Identifying primary public transit corridors using multi-source big transit data

ABSTRACT

Effective public transit planning needs to address realistic travel demands, which can be illustrated by corridors across major residential areas and activity centers. It is vital to identify public transit corridors that contain the most significant transit travel demand patterns. We propose a two-stage approach to discover primary public transit corridors at high spatio-temporal resolutions using massive real-world smart card and bus trajectory data, which manifest rich transit demand patterns over space and time. The first stage was to reconstruct chained trips for individual passengers using multi-source massive public transit data. In the second stage, a shared-flow clustering algorithm was developed to identify public transit corridors based on reconstructed individual transit trips. The proposed approach was evaluated using transit data collected in Shenzhen, China. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed approach is a practical tool for extracting time-varying corridors for many potential applications, such as transit planning and management.     

Investigating Travel Behavior of Nondriving Blind and Vision Impaired People: The Role of Public Transit

Our purpose is to explore the travel behavior of blind or vision impaired people, focusing in particular on travel by bus. We differentiate the sample depending on the availability of a household car. We examine perceptions of and attitudes toward existing transit and various transit characteristics, highlighting features that seem to be frustrating or difficult. Finally, we have travelers evaluate the potential usefulness of various assistive devices, including electronic information that gives navigational assistance.     

THE IMPACT OF FEDERAL LOCAL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ASSISTANCE UPON TRAVEL BEHAVIOR

Despite substantial amounts of federal assistance to local public transportation, ridership has declined considerably in the country as a whole since 1964, suggesting an ineffective government program. A city-by-city comparison of assistance received with changes in transit ridership shows that declines in transit usage were least in cities receiving the most federal aid, and greatest in cities receiving the least aid. This demonstrates that federal aid has had an impact upon travel behavior. Indeed, it is the single most important factor explaining differences between cities in travel behavior changes in the 1970's.     

Activities of American Geographers

Cognitive distance is analyzed in relation to various elements of the built environment. The basis for accepting a power function as the underlying functional relationship between cognitive distance and its objective counterpart is discussed. This counterpart has been assumed to be objective distance. Evidence is presented to indicate that cognition of distance is based upon travel time rather than upon objective distance or upon objective distance modified by other elements of the built environment.     

The benefits of a high-resolution analysis of transit accessibility

Accessibility is an important consideration in sustainable mobility policies, particularly for transit users. Measures suggested in the literature are based on coarse aggregate spatial resolution of traffic analysis zones that is sufficient for managing car travels only. To reflect a human door-to-door travel, transit accessibility demands an explicit view of the location of origin, transit stops and destination, as well as of the temporal fit between transit lines timetable and traveler’s needs. We thus estimate transit accessibility based on mode-specific travel times and corresponding paths, including walking and waiting, at the resolution of individual buildings and stops. Car accessibility is estimated at a high resolution too. A novel representation of transit network as a graph is proposed. This representation includes all modal components of a transit travel – walking, waiting at a stop, transit ride, transfers between lines, thus enabling unified view of a travel, regardless of mode. The use of modern high-performance graph database allows construction of high-resolution accessibility maps for an entire metropolitan area with its 100–200 K buildings. The application is tested and applied in a case study involving the evaluation of the 2011 bus line reform in the city of Tel Aviv. Specifically, we demonstrate that while the reform increased the average accessibility for the entire city the increase was not uniform with different areas of the city experiencing different absolute accessibility by transit and relative accessibility in comparison to car travel. The bus reform did in fact benefit travelers that experienced low relative accessibility, but the benefits are mainly accruing to longer trips. Our approach and computational methods can be employed for directly investigating the impacts of transportation infrastructure investments.     

Neighborhood-scale urban form,travel behavior,and CO2 emissions in Beijing: implications for low-carbon urban planning

With an increasing awareness of global climate change, the effect of urban spatial organization, at both city and neighborhood scales, on urban CO₂ emission reduction has attracted much scholarly and practical attention. Using Beijing as a case study, this article examines the extent to which neighborhood-scale urban form may contribute to reduction of travel-related CO₂ emissions in the context of rapid urbanization and spatial transformation. We derive complete travel-activity records of 1,048 residents from an activity diary survey conducted in 2007. Analysis using structural equation models finds that residents living in a neighborhood with higher land use mix, public transit accessibility, and more pedestrian-friendly street design tend to travel in a “low-carbon” manner and emit less CO₂ in daily travel, even controlling for residential and travel preferences. This article offers empirical evidence that sheds light on debates about policy measures to facilitate China’s transition toward sustainable and low-carbon urban development.     

