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EU containment and Tunisian domestic policies have produced a new, Black migrant, urban underclass. Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork among Ivorian migrant women in Bhar Lazreg, a Tunis banlieue, this paper explores how the women navigate and negotiate everyday life. On the urban margins of society, forgotten and far from the border, migrants reinvent ways to keep moving. The paper suggests that their stuckness is still all about movement as encapsulated in the emic term bouger – akin to treading water, involving a constant motion to stay afloat, but without ever getting anywhere. Tension operates across many levels, between the physical, the temporal–spatial, and the existential. Embedded in this tension is a second emic term prison à ciel ouvert (open-air prison). Juxtaposing a space that feels carceral and limiting while simultaneously bursting with potential for movement, the paper contributes to the literature on immobility within mobility. But beyond that, the empirical findings show a far more complex reality, complicating the notion of transit. By exploring the tensions and entanglements between the emic terms it becomes clear that to understand spaces of transit it is essential to understand stuckness and movement as fundamentally intertwined, overlapping, and co-constitutive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on a digitally mediated autoethnography within a contemporary Italian feminist movement, the paper analyses the transformations of feminist media practices in Italy since the start of the 20th century. If during the 1960s and 1970s Italian feminism reached its higher visibility as one of the largest in Europe, since the 1980s, it continued to operate in submerged ways through the creation of feminist bookshops, publishing companies, women’s archives and centres while engaging with practices, ideologies and texts that were circulating transnationally. Since the early 1990s Italian feminist groups started engaging with digital technologies, creating new virtual spaces of dialogue, an autonomous internet service provider, an alternative search engine, digital literacy programmes and practical laboratories. Over the past two decades, the online space became the privileged sphere for activists to challenge the hegemonic gender discourse, debate topics otherwise suppressed or misrepresented by traditional media and create a record of struggle. Expanding from a conceptualization of feminist activism as a process of transit, in this paper, I analyse how feminist media practices gradually transformed, shaped by historical and contextual specificities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article suggests a re-periodisation of the transit camps in which hundreds of thousands of immigrants were housed in Israel's first three decades. It anchors the meaning of these temporal housing spaces – known as Ma'abarot – and rebuts the perception of their temporality, presenting new data about institutional policies regarding these allegedly temporary living spaces and the everyday reality of their inhabitants. It suggests a re-periodisation that includes not only the initial handling of the massive Jewish immigration wave during the 'Mass Aliyah' (1948–51) but also the longer-term settling of the immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractFirst-/last-mile (FMLM) services have become an increasingly popular strategy intended to improve transit travel in the United States. However, empirical results about their benefits remain mixed. In this Viewpoint we critically examine the underlying mechanisms that steer decision making toward FMLM services and highlight the reality that in many community contexts, FMLM services do not effectively cater to rider needs. We argue that FMLM services are often band-aid solutions to improving transit services and do not address persisting systemic challenges, especially in low- to medium-density areas, and advocate for a holistic reform of transit planning in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of shared e-scooters with public transit is a promising solution for urban mobility's first/last-mile challenge. This study explores spatiotemporal factors influencing this integration, using 35-day e-scooter trip data from Chicago. Employing a random-effect negative binomial approach, we modeled the frequency of e-scooter trips to access/egress to/from bus stops and train stations. Results indicate that weather conditions, design features like intersection density, and multimodal network density significantly influence usage. The transit system characteristics such as service frequency have a positive effect on the integration of e-scooters and trains while a similar effect for bus and e-scooter integration was not significant. Furthermore, safety-related variables such as accident and crime rates as well as demographic characteristics were also revealed to be significant factors in our study. These findings offer vital insights to urban planners and policymakers for infrastructure, safety enhancements, and interventions to encourage efficient e-scooter-public transit integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the user’s perceived quality of the service of a city bus and bus rapid transit (BRT) provided in the study areas of Navi Mumbai and Surat, India. The Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique was used to identify the significant variables and quantify the effect of those variables on overall satisfaction. The models were validated using validation indices such as Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Normed Fit Index (NFI), Goodness of Fit Index (GFI), and Cronbach’s alpha which are generally adopted for testing SEM models. Predicted models were observed to represent the actual data to a good extent. It was observed that users consider bus stop waiting time, bus on-time performance, and in-vehicle travel time as most important and riding comfort, safety, and end-to-end connectivity as relatively less important. The outputs provide policymakers with an understanding of the user’s perception of the overall service quality of the transit system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this article is to analyse experiences associated with steamship mobilities in the years 1869–1891, with focus on voyages to and from Asia via the Suez Canal. The source base includes lesser-known texts written by Polish, Russian, Serbian, and Indian authors that are examined using a twofold approach. The first is focused on the macroscale, scrutinising the networks in which travellers functioned, including other communication technologies and imperial webs. The second is focused on the microscale, on bodily experiences of travellers: how did they characterize their bodily position on board of the ship and factors which influenced it, as well as how did they describe their sensuous impressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Persian Gulf-Black Sea International Transport and Transit Corridor is a multimodal and combined network of ships, rails, and road freight routes connecting Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Greece. Iran is the trustee of the agreement and has played the central role in establishing a transit route to the Black Sea region as 'Tehran's forgotten bridge to Europe' since its inception in 2016. Nonetheless, the Persian Gulf-Black Sea Corridor faces