. The empirical analysis indicated that the proposed centrality measure ( C) presents sufficient ability to describe the status of the Greek interregional commuting system and it is believed that it is able to describe the inner potential that produces flows in a network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'teleportation test' has been used in travel behaviour research for more than a decade, as a means of assessing whether an individual views travel purely as a disutility. The teleportation concept has been used successfully in qualitative research to elicit responses and clarify attitudes to travel time. However, survey-based studies have revealed an apparent inconsistency, in that many people who report an ideal travel time greater than zero, and/or do not consider their travel time as wasted, also report wanting to teleport. This note reviews a range of studies involving the teleportation concept, highlights the inconsistency, suggests reasons for it, and proposes a research approach for testing the validity of those reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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We show that the Aubry sets, the Mañé sets and the barrier functions are the same for two commuting time-periodic Tonelli Hamiltonians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correctly pricing transport behaviour to take account of the ‘external’ costs such as congestion and emissions imposed on society by excessive car use has long been a tenet of effective transportation demand management. But while policy‐makers have striven to increase public transport subsidies, raise petrol taxes and introduce road‐user charging schemes to price the real costs of car travel properly, in most cases correcting the wider influences of the personal tax regime has begun only relatively recently. This paper is based on work undertaken for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, and the Inland Revenue of the UK government, which is currently working on addressing this very issue. In addition to reporting the British situation, the paper also uses a series of case studies to outline how this same process has been approached in the USA, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Norway, and how successful they have been thus far with respect to transportation demand management objectives. It then draws conclusions about which direction policy‐makers should be aiming for in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – In order to alleviate the impacts of traffic congestion that undermine the mobility and accessibility conditions of the Aristotle University campus, the paper aims at the presentation and description of a complementary network of alternative modes (i.e. pedestrian and bicycle) and the discussion of the appropriate measures for its successful implementation in the campus. Design/methodology/approach – The methodological approach of the paper is twofold: the overview of good practices for implementing cycling and pedestrian networks in European university campuses in an attempt to identify an integrated activity framework compatible to the European approach; and a questionnaire survey for the assessment of the modal split for trips towards and from the campus and the current mobility and accessibility conditions for pedestrians and cyclists in the Aristotle University campus. Findings – The successful implementation of alternative transport networks in university campuses depends on the specific features of each campus in relation to the urban transport network and the commuting characteristics of staff and students. In the case of the Aristotle University campus, the modal split shows that 2/3 of campus-related trips are conducted by motorised transport while the share of bicycle use is very low. In order to promote cycling and walking in the campus, a combined approach must be adopted based on five fields of activity: policy; research; design; support and promotion; and monitoring. Research limitations/implications – The paper derives from the research initiatives of the Aristotle University's Sustainable Mobility Committee, which was founded in order to promote sustainable solutions for the campus's transport system. Originality/value – The paper provides a common and integrated activity framework for the implementation of an alternative transport network in a university campus based on the extensive overview of European experience. Furthermore, it develops for the first time a full proposal for the implementation of a pedestrian and bicycle network in the Aristotle University campus, which is one of the oldest and largest campuses in Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Metropolitan planning organizations attempt to shape urban form at the regional and metropolitan scale, including the pattern of suburban centers. How do these efforts change behavior? Our study informs that question by way of a new family of urban form metrics summarizing the polycentric structure of U.S. metropolitan areas. Using a spatial statistical approach, these measures are sensitive to the size, amount, and location of suburban centers. The article then tests the influence of these structures on commute times nationally from 1970 to 2000. Takeaway for practice: The influence of development densities on travel in sprawling regions is more complicated than previously understood or measured. While the level of both neighborhood density and regional density explain average commuting times, density also works relatively. The spatial variation of density, the density of suburban centers relative to the region, and the spatial distribution of high-density nodes each appear to play distinct roles in influencing travel. Research support: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Institute for Bioscience and Biomedical Engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: It has been widely established in the UK and other developed countries that men commute longer than women and that fathers travel furthest to work while mothers travel least. This paper models a wide variety of factors that affect commuting times including gender, presence of children and working hours (part- and full-time work). It finds that of particular importance to the length of commute are the worker’s age, having children, the age of their youngest child, occupation, weekly pay, and mode of transport (with public transport being associated with longer commutes). The region of residence was important for men and women working full-time but not for part timers (except for women in London), while ethnicity and owner occupation were associated with commuting length for full-time men only. The results suggest that while gender, working hours and childcare responsibility are often inter-related, it is useful to disaggregate their effects when modelling or developing