Analyzing Changes in Urban Form and Commuting Time*

Abstract

Urban work trips have changed in important ways during the last decades. In Québec City, a medium-sized Canadian metropolitan area, commuting distances increased for both male and female workers between 1977 and 1996, while durations increased for male workers and decreased for female workers. This article seeks to identify spatial and social factors responsible for these changes. We develop a disaggregate model of trip duration estimated on the basis of large samples derived from travel surveys comparable through time. Using categorical variables to specify change, we are able to separate change effects from level effects attributable to various dimensions of urban form. Our analysis clearly indicates that, once travel mode and key social factors are controlled for, the shift from a monocentric to a dispersed city form is responsible, in the Québec metropolitan area, for increasing commuting time. This is contrary to findings in larger metropolitan areas, where, it has been argued, the suburbanization of jobs maintains stability in commuting duration.     

Overcoming remoteness: the necessity of air travel in Australian universities

ABSTRACT

Air travel has become central to Australian academic practice, with flying increasingly seen as crucial to the progression of successful academic careers. This paper seeks to understand why academic air travel has come to be perceived as so necessary, particularly given its significant environmental, social, and economic implications. Drawing on the mobilities paradigm and social practice theory, we seek to understand how air travel practices are a key part of contemporary academic careers. We conducted an online survey of 301 academics and 24 in depth semi-structured interviews to understand academic air travel in Australia, finding that it is seen as a means to connect and collaborate within and between academic communities, and to counteract the effects of ‘remoteness'. This remoteness is experienced domestically and internationally, by Australian academics who feel they must travel to perceived centres of knowledge production to further their careers. Academics often frame their ‘need' for connections as necessarily involving physical co-presence. Air travel offers career benefits for those who can take advantage of it, and corresponding drawbacks for those ‘stuck on the ground’. We conclude by discussing the need for valuing localised forms of collaboration as markers of success, and developing imaginative alternatives to academic flying.     

广州市地铁对常规公交出行成本影响及其空间公平性研究

从时间与费用两个角度研究广州市地铁建设对公共交通可达性的影响及其影响的空间公平性。结果表明:① 加权时间与费用可达性均形成“核心-外围”的空间格局。通地铁后,南部郊区加权时间可达性变化率较大,花都区变化率最低;加权费用可达性高变率地区集中在地铁沿线及边缘地区。② 不乘地铁情境下,CBD等时圈呈同心圆状,80％的居民在50 min以及2元钱花费内能到达最近的商业综合体。乘地铁情境下等时圈沿着地铁网络延伸与扩散,80％的居民在30 min以及5元钱以内能到达最近的商业综合体。③ 无论是否乘坐地铁,出行时间的不公平程度都高于出行费用的不公平程度。番禺区的社区从地铁网络中时间可达性获益最多,最不公平的是白云区的社区,其绝对和相对变化较低;中心城区由于常规公交网络发达,地铁缩短的绝对出行时间较少,而变化率高。地铁对城市内中远距离出行性价比的影响最明显。     

Quantifying multi-modal public transit accessibility for large metropolitan areas: a time-dependent reliability modeling approach

The temporal dimensions of public transit accessibility have recently garnered an increasing amount of interest. However, the existing literature on transit accessibility is heavily based on oversimplified assumptions that transit services operate at deterministic speeds using predetermined timetables. These measurements may overestimate transit accessibility, especially for large metropolitan areas where inter- and intra-modal transfers are frequent. To handle travel time uncertainty, a multi-modal transit accessibility modeling approach is proposed to account for realistic variations in travel time and service reliability. The proposed approach is applied to the mapping of transit accessibility in Shenzhen (China), where transit services exhibit significant travel time variations over space and time. Compared to traditional transit accessibility measures, our method has been demonstrated to better capture intrinsic spatial and temporal accessibility variations with complex multi-modal transit networks. Normal distribution of inter-stop travel times and constant travel speed between GPS sampling points are assumed to simply the computation, which we consider to adjust in future studies to better quantify the dynamics of transit accessibility across space and time.     

