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Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Relations of Public Transport Use and Car Ownership with Neighbourhood and City-Level Travel Purposes in Kerman, Iran

 By Houshmand Masoumi, Chengete Chakamera , Liberty Mapamba, Noleen Pisa, and Hamid Soltanzadeh

 There are significant deviations in travel mode choice drivers between developed and developing countries. This study investigates the determinants of car ownership and public transit ridership in Iran. Using survey data from 800 respondents, the determinants of travel behaviour of Kerman residents were investigated, based on gender, age, household size, car ownership, frequency of public transport ridership, number of working days per week, number of shopping activities in the neighbourhood per week, number of entertainment activities in the neighbourhood per week, and number of shopping activities in the city. Two multivariate models were estimated using the OLS and WLS methods. Our findings suggested that owning a car tends to increase as age, household size, number of working days and number of shopping days in the city decreases. An increase in the number of entertainment days in the neighbourhood raised the probability of car ownership while shopping in the neighbourhood did not influence car ownership. Public transport use was negatively influenced by gender, increased age and number of working days, but positively influenced by shopping in the city. Our research results have significant implications for transport planning. Firstly, changes in household size may not be a good basis to inform planning as our findings show that in Kerman as household size increases, car ownership decreases, and it does not influence public transport. Secondly, when planning road network connectivity (land use) higher working days are expected to increase both car ownership and public transport use. 

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Kerman Skyline  

Read more about the Middle-Eastern cities:

The Land Use and Individual Correlates of Pedestrian Commuting: Who Walks to Their Work or Place of Study in the Large Cities of the MENA Region?

The Relation Between Residential Self-Selection and Urban Mobility in Middle Eastern Cities: the Case of Alexandria, Egypt

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

System Dynamics Modeling and Fuzzy MCDM Approach as Support for Assessment of Sustainability Management on the Example of Transport Sector Company

 By Shohreh Moradi, Grzegorz Sierpinski, and Houshmand Masoumi

Contemporary challenges for development should involve a sustainable approach. One of the important sectors where such challenges are observed is transport. In a wide range of studies addressing environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability, an approach that combines these dimensions as an integrated technique to assess sustainable development of passenger rail transport organizations is still lacking. The first aim of the presented research is to offer a relatively comprehensive collection of railway sustainability indicators as well as a novel causal loop. The second aim is to assess and improve sustainable management using a case study of a passenger rail transport company. To model the relationships inside and around the transport company, the system dynamics (SD) methodology was chosen, being the primary contribution of the study. Additionally, the Fuzzy-TOPSIS logic is required to find the most appropriate scenarios that may change future strategies by making them more socially and environmentally friendly. The proposed research may support experts in assessing sustainability management in transport companies and improve their performance considerably.

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Tram at Praha 

 Read more about urban transportaiton:

The Land Use and Individual Correlates of Pedestrian Commuting: Who Walks to Their Work or Place of Study in the Large Cities of the MENA Region?

The Neighborhood Effect on Keeping Non-Commuting Journeys within Compact and Sprawled Districts

The Relation Between Residential Self-Selection and Urban Mobility in Middle Eastern Cities: the Case of Alexandria, Egypt

Logistic models explaining the determinants of biking for commute and non-commute trips in Lahore, Pakistan

TRANSPORT POLICIES IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

Active Mobility: Bringing Together Transport Planning, Urban Planning, and Public Health

Thursday, June 16, 2022

Measuring spatial accessibility to urban services for older adults: an application to healthcare facilities in Milan

 By Carmen Guida, Gerardo Carpentieri, and Houshmand Masoumi

This study proposes a Geographic Information Systems-based methodology to measure accessibility to urban services from the elderly perspective to support urban planning processes. Specifically, it seeks to understand and clarify how the urban environment can influence the quality of life for older adults, mostly through pedestrian and public transport networks, locations of essential urban services, and the organisation of their resources. In light of a significant demographic change, policymakers will have to promote age-friendly urban planning approaches to guarantee equal access to services and activities. We propose a methodology to measure accessibility to healthcare provision services that considers land-use and mobility features and older adults' behavioural traits. The method belongs to the family of 2SFCA—2 steps floating catchment area—which evaluate accessibility as the combination of both supply and demand of urban services. Therefore, we have introduced innovative elements to shape actual mobility opportunities for the elderly and their travel choices. The methodology was applied to Milan's city to measure accessibility to the Health Protection Agency (ATS) services, which is responsible for healthcare assistance to the elderly dwelling in the city. The outputs show that a significant share of older people (almost 40%) suffer from poor accessibility to primary health services and that they mostly live in the city periphery. Moreover, the application to a case study has shown that the methodology could identify the critical aspects needed to aid urban planning to achieve a high quality of life for elderly people.

