http://www.cycle-helmets.com/irresistible.pdf

Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany

This article uses the 1995 NPTS (Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey) to examine the most important socioeconomic variations in urban travel behavior. The 1995 NPTS is the most recent and most comprehensive source of information on local travel in the U.S.; moreover, it is the only survey that includes both work and non-work trips. This is the third in a series of articles in this publication over the past two decades using the NPTS to analyze the socioeconomic characteristics of urban travelers.

/pdf/socioeconomics-of-urban-travel-evidence-from-the-2001-nhts-4ztzv09lwu.pdf

Socioeconomics of urban travel. Evidence from the 2001 NHTS.

Traditionally, economists and market researchers have been interested in identifying the factors that affect consumers' car buying behaviors to estimate market share, and to that end they have developed various models of vehicle type choice. However, they do not usually consider consumers' travel attitudes, personality, lifestyle, and mobility as factors that may affect the vehicle type choice. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship of such factors to individuals' vehicle type choices, and to develop a disaggregate choice model of vehicle type based on these factors as well as typical demographic variables. The data for this study comes from a 1998 mail-out/mail-back survey of 1904 residents in the San Francisco Bay Area. The dependent variable (the vehicle type the respondent drives most often) is classified into nine categories: small, compact, mid-sized, large, luxury, sports, minivan/van, pickup, and sport utility vehicle. Based on these categories, we first related vehicle type to travel attitude, personality, lifestyle, mobility, and demographic variables individually, using one-way analysis of variance and chi-squared tests. Then, a multinomial logit model for vehicle type choice was estimated. The final model (which possessed the IIA property) confirmed that the variables analyzed significantly affect an individual's vehicle type choice. These results provide useful background not only to vehicle manufacturers, but also to decision makers and planners of transportation policy related to vehicle ownership, traffic congestion, and energy consumption.

/pdf/what-type-of-vehicle-do-people-drive-the-role-of-attitude-3npgq98kxc.pdf

What type of vehicle do people drive? The role of attitude and lifestyle in influencing vehicle type choice

Comparison of deep convolutional neural networks and edge detectors for image-based crack detection in concrete

Over the past two decades, the number of bicycle trips in the United States has doubled. Since 48% of trips by all modes in American cities are shorter than three miles, the potential for further growth in bicycling seems enormous. So far, efforts to promote bicycling have focused on building bike paths and bike lanes. Although necessary, separate cycling facilities must be complemented by a comprehensive program to make all roads bikeable, through both physical adaptations and enforcement of cyclists' right to use the road. It seems likely that cycling will continue to grow in North America, but that its mode share will remain far lower than levels in northern Europe. Bicycling in Canada and especially the United States is impeded by the lack of a tradition of cycling for utilitarian purposes and by the marginal legal, cultural and infrastructure status of cyclists in both countries' automobile-based transport systems. As long as car use remains cheap and transportation policy remains dominated by motoring, bicycles will continue to be used primarily for recreation and not for daily urban travel in North America.

/pdf/bicycling-renaissance-in-north-america-recent-trends-and-5gn8b2hj7g.pdf

Peggy Casey

Papers

A. Federal Highway Administration