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This paper examines the role of perceptions and attitudes in railway station accessibility. We add unobserved (latent) variables to the Generalised Transport Access Cost (GTAC) of cycling to Dutch railway stations in the metropolitan area of The Hague – Rotterdam. A hybrid discrete choice model was estimated for access mode and two latent variables which were obtained through factor analysis: perception of station environment (including factors such as the users’ judgement of the station, assessment of travel information, presence of high speed trains) and perceived connectivity (including factor such as the evaluation of punctuality and the frequency of the train and quality of bicycle infrastructure). The estimated individual utility was applied to a station access cost index. A comparison between standard logit and hybrid utility functions identifies improvements in the utility-based measures by using discrete choice models. Utilities are computed by station departure, postcode of residence and neighbourhood. The results show, first, that omitting unobserved effect in utility-based measures tends to lead to overestimations of the accessibility levels. Secondly, different variations in accessibility levels are revealed, by size of railway stations and urban areas. Finally, the results highlight stronger effects of network connectivity impedances than station environmental impedances in generalised transport costs., European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research, Vol 16 No 2 (2016)

Public transport accessibility depends not only on the places and opportunities that can be reached by transit, but also on accessibility to public transport. The characteristics of access and egress modes influence accessibility patterns but also ridership levels of public transport modes. In particular, public transport companies and city planners in Northern Europe have increasingly recognized the key role that bicycling plays as a feeder and distributor service for public transport (Pucher and Buehler 2008). However, the literature is still limited on how characteristics of access and egress modes influence the choice of the main mode of travel. In this chapter, we examine the key factors that influence access and egress mode choice and their influence on train use in the wider metropolitan area of The Hague–Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. In this chapter, we estimate mode choice models based on a joint estimation of revealed preference (RP) and stated preference (SP) data to overcome the constraints of each of these two types of data sets (Bradley and Daly 1997). Most of the studies in the literature on feeder modes are based on RP data.

The measures of local and regional accessibility have been developed separately, resulting on a scarcely studied connection between these two. Accessibility evaluation of land-use and transport strategies can be much improved by linkages with more understandable, and local, accessibility measures for research and policy makers. This paper develops a multimodal model to analyse a set of scenarios of chain mobility , i.e. bicycle route quality, BTM frequency and bicycle parking cost . The results reflect the effects on accessibility levels in a national transport model. A detailed bicycle network is implemented and linked to the public transport network. The effect of access and egress penalties is verified by introducing station specific penalties by mode and station type (mode-station constant). The penalties are derived from time valuations (VOT) and willingness to pay (WTP) for transport improvements. The study area covers 54 stations of the Stedenbaan corridor, within the Randstad south wing. Eight scenarios of transport measures are simulated for both 2012 and 2030. A potential job accessibility measure was calculated with the matrices of travel times generated from each scenario. On average the largest travel time reduction is by 15% between 2012 and 2030, when a scenario of better network and connectivity takes place. The results also show the increase in train passengers due to improved bicycle access. We identified that transport measures should be station based. The strongest effects occur in medium and small station types, i.e. 3, 4 and 5. Particularly, station types 3 and 4 are more sensitive to changes in bicycle network than the rest of stations. At the same time, labour force has a strong impact on reaching high job accessibility levels per region and station areas. The job accessibility increased up to 20%. As future research, the behavioural elements of the national transport models can be enriched to produce more user-oriented results.

This paper presents an analysis of an adaptive stated choice experiment in the Netherlands to quantify the influence of different factors in the access and egress mode choice to railway stations. For this purpose a sample of 1524 respondents was collected. Mixed logit choice models are estimated which include cost and time factors and variables factors describing the quality of stations and station environments. The main findings indicate that bicycle parking costs in the Netherlands play an important role in access mode choice. Furthermore, improvements in route quality are more important for cyclists than pedestrians as a determinant for access and egress mode choice. Costs and time of access modes are highly important in relation to the main mode choice. Particularly for the bicycle as feeder mode, the ratio of cost to time is a significant reason for dropping the train as main mode.