significant obstacles and challenges: resolving Iran's nuclear issues, resolving disputes between Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan, and stabilizing the security situation in the Black Sea following the Ukraine war, all of which reduce its efficiency and quality. In these circumstances, connecting the Iranian railway to the Caucasus and Armenia and building Armenia's North-South highway and the deep port of Anaklia on Georgia's Black Sea coast can stretch the capacities of the Persian Gulf-Black Sea Corridor. It can also strengthen the Wider Black Sea Region and the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public transport (PT) usage was severely impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in up to a 90% reduction in many cities in 2020. Numerous studies have been conducted since then to determine the relationship between individual-level factors (such as gender, attitudes, etc.) and the decrease in PT usage during the pandemic. Despite the evidence provided, findings are dispersed, and for several factors contradictory, making it challenging to reach any generalised conclusion. Furthermore, a comprehensive comparison of the effect sizes among travellers' factors affecting PT use during this period is yet to be compiled. This paper aims to address these gaps by systematically reviewing the existing evidence and synthesising the effect sizes of travellers' factors through a meta-analysis. We first identified 36 studies that statistically assessed the contribution of 15 individual-level factors on PT usage during the COVID-19 pandemic. By merging the empirical evidence of those studies, the direction of the association between those factors and PT usage was analysed. Then, after selecting comparable studies, meta-analyses were conducted for each factor to estimate the corresponding pooled effect sizes. The meta-analysis established that car availability, teleworking opportunities and high educational level contributed the most to reducing PT use during the pandemic. These factors increased the odds of reducing PT usage compared with the pre-pandemic by about three times. Factors such as COVID-19 risk perception, gender, high income and health had a moderate effect on the decision to stop using PT. PT habits, travel distance and physical accessibility also influenced PT use during the pandemic. Geographical location and the pandemic period explained part of the heterogeneity found. The findings provided in this study can help policy-makers understand the impacts of travellers' factors on the decision to reduce PT usage during future pandemics/epidemics and guide public policies accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Pedestrian safety around transit stops plays an important role in promoting active travel to and from public transit. This study examined the impacts of built environments in several perspectives (e.g., sidewalk, street connectivity, road type, and land use) on pedestrian–vehicle crashes with different levels of injury severity around bus stops in Austin, Texas, using negative binomial models. The results showed that transit areas with higher levels of sidewalk coverage were associated with fewer pedestrian–vehicle crashes. The percentage of parking supplies was positively related to more collisions. Areas with higher percentages of big box stores and gas stations were associated with more crashes. The results illustrated a critical extension of the current literature and planning standards by examining specific land use types, parking supplies, road types, and sidewalk coverage, and informed planning professionals regarding the implications of planning approaches on accommodating multiple users on high-speed roads, applying interventions to reduce traffic conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles, and targeting low-income areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides an incisive analysis of U.S. rail station area rent trends from 2012 to 2016, post-Great Recession. Utilizing Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Hierarchical Spatial Autoregressive (HSAR), and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) models, it uncovers complex interplays between rent changes and socioeconomic, as well as built environment factors. Key findings reveal that increased rents are associated with walkability, higher housing density, and predominantly White neighborhoods. Conversely, rent decreases correlate with diverse land use, higher Black population percentages, and locations further from rail stations or business districts. These results are critical for understanding rent dynamics in transit-oriented development areas, impacting diverse housing market sectors, including workforce and affordable housing. The study's regional analysis highlights the need for geographically tailored approaches. This research informs policy on housing development and affordability, aiming to mitigate displacement risks for low-income, transit-dependent communities in gentrifying urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban growth in the form of sprawl became a global planning problem in the 20th century. High urbanization rates in combination with low-density zoning regulations put additional pressure on growing cities. Sprawl continues to generate negative social, environmental, and economic impacts. The results of 20 studies presented in this narrative review, which observe the change in urban form over time, indicate that the current urban growth form is sprawl. Compact urban form is considered a sustainable form of urban growth in the literature. The results of 10 studies on the correlation between the urban form and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions show that densification without provision of adequate access to public transportation will induce more traffic, congestion, and associated CO2 emissions. The ideal density is subject to adequate access to public transportation—that is, mass transit-supportive density. Environmentally sustainable densities cannot deliver detached housing as a housing mode in many countries. International agreements on CO2 emissions should be translated and implemented at the metropolitan and municipal levels of governance via tools that have statutory powers. Statutory instruments such as planning schemes, building codes, and planning and environmental acts incorporating precinct-sustainable assessment systems (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE, and Green Star) provide the opportunity to endorse sustainable density objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their similarity in names and initials that has confused generations of planning students, the Regional Plan Association of New York (RPA, founded 1922) and the Regional Planning Association of America (RPAA, founded 1923) propounded very different visions of regionalism. The RPA, following the Plan of Chicago (1909), argued for what I call 'metropolitan regionalism', a rail-based region tightly organized around a dense core. By contrast, the RPAA's 'decentrist regionalism' envisioned a radical redistribution of population and production that would fully utilize the automobile and create a network of 'New Towns' in still-verdant greenbelts. I argue that regional planning in the United States since the 1920s has been dominated by the debate between these two regionalisms, and, since the disbanding of the RPAA and its successor organizations, this 'regional conversation' for New York has taken place within the RPA as especially their Third (1996) and Fourth (2017) Regional Plans have attempted to reconcile the two visions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are 26 million people recognised as refugees worldwide. Many of them spent a prolonged period of time in transit – time after they leave their country of origin and before they reach the receiving country. Transit brings numerous protection and mental health risks refugees are exposed to. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the stressful and traumatic experiences refugees are exposed to during transit, with a special focus on the experience of pushback – the denial of access to the territory to foreign nationals and forcible return to countries of origin or neighbouring countries without an assessment of their rights to international protection, as well as the impact of these experiences on refugees' mental health and well-being. Method: 201 refugees currently residing in Serbia completed the Stressful and Traumatic Experiences in Transit questionnaire – short version (SET-SF), questionnaire for assessing stressful and traumatic experiences during pushback (SET-SF PB), Refugee Health Screener (RHS-15), and Well-being index (WHO-5). Results: The results showed that refugees experience a large number of stressful and traumatic events (M = 10.27, SD = 4.85). In addition, half of the participants experience severe symptoms of depression (50.7%), while about a third of the participants experience severe symptoms of anxiety (37.8%) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (32.3%). Refugees who experienced pushback showed overall higher levels of depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Traumatic experiences during transit and pushback were positively related to the severity of depression, anxiety, and PTSD. In addition, traumatic experiences during pushback showed an incremental contribution in predicting refugees' mental health difficulties over and above traumatic experiences in transit. Conclusions: This study provides valuable insights into the multiple risks refugees are exposed to and emphasise the need for the provision of adequate protection and support. There is a high prevalence of traumatic experiences refugees face during transit and pushback, a high prevalence of mental health problems, and impaired psychological well-being in refugees. Traumatic experiences contribute to mental health problems. Urgent measures are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the expanding popularity of Web 2.0, there has been a huge surge in the use of social media, like Twitter, to express user sentiments or opinions. Delays and breakdowns in transit operations can make riders annoyed and irritated, and as a result, they express their anger and frustration via social media posts. Understanding the tipping points of public frustration will help in developing better solutions. This study aims to develop a framework by developing multilevel sentiment analysis and determine the emotion and politeness measures using transit-related tweets from New York (New York City) and California (San Francisco). The popular hashtags associated with the transit systems of New York and California were collected during 2019. The words associated with negative sentiments widely differ in these two states. Moderate levels of differences are seen in the politeness measures for these two states. Additionally, co-occurrence measures associated with negative emotions identified unique issues based on the demographics. This study demonstrates that Twitter provides a great opportunity to understand the public perception of transit, and the findings can help authorities design a more efficient transit system to improve user experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored how individuals with disabilities in Shanghai perceive the accessibility of public spaces and their experiences of various barriers in transit to public spaces. We conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with community-dwelling individuals with mild to severe physical, sensory, and multiple disabilities (N = 16). Our findings suggest that despite government efforts to improve accessibility, participants still perceived public spaces to be inaccessible. They encountered physical barriers, social barriers, and unusable accessible facilities in the process of accessing public spaces. Their sense of being a burden to family caregivers also compelled participants to limit their mobility radius. Despite some participants' attempts to advocate for their mobility and accessibility rights, they ultimately chose to compromise when their efforts were not acknowledged. This study seeks to inform policy and practice by increasing understanding of public space accessibility from the perspectives of people with disabilities in urban China. This study is among the first to explore what people with disabilities experience when going to public spaces in urban China, and how they understand these experiences. People with disabilities in Shanghai face various difficulties when going to public spaces. Although there are facilities designed to assist people with disabilities in moving around public spaces in Shanghai, these facilities are often occupied, blocked, or broken, and thus cannot be properly used. Most study participants chose to stay at home and in familiar places to avoid difficulties in going to public spaces and burdening their family members. Participants who tried to advocate for their rights gave up after their efforts were not responded to. Policymakers and practitioners should understand the difficulties of people with disabilities and their families when they go to public spaces and include them when developing and implementing relevant policies and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we argue that a place can become too well-connected, and that in this manner, its identity and key character can be 'lost in transit'. Therefore, as the article points out, in the future urban planning of places highly affected by transit, it will be important to emphasize co-thinking of the concepts of 'transit towns' and 'living towns'. We examine a place in Denmark which is particularly influenced by transit, namely the seaport town of Hirtshals. Through empirical and ethnographic explorations, the article seeks to reveal the challenges which a town primarily characterized by its role in goods transportation and ferry transit faces in terms of liveability and social quality for its inhabitants. This is performed through a case study using various practical methods, including document analysis, interviews, surveys, registration data, and physical-spatial place analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During their migration, refugees often pass through transit countries, especially before resettlement elsewhere. These stays in cities or camps may last several months or years as refugees await the next step of their journey. This paper examines the context of waiting for Iranian religious minorities who must first travel to Vienna, Austria in order to apply for resettlement to the U.S. Drawing on theories of waiting, I demonstrate how uncertainty and the passage of time shape refugees' experience in transit contexts. While in Vienna, they endure months of compulsory idle waiting, free from persecution yet unable to begin the long-term process of settling in a new country. I argue that the duration of stay and conditions of life in transit contexts can have meaningful consequences for refugees. My findings demonstrate that even when waiting is temporary and remedied by eventual resettlement, time spent in transit carries material, emotional, and physical costs. Based on 43 interviews and participant observation with Iranian refugees in Vienna, this paper examines the precarity that is born from the uncertainty of waiting. Because resettlement ultimately provides stability, we tend to overlook the insecurities associated with this 'pre-resettlement' phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipal governments struggle with providing accessible mobility for constituents without overburdening them with service costs. While transit offers many advantages, the cost of providing services can be prohibitive. Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) are a mobility alternative. This research answers the following question: Can TNCs be economically feasible as a replacement for bus? U.S. Federal Transit Administration (FTA) National Transit Database (NTD) data was evaluated finding that while TNCs could replace transit in some instances (23% of cases for an exclusive TNC option; 45% of cases for shared TNCs) most of the time bus will be more cost effective. Three agency characteristics were identified to anticipate TNC cost effectiveness: ridership, service area density, and average bus operating speeds. Overall, while TNCs are unlikely to be able to replace transit completely in most cases, their flexibility allows public entities to be more creative when making mobility policy and operational decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to travel freely and independently to participate in society is essential for an individual's wellbeing and quality of life. People with disabilities are often unable to access public transport due to barriers in the urban environment and public transport systems. This review provides a comprehensive examination of the barriers faced by people with disabilities who are independent public transport riders. It includes: (a) barriers encountered from the perspective of the whole journey chain, from origin to destination for public transport trips; (b) investigates the commonalities and differences in the perceived barriers for different disability types; (c) discusses the impacts and shortcomings of universal design; and (d) limitations to data collection procedures. Evidence from the review of the existing literature has shown that there is limited research on travel behaviour relating to the whole public transport journey chain for people with disabilities. The consequences of not being able to make a journey due to the barriers in public transport inhibit participation in society that can have a range of negative impacts on the wellbeing of people with disabilities. This paper highlights the importance of the "bottom-up" approach for policy implementation and engagement with the disability community. It concludes with directions for further work and recommendations for practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than half a million people in the U.S. experience homelessness every day. Lacking other options, many turn to transit vehicles, stops, and stations for shelter. Many also ride public transit to reach various destinations. With affordable housing scarce and the numbers of unhoused individuals often surpassing the capacities of existing safety nets and support systems, transit operators face homelessness as a pressing issue on their systems and must implement policy measures from other realms beyond transportation to address it. Because of the health and safety implications for transit of the COVID-19 pandemic and the anticipated further rise in homelessness from the resulting economic downturn, studying and responding to the needs of these vulnerable travelers is critical. We conduct a comprehensive literature review to identify articles discussing homelessness in transit systems. While only a handful of articles exist from the 1990s, there is an emerging literature in the last 20 years that examines different aspects of homelessness in transit systems. We identify and review 63 articles on homelessness in transit systems and other public settings to better understand the extent of homelessness in the U.S., and how transit agencies perceive its impacts. We also summarise literature findings on the travel patterns of unsheltered individuals, which show that public transit represents an important and common mode of travel for them. Lastly, we focus on responses to homelessness from the part of transit operators. We find two types of responses: 1) punitive, in which criminalisation, policing and enforcement of laws and codes of conduct prevail, and 2) outreach-related, which aim towards providing help and support to unsheltered individuals. We conclude by summarising our findings as well as the existing gaps in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes an inverted U-curve theory to represent the changes in transit-induced gentrification with increases in mass rapid transit (MRT) station density over time. A forty-year experience on the associations of proximity to MRT stations with college graduate ratios in Tokyo, Japan, was applied to test this theory using the spatial data of MRT stations and population censuses from 1970 to 2010. The college graduate ratio in a neighborhood was adopted to measure gentrification outcome and denoted a phenomenon of early-stage gentrification. Applying a geographic information system and regression methods, empirical results provide long-term evidence of transit-induced gentrification, indicate the critical role of MRT station density in gentrification, and support the inverted U-curve theory. The transit-induced gentrification levels initially increase and then decrease as MRT station densities increase over time. This trend is affected by the MRT station density, macroeconomic environment, and state policy. This research helps to further the understanding of temporal changes in transit-induced gentrification. The inverted U-curve theory needs further tests in cities operating historical MRT systems to verify its global applicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research brings together concerns of food environments, food insecurity, and food access to demonstrate four measures of access for an emergency food provider network. Based on the interacting concerns of accessibility and accommodation, the measures are proximity, segment coverage, transit access, and transit time. Proximity measures geographic access, whereas segment coverage focuses on access at different times of the day, on different days of the week, during different weeks of the month. The two transit measures use the region's actual transit network scheduling to address space–time access via transit. The measures are applied to the food pantry network of Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Each demonstrates a unique nuance of access in the emergency food provider context, providing useful inputs into the process of meeting a community's emergency food needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journeys of refugees and other migrants are typically represented as linear movements between two places with the academic and policy gaze directed primarily towards the places people leave and what is assumed to be their final destination. This linear representation presupposes that people have a specific country in mind when they depart and that everything 'in-between' is simply a 'stepping stone'. This article explores the journeys of Syrians, Nigerians and Afghans drawing on empirical data gathered in Turkey, Greece and Italy during 2015. Our evidence suggests that, even for those who eventually arrived in Europe, the places to which people initially travelled were often destination rather than 'transit countries'. It was only when life became untenable and a decision was made to move that these places took on a state of 'in-betweenness', most commonly as part of a personal narrative mobilised by respondents to make sense of the broader arc of their life experiences. Failure to understand, or even ask questions about, the multiple meanings which places have for people at different points in both their phsycial and metaphorical (life) journeys, undermines conceptual and empirical analysis of migrant journeys and plays into anti-immigrant discourses prevalent across much of the Global North. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous surveys of people's attitudes toward automated vehicles (AVs) and transit integration have primarily taken place in large urban areas. AV-transit integration also has a great potential in small urban areas. This paper is based on a survey of people's attitudes towards AV-transit integration carried out in two small urban areas in the US State of Wisconsin. A total of 266 finished responses were analyzed using text mining, factor analysis, and regression analysis. Results show that respondents know about AVs and driving assistance technologies and welcome AV-transit integration but are unsure about its potential impacts. Technology-savvy respondents were more positive but had more concerns about AV-transit integration than others. Respondents who enjoyed driving were not necessarily against transit, as they were more positive about AV-transit integration and were more willing to use automated buses than those who did not enjoy driving as much. Transit users were more positive toward AV-transit integration than non-transit users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a dearth of systematic information about the historical New York City housing market. We present a new sample containing rental price and characteristic data for 10,715 Manhattan units which was collected from historical newspapers for the period 1880–1910. These units were geolocated to the historical map of Manhattan Island to explore their geographic coverage, using Geographic Information System (GIS) software. We use this new sample to plot the evolution of the location and quality of available Manhattan housing units and the development of new neighborhoods. This complements existing research on the growth of New York City and the evolution of the ethnic composition of neighborhoods across Census years, as we show information at annual frequency during this time of high growth for the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The built environment (BE) is widely accepted to influence transit use (TU). Evidence to date suggests the relationship is dependent on many factors which can be difficult to account for in quantitative studies. This creates barriers to transferring research into practice. Considering many studies together can be useful for accounting for more of the factors impacting transit use. Yet, meta-analysis of research measuring these influences was last undertaken in 2010 based on 18 studies. Since then 90 new quantitative studies have been published. These recent studies use improved methodologies and are conducted in more diverse geographies. This paper reports an improved and updated meta-analysis of built environment impacts on transit use. It compares elasticity estimates from research published pre-and post-2010 and explores the impact of new methods and a more diverse geographical representation on findings. Updated meta-elasticities range from <0.01 to 0.26; a similar range to the 2010 study. However, at the individual indicator levels, more recent results are different. Elasticities for urban density, including population, employment and commercial density, have increased significantly in studies published since 2010, as did that of land use mix. However, measures of local access, design and jobs-housing balance decreased in post-2010 studies. These results confirm the small but imprecise relationship between the BE and TU. Results also suggest that while the range of elasticity impacts is relatively consistent, new study methodologies, notably those that control for regional accessibility and self-selection, and the increasing geographical diversity in study applications, is acting to change BE-TU findings at the indicator level. Research setting and context are important to consider when using empirical results to design BE strategies to promote transit use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central city is once again hot. Many city areas where poor minorities were left behind during the decades-long suburban growth are experiencing a revival. New high-rise condominiums and other developments are drawing tens of thousands back to city spaces that were once considered undesirable. These 'return to the city' trends are supported in part by growth machine engines, such as Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and TIF (Tax Increment Financing) districts, often to the detriment of lower-income minority residents, who still find themselves trapped within the boundaries of spatial inequalities in the city. Drawing on six years of ethnographic fieldwork in Chicago, I show how public transportation is used to buttress the city's growth machine, while simultaneously maintaining the boundaries of spatial and other types of inequalities. In doing so, I highlight how public transit is used to create and support growth along race (and class) lines. Specifically, I show how mobility and growth for Whites and predominantly White spaces in the city are proactively shaped through favorable new public transit development and revitalization initiatives such as TOD and TIF. At the same time, in predominantly Black and Latinx spaces, where intracommunity public transportation usage is high, new transit related development is below sparse or completely lacking, further fortifying transit and other spatial boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The space of the 'transit country' is increasingly depicted in policy and NGO rhetoric as a taken-for-granted space where migrants pass through on their way to seek protection in the Global North. Yet I argue that the 'transit country' is a contested space, a space where 'temporariness' may be produced purposefully in order to limit opportunities for protection. In this paper, I argue that Thailand produces itself as a transit country in order to manage and control refugee and asylum seeker populations. Through several discursive and material tactics, including security spectacles, legal maneuvering, and migrant destitution, Thailand maintains and exploits the status of a 'transit country.' The purposeful construction of a place where 'no one will stay' challenges depictions of migration as linear movements defined by sources and destinations, where transit spaces become only more distance to traverse. While the production of transit countries has always been political, the case of Thailand suggests that the politics involved need not center the migration deterrence efforts of traditional destination countries of the Global North, but have implications within states and regions of the Global South as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how religious place-making contributes to the mobility and transnational connection of migrants during their periods of transit and fragmented journeys. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Pentecostal Charismatic Christian churches in Rabat and Casablanca, it describes how the establishment of religious places by West and Central African Christian migrants is an outcome of the blockades and ruptures that many of them experience in the buffer zone that Morocco has become. Moreover, this article demonstrates how the religious and social practices within these migrant spaces contribute to the development of mobility in terms of both the sending and receiving nations, as well as the believer's integration into transnational Charismatic Christian territories. In this context of forced immobility and limited religious freedom, the transnational and decentralised dimensions of Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity have been particularly suitable for stranded Christian African migrants who aim to remain their agency and achieve in a better future, potentially through emigration to Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to investigate the main factors behind changes in the transit flows in Estonian transit sector: first the European integration, second relations with Russia, third the changes in infrastructure, and fourth the changes in trade flows. However, the European dimension appears also in the second, third, and fourth categories, as trade relations with Russia, infrastructural developments, and general trade flows depend on European policy preferences and developments. The importance of the current study is even higher in light of the expected construction of the Rail Baltic railway line, which adds significantly to infrastructural capabilities, but on the other hand also needs growing volumes of trade to be economically sustainable. Additionally, political risks need to be assessed, as growing transit flows related to Russia, which may be beneficial in economic terms, will lead to growing risks to impact or be manipulated by the Russian side, to trade economic benefits for political compromises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates whether access to jobs affects poor households' residential location choices using data from individual households in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. Our results, based on discrete choice models, show that the effects of job accessibility on household location choices are contingent upon households' automobile ownership and employment status. Places with higher job accessibility by public transit mode are more likely to attract poor households that do not own cars but have at least one employed worker or one labour force participant, while job accessibility by automobile travel mode has no positive effect on the location choices of poor households who own automobiles. The results stress the importance of job accessibility for those poor households with limited transportation mobility but strong needs for access to jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While several studies note the challenges that people with disabilities face when using public transit, little work has investigated how mobile transit information apps affect accessibility. To address this gap, we recruited transit riders who are blind, who have low vision, who use mobility devices, and who have no disabilities. We asked them to use a transit information app, Tiramisu, for 21 days during their regular travel. We observed participants struggling with a number of barriers that had previously been reported. However, the localized transit information also removed barriers to travel; we observed participants engaging in less preplanning and more opportunistic travel. We also identified new opportunities to improve transit use through mobile information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fare evasion is a significant concern for most transit authorities. The traditional approach to fare compliance has focussed on modifying the physical control of ticketing or ticket inspection rates. Yet recently the perspective on fare evasion has begun to shift toward profiling the fare evader or understanding the customer motivations to fare evade. This paper uses a literature review method to document the characteristics of these three perspectives on fare evasion: the conventional transit system perspective, the customer profiling perspective and the customer motivations perspective. We find that the conventional transit system perspective, although straightforward to measure and control, has its limits particularly in "open" transit systems. The customer profiling perspective attempts to identify, based on demographics, which customers are more likely to fare evade. However this perspective has little use beyond profiling and is ethically questionable. The customer motivations perspective provides a richer understanding of how customers define fare evasion and what attitudes, social norms and circumstances motivates them to fare evade. Considering that between 20% and 40% of a city's residents admit to fare evading at some point, understanding these complex motivations can help improve revenue compliance at a time when most governments heavily subsidise their transit systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like many Latin American cities, the city of Quito, Ecuador, is adopting innovative transit development like Bus Rapid Transit, cable car systems, and underground metro rail to connect previously marginalized communities across the city. In this landscape urban dwellers continue to use informal transportation to complete their journeys. Informal transit is understood as a self-regulated and flexible service that operates in tandem with the formal, public system of the city. In contrast to research with a political-economic focus on informal transit as a self-regulated entrepreneurial activity, this paper examines informal transit under the broader social conditions of neoliberalism. Thus, our attention is on understanding this collective service and how it functions to provide urban livelihood for residents. Using ethnographic and participatory research that draws on participant observation, photography, interviews, and GPS technology, this research first shows how informal transit is an infrastructure that produces new affective relations between citizens and the state. We discuss the ways in which care emerges as a powerful lens to reconsider gender identities in the city by specifically exploring patriarchal power relations, highlighting that while men experience marginality when performing informal and illegal work, they simultaneously exert masculine privilege in the construction of transit infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how a single international border can exact different policies, practices, spatial variations, and tourism spaces at various points along its length. Based on an examination of the westernmost portion of the Canada-US frontier, this constructivist study investigates how the juxtaposition of barriers, attractions, transit spaces, and tourism landscapes is created concurrently