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Earlier work by the Transport Studies Group of the Polytechnic of Central London on minibus development in Britain for the Transport and Road Research Laboratory provided a financial analysis of intensive urban minibus operation. This is taken as the basis for the application of cost-benefit analysis. Unit operating cost savings and passenger benefits are taken into account, using typical demand elasticities derived from earlier work. Particular attention is paid to the problem of evaluating passenger benefits for which waiting time at the roadside is not necessarily an adequate proxy. A direct survey of passenger waiting times indicates that these do not necessarily decrease when a higher-frequency minibus service replaces a conventional bus service but the improved convenience produces an increase in ridership which may be assessed in terms of a demand curve shift to estimate benefits obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carpooling is a popular alternative to public transport in Hungary. The authors analysed data of the biggest Hungarian carpooling website containing all journeys in a one year interval. The data contains the origin and destination settlements, date/time and price of more than 600 000 journeys. The raw data was first cleaned from typos and misspellings, then geocoded and completed by route geometries using free online services (OpenStreetMap Nominatim and OpenRouteService). Then it was examined from several aspects: - comparing the average prices and travel times of routes to available public transport means - analysing the temporal distribution of the journeys through the days of the week, and through the year - comparing the relative prices of domestic and international journeys - examining the price deviation of routes - how much does the "free market" standardize fares, and what is the percentage of free rides in various directions. The results are visualised on thematic maps and various diagrams. The analysis revealed a great asymmetry between east and west - while the majority of the domestic journeys was realised in the eastern half of Hungary, the international destinations are mostly in Western Europe (Figure 1). The possible causes are that this is where majority of those Hungarians that work can be found, and that traveling from to Romanian cities (which is also very frequent because of the large number of Hungarian minorities there) is mostly realized with a welldeveloped system of minibus companies, so carpooling plays a little role in that direction. The temporal distribution is most interesting when examined through the days of the week: the busiest days are Fridays and Sundays, when college students and commuters travel home and back from/to the weekend. The asymmetry between travels from and to Budapest is also observable: on Friday people are leaving the capital for weekend, and on Sunday (and partly on Monday) they are coming back (Figure 2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Harmful emissions were evaluated in medium-duty diesel and LPG minibus under WHVC. • Powertrains, after-treatment devices, and fuel properties impacted on emissions. • More small particles were produced from DPF-SCR-diesel than TWC-LPDi engine. • CO 2 -equivalent N 2 O and CH 4 emissions from diesel was higher than LPDi vehicle. • Combustion process and fuel property effected on SO 2 and NH 3 formation strongly. Construction of harmful emission inventory from conventional and sustainable low carbon fueled vehicles is important issues to improve urban air quality and human health. In this study, the gaseous, nanoparticle, and unregulated gaseous emission formation behavior from a medium-duty minibus were investigated using the World Harmonized Vehicle Cycle (WHVC). The state-of-the-art diesel and turbocharged direct-injection liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vehicle were tested on a chassis dynamometer. The after-treatment system of the 3.9-L diesel engine was composed of the DOC, DPF and SCR, which satisfy the Euro 6 emission regulation. The 3.3-L stoichiometric spark ignition direct injection LPG engine was a TWC-only system. The formation of harmful emission components from the light-duty minibus operation was closely related to powertrain types, combustion mechanisms, after-treatment devices, and physicochemical properties of the tested fuels. Additionally, the chemical composition and low heating value (or energy content) of the respective fuels substantially affected the vehicle CO 2 emissions and fuel economy performance. Compared to LPG vehicle, the THC and NOx emissions from diesel vehicle were 63% and 511%. Similar PN concentrations were measured with each powertrain, but 2–3 times higher nucleation mode particles were released with diesel vehicle. Two vehicles showed comparable CO 2 emissions, while fuel economy from diesel and LPG vehicle were 6.81 km/L and 4.60 km/L. The proportions of N 2 O and CH 4 emissions with ozone forming potential (OFP) were 1.2% (diesel) and 0.3% (LPG), which showed the potential to mitigate the CO 2 -equivalent emissions from LPG minibus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban travelers in Africa depend on minibus taxis for their daily social and business