Public Transit Development Predicts Spatial Distribution of Dengue Virus Incidence in Medellín, Colombia

Dengue is a growing global threat in some of the world’s most rapidly growing landscapes. Urbanization and human movement affect the spatial dynamics and magnitude of dengue outbreaks; however, precise effects of urban growth on dengue is not well understood because of a lack of sufficiently fine-scaled data. We analyzed nine years of address-level dengue case data in Medellin, Colombia during a period of public transit expansion. We correlate changes in the spread and magnitude of localized outbreaks to changes in accessibility and usage of public transit. Locations closer to and with a greater utilization of public transit had greater dengue incidence. This relationship was modulated by socioeconomic status; lower socioeconomic status locations experienced stronger effects of public transit accessibility and usage on dengue incidence. Public transit is a vital urban resource, particularly among low socioeconomic populations; these results highlight the importance of public health services concurrent with urban growth.

Urban space in transit area of South Sumatra light rail transit in Palembang

A new transportation system built in Palembang, the South Sumatra Light Rail Transit (otherwise known as LRT Sumsel), stretches along the road corridor from Sultan Mahmud Badarudin II Airport to the Jakabaring Sport City Palembang. In practice, a city needs criteria that must be met to develop a city properly. One of the urban development approaches is Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), an approach that emphasizes not only transit accessibility but also a sustainable environment. Therefore, in developing a city that has mass transportation, TOD calls forth the integration of all transportation modes with the elements of the city. This is closely related to the design of urban space at the transit area and how to achieve the concept of TOD. This research was conducted to find out whether the space around the South Sumatra LRT transit area has properly fulfilled the TOD concept. To achieve the success of Palembang City development, the complexity of TOD and the quality of urban space must be integrated. The goals of this research were to identify the elements of urban space in the transit area. The South Sumatra LRT station is the case study in this research employing descriptive qualitative methods using observation, stakeholder interview, and literature study. The results of the study point out that LRT Sumsel must highlight the availability of parking and attributes, which can allow more frequent transit activities. This research hopes that it can provide consideration for the development of the city of Palembang in terms of architecture and transportation utilization.

Immigrant settlement patterns, transit accessibility, and transit use

Public transit is immensely important among recent immigrants for enabling daily travel and activity participation. The objectives of this study are to examine whether immigrants settle in areas of high or low transit accessibility and how this affects transit mode share. This is analyzed via a novel comparison of two gateway cities: Sydney, Australia and Toronto, Canada. We find that in both cities, recent immigrants have greater levels of public transit accessibility to jobs, on average, than the overall population, but the geography of immigrant settlement is more suburbanized and less clustered around commuter rail in Toronto than in Sydney. Using logistic regression models with spatial filters, we find significant positive relationships between immigrant settlement patterns and transit mode share for commuting trips, after controlling for transit accessibility and other socio-economic factors, indicating an increased reliance on public transit by recent immigrants. Importantly, via a sensitivity analysis, we find that these effects are greatest in peripheral suburbs and rural areas, indicating that recent immigrants in these areas have more risks of transport-related social exclusion due to reliance on insufficient transit service.