The main objective of this paper is to examine cycling accessibility to the railway station. Particularly, the study verifies the Influence of impedance factor of a cycling route to the railway station. StedenbaanPlus is a regional transit oriented development with aims to densify urban areas around 35 railway stations approximately. This paper is based on data and analysis from the NWO project called ‘Transit Oriented Development in the Randstad South-Wing’. This research project studies pedestrian and cyclist accessibility to Dutch stations under the program StedenbaanPlus. The data set in this paper is mainly composed by: sociodemographic, land-use and bicycle network data spatially georeferenced. The analysis is composed by three parts: 1. Station index: includes the status of bicycle and pedestrian facilities at station, amenities, cleanness, safety, etc.. 2. Diversity index: represents the station as node. This index is composed by measures such as number of jobs, population, companies, and places for shopping within the influence area. 3. Connectivity index: represents the network connectivity, from both local and regional approaches. This index is composed by measures such as number of railway lines, type of trains reaching the station, quality of bicycle and pedestrian network, lightness, etc. Spatial and statistical analyses are conducted to calculate an impedance factor of the route to the railway station. These results are used as input of two discrete choice models for both walking and bicycle access share. The expected results will show: (1) the perceived utility of the route by pedestrians and cyclist; (2) the influence of connectivity measures in the bicycle and walking access share. Hence, the main findings will contribute to improve both walking and bicycle access share in Dutch railway stations, as consequence to increase the number of train passengers.

Neighbourhood representation and scale used to measure the built environment have been treated in many ways. However, it is anything but clear what representation of neighbourhood is the most feasible in the existing literature. This paper presents an exhaustive analysis of built environment attributes through three spatial scales. For this purpose multiple data sources are integrated, and a set of 943 observations is analysed. This paper simultaneously analyses the influence of two methodological issues in the study of the relationship between built environment and travel behaviour: (1) detailed representation of neighbourhood by testing different spatial scales; (2) the influence of unobserved individual sensitivity to built environment attributes. The results show that different spatial scales of built environment attributes produce different results. Hence, it is important to produce local and regional transport measures, according to geographical scale. Additionally, the results show significant sensitivity to built environment attributes depending on place of residence. This effect, called residential sorting, acquires different magnitudes depending on the geographical scale used to measure the built environment attributes. Spatial scales risk to the stability of model results. Hence, transportation modellers and planners must take into account both effects of self-selection and spatial scales.

Due to the necessity to undertake activities, every year people increase their standards of travelling (distance and time). Urban sprawl development plays an important role in these "enlargements". Thus, governments invest money in an exhaustiva search for solutions to high levels of congestion and car-trips. The complex relationship between urban environment and travel behaviour has been studied in a number of cases. Thus, the objective of this paper is to answer the important question of which land-use attributes influence which dimensions of travel behaviour, and to verify to what extent specific urban planning measures affect the individual decision process, by exhaustiva statistical and systematic tests. This paper found that a crucial issue in the analysis of the relationship between the built environment and travel behaviour is the definition of indicators. As such, we recommend a feasible list of indicators to analyze this relationship.

