Corinne Mulley

Relationship Between Transport Accessibility and Land Value: Local Model Approach with Geographically Weighted Regression

In recent years, land value capture has attracted increasing attention because of its potential for funding transport infrastructure. It is well acknowledged that transport infrastructure can improve accessibility to employment and amenities; thus one might expect that it is the improved accessibility that adds value to land. Therefore, the issues in the relationship between transport accessibility and land value rise in connection with the concept of land value capture. A study looked at the relationship between transport accessibility and land value with the implication of a local model, geographically weighted regression (GWR). Traditional techniques, such as hedonic models, used to understand the attributes of land value, are global models that could be misleading in examining the spatially varying relationships, such as transport accessibility and land value. By using the Tyne and Wear region in the United Kingdom as a case study, the study revealed that nonstationarity existing in the relationship between transport accessibility and land value indicates that transport accessibility may have a positive effect on land value in some areas but a negative or no effect in others; this suggests that a uniform land value capture would be inappropriate. The use of GWR allows such spatially varying relationships to be revealed, leading to a better understanding of the factors determining positive land value uplift and the implications of spatially dependent transport access premiums in housing values in the context of value capture policies.

Accessibility and Residential Land Value Uplift: Identifying Spatial Variations in the Accessibility Impacts of a Bus Transitway

New public transport investment can improve accessibility for existing and new users of the urban transport network and this can lead to land value uplift with uplift benefits being distributed in relation to the proximity of the location of the property to the infrastructure. This paper quantifies land value uplift and its spatial distribution for accessibility to different destinations for residential properties around a new-build Liverpool Parramatta transitway for buses in a suburban area of south-west Sydney, Australia. Geographically weighted regression (GWR) is used to take account of spatial dependency in the estimation process with the results being presented in map form. Results indicate that property prices are mainly determined by the property’s internal features and the neighbourhood effects, but accessibility by car and accessibility to employment along the transitway also contribute non-marginally. The GWR local model shows that accessibility varies significantly over geographical space demonstrating the advantages of this approach.

Intra-household interactions in transport research: a review

Abstract Recognition that individuals do not make their travel decisions in isolation of the household context has produced a growing interest in intra-household interactions and group decision-making. The behavioural realism of travel demand models that explicitly accommodate intra-household interactions is expected to provide more insight into travel behaviour and a more credible analysis of travellers’ response to transport policy than models that deal with household interactions in a ‘black box’. This paper reviews the literature on group decisions and intra-household interactions. How intra-household interactions influence the way in which decisions are made is expounded and empirical findings are drawn upon to argue for why the study of intra-household interactions is important. Various analytical techniques and data requirements are discussed to show how intra-household interactions can be handled. Drawing on this review, the impact of intra-household interactions on travel behaviour and implications for transport policy are identified and directions for further study suggested.

Urban Bus Services in Developing Countries and Countries in Transition: A Framework for Regulatory and Institutional Developments

Urban passenger transport has experienced major change in many developing countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, as well as in countries of political and/or economic transition in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and China. Such changes have included planned market opening to private operators and new entrants; unplanned market opening by the entry of unlicensed operators; privatization and other changes to the ownership base of large public-sector transport companies; emergence of large-scale minibus and paratransit; and national and urban policies and programs to upgrade the transport supply and quality. This paper presents a framework to understand regulatory and institutional changes in urban bus services in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the CIS, and China. The framework identifies three types of changes: (i) changes in the role of the regulator and market structure; (ii) changes in the structure of the operator and of private sector participation; and (iii) changes in the transport supply. The paper then identifies critical factors leading to change in the urban transport sector, factors that can be identified with successful outcomes, and issues associated with the development of the minibus, paratransit, and the informal sector that have played major roles in the urban transport sector of developing countries and countries in transition.

Travel Mode and Physical Activity at Sydney University

How staff and students travel to university can impact their physical activity level. An online survey of physical activity and travel behaviour was conducted in early November 2012 to inform planning of physical activity and active travel promotion programs at the University of Sydney, Australia as part of the “Sit Less, Move More” sub-committee of the Healthy University Initiative, and as baseline data for evaluation. There were 3,737 useable responses, 60% of which were from students. Four out of five respondents travelled to the University on the day of interest (Tuesday, November 30, 2012). The most frequently used travel modes were train (32%), car as driver (22%), bus (17%), walking (17%) and cycling (6%). Staff were twice as likely to drive as students, and also slightly more likely to use active transport, defined as walking and cycling (26% versus 22%). Overall, 41% of respondents were sufficiently active (defined by meeting physical activity recommendations of 150 min per week). Participants were more likely to meet physical activity recommendations if they travelled actively to the University. With a high proportion of respondents using active travel modes or public transport already, increasing the physical activity levels and increasing the use of sustainable travel modes would mean a mode shift from public transport to walking and cycling for students is needed and a mode shift from driving to public transport or active travel for University staff. Strategies to achieve this are discussed.

Flexible Transport Services: Overcoming Barriers to Implementation in Low-Density Urban Areas

Flexible transport services include a range of passenger transport mobility offers, where services are flexible in one or more of the dimensions of route, vehicle allocation, vehicle operator, type of payment and passenger category. Although flexible transport services are used increasingly in Europe and the USA as part of the public transport mix where regular services are not sustainable, there are few working examples of these services in urban Australia, although there are many opportunities. Through a series of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in New South Wales, Australia, the article identifies barriers to greater use of flexible transport services in low-density urban areas. These five sets of barriers include: institutional frameworks such as regulation; economic issues of funding and cost; operational issues such as fleet and vehicles; operator and community attitudes, awareness and cultures; and information and education. The article makes recommendations to enable and encourage greater use of flexible transport services by transport service planners and providers as part of the public transport mix in low-density urban environments where it can be more difficult to provide regular and scheduled public transport.

