Accessibility to health care facilities in Montreal Island: an application of relative accessibility indicators from the perspective of senior and non-senior residents

Background Geographical access to health care facilities is known to influence health services usage. As societies age, accessibility to health care becomes an increasingly acute public health concern. It is known that seniors tend to have lower mobility levels, and it is possible that this may negatively affect their ability to reach facilities and services. Therefore, it becomes important to examine the mobility situation of seniors vis-a-vis the spatial distribution of health care facilities, to identify areas where accessibility is low and interventions may be required. Methods Accessibility is implemented using a cumulative opportunities measure. Instead of assuming a fixed bandwidth (i.e. a distance threshold) for measuring accessibility, in this paper the bandwidth is defined using model-based estimates of average trip length. Average trip length is an all-purpose indicator of individual mobility and geographical reach. Adoption of a spatial modelling approach allows us to tailor these estimates of travel behaviour to specific locations and person profiles. Replacing a fixed bandwidth with these estimates permits us to calculate customized location- and person-based accessibility measures that allow inter-personal as well as geographical comparisons. Data The case study is Montreal Island. Geo-coded travel behaviour data, specifically average trip length, and relevant traveller's attributes are obtained from the Montreal Household Travel Survey. These data are complemented with information from the Census. Health care facilities, also geo-coded, are extracted from a comprehensive business point database. Health care facilities are selected based on Standard Industrial Classification codes 8011-21 (Medical Doctors and Dentists). Results Model-based estimates of average trip length show that travel behaviour varies widely across space. With the exception of seniors in the downtown area, older residents of Montreal Island tend to be significantly less mobile than people of other age cohorts. The combination of average trip length estimates with the spatial distribution of health care facilities indicates that despite being more mobile, suburban residents tend to have lower levels of accessibility compared to central city residents. The effect is more marked for seniors. Furthermore, the results indicate that accessibility calculated using a fixed bandwidth would produce patterns of exposure to health care facilities that would be difficult to achieve for suburban seniors given actual mobility patterns. Conclusions The analysis shows large disparities in accessibility between seniors and non-seniors, between urban and suburban seniors, and between vehicle owning and non-owning seniors. This research was concerned with potential accessibility levels. Follow up research could consider the results reported here to select case studies of actual access and usage of health care facilities, and related health outcomes.

Accessibility to health care facilities in Montreal Island: an application of relative accessibility indicators from the perspective of senior and non-senior residents

Background Geographical access to health care facilities is known to influence health services usage. As societies age, accessibility to health care becomes an increasingly acute public health concern. It is known that seniors tend to have lower mobility levels, and it is possible that this may negatively affect their ability to reach facilities and services. Therefore, it becomes important to examine the mobility situation of seniors vis-a-vis the spatial distribution of health care facilities, to identify areas where accessibility is low and interventions may be required. Methods Accessibility is implemented using a cumulative opportunities measure. Instead of assuming a fixed bandwidth (i.e. a distance threshold) for measuring accessibility, in this paper the bandwidth is defined using model-based estimates of average trip length. Average trip length is an all-purpose indicator of individual mobility and geographical reach. Adoption of a spatial modelling approach allows us to tailor these estimates of travel behaviour to specific locations and person profiles. Replacing a fixed bandwidth with these estimates permits us to calculate customized location- and person-based accessibility measures that allow inter-personal as well as geographical comparisons. Data The case study is Montreal Island. Geo-coded travel behaviour data, specifically average trip length, and relevant traveller's attributes are obtained from the Montreal Household Travel Survey. These data are complemented with information from the Census. Health care facilities, also geo-coded, are extracted from a comprehensive business point database. Health care facilities are selected based on Standard Industrial Classification codes 8011-21 (Medical Doctors and Dentists). Results Model-based estimates of average trip length show that travel behaviour varies widely across space. With the exception of seniors in the downtown area, older residents of Montreal Island tend to be significantly less mobile than people of other age cohorts. The combination of average trip length estimates with the spatial distribution of health care facilities indicates that despite being more mobile, suburban residents tend to have lower levels of accessibility compared to central city residents. The effect is more marked for seniors. Furthermore, the results indicate that accessibility calculated using a fixed bandwidth would produce patterns of exposure to health care facilities that would be difficult to achieve for suburban seniors given actual mobility patterns. Conclusions The analysis shows large disparities in accessibility between seniors and non-seniors, between urban and suburban seniors, and between vehicle owning and non-owning seniors. This research was concerned with potential accessibility levels. Follow up research could consider the results reported here to select case studies of actual access and usage of health care facilities, and related health outcomes.