 

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Running Jewelry Box 

 More about accessibility studies using GIS:

Monitoring Urban Sprawl and Sustainable Urban Development Using the Moran Index: A Case Study of Stellenbosch, South Africa

Modelling Perceived Accessibility to Urban Amenities Using Fuzzy Logic, Transportation GIS and Origin-Destination Surveys

URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: MONITORING, GIS, AND MODELING

Modeling street connectivity, pedestrian movement and land-use according to standard GIS street network representations: A Comparative Study

Urban Travel Behavior in Large Cities of MENA Region: Survey Results of Cairo, Istanbul, and Tehran

Monday, May 23, 2022

The Land Use and Individual Correlates of Pedestrian Commuting: Who Walks to Their Work or Place of Study in the Large Cities of the MENA Region?

 By Houshmand Masoumi and Grzegorz SierpiƄski

 The body of research on the determinants of pedestrian commuting and the characteristics of on-foot commuters at the international level and especially in the Global South is inconsistent; hence, this study focuses on this topic with the case of megacities in the Middle East and North Africa. The study is based on 8284 face-to-face interviews with respondents in the three cities, 4543 of whom worked, and of those 4543, 658 individuals walked to their work or place of study. By using binary logistic regression, the determinants of walking to work were identified. Age, household car ownership, last relocation time, intersection density, number of accessed facilities from home, average walking accessibility to neighborhood amenities, and commuting distance are the significant determinants of on-foot commuting. The study identifies younger commuters with fewer cars or no driving license living in neighborhoods with connected street networks as the walkers. The results of the Mann–Whitney U Test show that there is a significant difference between the values of these determinants for walking commuters and those who commute by other modes. Based on these findings, this paper encourages urban planners and decision-makers of the MENA region to use urban land use, including street networks and access to local facilities, to motivate commuters to commute on foot, especially those who work within a walkable distance to their work or place of study.

 

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Istanbul ~ Istiklal Caddesi

Urban Sprawl, Socioeconomic Features, and Travel Patterns in Middle East Countries: A Case Study in Iran

The Relationship between Regular Use of Ridesourcing and Frequency of Public Transport Use in the MENA Region (Tehran and Cairo)

Friday, December 31, 2021

Logit and probit models explaining perceived cycling motives, barriers, and biking trip generation in Lahore, Pakistan

 By Izza Anwer, Houshmand Masoumi, Atif Bilal Aslamd, and Muhammad Asim


Cycling as an attractive mode of transport is a challenge, especially in developing countries like Pakistan. Previous research on cycling in developing countries is insufficient to answer that how people can be encouraged to bike in different regions and cultures. This research, therefore, directs two research questions based on the perceptions of the people of Lahore. The first research question addresses the perceived motives of every-day biking trip generation and the second question addresses the perceived barriers in biking in the city of Lahore. The data sample of 379 subjects was collected through self-reported questionnaire across different socioeconomic groups. The questionnaire was designed to discuss the motives for biking such as affordability, reliability, and accessibility as well as to identify the barriers such as cultural issues, gender problems and non-availability of infrastructure for biking. Along with descriptive statistics, Multinomial Logistic was used to analyze perceived motives, Binary Logistic for perceived barriers and Ordinal Probit for biking trip generation. The obtained results are very interesting and provide various insights about the perceptions of people regarding biking trip generation, motives, and barriers with various factors involved. The results are beneficial to urban developers, city planners, transport planners, policymakers and other stakeholders.



Man Pushing Bicycle in Dark Alley, Lahore Pakistan

More about urban issues in Pakistan:

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

The Neighborhood Effect on Keeping Non-Commuting Journeys within Compact and Sprawled Districts

 by Melika Mehriar,

k a r a c h i  |  ک۱ۧŰȘŰŽÛŒ 

Similar papers:

Logistic models explaining the determinants of biking for commute and non-commute trips in Lahore, Pakistan

Urban travel characteristics in relation with jobs-housing balance and accessibility: results of a survey in Lahore, Pakistan

Cyclability in Lahore, Pakistan: Looking into Potential for Greener Urban Traveling

Saturday, October 9, 2021

Call for Papers: Special Issue: Theme: The Impact of COVID-19 on the transport and logistics management: Lessons learnt and future imperatives

 Call for Papers: Special Issue

Theme: The Impact of COVID-19 on the transport and logistics management: 

Lessons learnt and future imperatives.