Factors that comprise driver boredom and their relationships to preferred driving speed and demographic variables

Abstract Driver boredom is an area of driver behaviour that has received limited attention. This study explores the factor structure underlying driver boredom and investigates age and gender differences in the experience of driver boredom, and preferred driving speeds using a self-report questionnaire. A rotated principle components analysis of 49 attitude items yielded four dimensions: responses to under-stimulation; flow; lapse and error-proneness; and anxiety. Age and gender differences were found in these dimensions as well as in preferred driving speeds; two of the factors, responses to under-stimulation and flow were particularly related to preferred driving speeds on all but urban roads. These findings are considered in terms of cognitive capacity required for driving, self-reporting of cognitive failure and error-proneness and the implications for drivers maintaining safety margins when bored.

The Paradox of Public Transport Peak Spreading: Universities and Travel Demand Management

ABSTRACT The characteristics which make public transport attractive and contribute to high public transport use by specific market segments create the paradox in which encouragement of peak spreading of public transport services may lead to lower overall use of public transport. As an example of this potential paradox, the challenges of spreading peak demand for public transport for a large inner city trip generator, the University of Sydney in inner Sydney NSW, Australia are investigated, from both the demand side and supply side. While there is a range of university and government initiatives which would reduce peak use and encourage peak spreading such as class scheduling, provision of student housing, travel planning, and changes to public transport supply and pricing, they may not achieve either a reduction in peak use or a spread of public transport demand to other times of the day. Education users are the most dedicated users of public transport and, for a peak spreading campaign to be successful, finely balanced messages are required to encourage peak public transport users such as students to shift to the off-peak, and for peak car drivers such as staff not to replace these users on peak public transport services.

Mobility as a Services (MaaS) – does it have critical mass?

Cities are the powerhouses of nations. Dense concentrations of households and businesses increase accessibility and productivity, which ultimately deliver agglomeration economies. As cities grow, and globally the urban population is set to grow, cities become more spatially dispersed, and travel becomes a necessity. Left unchecked, congestion continues and this eventually dilutes the benefits of agglomeration (Graham, 2007). With urban area growth forecast to continue into the future, how can congestion be curtailed and the benefits of agglomeration maintained? Transport contributes significant negative externalities – noise, air pollution and congestion. Contemporary transport practices increasingly compromise the well-being of existing populations. Perhaps more importantly, the way we travel today is constraining and compromising the environment of generations still to come. Climate change is largely (or entirely?) driven by human activity, and transport is hugely implicated. The transport sector in Australia, for example, accounts for 16% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, with light vehicles creating the lion’s share at 10% (Climate Change Authority, 2014, p. 17). Australia’s performance may be worse than other developed countries because of the greater share of road traffic, very low share of rail freight and the relative inefficiency of the vehicles (Climate Change Authority, 2014, p. 18). The transport sectors of other nations, however, make similar negative contributions to sustainability outcomes. Most cities have moved from the predict-and-provide mentality, whereby the cycle of congestion is met by an expansion of the road network, which then fills up with extra traffic “excited” by any promise of reduced congestion. Providing new roads in most developed countries is now met with some cynicism, particularly when the motivation is to reduce congestion. The cycle of growth – congestion – dealing with congestion, is unlikely to be cured by road building for many cities. In time we will surely run out of space, if not resources, political imperative and cultural appreciations. Putting an end to the downward spiral of congestion diluting agglomeration requires new ways of thinking about access in cities. A step change in technology promises much to sponsor new transport paradigms. Whilst many argue technology is driving change, this editorial argues that technology enables change. Sometimes this is rapid, and sometimes slow, but often it is dramatic when the right technologies come together at the right time. Gao, Kaas, Moh, and Wee (2016), for example, argues that economies are changing, consumer preferences around ownership are changing (more on this below) and digitisation, increasing automation and new business models are revolutionising industries and will eventually impact on the way in which cars are used. The connections between “smart” (a term reflective of the new digital opportunities) and urban sustainability is explored in Lyons (2016). However, for the purposes of this editorial, the discussion is focussed on the way in which technology is influencing our choice of mode, and the potential impact of autonomous driving has relevance to the need for greater sustainability in our cities. One of the new buzz words in urban mobility is “Mobility as a Service” or MaaS. MaaS is put forward as a technology-enabled Mobility Management service where the customer interface and business back office are integrated. The concept of MaaS recognises the way in which

A Review of Pseudo Panel Data Approach in Estimating Short-run and Long-run Public Transport Demand Elasticities

Abstract The distinctions between short-run and long-run public transport demand elasticities have been highlighted in the literature, but the identification of long-run travel demand has been constrained by existing research methodology and the unavailability of longitudinal travel survey data. The pseudo panel data approach using repeated cross-sectional data has been suggested as an alternative to conducting a longitudinal travel demand analysis when genuine panel data are not available. This paper comprehensively reviews the background and the current practices of pseudo panel data research, and introduces the challenges in applied research that need further investigation, particularly for public transport. A case study using the Sydney Household Travel Survey data is presented to demonstrate pseudo panel data construction and to identify the short-run and long-run public transport demand elasticities using a pseudo panel data approach. The research findings suggest that the public transport demand elasticity of price in Sydney is −0.22 in the short run and −0.29 in the long run.