La relación entre la estructura urbana y la movilidad ha sido estudiada desde hace más de 70 años. El entorno urbano incluye múltiples dimensiones como por ejemplo: la estructura urbana, los usos de suelo, la distribución de instalaciones diversas (comercios, escuelas y zonas de restauración, parking, etc.). Al realizar una revisión de la literatura existente en este contexto, se encuentran distintos análisis, metodologías, escalas geográficas y dimensiones, tanto de la movilidad como de la estructura urbana. En este sentido, se trata de una relación muy estudiada pero muy compleja, sobre la que no existe hasta el momento un consenso sobre qué dimensión del entorno urbano influye sobre qué dimensión de la movilidad, y cuál es la manera apropiada de representar esta relación. Con el propósito de contestar estas preguntas investigación, la presente tesis tiene los siguientes objetivos generales: (1) Contribuir al mejor entendimiento de la compleja relación estructura urbana y movilidad. y (2) Entender el rol de los atributos latentes en la relación entorno urbano y movilidad. El objetivo específico de la tesis es analizar la influencia del entorno urbano sobre dos dimensiones de la movilidad: número de viajes y tipo de tour. Vista la complejidad de la relación entorno urbano y movilidad, se pretende contribuir al mejor entendimiento de la relación a través de la utilización de 3 escalas geográficas de las variables y del análisis de la influencia de efectos inobservados en la movilidad. Para el análisis se utiliza una base de datos conformada por tres tipos de datos: (1) Una encuesta de movilidad realizada durante los años 2006 y 2007. Se obtuvo un total de 943 encuestas, en 3 barrios de Madrid: Chamberí, Pozuelo y Algete. (2) Información municipal del Instituto Nacional de Estadística: dicha información se encuentra enlazada con los orígenes y destinos de los viajes recogidos en la encuesta. Y (3) Información georeferenciada en Arc-GIS de los hogares participantes en la encuesta: la base de datos contiene información respecto a la estructura de las calles, localización de escuelas, parking, centros médicos y lugares de restauración. Se analizó la correlación entre e intra-grupos y se modelizaron 4 casos de atributos bajo la estructura ordinal logit. Posteriormente se evalúa la auto-selección a través de la estimación conjunta de las elecciones de tipo de barrio y número de viajes. La elección del tipo de barrio consta de 3 alternativas: CBD, Urban y Suburban, según la zona de residencia recogida en las encuestas. Mientras que la elección del número de viajes consta de 4 categorías ordinales: 0 viajes, 1-2 viajes, 3-4 viajes y 5 o más viajes. A partir de la mejor especificación del modelo ordinal logit. Se desarrolló un modelo joint mixed-ordinal conjunto. Los resultados indican que las variables exógenas requieren un análisis exhaustivo de correlaciones con el fin de evitar resultados sesgados. ha determinado que es importante medir los atributos del BE donde se realiza el viaje, pero también la información municipal es muy explicativa de la movilidad individual. Por tanto, la percepción de las zonas de destino a nivel municipal es considerada importante. En el contexto de la Auto-selección (self-selection) es importante modelizar conjuntamente las decisiones. La Auto-selección existe, puesto que los parámetros estimados conjuntamente son significativos. Sin embargo, sólo ciertos atributos del entorno urbano son igualmente importantes sobre la elección de la zona de residencia y frecuencia de viajes. Para analizar la Propensión al Viaje, se desarrolló un modelo híbrido, formado por: una variable latente, un indicador y un modelo de elección discreta. La variable latente se denomina “Propensión al Viaje”, cuyo indicador en ecuación de medida es el número de viajes; la elección discreta es el tipo de tour. El modelo de elección consiste en 5 alternativas, según la jerarquía de actividades establecida en la tesis: HOME, no realiza viajes durante el día de estudio, HWH tour cuya actividad principal es el trabajo o estudios, y no se realizan paradas intermedias; HWHs tour si el individuo reaiza paradas intermedias; HOH tour cuya actividad principal es distinta a trabajo y estudios, y no se realizan paradas intermedias; HOHs donde se realizan paradas intermedias. Para llegar a la mejor especificación del modelo, se realizó un trabajo importante considerando diferentes estructuras de modelos y tres tipos de estimaciones. De tal manera, se obtuvieron parámetros consistentes y eficientes. Los resultados muestran que la modelización de los tours, representa una ventaja sobre la modelización de los viajes, puesto que supera las limitaciones de espacio y tiempo, enlazando los viajes realizados por la misma persona en el día de estudio. La propensión al viaje (PT) existe y es específica para cada tipo de tour. Los parámetros estimados en el modelo híbrido resultaron significativos y distintos para cada alternativa de tipo de tour. Por último, en la tesis se verifica que los modelos híbridos representan una mejora sobre los modelos tradicionales de elección discreta, dando como resultado parámetros consistentes y más robustos. En cuanto a políticas de transporte, se ha demostrado que los atributos del entorno urbano son más importantes que los LOS (Level of Service) en la generación de tours multi-etapas. la presente tesis representa el primer análisis empírico de la relación entre los tipos de tours y la propensión al viaje. El concepto Propensity to Travel ha sido desarrollado exclusivamente para la tesis. Igualmente, el desarrollo de un modelo conjunto RC-Number of trips basado en tres escalas de medida representa innovación en cuanto a la comparación de las escalas geográficas, que no había sido hecha en la modelización de la self-selection. The relationship between built environment (BE) and travel behaviour (TB) has been studied in a number of cases, using several methods - aggregate and disaggregate approaches - and different focuses – trip frequency, automobile use, and vehicle miles travelled and so on. Definitely, travel is generated by the need to undertake