The climate emergency has given fresh impetus for cities to rethink their transport systems. In many cases, the excessive use of private cars is a challenge which must be addressed.
It leads to numerous problems such as dangerously poor air quality, crashes and wasted time.
This project complements our work on active travel by considering the factors affecting bus, rail and subway usage.
Aims and Objectives
The overarching aim of this project is to understand how public transport should fit into a sustainable urban transport system. We currently aim to answer four main research questions:
- How are changes in the labour market and the rise of the gig economy affecting traditional patterns of travel demand?
- When disruptions on a particular transport mode happen, to what extent do they influence other modes?
- What are the potential effects of internet use while travelling on public transport ridership?
- How does accessibility generated by public transport vary across neighbourhoods in the UK?
These questions will mainly be addressed using transactional and operational data such as public transport schedule data or tap-in and tap-out ridership data from the Subway. We will also utilise a variety of survey-based and crowdsourced data (e.g., from bike-share programmes).
Impact
We are working with partners in local government as well as Regional Transport Partnerships to ensure that the research questions asked are relevant and that findings can be implemented.
Researchers
Lead: Dr David McArthur
Team: Dr Jinhyun Hong, Rafael Verduzco Torres
Partners
- Strathclyde Partnership for Transport: providing data and co-producing research questions
- Glasgow City Council: dissemination and co-producing research questions
Latest Outputs
- Paper: Hong, J., McArthur, D. P. and Livingston, M. (2019) Can Accessing the Internet while Travelling Encourage Commuters to Use Public Transport Regardless of Their Attitude? Sustainability 2019, 11, 3281. (DOI: 10.3390/su11123281)