This is an open invitation to contribute your latest research towards the special issue 

of the Journal of Transport and Supply Chain Management.


The special issue will publish articles on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on 

transport and logistics sectors. This is in line with the scope of the journal and is an 

important contribution to the body of knowledge documenting the impact of a 

pandemic on the  two sectors.


Online submissions deadline: 28 January 2022

Guest Editors:


Thursday, January 7, 2021

The Relation Between Residential Self-Selection and Urban Mobility in Middle Eastern Cities: the Case of Alexandria, Egypt

The present paper attempts to fill a part of the gap in the studies on residential location choices and their relations to urban mobility, socio-economics, and the built environment by presenting the results of a study on Alexandria, Egypt, by analysing the results of a survey in eight neighbourhoods undertaken in 2015. Four questions were answered in this study: (i) “How are the main drivers behind residential location choices in Alexandria connected to various socio-demographic groups or people with different availability to urban and built environments?”, (ii) “How are the main residential self-selections in Alexandria associated with one another and which are the most important?”, (iii) “How are the housing location-related decisions of Egyptians similar to or different from international decisions?”, and (iv) “How can planners and decision-makers use the knowledge produced by this study for urban planning and housing in Egypt?”. Library work and the results of a Î§2 test of independence show that availability of transportation modes, nice neighbourhoods, and affordability are the strongest motives behind decisions. However, socio-economic factors are generally stronger than urban mobility and spatial issues. These findings are partly different from those of high-income countries.

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Alessandria d'Egitto / Alexandria


Read more about urban planning and transportation in the Middle East:

Polycentricity in a developing world: A micro-regional analysis for morphological polycentricity in Turkey

Saturday, January 2, 2021

Logistic models explaining the determinants of biking for commute and non-commute trips in Lahore, Pakistan

  • By Houshmand Masoumi, 
  • Muhammad Asim, 
  • Izza Anwer, and 
  • Sheikh Atif Bilal Aslam

  • The determinants of biking behavior are less studied in a wide range of developing countries including South Asia. This study takes Lahore, Pakistan as a case-study city to explore the factors defining commute and non-commute bike trips as well as commuting by bike. These issues were analyzed by collecting data from 379 subjects accommodating in three socio-economic statuses (lower, medium, and higher) in Lahore in spring 2018. The data were analyzed by applying multinomial logistic regression for investigating biking frequency and binomial logistic regression for examining commuting by bike. The results show that gender, age, education, income, purpose of the majority of trips, preferred distance to travel using cycle, preferred time to travel using cycle, and preferred bike trip purpose are significantly correlated with biking frequency. The significant determinants of bicycle commuting included categories of education, the purpose of the majority of trips, using bike in combination with other modes, preferred distance to bike, preferred biking time, and preferred bike trip purpose are associated with bicycle commuting. Commuting by bike is a more popular in socio-economically weaker neighborhoods. The discussion of this study shows that the determinants of biking in the sample in Lahore are different from those that have already been addressed by studies undertaken in high-income countries.



    displaced doors

    More about bicycle planning:

    Friday, December 25, 2020

    Linking sustainability and happiness. What kind of happiness?

    By FrantiĆĄek Petrovič and FrantiĆĄek MurgaĆĄ 

    Sustainability is part of the scientific mainstream; in the following paper we connect it with the phenomenon of happiness, which is becoming a discussed concept not only among researchers but also amongst public. This is due to the fact that today’s society has become a consumer society. This knowledge has provoked criticism of the prevailing lifestyle. The unprecedented growth of prosperity in the second half of the last century and at the beginning of the 21st century was achieved at the cost of environmental devastation. This presented the urgent question of how to improve the quality of life or bring happiness to a growing number of people. At the same time, efforts to replace GDP as a general measure of development with quality of life began to grow. In connection with happiness, it is important that it is defined in two ways: hedonic or eudaimonic. The aim of the paper is to find out which form of happiness is sustainable on the basis of the analysis of relevant works. Happiness is understood as part of the subjective dimension of quality of life, it represents the highest level of well-being. The combination of sustainability and quality of life or happiness is not new, some authors consider quality of life as the fourth pillar of sustainability. 


    laughs

    More about sustainability:

    Monday, December 7, 2020

    Children’s Independent Mobility to School in Seven European Countries: A Multinomial Logit Model

     By Houshmand Masoumi, Martin van Rooijen, and Grzegorz SierpiƄski


    The determinants of children’s independent school mobility and the contextual discrepancies between these determinants have not been comprehensively investigated in previous studies. It is important to examine these determinants because independent school mobility is associated with children’s physical activity, according to the literature. This paper examined the associations of different groups of variables such as household, mobility, perceptions, and the built environment with independent school mobility of children between 9 and 12 years using a sample of 1304 girls (50.9%) and boys (49.1%) in seven European countries. The sample was analyzed by Multinomial Logistic Regression, Chi-square test of independence, and Proportional Reduction in Error methods. According to the findings, father’s and mother’s commute mode choice, child’s mode choice of commute to school, child’s bike ownership, parent’s perception of safety, parent’s evaluation of bike lane and sidewalk quality, child’s commute distance, number of driving licenses in the household, accessibility of public transport, and population density in the neighborhood and around the school proved to be very strong and significant determinants of children’s independent school mobility in the Europe-wide sample. The comparison of the levels of independent school mobility did not show any significant differences between high-income countries such as Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, and emerging economies and developing countries like Poland, Greece, Turkey, and Croatia. However, a direct comparison between Poland (emerging economy) (33.6%) and the Netherlands (high-income) (31.7%) revealed significant differences in the level of independent school mobility. This study found the motives for this discrepancy due to the significant difference in bike ownership, the number of household members working outside the house, household size, commute distances of parents, and driving license possession.


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    Brother and Sister Walk To Bus


    More about sustainable transportation

    Urban Sprawl, Socioeconomic Features, and Travel Patterns in Middle East Countries: A Case Study in Iran


    The Association between Regular Use of Ridesourcing and Walking Mode Choice in Cairo and Tehran

    Thursday, December 3, 2020

    Polycentricity in a developing world: A micro-regional analysis for morphological polycentricity in Turkey

    By N. Aydan Sat

    Following the publication of ‘European Spatial Development Perspective’ in 1999, a large number of theoretical and empirical studies have been carried out on polycentric spatial development especially in European settlements. The relationship between polycentricity and economic competitiveness, environmental sustainability and social cohesion are some of the main concerns of these studies. This study aims to clarify ‘the meaning of polycentricity’ in the case of Turkey, as a developing country and analyse the relationship between polycentric spatial development and economic competitiveness, environmental sustainability and social cohesion. After calculation of morphological polycentricity of the regions at NUTS-5 level, the propositions on the positive effects of polycentric spatial development on economic competitiveness, environmental sustainability and social cohesion is tested by using Pearson correlation and OLS regression models. The results of the empirical study are mixed for these three subjects. Polycentric spatial development has not positive effects on economic competitiveness and social cohesion in Turkey case. Conversely, a positive effect exists in terms of environmental sustainability. 


    istanbul

    Read more about urban planning in Turkey:

    Monday, November 23, 2020

    Urban Sprawl, Socioeconomic Features, and Travel Patterns in Middle East Countries: A Case Study in Iran

     By Melika Mehriar, Houshmand Masoumi, and Inmaculada Mohino


    The present study aimed to investigate different socioeconomic factors as well as the perceptions and travel behaviors associated with urban sprawl in two cities of different sizes in Iran, as a developing country in the Middle East. Four Weighted Least Squares (WLS) regression models were developed for Hamedan and Nowshahr, as examples of large and small cities in Iran, respectively. The findings showed different correlations related to urban sprawl between Iranian cities and high-income countries in terms of socioeconomic and travel behavior determinants. Urban sprawl around home in Hamedan was positively correlated with the number of cars and driving licenses in households, the use of a private car for trips, and less use of public transport. Urban sprawl around homes in Nowshahr was related to an increased number of cars, the use of private cars for non-commuting trips, less sense of belonging to the neighborhood, and lower income. Additionally, urban sprawl around workplaces was correlated with main daily activity, number of non-commuting trips, mode of choice for non-commuting, and residential location choice in Hamedan a swell as monthly income, daily shopping area, frequency of public transport use, quality of recreational facilities, length of time for living in the current home, and commuting distance in Nowshahr.

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    Noshahr - IRAN

    More about urban planning and transportation in the Middle East:

    The Relationship between Regular Use of Ridesourcing and Frequency of Public Transport Use in the MENA Region (Tehran and Cairo)