commuting. This paratransit system is loosely regulated, self-organizing, and evolves organically in response to demand. Our study used floating car data to analyze and describe the movement characteristics of nine minibus taxis in Kampala, Uganda. We made three intriguing findings. Firstly, in searching for, picking up and transporting passengers, minibus taxi trajectories followed a heavy-tailed power-law distribution similar to a "Lévy walk". Secondly, their routes' topology and shape gradually changed. Thirdly, the extraordinary winding (expressed in terms of tortuosity) of the paths suggested the extreme determination of the drivers' search for passengers. Our findings could help city planners to build on the self-organizing characteristics of the minibus taxi system, and improve the mobility of travelers, by optimizing routes and the distribution of public amenities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: In Nigeria, owners of commercial minibuses commonly modify them by adding an extra row of seats and passengers also seat four abreast rather than the recommended three abreast. The modified minibuses carry nineteen passengers rather than the recommended twelve passengers. One such vehicle was fully occupied and had a head-on collision with a truck. Eight of the nineteen occupants sustained nine posterior dislocations of the hip joint. Methods: We compared the seating space and the leg room of a similarly modified vehicle to an unmodified one. Results: The legroom had been reduced from 120 cm in the unmodified vehicle to between 60 and 70 cm in the modified vehicle. We postulate that the tighter seating space forced the limbs into adduction and the shorter legroom caused the limb to more readily strike the seat in front, causing the hips to dislocate posteriorly. Conclusions: We recommend that the authorities put a stop to uncensored vehicle modifications to reduce hip injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dichotomy of the market initiative and central planning is considered to be one of the main issues in the governance of public transport provision. It relates to the rights of either the operators or authorities to design public transport services. The advantages and disadvantages of these models can motivate the reforms of public transport governance. Such reforms usually result in significant changes in the technical specifications of the public transport services. In this paper, we attempt to study the changes in the Moscow bus network introduced within the reform of public transport governance, the so-called 'new model of partnership with private operators' scheme. In 2016, all market-initiated minibus routes were replaced by those directly designed by the Moscow authorities. Since then, the private branch of the Moscow bus system came under a central planning regime with no room for market initiative. The large changes in the network in 2016 opened up a discussion on the impact of public transport governance on the network structure. This paper provides an analysis of the land passenger transport network of 2015 and 2016. It can be useful to describe the paths of network development under different regulatory regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mercedes-Benz Vans is set to enhance its eDrive@VANs strategy through the use of a fuel cell drive system. Its Concept Sprinter F-CELL uses the example of a semi-integrated motorhome to illustrate the full range of fuel cell benefits, from long range and low system weight to zero local emissions, maximum design freedom, and fast refueling. These characteristics are also perfectly suited for commercial purposes such as longer courier routes or minibuses in inter-urban traffic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In African cities like Nairobi, policies to improve vehicle fuel economy help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality, but lack of data is a major challenge. We present a methodology for estimating fuel economy in such cities. Vehicle characteristics and activity data, for both the formal fleet (private cars, motorcycles, light and heavy trucks) and informal fleet—minibuses (matatus), three-wheelers (tuktuks), goods vehicles (AskforTransport) and two-wheelers (bodabodas)—were collected and used to estimate fuel economy. Using two empirical models, general linear modelling (GLM) and artificial neural network (ANN), the relationships between vehicle characteristics for this fleet and fuel economy were analyzed for the first time. Fuel economy for bodabodas (4.6 ± 0.4 L/100 km), tuktuks (8.7 ± 4.6 L/100 km), passenger cars (22.8 ± 3.0 L/100 km), and matatus (33.1 ± 2.5 L/100 km) was found to be 2–3 times worse than in the countries these vehicles are imported from. The GLM provided the better estimate of predicted fuel economy based on vehicle characteristics. The analysis of survey data covering a large informal urban fleet helps meet the challenge of a lack of availability of vehicle data for emissions inventories. This may be useful to policy makers as emissions inventories underpin policy development to reduce emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article evaluates the e.GO Life electric minicar and the e.GO Mover electric minibus from company e.GO Mobile.