on a single stretch of an international boundary. Four coterminous 'zones' of tourism were identified, including an area of illegal activity, ports of entry or crossing points, the peace park, and the exclave zone. Theoretical and practical implications are drawn from this study for border managers, tourism planners, and border agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper synthesises published research concerned with the valuation of public transport customer amenities. It includes normalisation of published values to equivalent terms, a meta-analysis of factors influencing these values, a review of valuation methods and issues faced in applying these methods, and an identification of gaps in knowledge. Some 57 separate research publications in this area were identified. Valuation methods adopted included stated preference, revealed preference, customer ratings, priority evaluator, maximum difference scaling and benefit/value transfer. Of these, stated preference was the most common published approach, however in practice benefit/value transfer is the most common method to apply values in project appraisal. Key issues associated with valuation include substantial variation in values (which are often context dependant) and the adoption of different units for expressing values, thereby limiting their transferability. Some 556 separate customer amenity values were identified relating to 97 separate amenity types. Almost all valuations were below 2 minutes of equivalent in-vehicle travel time value. Meta-analysis identified five types of significant predictors of values (R2 = 0.23): study location (Scandinavia), valuation method (stated preference), mode (train/metro), amenity group (access) and journey stage (boarding/alighting). Future research needs to disaggregate valuations by market segment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel heuristic to solve the network design problem for public transport in small-medium size cities. Such cities can be defined as those with a diameter of a few kilometers with up to a few hundred thousand residents. These urban centers present a specific spatial configuration affecting the land use and mobility system. Transportation demand is widespread in origin and concentrated in a small number of attraction points close to each other. This particular structure of demand ('many-to-few') suggests the need for specific methodologies for the design of a transit system at a network level. In this paper, such design methodologies are defined in terms of models and solution procedures and tested on a selected case study. The solution methods show promising results. The key variables of the model are the routes and their frequencies. The constraints of the problem affect the overall demand to be served, the quality of the proposed service (transfer, load factors) and the definition of routes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fare and service frequency significantly affect transit users' willingness to ride, as well as the supplier's revenue and operating costs. To stimulate demand and increase productivity, it is desirable to reduce the transfer time from one route to another via efficient service coordination, such as timed transfer. Since demand varies both temporally and spatially, it may not be cost-effective to synchronize vehicle arrivals on all connecting routes at a terminal. In this paper, we develop a schedule coordination model to optimize fare and headway considering demand elasticity. The headway of each route is treated as an integer-multiple of a base common headway. A discounted (reduced) fare is applied as an incentive to encourage ridership and, thus, stimulate public transit usage. The objective of the proposed coordination model is used to maximize the total profit subject to the service constraint. A numerical example is given to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model. The results show that the optimized fare and headway may be carefully applied to yield the maximum profit. The relationship between the decision variables and model parameters is explored in the sensitivity analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transfer points between metro and bus services remain an elusive, yet critical junction for transportation practitioners. Based on massive Smart Card (SC) data, previous studies apply a one-size-fits-all criterion to discriminate between transfers. However, this is not sufficiently convincing for different transfer pairs. To counter this problem, this study applies an association rules algorithm and cluster analysis to recognize metro-to-bus transfers using SC data, and demonstrates transfer recognition in a case study based on SC data collected during a week in Nanjing, China. It is shown that 85% of the transfer-recognition results are quite stable through the whole week, and the median transfer time between metro and bus is below 20 min. The method proposed in this study can be used to identify the busiest transfer points and to obtain average transfer times, which facilitates a smarter and more efficient public transit network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that traumatic experiences from countries of origin (so-called pre-migratory factors), as well as stressors in countries of destination (so-called post-migratory factors), are related to the extent of mental health difficulties and psychological well-being of refugees. However, numerous risks that this population is exposed to during transit have so far been neglected. Objective: The aim of this research was to construct and validate a questionnaire for assessing stressful and traumatic experiences in transit as well as its short form, which would at the same time provide information on one’s stressful experiences as well as existing risks that refugees are exposed to on their journey. Method: The study was realized in three phases – item construction, item revision and instrument validation. In the validation phase, a total of 226 refugees completed the Stressful Experiences in Transit Questionnaire (SET-Q), along with Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) Parts I and IV, Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25) and Beck Depression Inventory – II (BDI-II). Results: Refugees were exposed to an average of 13 stressful events during transit. SET-Q total score was positively correlated with HTQ Part IV Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Self-Perception of Functioning scales (SPFS) while the number of stressful experiences with the local population was positively related to BDI-II depression symptoms. Moreover, SET-Q scores were significant predictors of PTSD and SPFS even after traumatic experiences in the country of origin, assessed by HTQ Part I, were taken into account. A short form of the questionnaire (SET-SF) has also been developed. Conclusions: SET-Q is a valid instrument for measuring the scope of stressful experiences refugees have been exposed to during transit, targeted for this population specifically. Furthermore, SET-SF has the potential to assess the same extent of stressful experiences with a significantly reduced number of items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transit migration is a phenomenon on the rise partly due to the growth of international migration and more robust policies in destination countries making onward travel more difficult. The dominant discourse portrays transit migrants as agents