Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice最新文献

{"title":"Redundancies of African port hinterlands and their implications for new container port investments","authors":"Jasper Verschuur ,&nbsp;Lori Tavasszy","doi":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104920","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104920","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Improving connectivity between ports and the hinterlands they serve is critical for reliable and cost-efficient freight transport. However, overreliance on a single port, or small subset of ports, can cause economic losses when those ports fail, given limited redundancies of port-hinterland systems. However, planners often lack critical insights into port-hinterland redundancy. Here, we analyse the port-hinterland redundancies across Africa, a continent with a small number of gateway ports serving large hinterlands and large investment need in the coming decades, providing a window of opportunity to embed redundancy in strategic transport investments. We find that regions with high accessibility, in particular coastal cities close to a major seaport (e.g., Namibia, Senegal, Kenya) have low redundancy. In contrast, some landlocked hinterlands (e.g., Zambia, Zimbabwe, Niger, and Chad) have low accessibility, yet high redundancies given their reliance on different port ranges. We further show that new transport investments aimed at improving accessibility can create both synergies and trade-offs with system redundancy. Port terminal expansions, in particular, can reduce the redundancy of the core hinterland while improving the redundancy of the hinterland periphery. Rail connections can improve access to a wider set of ports at a comparable cost but can also reinforce the dependency on a single cost-efficient rail connection. Analysing redundancies of port hinterlands can support strategic planning of regional investments and help improve the resilience of the regional and continental transport system against disruptions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49421,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 104920"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146160946","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Telework-to-Play or Play-to-Telework? Investigating the directional relationship between telework and nonwork travel","authors":"Katherine E. Asmussen ,&nbsp;Angela J. Haddad ,&nbsp;Chandra R. Bhat","doi":"10.1016/j.tra.2025.104857","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tra.2025.104857","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study explores the intricate interrelationship between teleworking and weekly participation in two types of nonwork activities – maintenance episodes and leisure episodes. We employ a latent segmentation model to categorize the population into two segments: (1) those for whom nonwork activity participation influences telework frequency (“players”), and (2) those for whom telework frequency impacts nonwork activity participation (“workers”). Within each segment, to reduce any spurious association effects, we model teleworking and nonwork stop-making as a package by accommodating correlations in unobserved factors across the outcomes. The data for this analysis is drawn from a 2021–2022 weekly travel survey of Minnesotan workers in the Twin City region. The results reveal significant heterogeneity in the causal directionality of effect, with nonwork activity participation influencing telework intensity levels for about two-thirds of individuals (the “player” or NT segment), and telework levels influencing nonwork activity participation for the rest (the “worker” or TN segment). This result is in contrast to earlier studies that have predominantly assumed that all individuals belong to the TN or “worker” segment, which according to our analysis, is actually the case only for a minority of the population. Our analysis also indicates that, rather than asking the typical question of “does telework increase or decrease stop-making?”, the more pertinent question is “how does the number of nonwork stops relate to the intensity of teleworking?”. Our findings reveal an inverted U-shaped curve, with the highest number of nonstops occurring when individuals telework a few days a month or about one day per week. This, combined with the finding from the <span><span>Asmussen et al. (2024a)</span></span> study, indicates that low levels of teleworking (a day per week or less) actually increases both commute vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and nonwork VMT. Therefore, to achieve VMT reduction through teleworking, promoting moderate to high levels of telework appears important.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49421,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 104857"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146135137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Public transport subsidies and the marginal cost of public funds: An interpretative review","authors":"Raúl Ramos ,&nbsp;Hugo E. Silva","doi":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104895","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104895","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the rationale for public transport subsidies when revenues are raised through distortionary taxation, captured by the Marginal Cost of Public Funds (MCF). While first-best arguments such as scale economies and the Mohring effect justify subsidies, their relevance in second-best settings depends on the fiscal cost of raising funds. We compare general and partial equilibrium approaches, highlighting their advantages and limitations in incorporating key efficiency arguments, externalities, and labor market effects. Building on this, we develop a unified analytical framework that derives second-best pricing rules for public transport and assesses the welfare implications of subsidies under different conditions of scale economies, congestion, and labor taxation. Our framework clarifies when subsidies increase welfare and when the fiscal cost of financing them outweighs efficiency gains, providing both theoretical insights and policy-relevant guidance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49421,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 104895"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146135148","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dissociating ethical dilemma preferences and actions in autonomous driving by survey and driving experiment","authors":"Yuanyuan Wu ,&nbsp;Han Yu ,&nbsp;Zhang Yan ,&nbsp;Hong Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104891","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104891","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Previous