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This article presents the MOBIS dataset and underlying survey methods used in its collection. The MOBIS study was a nation-wide randomised controlled trial (RCT) of transport pricing in Switzerland, utilising a combination of postal recruitment, online surveys, and GPS tracking. 21,571 persons completed the first online survey, and 3680 persons completed 8 weeks of GPS tracking. Many continued tracking for over a year after the study was completed. In the field experiment, participants participated through the use of a GPS tracking app, Catch-my-Day, which logged their daily travel on different transport modes and imputed the trip segments and modes. The experiment lasted 8 weeks, bookended by two online surveys. After the first 4-week control phase, participants were split into two different treatment groups and a continued control group. An analysis of the survey participation shows that the technology is capable of supporting such an experiment on both Android and iOS, the two main mobile platforms. Significant differences in the engagement and attrition were observed between iOS and Android participants over the 8-week period. Finally, the attrition rate did not vary between treatment groups. This paper also reports on the wealth of data that are being made available for further research, which includes over 3 million trip stages and activities, labelled with transport mode and purpose respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "The MOBIS dataset: a large GPS dataset of mobility behaviour in Switzerland" published in the journal Transportation. The correction addresses an error in figure 2 of the original publication, where the filename was mistakenly printed above the figure. The correct image is provided in the correction, and the original article has been updated accordingly. The correction notice also includes the names of the authors involved in the study. Springer Nature, the publisher, maintains a neutral stance on jurisdictional claims and institutional affiliations. [Extracted from the article]

The fast pace of urbanisation may benefit or be detrimental to the socio-economic status of urban areas. Understanding how the configuration of urban areas influences the socio-economic status of their inhabitants is of crucial importance for urban planning. In theory, urban scaling laws and polycentric development are two well-known concepts developed to increase our understanding of urbanisation and its socio-economic effects. In practice, however, they fall short to explain the socio-economic status of urban regions. The urban scaling concept is constructed from a theoretical perspective, but functional relationships between urban centres are not taken into account in scaling models. In contrast, the concept of polycentricity is developed from a practical perspective and incorporates the socio-economic effect of relationships between urban centres in the process of urban development. However, polycentricity lacks a theoretical foundation, which would explain the socio-economic status of urban regions. In this study, we assess whether combining both concepts improves the ability to explain personal incomes in metropolitan areas in Switzerland. We first delineated metropolitan areas by implementing a modularity maximisation algorithm on the settlement network. Nodes in this network are Swiss municipalities and links are inter-municipal commuter flows. We found a strong relationship between the hierarchical organisation of functional connections within metropolitan areas and the socio-economic status of these areas. Both concepts were complementary and combining them proved to enhance the ability to explain socio-economic status. The combined model is a theoretical progress, which complements the traditional approaches and increases our understanding of cities and urbanisation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of interdependence between resident population (e.g., as customers or manpower) and economic activities (e.g., shops or services), relocating firms' destination choice plays an important role in comprehensive land use models. However, due to a lack of data at the micro level enabling the estimation of discrete choice models, little research exists on this topic. In this paper, data from commercial registers of three Swiss cantons, St. Gallen, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, and Appenzell Innerrhoden, were analysed. This dataset provides information on more than 54,000 firms and autonomous plants from 1991 to 2006. Variables such as local taxes, governmental business friendliness, and accessibilities have been tested in a nested logit (NL) model for different business sectors. The results show that distance, local taxes, and cantonal business development strongly influence relocating firms' destination choice. Furthermore, significant differences between sectors can be identified. For instance, residents with graduate degrees have a significant and high impact on business services, but a minimal effect on businesses in wholesale trade and personal services. Debido a la interdependencia entre la población residente (p.ej. como clientes o mano de obra) y las actividades económicas (p.ej. comercios o servicios), la elección del destino en el traslado de una empresa juega un papel importante en modelos exhaustivos de uso del suelo. Sin embargo, debido a una falta de datos a nivel microeconómico que permitiesen estimar modelos de elección discreta, apenas existen estudios sobre este tema. En este artículo se han analizado datos de registros comerciales de tres cantones suizos: San Galo (St. Gallen), Appenzell Rodas Exteriores (Ausserrhoden), y Appenzell Rodas Interiores (Innerrhoden). Este conjunto de datos proporciona información acerca de más de 54.000 empresas y factorías autónomas desde 1991 a 2006. Se ha empleado un modelo logit anidado (nested logit, NL) para diferentes sectores empresariales, utilizando variables tales como impuestos locales, grado de benevolencia gubernamental con las empresas, y accesibilidades. Los resultados muestran que la distancia, los impuestos locales, y el desarrollo empresarial cantonal influyen poderosamente en la elección del destino en el traslado de una empresa. Adicionalmente, es posible identificar diferencias significativas entre sectores. Por ejemplo, los residentes con licenciaturas tienen un elevado y significativo impacto en los servicios empresariales, pero un efecto mínimo en empresas de comercio al por mayor y de servicios a individuos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper analyzes how location has affected, in the second half of the twentieth century, the population growth of 2889 municipalities in Switzerland. The analysis demonstrates the temporal relativity of location attributes, even for small territorial divisions, such as the Swiss cantons. However, we also show that, both absolute and relative location attributes have weakened over time as population growth predictors, apparently due to improving road infrastructures, and growing motorization. The study has been made possible by a detailed historical population and accessibility database available for Swiss municipalities. To the best of our knowledge, no database of such scope and quality is available for any other European country. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Simulation models of influenza spread play an important role for pandemic preparedness. However, as the world has not faced a severe pandemic for decades, except the rather mild H1N1 one in 2009, pandemic influenza models are inherently hypothetical and validation is, thus, difficult. We aim at reconstructing a recent seasonal influenza epidemic that occurred in Switzerland and deem this to be a promising validation strategy for models of influenza spread. Methods: We present a spatially explicit, individual-based simulation model of influenza spread. The simulation model bases upon (i) simulated human travel data, (ii) data on human contact patterns and (iii) empirical knowledge on the epidemiology of influenza. For model validation we compare the simulation outcomes with empirical knowledge regarding (i) the shape of the epidemic curve, overall infection rate and reproduction number, (ii) age-dependent infection rates and time of infection, (iii) spatial patterns. Results: The simulation model is capable of reproducing the shape of the 2003/2004 H3N2 epidemic curve of Switzerland and generates an overall infection rate (14.9 percent) and reproduction numbers (between 1.2 and 1.3), which are realistic for seasonal influenza epidemics. Age and spatial patterns observed in empirical data are also reflected by the model: Highest infection rates are in children between 5 and 14 and the disease spreads along the main transport axes from west to east. Conclusions: We show that finding evidence for the validity of simulation models of influenza spread by challenging them with seasonal influenza outbreak data is possible and promising. Simulation models for pandemic spread gain more credibility if they are able to reproduce seasonal influenza outbreaks. For more robust modelling of seasonal influenza, serological data complementing sentinel information would be beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on mapping and delineating commuting areas of work travel (commuting-towork area - CTWA). Traditional procedures for delimiting these areas assign each municipality to a single catchment area. Commuting distances and the complexity of commuter flows have increased steadily over the years. A classical method in transport planning is a mapping of flows where origin and destination are connected with a straight line resulting in a visualisation of the overlaps. However, the proposed new commuting-to-work area delineation describes a 2-dimensional catchment area of each urban core naturally overlapping with other catchments. Four different degrees of generalisation of CTWAs, from a morphological to a circular area, are discussed and compared to alternative mappings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activity-travel behavior research has hitherto focused on the modeling and understanding of daily time use and activity patterns and resulting travel demand. In this particular paper, an analysis and modeling of weekly activity-travel behavior is presented using a unique multi-week activity-travel behavior data set collected in and around Zurich, Switzerland. The paper focuses on six categories of discretionary activity participation to understand the determinants of, and the inter-personal and intra-personal variability in, weekly activity engagement at a detailed level. A panel version of the Mixed Multiple Discrete Continuous Extreme Value model (MMDCEV) that explicitly accounts for the panel (or repeated-observations) nature of the multi-week activity-travel behavior data set is developed and estimated on the data set. The model also controls for individual-level unobserved factors that lead to correlations in activity engagement preferences across different activity types. To our knowledge, this is the first formulation and application of a panel MMDCEV structure in the econometric literature. The analysis suggests the high prevalence of intra-personal variability in discretionary activity engagement over a multi-week period along with inter-personal variability that is typically considered in activity-travel modeling. In addition, the panel MMDCEV model helped identify the observed socio-economic factors and unobserved individual specific factors that contribute to variability in multi-week discretionary activity participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research of complex networks has significantly contributed to the understanding how networks can be classified according to its topological characteristics. However, transport networks attracted less attention although their importance to economy and daily life. In this work the development of the Swiss road and railway network during the years 1950–2000 is investigated. The main difference between many of the recently studied complex networks and transport networks is the spatial structure. Therefore, some of the well-established complex network measures may not be applied directly to characterise transport networks but need to be adapted to fulfil the requirements of spatial networks. Additionally, new approaches to cover basic network characteristics such as local network densities are applied. The focus of the interest hereby is always not only to classify the transport network but also to provide the basis for further applications such as vulnerability analysis or network development. It could be showed that the proposed measures are able to characterise the growth of the Swiss road network. To proof the use of local density measures to explain the robustness of a network however needs further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Martin Tschopp and Kay Axhausen focus on the impact of transport infrastructure on the demographic and spatial development of municipalities and regions. Accessibility is both the primary service provided by transport infrastructure and the link between transport infrastructure and land use. It can measure the spatial impact of newly built transport infrastructure and show the attractiveness of a region's