activities and obtain services, and there is a general consensus that urban components affect TB. However researches are still needed to better understand which components of the travel behaviour are affected most and by which of the urban components. In order to fill the gap in the research, the present dissertation faced two main objectives: (1) To contribute to the better understanding of the relationship between travel demand and urban environment. And (2) To develop an econometric model for estimating travel demand with urban environment attributes. With this purpose, the present thesis faced an exhaustive research and computation of land-use variables in order to find the best representation of BE for modelling trip frequency. In particular two empirical analyses are carried out: 1. Estimation of three dimensions of travel demand using dimensions of urban environment. We compare different travel dimensions and geographical scales, and we measure self-selection contribution following the joint models. 2. Develop a hybrid model, integrated latent variable and discrete choice model. The implementation of hybrid models is new in the analysis of land-use and travel behaviour. BE and TB explicitly interact and allow richness information about a specific individual decision process For all empirical analysis is used a data-base from a survey conducted in 2006 and 2007 in Madrid. Spatial attributes describing neighbourhood environment are derived from different data sources: National Institute of Statistics-INE (Administrative: municipality and district) and GIS (circular units). INE provides raw data for such spatial units as: municipality and district. The construction of census units is trivial as the census bureau provides tables that readily define districts and municipalities. The construction of circular units requires us to determine the radius and associate the spatial information to our households. The first empirical part analyzes trip frequency by applying an ordered logit model. In this part is studied the effect of socio-economic, transport and land use characteristics on two travel dimensions: trip frequency and type of tour. In particular the land use is defined in terms of type of neighbourhoods and types of dwellers. Three neighbourhood representations are explored, and described three for constructing neighbourhood attributes. In particular administrative units are examined to represent neighbourhood and circular – unit representation. Ordered logit models are applied, while ordinal logit models are well-known, an intensive work for constructing a spatial attributes was carried out. On the other hand, the second empirical analysis consists of the development of an innovative econometric model that considers a latent variable called “propensity to travel”, and choice model is the choice of type of tour. The first two specifications of ordinal models help to estimate this latent variable. The latent variable is unobserved but the manifestation is called “indicators”, then the probability of choosing an alternative of tour is conditional to the probability of latent variable and type of tour. Since latent variable is unknown we fit the integral over its distribution. Four “sets of best variables” are specified, following the specification obtained from the correlation analysis. The results evidence that the relative importance of SE variables versus BE variables depends on how BE variables are measured. We found that each of these three spatial scales has its intangible qualities and drawbacks. Spatial scales play an important role on predicting travel demand due to the variability in measures at trip origin/destinations within the same administrative unit (municipality, district and so on). Larger units will produce less variation in data; but it does not affect certain variables, such as public transport supply, that are more significant at municipality level. By contrast, land-use measures are more efficient at district level. Self-selection in this context, is weak. Thus, the influence of BE attributes is true. The results of the hybrid model show that unobserved factors affect the choice of tour complexity. The latent variable used in this model is propensity to travel that is explained by socioeconomic aspects and neighbourhood attributes. The results show that neighbourhood attributes have indeed a significant impact on the choice of the type of tours either directly and through the propensity to travel. The propensity to travel has a different impact depending on the structure of each tour and increases the probability of choosing more complex tours, such as tours with many intermediate stops. The integration of choice and latent variable model shows that omitting important perception and attitudes leads to inconsistent estimates. The results also indicate that goodness of fit improves by adding the latent variable in both sequential and simultaneous estimation. There are significant differences in the sensitivity to the latent variable across alternatives. In general, as expected, the hybrid models show a major improvement into the goodness of fit of the model, compared to a classical discrete choice model that does not incorporate latent effects. The integrated model leads to a more detailed analysis of the behavioural process. Summarizing, the effect that built environment characteristics on trip frequency studied is deeply analyzed. In particular we tried to better understand how land use characteristics can be defined and measured and which of these measures do have really an impact on trip frequency. We also tried to test the superiority of HCM on this field. We can concluded that HCM shows a major improvement into the goodness of fit of the model, compared to classical discrete choice model that does not incorporate latent effects. And consequently, the application of HCM shows the importance of LV on the decision of tour complexity. People are more elastic to built environment attributes than level of services. Thus, policy implications must take place to develop more mixed areas, work-places in combination with commercial retails.

