Joint Model of Sustainable Mode Choice for Commute, Shift Potential and Alternative Mode Chosen

Rising traffic congestion and severe air pollution in urban areas have led policymakers to find appropriate strategies to encourage the use of sustainable modes. In this context, this paper investigates three choice dimensions related to the work commute travel: (i) Whether and to what extent are sustainable modes considered? (ii) What factors influence the propensity to shift from the primary work commute mode? (iii) Which mode is most likely to be chosen conditional on the decision to shift? These dimensions are analyzed using data of workers from Chennai, India. As the three choices of an individual may be correlated and mutually endogenous because of common and persistent psychological attributes and modal service characteristics, they are modeled using a multi-dimensional probit model. The results show significant evidence of endogeneity, state-dependence, and unobserved correlation across these dimensions leading to significant improvement in fit measures. The results show that perceptions of walkability and environmental impacts of travel modes affect only the consideration of sustainable modes, while vehicle ownership and accessibility to transit affect all three dimensions. Four different behavioral motivations for the decision to shift from the usual mode: dissatisfaction with service attributes, activity constraints, multimodal travel pattern, and inertia, were identified. The mode to which shift occurs is influenced by household vehicle fleet (number and type), exclusive availability to the given decision-maker, and work distance. The insights from this study can be used to identify suitable factors and frame policies to promote sustainable mode choice at various levels.

Travel Behavior of SME Employees in Their Work Commute in Emerging Cities: A Case Study in Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Corporate employees like to save the time they spend commuting to work. However, public transport in many emerging cities is not scheduled. Only big enterprises can afford scheduled staff buses. Rideshare services (e.g., Uber, Lyft, Pathao) can be a good alternative but are not affordable for every individual. This study aims to design a group rideshare service as a sustainable alternative for potential employees. For that purpose, it is important to know their commuting pattern. A survey was carried out on 314 employees of 20 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) working in one office complex. This paper reports their current travel pattern in terms of distance, cost, time, and mode of transportations to measure their potentiality to use a group rideshare service uniquely designed for a work commute. This paper recommends that employees living within a distance of 2.5–15 km, currently using motorized vehicle for their work commute, who can spend $40 USD a month for work commute and agree to a mutually-determined commuting schedule are the most fitting potential users for an effective and financially sustainable rideshare service for the studied community. The same methodology can be used to obtain the potential ride share users to design a ride share model for other similar communities.

Factors Related to the Commute Time of Dual-earner Couples: From a Family Developmental Perspective

This study observed and investigated the commute time of dual-earner couples from a family developmental perspective. It tested whether the household responsibility hypothesis was effective in explaining the gender gap in the commute time for these couples. I extracted 2,103 time diaries written by 1,266 matched couples from the 2014 Korean Time Use Survey data for this study. The sample was categorized by the age of the eldest child into four age groups of 0-6, 7-12, 13-18, and 19-29. Analytic results from ANOVA, Scheffé test, and OLS regression are as follows. First, husbands traveled longer hours to work than wives in all age groups, while the commute time of couples tended to increase along with the child’ age. However, couples in the child group aged 7 to 12 had the shortest commute time. Second, domestic labor time of wives were negatively associated with the commute time, which appeared to support the household responsibility hypothesis. Third, in the child group aged 7 to 12, wives spent more time for work commute as their income increased; however, wives with traditional gender role attitudes had a shorter commute time in the child group aged 0 to 6. Forth, neither the wives’ nor husbands’ work characteristics were related to the wives’ commute time; however, both wives’ and husbands’ work characteristics were related to the husbands’ commute time. The findings suggest the possibility of spatial entrapment by working wives throughout the family life cycle due to household responsibilities, which provides implications for policy intervention in consideration of the gender gap in commute time for dual-earner couples.

Geographic Heterogeneity in Otolaryngology Medicare New Patient Visits

Objective To analyze the spatial variation of sociodemographic factors associated with the geographic distribution of new patient visits to otolaryngologists. Study Design Retrospective cross-sectional analysis. Setting United States. Subject and Methods Medicare new patient visits pooled from 2012 to 2016 to otolaryngology providers were obtained from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and county-level sociodemographic data were obtained from the 2012-2016 American Community Survey. The mean number of new patient visits per otolaryngology provider by county was calculated. The spatial variation was analyzed with negative binomial and geographically weighted regression. Predictors included various neighborhood characteristics. Results There were 7,199,129 Medicare new patient visits to otolaryngology providers from 2012 to 2016. A 41.7-fold difference in new patient evaluation rates was observed across US counties (range, 11-458.8 per otolaryngology provider). On multivariable regression analysis, median age, sex, work commute time, percentage insured, and the advantage index of a county were predictors for the rate of new patient visits to otolaryngology providers. However, geographically weighted regression demonstrated that the association of a county’s disadvantage index, advantage index, percentage insured, and work commute times with new patient visits per provider varied across space. Conclusions There are wide geographic differences in the number of new Medicare patients seen by otolaryngologists, and the influence of county sociodemographic factors varied regionally. Further research to analyze the variations in practice patterns of otolaryngologists is warranted to predict future public health needs.