location. Tschopp and Axhausen provide a general survey of the evolution of Swiss transport planning since the 1950s. Results indicate that accessibility does influence spatial development but differs considerably over time and space. It leads to more equal dispersion of population in peripheral urban areas between conurbations as well as to more concentrated settlement patterns in rural and alpine areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied trip purpose imputation using data mining and machine learning techniques based on a dataset of GPS-based trajectories gathered in Switzerland. With a large number of labeled activities in eight categories, we explored location information using hierarchical clustering and achieved a classification accuracy of 86.7% using a random forest approach as a baseline. The contribution of this study is summarized below. Firstly, using information from GPS trajectories exclusively without personal information shows a negligible decrease in accuracy (0.9%), which indicates the good performance of our data mining steps and the wide applicability of our imputation scheme in case of limited information availability. Secondly, the dependence of model performance on the geographical location, the number of participants, and the duration of the survey is investigated to provide a reference when comparing classification accuracy. Furthermore, we show the ensemble filter to be an excellent tool in this research field not only because of the increased accuracy (93.6%), especially for minority classes, but also the reduced uncertainties in blindly trusting the labeling of activities by participants, which is vulnerable to class noise due to the large survey response burden. Finally, the trip purpose derivation accuracy across participants reaches 74.8%, which is significant and suggests the possibility of effectively applying a model trained on GPS trajectories of a small subset of citizens to a larger GPS trajectory sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road based motorised transport has many important societal benefits but also results in various negative environmental externalities such as CO 2 emissions or noise and local air pollution. Road pricing is widely regarded as an efficient and effective policy instrument for mitigating these externalities. In reality, however, it is politically controversial because it is associated with high opportunity costs and concerns over distributional effects. We examine whether and how designing road pricing in particular ways could help in achieving public support by implementing a conjoint experimental design using original data from a large, population-representative survey in Switzerland. Additionally, we test whether providing information about environmental benefits of road pricing increase support. We find that support for road pricing tapers off quite strongly when policy designs approach cost levels required for substantive mitigation of externalities and that preferences are robust against experimental manipulation. On the other hand, redistributing revenues towards public transport and green infrastructure increases support substantively at lower cost levels. The findings suggest that there are limits to how policy design and environmental communication can help overcome political feasibility barriers for road pricing. One should therefore focus on additional aspects to increase support such as policy sequencing. • Support for road pricing is rather low. • Support decreases strongly when policy designs approach stringency levels that effectively mitigate externalities. • Policy packaging that includes revenue recycling increases political feasibility in environmental policy. • Car ownership and to a lesser extent environmental concern influence support for road pricing policies. • Preferences for road pricing are robust against informational manipulation about the provision of environmental benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Studying impact free-floating car-sharing (FFCS) using quantitative data. • Early application of smartphone-based GPS tracking as travel diary. • Two-wave survey approach allowing to measure the FFCS impact. • FFCS found to lower private vehicle ownership and use. • FFCS mainly used for non-regular, discretionary trips. Abstract Free-floating car-sharing schemes operate without fixed car-sharing stations, ahead reservations or return-trip requirements. Providing fast and convenient motorization, they attract both public transport users and (former) car-owners. Thus, their impact on individual travel behavior depends on the user type. Estimating the travel behavior impact of these systems therefore requires quantitative data. Using a two-wave survey approach (shortly after launch of the scheme plus one year later) including travel diaries, this research indicates that (due to their membership) 6% of the free-floating car-sharing customers reduce their private vehicle ownership. Moreover, the results suggest that free-floating car-sharing both complements and competes with station-based car-sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free-floating car-sharing has been one of the latest innovations in the car-sharing market. It allows its customers to locate available vehicles via a smartphone app and reserve them for a short time prior to their rental. Because it is available for point-to-point trips, free-floating car-sharing is not only an alternative to private cars, but also to public transportation. Using spatial regression and conditional logit analysis of original transaction data of a free-floating car-sharing scheme in Switzerland, this research shows that free-floating car-sharing is mainly used for discretionary trips, for which only substantially inferior public transportation alternatives are available. In contrast to station-based car-sharing, it does not rely on high-quality local public transportation access, but bridges gaps in the existing public transportation network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free-floating car-sharing schemes operate without fixed car-sharing stations, ahead reservations or return-trip requirements. Providing fast and convenient motorization, they attract both public transportation users and (former) car-owners. However, given their highly flexible nature and different pricing structures, previous findings on user groups and environmental impact of station-based car-sharing may not be easily transferable. Therefore, this research uses survey data to compare user groups and usage patterns of a free-floating and station-based car-sharing service both operating in the city of Basel, Switzerland. The findings suggest, that