“Is there any time left for walking?” Physical activity implications of suburban commuting in the Barcelona metropolitan region

ABSTRACT

The present study delves into the explanatory factors of the walking patterns of residents in metropolitan regions, who tend to be pressed for time when travelling to their daily destinations or activities. We particularly focus on the effects of the commuting distance on the amount of walking that can be achieved, which has health, socioeconomic and environmental implications. This study confirms the potential benefits of using smartphone tracking data to examine walking patterns. To enable this, a smartphone tracking application was developed to obtain accurate mobility data from a group of adults (n = 93) residing in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (Spain) and have to commute to a suburban university campus that can only be reached by using motorized transport modes. The results highlight the commuting distance and employment status as strong determinants of the amount of walking time achieved by this study group. Moreover, it was determined that among transit users, the commuting distance of male commuters was negatively associated with walking when compared with female transit users, whereas explanatory factors for private transport users bore insignificant results. Smartphone devices proved their potential as an effective and useful source of data in transportation and health research.     

Exploring spatiotemporal heterogeneity in online travel searches: a local spatial model approach

ABSTRACT

Online travel searches are important forms of travel virtual spaces. Previous studies have neglected to analyze the spatial features of the travel searches themselves, and the spatial heterogeneity of their influencing factors. In this study, a travel search index based on the Baidu index was established for analyzing travel searches. Meanwhile, a local spatial model was created for the linear features in order to discuss the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the influencing factors. The results of this study indicated that travel searches have obvious spatial inequality, and economically developed regions had displayed advantages in the travel search network. The fitting results of the local model were found to be superior to global model. The number of attractions and the GDP of the origin were found to have promoting effects on the travel searches, whereas distances had shown inhibiting effects. These effects presented significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity. It was also found that within the travel search virtual space, the distance effects still existed, but the intensity was weaker than in the real space. The local spatial model for the linear features provided a new spatial analysis method for understanding the travel search network, as well as other types of networks (flow patterns).     

Getting Charlie off the MTA: a multiobjective optimization method to account for cost constraints in public transit accessibility metrics

Most analyses of accessibility by public transit have focused on travel time and not considered the cost of transit fares. It is difficult to include fares in shortest-path algorithms because fares are often path-dependent. When fare policies allow discounted transfers, for example, the fare for a given journey segment depends on characteristics of previous journey segments. Existing methods to characterize tradeoffs between travel time and monetary cost objectives do not scale well to complex networks, or they rely on approximations. Additionally, they often require assumed values of time, which may be problematic for evaluating the equity of service provision. We propose a new method that allows us to find Pareto sets of paths, jointly minimizing fare and travel time. Using a case study in greater Boston, Massachusetts, USA, we test the algorithm’s performance as part of an interactive web application for computing accessibility metrics. Potential extensions for journey planning and route choice models are also discussed.     

Getting Away with the Stolen Vehicle: An Investigation of Journey-after-Crime*

Abstract

Analyses of criminals' travel patterns can provide significant suggestions to improve crime management. This study extends the investigation of criminals' travel behavior from journey-to-crime to journey-after-crime. Moreover, new methods are developed to examine the spatial patterns of location pairs when restricted by the underlying geographical process. The methods are employed to investigate criminals' journey-after-auto-theft in the city of Buffalo, New York. The analyses reveal that auto thieves' trips from vehicle-theft locations to the corresponding vehicle-recovery locations are local in nature. The travel distances are significantly shorter than the randomly simulated trips; the travel directions are biased from the random directions as well.     