Research evaluation has emerged as a ―rapid growth industry‖. Every four years more than 10 billion Euros are allocated to research projects by the European Commission through Framework Programmes. During the last ten years a large number of research projects have been addressed to evaluate other projects. However, some evaluation projects do not take a global view of the project results. The evaluation of research projects in the field of transport should be ‗quantified‘ as follows: Research activities (‗outputs‘, books, conference papers); Research community and society; Contributions to the research culture.

The relationship between land use and travel patterns has been studied in a number of cases, using several methods - aggregate and disaggregate approaches - and different focuses – trip frequency, automobile use, vehicle miles travelled and so on. Definitely, travel is generated by the need to undertake activities and obtain services, and there is a general consensus that urban components affect travel behaviour. However researches are still needed to better understand which components of the travel behaviour are affected most and by which of the urban components. This paper studies the effect on trip frequency, public transport and private vehicle dependency of socio-economic, transport and land use characteristics. In particular the land use is defined in terms of type of neighbourhoods and types of dwellers. Methodological attributes are also included to test the effect of the type of survey, namely trip-based versus activity-based survey. Using a data-base from a survey conducted in 2006 and 2007 in Madrid, ordered probit models are estimated to analyse the effect of neighbourhood type and socio-economic characteristics on trip frequency, public transport and private vehicle use. Our results show that the characteristics of the neighbourhoods are important to explain the trip frequency but the effect is quite different depending on the mode used for the trips. Our results confirm that living in low density increases the propensity to use the private vehicles, while it does not seem to have an impact on the propensity to make internal trips, i.e. with origin and destination in the same area. We also found that there is a positive correlation between the number of trips and the number of stops but only if the trips are made with the private vehicles while are not significant for the public transport.

La evaluación de proyectos es un campo en crecimiento continuo. En efecto, la Unión Europea financia desde 1984 los Programas Marco para el desarrollo e investigación de la tecnología y, de manera análoga, muchos países de la Comunidad Europea están impulsando la evaluación de la investigación, para cuantificar el „Value for Money’ (VfM) en este campo. Tradicionalmente, la evaluación de proyectos de transporte ha sido de tipo económico, si bien recientes estudios han venido a enmarcar esta evaluación dentro de los tres aspectos del desarrollo sostenible, cuantificando los resultados desde un punto de vista social. Un conjunto de documentos internacionales constituye el marco de referencia que propone, entre otras cosas, evaluar tres aspectos: (1) la efectividad de la investigación en los resultados; (2) su contribución a la comunidad científica; y (3) su utilidad a la sociedad en general. Así, sobre la base de las necesidades actuales de la investigación y la evaluación, en el presente trabajo se propone el desarrollo de una metodología de evaluación de proyectos de investigación del transporte. Comoquiera que los proyectos a evaluar deben ser recientes, se han seleccionado de entre los llevados a cabo a lo largo del Quinto y Sexto Programa Marco. Se medirán los resultados científicos y el desarrollo de la investigación a través de cuatro tipos de indicadores: científicos, sociales, de utilidad y económicos.

Este trabajo de investigación ha tenido como primer objetivo analizar la influencia de la tipología de encuesta en el ratio de movilidad, comparando la basada en los viajes, con la basada en las actividades realizadas, que es la más utilizada internacionalmente. Los resultados muestran que la encuesta de actividades recoge más viajes. El segundo objetivo fue analizar la influencia de la localización en la generación de viajes y su distribución modal. A estos efectos se realizaron encuestas en dos municipios de la periferia de Madrid -uno próximo (Pozuelo de Alarcón) y otro más alejado y con menor oferta de transporte público (Algete)- y en un distrito central de la capital (Chamberí). Los resultados confirman la importancia de la centralidad y oferta de transporte público en las pautas de movilidad: por ejemplo, el uso del coche crece del 22% de Chamberí, al 57% de Pozuelo, llegando a un 60,5% de los viajes en el caso de Algete.