policy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper investigates the welfare effect of travelling through congested areas and adverse weather through changes in the speed of individuals' car trips based on the entire commuting trip. Weather measurements are local and time specific (hourly basis). As most commuters travel twice a day between home and work, we are able to employ panel data techniques, which deals with issues related to unobserved heterogeneity and data selection. We find that travelling through congested areas reduces speed by about 7%. For most commuters the welfare effects of adverse weather conditions are negative but small. However, the commuters' welfare costs due to rain are rather substantial during the evening peak in congested areas (and up to 12% of the overall commuting costs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An employee’s commute to work is not compensable work time. Or is it? This article examines the concept of travel time, focusing on the difficult issues that arise when an employee is using the company’s vehicles to travel. The absence of uniformity in determining compensability in such situations led to an amendment to the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947 after 48 years. The amendment exempted from compensable work time travel to work from home and home from work, along with any activities “incidental” to such travel. The article also examines recent cases on the concept of incidental activities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We study the departure time decisions of commuters traversing a traffic network with the goal of arriving at a common destination at a specified time. There are costs associated with arriving either too early or too late, and with delays experienced at bottlenecks. Our main hypothesis, based on the Nash equilibrium distribution of departure times, implies that, for certain parameter values, expanding the capacity of an upstream bottleneck can increase the total travel costs in the network. We report the results of a large-group laboratory experiment, which are strongly supportive of this counterintuitive hypothesis, and we discuss the implications. (JEL D85, R41) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper considers the length of time that parents are willing to travel to an existing or new job. Using data for over 12,000 parents it finds that many characteristics were associated with being less likely to be willing to travel to work for at least an hour (roundtrip). These include: being a women, those out of work, having children under 5, being a lone parent and using formal childcare. Professionals and associate professions were more willing to travel for longer periods. In terms of location, those in accessible small towns and rural areas were willing to travel more than those in larger urban areas and those in remote rural areas willing to travel most. Policy implications are also set out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using latent class cluster analysis, this paper investigates the spatial, social, demographic, and economic determinants of immigrants’ joint distribution among travel time, mode choice, and departure time for work using the 2000 Census long form data. Through a latent tree structure analysis, age, residential location, immigration stage, gender, personal income, and race are found to be the primary determinants in the workplace commute decision-making process. By defining several relatively homogeneous population segments, the likelihood of falling into each segment is found to differ across age groups and geography, with different indicators affecting each group differentially. This analysis complements past studies that used regression models to investigate socio-demographic indicators and their impact on travel behavior in two distinct ways: (a) analysis is done by considering travel time, mode choice, and departure time for work simultaneously, and (b) heterogeneity in behavior is accounted for using methods that identify different groups of behavior and then their determinants. Conclusively the method here is richer than many other methods used to study the ethnically diverse population of California and shows the addition of geographic location and latent segment identification to greatly improve our understanding of specific behaviors. It also provides evidence that immigrants are as diverse as the non-immigrant population and transportation policies need to be defined accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equity in access to opportunities is increasingly recognised as an essential component of sustainable development and transport. This study presents a spatial and temporal examination of commuting inequality between cars and public transit in the San Francisco Bay Area. Results visualised in the maps show considerable inequality and temporal changes in job accessibility and commuting time between cars and public transit as well as among locations within the metropolitan area. Results from OLS and spatial regression models indicate that, in both 1990 and 2000, greater job accessibility was significantly associated with shorter commuting time for driving alone as well as for public transit, but the degree of this association was considerably greater for public transit than for driving alone. Urban and transport development that enhances mobility and accessibility for public transit relative to cars should be strongly encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reversible roadways have been used throughout the world to mitigate the effects of congestion and optimize roadway performance for more than 70 years. They have been applied on a variety of roadway types using many different methods of control to address an assortment of needs, including the movement of unbalanced directional traffic associated peak commuter periods, emergency evacuations, roadway construction work zones, and other major gatherings and events. Despite the long and varied history of reversible roadways there are a limited amount of established guidelines and standards to guide their planning, design, and operation. To overcome this lack of information the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) sponsored a project to investigate and document reversible roadway practices to better understand the conditions that warrant their use, their impacts on safety, operations, and the environment, and their design and implementation requirements. This paper builds upon the findings of NCHRP Synthesis 340 by highlighting and summarizing the range of reversible roadway applications and discussing how the variety of reversible roadway applications have been able to address problems despite the fact there is little standardized practices to guide their implementation or assure uniformity in their use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]