MINIMUM LETTER SIZE FOR VISUAL AIDS∗

Results from behavioral investigations of urban travel indicate the importance of privacy as a personal construct that significantly affects the manner in which individuals traverse North American urban transportation networks. With an expectation of encountering social heterogeneity in travel, the privacy aspect becomes all the more important to the traveling public. It is hypothesized in this paper that social heterogeneity within urban travel corridors significantly reduces patronage of public transportation by residents of these corridors. A causal analysis of bus patronage in travel corridors of Columbus, Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, Syracuse, New York, and Hartford, Connecticut results in the acceptance of the hypothesized relationship, and it points out a critical question that must be addressed if public transportation is to meet the desires of consumers of travel services.     

A COGNITIVE SCALAR FOR THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT CONNECTION MATRIX

The degree to which people judge the change in transit service level as service connectivity changes is assumed to vary with total transfer waiting time. An experiment was devised to collect measures of cognized connectivity of intercity transit services in relation to transfer time, and cognitive scalar values were consequently derived. An inverse relationship was found between cognized service level and connectivity; cognized transit level decreased at a decreasing rate. An analysis of the bus-service network in the Israeli Galilee region suggests the appropriateness of cognitive scalars for measuring the internodal accessibility of public transport services.     

A Nationwide Comparison of Driving Distance Versus Straight-Line Distance to Hospitals

Many geographic studies use distance as a simple measure of accessibility, risk, or disparity. Straight-line (Euclidean) distance is most often used because of the ease of its calculation. Actual travel distance over a road network is a superior alternative, although historically an expensive and labor-intensive undertaking. This is no longer true, as travel distance and travel time can be calculated directly from commercial Web sites, without the need to own or purchase specialized geographic information system software or street files. Taking advantage of this feature, we compare straight-line and travel distance and travel time to community hospitals from a representative sample of more than 66,000 locations in the fifty states of the United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The measures are very highly correlated (r ² > 0.9), but important local exceptions can be found near shorelines and other physical barriers. We conclude that for nonemergency travel to hospitals, the added precision offered by the substitution of travel distance, travel time, or both for straight-line distance is largely inconsequential.     

Agnotology as a Teaching Tool: Learning Climate Science by Studying Misinformation

Abstract

Foreign travel for secondary school teachers is beneficial for enhancement of classroom curriculum. The dual nature of the U.S. Navy-National Geographic co-sponsored trips is key to enriching the global geography perspective in the classroom. A travel study to Japan provides in-service benefit for teacher peers and community groups by enhancing geography through the link between the natural and social sciences.     

Travel impedance agreement among online road network data providers

ABSTRACT

Online mapping providers offer unprecedented access to spatial data and analytical tools; however, the number of analytical queries that can be requested is usually limited. As such, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) services offer a viable alternative, provided that the quality of the underlying spatialtheir data is adequate. In this paper, we evaluate the agreement in travel impedance between estimates from MapQuest Open, which embraces OpenStreetMap (OSM) data–a is based on VGI datasetfrom OpenStreetMap (OSM), and estimates from two other popular commercial providers, namely Google Maps? and ArcGIS? Online. Our framework is articulated around three components, which simulates potentialcalculates shortest routes, estimates their travel impedance using a routing service Application Program Interface (API), and extracts the average number of contributors for each route. We develop an experimental setup with a simulated dataset for the state of North Carolina. Our results suggest a strong correlation of travel impedance among all three road network providers. and that travel impedanceThe agreement is the greatest in areas with a denser road network and the smallest for routes of shorter distances. Most importantly, tTravel estimates from MapQuest Open are nearly identical to both commercial providers when the average number of OSM contributors along the route is larger. The latter finding contributes to a growing body of literature on Linus’s law, recognizing that a larger group of contributors holds the potential to validate and correct inherent errors to the source dataset.     

How the States Got Their Shapes

Abstract

A baseline geography test was administered to over 3,000 Indiana college students enrolled in introductory geography courses. The National Council for Geographic Education Competency-Based Geography Test, Secondary Level, Form II, was used to measure the 1987 level of geographic ability in the areas of map skills, place-name location, physical geography, and human geography. Personal information gathered from each respondent included age, sex, travel experience, and level of geographic education. Older students scored better while geographically immobile groups scored lower. A strong correlation was found between travel and geographic knowledge. Findings show low overall geographic ability and that factors of age, travel experience and gender are correlated with certain aspects of geographic knowledge and skills.