Caitlin D Cottrill

Future Mobility Survey

The Future Mobility Survey (FMS) is a smartphone-based prompted-recall travel survey that aims to support data collection initiatives for transport-modeling purposes. This paper details the considerations that have gone into the surveys development, including the smartphone apps for iPhone and Android platforms, the online activity diary and user interface, and the background intelligence for processing collected data into activity locations and travel traces. The various trade-offs concerning user comprehension, resource use, and participant burden, including findings from usability tests and a pilot study, are discussed. Close attention should be paid to the simplicity of the user interaction, determinations of activity locations (such as the false positive and false negative trade-off in their automatic classification), and the clarity of interactions in the activity diary. The FMS system design and implementation provide pragmatic, useful insights into the development of similar platforms and approaches for travel and activity surveys.

Evaluating pedestrian crashes in areas with high low-income or minority populations.

In this paper, we present an analysis of the relationship between pedestrian-vehicle crashes and characteristics of areas with high low-income and minority populations in the Chicago metropolitan area (also called environmental justice or EJ areas in the United States). While related research has indicated that pedestrian crashes occur more frequently in these areas than in non-EJ areas, this paper attempts to relate the incidence to environmental characteristics and behavioral factors through a better understanding of the contributing factors present in crash occurrences in EJ versus non-EJ areas. Specially constructed small-area factors from a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) are used to explain pedestrian-vehicle crashes. Using a Poisson model that corrects for underreporting, we find that pedestrian crash incidents in EJ areas are related to variables of exposure (including the suitability of the area for walking and transit accessibility), crime rates, transit availability, and general population demographics such as income and presence of children. Results suggest that it may be necessary to better incorporate a safety perspective or measures of safety improvements in pedestrian and transit improvements and expansion programs within EJ areas.

Leveraging Big Data for the Development of Transport Sustainability Indicators

Abstract While increasing transportation sustainability is an ongoing effort, measuring the results of these efforts is not a trivial task. Not only is indicator selection challenging, but efforts made to design useful indicators are often hampered by the presence of erroneous or incomplete data. Nevertheless, in this era of Big Data, the significant penetration of new technologies such as smartphones and smart infrastructure could hold the key to developing more relevant and comprehensive indicators. Here, we recall commonly used indicators and discuss the limitations of the data upon which they are built. We then describe several new technologies that hold promise for collection of more pertinent and accurate data sets for indicator development. Finally, we illustrate potential benefits and concerns of these approaches via discussion of possible indicator development from a one-day GPS trace. While the first and obvious application of new technologies will be to improve much needed accuracy, successfully combining different sources together could hold much potential from model calibration to real-time operations.

Approaches to Privacy Preservation in Intelligent Transportation Systems and Vehicle–Infrastructure Integration Initiative

The goal of this paper is to explore rationales for mitigating privacy loss in intelligent transportation systems and to provide an overview of methods proposed to accomplish this mitigation. The limitations and potential benefits of both technological and policy-oriented approaches are examined, and potential approaches to merging the two are explored in relation to the proposed vehicle–infrastructure integration initiative program.

'Two-speed' Scotland: Patterns and Implications of the Digital Divide in Contemporary Scotland

Abstract Digital communication is a routine element of everyday life. Well-established communications technologies such as telephones and televisions have been joined, more recently, by widespread use of mobile telecommunications and by digital connectivity associated with the Internet. The use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) relies upon a digital infrastructure comprising telecommunications masts, cables, exchanges and satellites. ICT infrastructure provision is uneven across the UK, resulting in an urban–rural digital divide. In this paper, we present an analysis of the most recent mobile telecommunications and broadband infrastructure data published by Ofcom, the UK telecommunications regulator. Similarities and stark differences between urban, accessible rural and remote rural areas of Scotland are identified. Our analysis demonstrates that there is, in digital communications terms, a ‘two-speed’ Scotland where (most) urban areas are in the digital fast lane and (most) rural areas are in the digital slow lane. Implications of this geographical digital divide for individuals who live in, and businesses that operate within, rural areas are considered. The findings, though based on an analysis of Scottish data, have relevance in a broader UK context and in Europe, North America and Australasia where an urban–rural digital divide also exists.

Protecting location privacy: policy evaluation

With the growing trend toward location-based services in transportation, the collection and the use of traveler data have grown rapidly. With the potential for multiagency sharing of data and an increased public-private partnerships, inconsistencies in how data are collected and shared may become of growing concern for users, particularly given the potential sensitivity of locational data. An overall picture of policies relevant to data collection and use in the private locational environment highlights the gaps that may be evident between the privacy recommendations of regulatory and industry guidance agencies and individual company policies. The approach combines policy and content analysis to determine how well identified privacy considerations are reflected in user-oriented privacy policies.

You'll Never Ride Alone: The Role of Social Media in Supporting the Bus Passenger Experience

The paper discusses a study of social media usage within the context of a public transport operator. This involved fieldwork within three subsidiary companies of FirstGroup alongside a content analysis of the individual Twitter feeds they operate and the conversations they generate through them to engage with passengers. A refiguring of the notion of social is taking place within these companies through their emergent strategies for utilizing social media. The findings showed how the companies address this by pursuing a persistent conversation with customers, facilitating the provision of real-time information and carefully managing their Twitter identity.

Collaborative urban transportation: Recent advances in theory and practice

We thank the Leibniz Association for sponsoring the Dagstuhl Seminar 16091, at which the work presented here was initiated. We also thank Leena Suhl for her comments on an early version of this work. Finally, we thank the anonymous reviewers for the constructive comments.

Integrated and Continuing Transportation Services for Seniors: Case Studies of New Freedom Program

The aging of the American population has raised a number of concerns about senior mobility. The New Freedom (NF) program, which was designed to go above and beyond the transportation requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, has been used to fund transportation for seniors. The primary purpose of this paper is to present the results of an exploratory analysis of the social, physical, and functional health and mobility outcomes experienced by seniors who are clients of NF services and the associated Coordinated Human Services Transportation Plan (CHSTP) processes. The paper uses data from primary surveys of the following groups from seven urban, suburban, and rural locations: (a) NF-funded transportation service users, (b) program managers operating the services, and (c) locally selected lead and partner organizations involved in developing the CHSTPs. Results show that concerns about senior mobility vary significantly by a number of functional, social, and physical disability indicators, including instrumental activities of daily living. These indicators are substantially more complex than a chronological accounting of age. A principal component analysis yielded two constructs underlying seniors’ mobility: a transportation deprivation component and an independence and health deprivation component. Each component has implications for different types of services. To the extent that the NF program has supported transportation services that are supplemental to integrated care for seniors and thereby enable a continuum of care, the program has enhanced community-based interventions to meet the complex mobility needs of seniors in the seven locations.

Privacy in context: an evaluation of policy-based approaches to location privacy protection

In this article, we expand upon earlier analysis of location-service-related privacy policies in the public and private sector. Our intent is to identify key privacy components in an effort to more clearly and consistently address the privacy expectations of the public through the protections provided them by service and product providers. Through use of content analysis, we aim to determine how understandable current privacy policies are to the average consumer, how comprehensively they address identified components of privacy, and how consistently privacy is treated in the location arena. It is hoped that this analysis will assist with the development of practical and comprehensive approaches to privacy preservation in the area of intelligent transportation systems and location-based services.