research has revealed the general preferences in ethical dilemmas for autonomous driving. However, people’s legal preference compared to ethical preferences has not been fully understood. In the current study, we aim to reveal the role of legality in ethical preferences for people’s decision and action when facing ethical dilemmas in three steps: data mining, in-person survey and interview, and lab experiment. We first mined the moral machine experiment (MME, Awad et al, 2018) dataset to find the important features and relative importance of legality in people’s decisions facing ethical dilemmas. To find out whether people share the same preference as MME and reveal the reasons of their preferences, we then interviewed 32 participants and found that they valued legal preference as an important factor for ethical preferences in the second step. The question still remains whether people act on their legal or ethical preferences when driving? In the third step, we simulated these ethical dilemmas while driving on autonomous mode in a driving simulator, and examined the bevavioural responses of the participating drivers (n = 62). Interestingly, we found that drivers acted on their ethical preferences (sparing children vs. senior passengers) instead of legal preference (sparing senior following traffic rules vs. children violating traffic rules). We argue that the legal preference requires reasoning and memory of the traffic rules which may take longer time to process, whereas the ethical preference is perceptual, or intuitive, and processed faster for action to take place in emergencies. Our findings shed light on the underlying dual-system processes <em>(rational reasoning and intuition)</em> in ethical dilemmas for autonomous driving and responses in emergency.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49421,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 104891"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146110851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The effects of symbolic meanings on MaaS adoption intention: A case study from urban residents in China","authors":"Jinpeng Wen ,&nbsp;Ke Wang ,&nbsp;Hongcheng Gan","doi":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104914","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104914","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Mobility as a service (MaaS) is considered a promising approach for achieving sustainable urban transportation and has garnered significant interest among researchers. However, consumer interest in adopting MaaS remains low, despite consumer acceptance and adoption is critical to the bright future for MaaS. The underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions influencing consumers’ intention to adopt MaaS, particularly in the cultural perspectives, remain unclear. Based on S-O-R behavioral prediction model, the current study examines the mechanism of action between MaaS symbolic meanings (S), perceived social value (O), and consumer adoption intention (R). The moderating role of the Chinese traditional cultural value (face consciousness) was tested. A quantitative study of a sample of 306 Chinese consumers collected through an online survey indicate that the environmentalism and innovation symbols of MaaS positively influence perceived social value, which subsequently enhances adoption intention. Perceived social value plays a significant mediating role, and face consciousness as a moderator strengthens the effect of perceived social value on consumer adoption intention. These findings provide meaningful practical references for marketers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49421,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 104914"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146152654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Coordinating passenger itineraries and vehicle routes in first-mile demand-responsive feeder services","authors":"Aoyong Li ,&nbsp;Yaotian Tan ,&nbsp;Wei Zhang ,&nbsp;Yilong Ren ,&nbsp;Haiyang Yu","doi":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104913","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104913","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Demand-Responsive Feeder Service (DRFS) is a promising on-demand solution to the first-mile problem, yet its operational performance is often constrained by the conventional process in which itinerary planning and vehicle routing are handled sequentially and independently. This separation can reduce ridesharing opportunities, increase operating costs, and misalign passenger preferences with operator decisions. This study proposes a coordinated operating paradigm where passengers submit multiple candidate boarding and transfer stops and the operator jointly determines itineraries and vehicle routes. To support its implementation and evaluation, we formulate a mixed-integer linear program on a virtual service network and develop a two-stage metaheuristic solver. A case study based on the network in Jiaozhou, Qingdao, shows that the proposed approach reduces passenger cost, operating cost, and weighted total cost by 9.77%, 18.20%, and 13.93%, respectively, compared with a baseline that follows the conventional uncoordinated process. We further find that transfer-stop flexibility contributes more to cost reduction than boarding-stop flexibility, as transfer choices directly affect the feasibility and efficiency of ridesharing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49421,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 104913"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146152657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Can health information promote active transport?","authors":"Lassi Ahlvik ,&nbsp;Anna Sahari","doi":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104896","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104896","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Informing individuals about the health effects of their transport choices offers a promising strategy to increase active transport. However, only a few empirical studies use randomized experimental designs and observed transport behavior, which are necessary to reliably assess the effectiveness of information provision in real-world choice contexts. We conduct a randomized field experiment in the Pirkanmaa region of Finland to examine whether health information can influence transport choices and reduce externalities from driving. The treatment is implemented through a smartphone application that automatically tracks users’ daily transport choices and provides personalized feedback on the health impacts of walking and cycling. We find that the treatment group received and internalized the information, but we do not find a statistically significant effect on their active travel behavior. There is some evidence that the treatment group moderately reduces their transport-related carbon footprint on the weekends. Our results indicate that information-based nudges in transport may be insufficient to attain meaningful changes to transport behavior. However, mobile phone applications with a tracking feature can be scaled up at very low cost, potentially providing other benefits such as data for researchers or urban planners and valuable information to users.