the schemes indeed attract different user groups and are also used differently. Moreover, we see, that car-sharing membership is governed by other factors than car-sharing activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Switzerland, strict measures as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic were imposed on March 16, 2020, before being gradually relaxed from May 11 onwards. We report the impact of these measures on mobility behaviour based on a GPS tracking panel of 1439 Swiss residents. The participants were also exposed to online questionnaires. The impact of both the lockdown and the relaxation of the measures up until the middle of August 2020 are presented. Reductions of around 60% in the average daily distance were observed, with decreases of over 90% for public transport. Cycling increased in mode share drastically. Behavioural shifts can even be observed in response to the announcement of the measures and relaxation, a week before they came in to place. Long-term implications for policy are discussed, in particular the increased preference for cycling as a result of the pandemic. • Understanding of the change in mobility patterns in Switzerland using a large GPS Panel during the Covid19 Pandemic. • Evidence for a large increase in cycling kilometers during the first lockdown which was sustained into the summer. • Changes in mobility behaviour varied across different socio-demographic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Analysis of intermodal trip making in Switzerland. • Estimation of a first multimodal recursive logit route choice model. • Simple methodology to construct a multimodal network based on open-source data. • We show that the multimodal recursive logit model can be a useful tool for transport planning in urban areas. Abstract We use data from the Swiss national household travel survey to 1. analyze the socioeconomic determinants for intermodal travel in Switzerland and 2. estimate a first large-scale multimodal recursive logit route choice model for urban trip making. We show that intermodal travel is mostly associated with ownership of transit subscriptions, which allow free at the point-of-use public transportation. We also present a framework using open-source data to generate the multimodal network for the recursive logit model estimation. The fact that the model only needs a multimodal network to model the transport supply makes it independent of path sampling algorithms for the choice-set construction and it thus provides an alternative to classic mode and route choice models, since it can estimate mode and route choice parameters with directly observed routes, removing the sampling bias. By eliminating the need to sample alternative paths for estimation, it also simplifies the estimation process, making it a viable choice as an integral solution for joint route and mode choice modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic is multi-modal in most cities. However, the impacts of different transport modes on traffic performance and on each other are unclear – especially at the network level. The recent extension of the macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD) into the 3D-MFD offers a novel framework to address this gap at the urban scale. The 3D-MFD relates the network accumulation of cars and public transport vehicles to the network travel production, for either vehicles or passengers. No empirical 3D-MFD has been reported so far. In this paper, we present the first empirical estimate of a 3D-MFD at the urban scale. To this end, we use data from loop detectors and automatic vehicle location devices (AVL) of the public transport vehicles in the city of Zurich, Switzerland. We compare two different areas within the city, that differ in their topology and share of dedicated lanes for public transport. We propose a statistical model of the 3D-MFD, which estimates the effects of the vehicle accumulation on car and public transport speeds under multi-modal traffic conditions. The results quantify the effects of both, vehicles and passengers, and confirm that a greater share of dedicated lanes reduces the marginal effects of public transport vehicles on car speeds. Lastly, we derive a new application of the 3D-MFD by identifying the share of public transport users that maximizes the journey speeds in an urban network accounting for all motorized transport modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated government measures on individual mobility choices in Switzerland. Our data is based on over 1,600 people for which we observe all trips during eight weeks before the pandemic and until May 2021. We find an overall reduction of travel distances by 60 percent, followed by a gradual recovery during the subsequent re-opening of the economy. Whereas driving distances have almost completely recovered, public transport re-mains under-used. The introduction of a requirement to wear a mask in public transport had no measurable impact on ridership. The individual travel response to the pandemic varies along socio-economic dimensions such as education and house-hold size, with mobility tool ownership, and with personal values and lifestyles. We find no evidence for a significant substitution of leisure travel to compensate for the reduction in work-related travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transferable development rights (TDR) are discussed or applied in various countries for a wide variety of purposes: notably to increase building densities, preserve natural areas, compensate reduced development possibilities, and control land use in rural areas. In Switzerland, TDR, a market-oriented planning instrument, might be used to reduce the land-use problems related to the unsustainable development of the settlement areas and to manage problems with the spatially imbalanced supply and demand of existing undeveloped building zones. Our aim is to briefly introduce a TDR market concept for Switzerland, present an empirically calibrated agent-based TDR market simulation, and finally analyze the detailed simulation results. We ran the simulation with four different settings which allowed an analysis of relevant political and economic questions for Switzerland. The results show that the TDR prices were comparable with existing land prices in Switzerland. In addition, we are able to show that with the trade of TDR it would be possible to downzone 11.4 km² of building zone land for which there is no demand and to develop 7.4 km2 of new building zone land up to the year 2018. Consequently, the defined building zone area would decrease, which would be in line with political objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]