Este artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio sobre el potencial de uso de la bicicleta en la Ciudad Universitaria de Madrid. El objetivo principal de la investigación es la estimación de la demanda de usuarios de un sistema de bicicleta pública de préstamo entre estudiantes y trabajadores dentro del recinto universitario. El estudio permite definir las características principales de los potenciales usuarios de bici en una zona universitaria, sus preferencias en el diseño de un sistema de préstamo de bicicletas. Se identifican las barreras y motivaciones para aumentar el uso de la bicicleta; y se analiza el impacto de diferentes escenarios posibles en la construcción de carriles bici, puntos de aparcamiento y costes. Los resultados del estudio indican que los principales usuarios habituales son jóvenes estudiantes, de ambos géneros, con edades entre 18-24 años. El 12% utiliza la bici a diario, tanto por “estudio-trabajo” como “gestiones personales”. Las principales barreras que pueden limitar el uso de la bici son la distancia y la peligrosidad de la bicicleta. Por el contrario, las barreras menos importantes son la condición física y la comodidad de otros transportes. La principal motivación para la elección del modo bicicleta es la sostenibilidad ambiental del modo y su efecto favorable sobre la salud. El 75,79% (correspondiente a 89.000 usuarios/día) utilizaría diariamente o varias veces por semana el sistema de préstamo para realizar la última etapa de su viaje, desde la estación de metro/bus de acceso a la ciudad universitaria. Más elevada sería la utilización para la movilidad interna: 80,53% (94.000 usuarios/día). Además, los factores que más influyen en la utilización de la bicicleta de préstamo son, en primer lugar, la cercanía de los puntos de préstamo y, secundariamente, la existencia de carriles bici. El precio del préstamo es un elemento determinante en el uso del sistema. La opción más aceptada sería el pago de una tasa anual con derecho al uso gratis de la bicicleta para usos de menos de 30 minutos.

Comienza el Libro Verde “Hacia una nueva cultura de la movilidad urbana” (COM (2007) 551), aprobado el 25 de septiembre de 2007 por la Comisión de las Comunidades Europeas, reconociendo la movilidad urbana como un importante factor de crecimiento y empleo, con un fuerte impacto sobre el desarrollo sostenible, pero destacando también lo difícil que resulta conciliar el desarrollo económico de las ciudades con la mejora de la calidad de vida y la protección medioambiental. Arduo dilema este que nos presenta el desafío de la sostenibilidad y difícil tarea la de lograr “la coordinación equilibrada de la ordenación del territorio y un planteamiento integrado de la movilidad urbana”, que en el Libro se propone. A intentar resolver el aprieto van dirigidas estrategias como las que aquí presentamos; estrategias que, sin ser las únicas, son, desde luego de las más voluntariosas, sencillas en gran medida y, sobre todo, eficaces en cuanto a los objetivos que se proponen. Este artículo presenta una visión general de los Planes de Movilidad Urbana Sostenible en el ámbito europeo con sus diferentes acepciones. Desde los PDUs de Francia, abarcando los LTPs de Reino Unido, hasta llegar a los PMUS de España. Se presentan 8 casos de estudio para caracterizar cada vertiente y analizar los resultados de las diferentes prácticas. Se incide, finalmente, en la importancia de una metodología de evaluación, como herramienta de primer orden de ayuda al proceso de toma de decisiones, a través de 4 pasos, basada en la evaluación multicriterio de un conjunto de indicadores adecuadamente seleccionados.

El aumento de los desplazamientos en las grandes ciudades europeas es cada día mayor y se hace necesario implementar estrategias que permitan formas de desplazamientos más sostenibles. En el presente documento se propone una metodología de evaluación de planes de movilidad urbana sostenible a través de 4 pasos, que incluyen: recoger una serie de datos vinculados a la oferta, la demanda y las externalidades desde los tres aspectos de la sostenibilidad y, posteriormente, evaluar los resultados de las medidas utilizando técnicas de evaluación multicriterio que permitan tomar una decisión equilibrada para los tres enfoques.