DETERMINATION OF THE REGULARITIES IN THE RANDOM PARAMETERS OF THE TRIPS MADE USING THE MICROMOBILITY VEHICLES

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the current usage of micromobility vehicles by the population in the world and Ukraine. It is appeared to be that these vehicles are a quite widespread mean of travelling for short distances. This way of travelling became even more actual during the restrictions on the trips by public transport caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Micromobility vehicles are the real alternative to trips by foot or transport because they allow users to travel safely, independently and in the fresh air as well as control the social distance and decrease the contacts compared to public transport. Also, the paper presents the questionnaire developed by the authors, and the results of the intermediate survey which allowed determining the type of micromobility vehicle (e-bike, e-scooter, electric unicycle, bicycle, etc.), age of the respondents, travel speed, and the distance which the respondents are ready to cover. During the survey, it was determined that most people choose e-scooters while e-bikes are not so widely used. The maximal travelling speed appeared to be equal to 50 km/h, and the maximal trip length – 5 km. The recorded trip lengths allowed defining the trip length distribution for all cities under study and, particularly, for the city of Kharkiv. The trip length distribution appeared to be normal that was confirmed by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Chi-square test at the significance level of 5%. Also, the survey results show that there exists a demand for trips by micromobility vehicles, and it is necessary to research this demand and take it into account during transport modelling. The overall authors’ goal is the estimation of the demand for the trips by micromobility vehicles which will allow researchers to take these trips into account when developing or correcting transport models. Therefore, it will support the development of the city infrastructure taking into account the needs of the users of micromobility vehicles. In future, it will improve traffic safety for all road users. Generally, the paper is devoted to the actual issues related to the level of service and safety of road users under the conditions of the growing demand for the use of the means of micromobility.

Drivers and constraints on offshore foraging in harbour seals

Central place foragers are expected to offset travel costs between a central place and foraging areas by targeting productive feeding zones. Harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) make multi-day foraging trips away from coastal haul-out sites presumably to target rich food resources, but periodic track points from telemetry tags may be insufficient to infer reliably where, and how often, foraging takes place. To study foraging behaviour during offshore trips, and assess what factors limit trip duration, we equipped harbour seals in the German Wadden Sea with high-resolution multi-sensor bio-logging tags, recording 12 offshore trips from 8 seals. Using acceleration transients as a proxy for prey capture attempts, we found that foraging rates during travel to and from offshore sites were comparable to offshore rates. Offshore foraging trips may, therefore, reflect avoidance of intra-specific competition rather than presence of offshore foraging hotspots. Time spent resting increased by approx. 37 min/day during trips suggesting that a resting deficit rather than patch depletion may influence trip length. Foraging rates were only weakly correlated with surface movement patterns highlighting the value of integrating multi-sensor data from on-animal bio-logging tags (GPS, depth, accelerometers and magnetometers) to infer behaviour and habitat use.

Modeling of spatial distribution of intercity automobile trips on the basis of carpooling services data

The paper considers a spatial distribution of automobile traffic between cities of the Sverdlovsk region. For its description the authors have applied a correspondence matrix represented by the number of trips between each pair of cities. A calculation of elements of correspondence matrix is carried out by known total departures and arrivals with the use of a transport gravity model. As initial data for calibration of the gravity model the authors have used the information gained on the online-service for searching fellow travellers (carpooling). The paper considers the gravity model with an exponential gravity function. At calibration the authors have used the Hyman method. As a result, the authors have carried out an analysis of the observed correspondence matrix and a calculation of the modeling one. A comparison of absolute deviations of element values for the modeling and the observed matrices and a comparison of the modeling and the observed distributions of trip length have showed that the gravity model with the exponential gravity function adequately represents the spatial distribution of trips presents on the online-service for searching fellow travellers.

The influence of theocratic rule and political turmoil on tourists’ length of stay

The average tourist’s length of stay (LOS) is in a global decline. This downward trend underscores the need to study the factors that affect this variable in order to enable more effective management and marketing. This paper moves beyond the literature by investigating the determinants of international tourists’ LOS in a Muslim destination amid political crisis. LOS was evaluated using a survival analysis approach with data from 726 international tourists in Tabriz, Iran to ascertain the significant factors influencing trip length. The results reveal that the determinant factors are as follows: socio-demographic profiles, trip characteristics, and destination attributes. In addition, political turmoil and religious regulations are pivotal factors in LOS. The empirical findings provide valuable theoretical contributions to researchers and actionable guidance to tourism managers and marketers.

Understanding Urban Mobility Pattern with Cellular Phone Data: A Case Study of Residents and Travelers in Nanjing

The rapid development of urban metropolises has attracted a growing number of immigrants and travelers, increasing the burden on transportation systems. Previous research on urban mobility patterns have ignored the temporal variations and heterogeneity in divergent urban trip makers due to the limited data resolution and coverage. In this paper, we analyzed cellular phone data of more than five million travelers for one month in Nanjing, China and proposed a method to extract trip origin and destination information from cellular phone signal data. We found that mobility patterns are different for urban residents, short-term travelers, and transfer travelers, and that trip length distributions can best be described by gamma and exponential distributions. In addition to the daily trip length distribution models, we utilized the agglomerative hieratical clustering method in order to group similar hourly trip patterns and further proposed within-day trip length distribution models under different times of the day and days of the week.