stranded enroute-lacking agency to decide about their state of mobility/immobility. By going beyond such a normative victimization narrative of transit migrants, and by drawing on lived experiences of female Ethiopian migrants, this paper examines the agency of transit migrants; that is, the creative strategies they employ while planning their mobility/immobility, and in negotiating their precarious and vulnerable position. The paper discusses prospects of mobility/Immobility and/or settlement of migrants and factors that affect their informed decisions and argues against a monocausal analysis of factors influencing decision-making of migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Energy Policy Act of 1992 motivated transit agencies to utilize alternative-fuel transit buses in addition to their popular diesel buses. Transit agencies have planned to add a significant number of alternative-fuel buses to their current transit fleets. This study is to inform policy makers who may allocate public funds for alternative-fuel bus projects to make a smarter decision in this regard. For each of the eight alternative-fuel buses, technologies introduced by the ACT, fuel efficiency, life-cycle cost (LCC) and emission are estimated and compared with the available information for the ultralow-sulfur diesel (ULSD) fuel buses. A case study in the State of Delaware is presented to demonstrate how the proposed approaches can be employed to evaluate the relative importance of the most viable alternative-fuel transit buses according to the predefined set of criteria. The results show that buses propelled by hybrid-diesel engine have the least LCC and emissions and are the most suitable alternative for the ULSD buses in the short- and midterm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tokyo's Yamanote train line has been at the centre of Japan's modernisation project and continues to define socio-spatial relations within the city today. Within this special issue of Japan Forum, we trace the contours of the Yamanote line, exploring its role as a form of mobility that creates temporalities, spaces and boundaries, and the modes of intimacy and estrangement such dynamics produce. The papers within this special issue were developed out of discussions held at the Chicago AAS conference 2015. That year marked the 130th anniversary of the line's initial opening and the ninetieth anniversary of the completion of the loop. A focus on the Yamanote line provided us with fruitful reflections on migration and marginalisation, the way space is imagined and represented in the city, and how everyday life is both disciplined and disrupted. These reflections are included throughout the contributions within this special issue as they relate to Japan; however, they also attest to the continued importance of Japan as a site to reflect on broader socio-historical questions. As we show in this special issue, thinking from the Yamanote line not only allows us to think about Tokyo or Japan, but also affords attention to wider questions relevant to urban life more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our work exploring preferences of Denver metropolitan area households in deciding where to live provides important insights for regions seeking to leverage investments in transit and promote social equity through transit-oriented communities (TOC). Through a choice-based approach, we find evidence of widespread support for characteristics of TOC, with similar preferences for transit- and pedestrian-accessible environments among low-income and more affluent households. However, despite similar preferences, we find that affluent households moved to station areas after the arrival of light rail in much larger proportions than low-income households, pointing to trends consistent with local and national evidence of increased housing prices (and, likely, gentrification) near transit. If these trends continue without additional supplies of housing affordable to low- and moderate-income households in transit-rich neighbourhoods, those who are most likely to benefit from and use transit are likely to face increasing difficulty in realising preferences for TOC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable public transportation systems are within the solution space provided by alternative fuel vehicles. Given the large revenue service potential of alternative fuel buses within the urban space, they are good candidates for emissions reductions when they are employed as part of a comprehensive urban transit planning process. The determination of the most appropriate alternative fuel bus asset for a given application is not necessarily that straightforward. The typical bus fleet is developed over a broad time horizon with each asset being acquired to meet a certain agency need or to close a perceived gap in the delivery of public transportation service. Therefore, as new assets are considered, it is critical for the fleet manager to consider as many factors of the fleet infrastructure to better ensure the positive impact that the newly acquired asset will have on fleet performance relative to the overall service goals and objectives of the fleet. This study investigates a broad range of alternative fuel bus technologies and the associated factors that will inform the decision-making process. Further, this work utilizes the inventory and understanding of the range of technology factors and leverages the perspective knowledge of industry experts on each of these factors to develop an expert systems decision-making philosophy to aid in the adoption of industry standards, best practices, consistency and sustainability in fleet asset management over time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Bandits, corrupt officials, travel companions and smugglers rape Central American migrants during their clandestine journey across Mexico. However, migrants do not passively accept this violence; they devise performances of gender to arrive at their destination. Based on over two years of ethnographic fieldwork from El Salvador through Mexico to the United States, this article examines how men and women improvise new understandings of masculinity and femininity as they travel the migrant trail. In the transient social field of the transnational migration route, migrant narratives of the journey are 'survival plays' that re-imagine gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on access to healthy foods often emphasizes the spatial proximity of residents to food stores like supermarkets as a way to gauge overall accessibility. Much of the literature has focused on locating the closest facility, assuming that access to one food store is sufficient. Given evidence that access to multiple healthy food stores can improve diets, however, this article examines how closest facility measures differ from cumulative opportunity accessibility measures across space in a medium-sized U.S. city. Differences in access between automobile and transit riders, using realistic travel time costs, are also considered. Results demonstrate that the two types of accessibility measures produce different accessibility geographies and that there are disparities in access for those dependent on transit. These findings indicate that researchers should carefully consider whether access to one supermarket opportunity is enough and pay special attention to the mode residents rely on to access food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]