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49421,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 104896"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146110245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Corporate decisions on sustainable aviation fuel: the cost-sustainability dilemma in business travel","authors":"Adrian Müller ,&nbsp;Andreas Wittmer","doi":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104898","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104898","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines how the commercialization of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) can be optimized in the business travel sector, where aviation-related emissions remain high and corporate sustainability goals increasingly demand action. Using an adaptive choice-based conjoint (ACBC) experiment with sustainability managers from European firms, we analyze how companies evaluate SAF offerings based on fuel type, blend level, certification, billing structure, and cost. Our results reveal a strong preference for certified SAF and bulk procurement models in short-haul travel, where willingness to pay often exceeds benchmark prices. For long-haul travel, however, cost remains a significant barrier, with low SAF content frequently rejected in favor of conventional options. The study highlights how procurement structures, budget constraints, and internal decision-making shape SAF adoption, offering practical insights for corporate travel managers, airlines, and SAF suppliers. From a policy perspective, our exploratory findings suggest that regulatory support could play an important role in accelerating SAF demand. Standardized reporting frameworks, recognition of SAF in emission accounting, and pricing incentives may help reduce entry barriers and better align procurement with climate targets. By focusing on the demand side – an underexplored area in SAF research – this paper contributes empirical evidence to inform policy design, promote private-sector engagement, and support the scaling of low-carbon aviation solutions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49421,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 104898"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146135143","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dynamics of car consumption and attitudes towards car characteristics: Insights from a large-scale panel model in the United Kingdom","authors":"Milad Mehdizadeh,&nbsp;Jillian Anable","doi":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104892","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104892","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The current study aims to understand the dynamics between the importance people place on different car characteristics when purchasing a car (labelled as <em>car-related attitudes</em> in this study) and their car consumption (car use and the number of cars owned) over time. Using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), we conceptualize bidirectional effects between car-related attitudes, the number of cars owned, and car use among those who access at least a car in their households and test how and which element comes first in impacting the other elements over time. Employing a two-wave cross-lagged panel model with a two-year lag on a large-scale sample (n = 17,198), and considering covariates, the results reveal existence of bidirectional but asymmetric effects between these three elements. Interestingly, the number of cars has the greatest effect on the two other elements. Car consumption influences car-related attitudes larger than the reverse effect. In particular, over time, a higher number of cars and higher levels of car use more strongly affect declines in the weight individuals place on environmental considerations when purchasing a car (e.g., engine size, CO₂ emissions, or electric propulsion). This effect is larger than that of environmental considerations on shedding cars or reducing car use.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49421,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 104892"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146096090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding traffic law enforcement perceptions of autonomous vehicles: Insights from Chinese cities with operational robotaxi fleets through hypothesis testing and machine learning","authors":"Ningzhe Xu ,&nbsp;Dan Zhao ,&nbsp;Yang Yu ,&nbsp;Jun Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104905","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tra.2026.104905","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are expected to improve road safety by reducing human error, which accounts for over 90% of traffic incidents. However, AVs also present new challenges for traffic law enforcement, particularly in their interactions with officers and their ability to navigate emergency situations, such as safely passing law enforcement officers (LEOs). This study examines these challenges through a survey of 1522 traffic LEOs in Chinese cities with operational AV fleets. The survey focused on two critical perceptions: LEOs’ confidence in AVs’ ability to follow traffic commands and trust in AVs’ ability to safely pass LEOs. Results indicate that over 90% of LEOs lacked confidence in AVs’ ability to follow commands, and nearly 70% did not trust AVs to safely pass LEOs. Officers with direct experience managing AV-related incidents or riding in a robotaxi reported slightly higher confidence and trust levels, but overall perceptions were mixed. Chi-square tests and machine learning analyses further indicated that factors such as AV-related knowledge, procedural training, and attitudes toward robotaxis were significantly associated with these perceptions. These findings underscore the need for targeted training programs, increased exposure to AV technologies, and public engagement strategies to enhance law enforcement trust in AVs and their safe integration into traffic systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49421,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 104905"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146138695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}