Evaluating Origin–Destination Matrices Obtained from CDR Data

Understanding and correctly modeling urban mobility is a crucial issue for the development of smart cities. The estimation of individual trips from mobile phone positioning data (i.e., call detail records (CDR)) can naturally support urban and transport studies as well as marketing applications. Individual trips are often aggregated in an origin–destination (OD) matrix counting the number of trips from a given origin to a given destination. In the literature dealing with CDR data there are two main approaches to extract OD matrices from such data: (a) in time-based matrices, the analysis focuses on estimating mobility directly from a sequence of CDRs; (b) in routine-based matrices (OD by purpose) the analysis focuses on routine kind of movements, like home-work commute, derived from a trip generation model. In both cases, the OD matrix measured by CDR counts is scaled to match the actual number of people moving in the area, and projected to the road network to estimate actual flows on the streets. In this paper, we describe prototypical approaches to estimate OD matrices, describe an actual implementation, and present a number of experiments to evaluate the results from multiple perspectives.

Clinical Features and Contributing Factors of Excessive Daytime Sleepiness in Chinese Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients: The Role of Comorbid Symptoms and Polysomnographic Variables

Background. The occurrence and severity of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) vary considerably among obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients. This study was designed to investigate the characteristics of EDS and identify its contributing factors in OSA patients. Methods. This was a cross-sectional study from a tertiary medical center in China. A total of 874 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed OSA were included. Subjective daytime sleepiness was assessed with the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). The subjects were assigned to the non-EDS group (582 patients), mild to moderate EDS group (227 patients), and severe EDS group (65 patients) according to the ESS scores. The clinical features and polysomnographic parameters were acquired and analyzed to identify the differences between groups and the determinants of EDS. Results. The age of patients with severe EDS (49.5 ± 11.3) was slightly greater than that of patients with mild to moderate EDS (44.5 ± 10.2) (p<0.05) and non-EDS patients (45.2 ± 12.0) (p<0.05). Body mass index (BMI) was highest in the severe EDS group (29.1 ± 3.6 kg/m2) (p<0.0001), intermediate in the mild to moderate EDS group (27.9 ± 3.3 kg/m2), and lower in the non-EDS group (26.8 ± 3.3 kg/m2). Logistic regression analysis showed waist circumference, memory loss, work/commute disturbances, and sleep efficiency were independently associated with mild to moderate EDS, and the microarousal index, apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), and saturation impair time below 90% were independent contributing factors of mild to moderate EDS. Meanwhile, age, neck circumference, gasping/choking, memory loss, work/commute disturbances, and sleep latency were independently associated with severe EDS, and the AHI and mean SpO2 were independent contributing factors of severe EDS. Conclusions. OSA patients with various severities of EDS are more obese and have more comorbid symptoms compared to patients without EDS. Sleep fragmentation, respiratory events, and nocturnal hypoxia may be predictors of EDS. Comprehensive consideration of demographic, clinical, and polysomnographic factors is required when evaluating OSA patients.

Mode Choice Analysis for Commuters in Metropolitan Region A-Case Study of Bogor City, Indonesia

The congestion of Bogor City is increasingly alarming that it urgently needs policies on transportation system. This study used crosstab analysis and multinomial logistic regression to analyze the behavior of choice of commuter modes in Bogor City. This study had 588 respondents. The selected-by-subdistrict results showed that gender, total income, private car ownership, motorcycle ownership, trip cost, distance traveled, work commute and distance to the terminal affect the choices of Bogor’s public transportation modes. As for the implications given in this study, the government is expected to add and renew infrastructure such as stations and shelters. The government is also expected to develop inexpensive public transportation that offers good quality of security and convenience.

Results of the 2016 Hiawatha Service Passenger Survey

The Hiawatha Service is an Amtrak intercity passenger rail service that operates the 90-mile route between Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Illinois. As part of its management and oversight role for the route, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) routinely conducts surveys of passengers traveling on the Hiawatha Service. The most recent survey was conducted in May 2016. This paper reports a summary of the key findings from the 2016 Hiawatha Service passenger survey. Analysis of more than 2,400 surveys reveals significant details of the travel behavior and demographic profile characteristics of Hiawatha Service passengers. A majority of passengers on weekday trains are traveling for work commute or business-related purposes while a majority of weekend passenger trips are leisure or personal trips. Approximately 70 percent of passengers would drive if the Hiawatha Service were not available, indicating that the train has a meaningful impact on highway congestion. Additional details on passenger motivations for using rail and the importance of on-board Wi-Fi service are also provided. Comparison of the results from 2016 with previous surveys conducted in 2002/2003, 2005, and 2011 demonstrates the role of the Hiawatha Service in the Milwaukee-Chicago travel corridor.