Low impact public transport: complementing active transport through community bus

2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Alan Both ◽  
Lucy Gunn ◽  
Carl Higgs ◽  
Melanie Davern ◽  
Afshin Jafari ◽  
...  

Confronted with rapid urbanization, population growth, traffic congestion, and climate change, there is growing interest in creating cities that support active transport modes including walking, cycling, or public transport. The ‘30 minute city’, where employment is accessible within 30 min by active transport, is being pursued in some cities to reduce congestion and foster local living. This paper examines the spatial relationship between employment, the skills of residents, and transport opportunities, to answer three questions about Australia’s 21 largest cities: (1) What percentage of workers currently commute to their workplace within 30 min? (2) If workers were to shift to an active transport mode, what percent could reach their current workplace within 30 min? and (3) If it were possible to relocate workers closer to their employment or relocate employment closer to their home, what percentage could reach work within 30 min by each mode? Active transport usage in Australia is low, with public transport, walking, and cycling making up 16.8%, 2.8%, and 1.1% respectively of workers’ commutes. Cycling was found to have the most potential for achieving the 30 min city, with an estimated 29.5% of workers able to reach their current workplace were they to shift to cycling. This increased to 69.1% if workers were also willing and able to find a similar job closer to home, potentially reducing commuting by private motor vehicle from 79.3% to 30.9%.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Eugenia Rivas ◽  
Tomás Serebrisky

Active transport modes play a key role in developing sustainable transport systems by making cities accessible, safe, inclusive, and green. In Latin America and the Caribbean, walking and cycling represent a large share of total trips, especially for low-income groups. But for them, the decision to travel by using active transport modes, especially walking, is not based on sustainability but affordability. Income disparities in the region are also reflected in pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, with poor neighborhoods lacking infrastructure of sufficient quality or size. Despite some successful experiences in the region, there is a lack of integration between transport modes, particularly public transport and cycling, which is crucial for improving the accessibility of low-income people, who usually live in peripheral areas, face long commutes, and require connecting infrastructure and services. The region has the opportunity to improve low-income groups access to livelihood opportunities and key services by developing infrastructure supporting nonmotorized transport, increasing citizen participation in planning, improving planning and regulation, and integrating active transport modes in urban transport systems, especially public transport.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. e036041
Author(s):  
Anthony A Laverty ◽  
Thomas Hone ◽  
Anna Goodman ◽  
Yvonne Kelly ◽  
Christopher Millett

ObjectivesExamine longitudinal associations between modes of travel to school and adiposity.SettingThe UK.Participants8432 children surveyed at ages 7, 11 and 14 years from the UK Millennium Cohort Study.Primary and secondary outcomesObjective percentage body fat and body mass index (BMI). Transport mode was categorised as private motorised transport, public transport and active transport (walking or cycling). Socioeconomic position (SEP) was measured by household income group and occupational social class. We adjusted analyses for changes in the country of UK, frequency of eating breakfast, self-reported growth spurts, hours of screen time and days per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Longitudinal (panel) regression models adjusting for individual fixed effects examined associations in changes in mode of travel to school and adiposity, controlling for both time-varying and time-invariant potential confounders. Interaction tests and stratified analyses investigated differences by markers of SEP.ResultsAt age 14 years, 26.1% of children (2198) reported using private motorised transport, 35.3% (2979) used public transport and 38.6% (3255) used active transport to get to school. 36.6% (3083) of children changed mode two times between the three waves and 50.7% (4279) changed once. Compared with continuing to use private transport, switching to active transport was associated with a lower BMI (−0.21 kg/m2, 95% CI −0.31 to −0.10) and body fat (−0.55%, 95% CI −0.80% to −0.31%). Switching to public transport was associated with lower percentage body fat (−0.43%, 95% CI −0.75% to −0.12%), but associations with BMI did not reach statistical significance (−0.13 kg/m2, 95% CI −0.26 to 0.01). Interaction tests showed a trend for these effects to be stronger in more deprived groups, but these interactions did not reach statistical significance.ConclusionThis longitudinal study during a key life course period found switching to physically active forms of travel can have beneficial adiposity impacts; these associations may be more apparent for more disadvantaged children. Increasing active travel has potential to ameliorate inequalities.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Lovelace ◽  
Joseph Talbot ◽  
Malcolm Morgan ◽  
Martin Lucas-Smith

In the context of reduced public transport capacity in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments are scrambling to enable walking and cycling while adhering to physical distancing guidelines. Many pop-up options exist. Of these, road space reallocation represents a ‘quick win’ for cities with ‘spare space’ along continuous road sections that have high latent cycling potential. We developed methods to condense the complexity of city networks down to the most promising roads for road space reallocation schemes. The resulting Rapid Cycleway Prioritisation Tool has been deployed for all cities in England to help prioritise emergency funds for new cycleways nationwide. The methods and concepts could be used to support investment in pop-up infrastructure in cities worldwide.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niaz Mahmud Zafri ◽  
Asif Khan ◽  
Shaila Jamal ◽  
Bhuiyan Monwar Alam

The impacts of COVID-19 on the transportation system have received attention from researchers all over the world. Initial findings reveal that patronage of public transport has gone down, while the use of active transport has increased in general. To the best of our knowledge, no study has focused on the pandemic’s effects on motorcycle mode, let alone in the context of an Asian city. We attempted to fill this void in literature by investigating if COVID-19 has influenced people to purchase motorcycles and determining the factors driving their intentions. The study is based on an online survey of 368 people in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The study found that around 46% of the respondents were expected to increase travel by motorcycle during the post-lockdown period. About 21% of the respondents were also expected to do the opposite. Around 31% of the respondents planned to purchase a motorcycle by August 2021, and the results indicated that the pandemic has influenced more people to purchase motorcycles compared to the pre-pandemic period. The study further identified factors that influenced the respondents’ plan for purchasing a motorcycle during the post-lockdown period applying the binary logistic regression. Based on the findings of the study, policy measures were proposed for controlling the growth of motorcycle numbers and increasing the use of active transport modes as its alternative, and consequently, helping to achieve sustainable transportation outcomes.


Author(s):  
G. Zampighi ◽  
M. Kreman

The plasma membranes of most animal cells contain transport proteins which function to provide passageways for the transported species across essentially impermeable lipid bilayers. The channel is a passive transport system which allows the movement of ions and low molecular weight molecules along their concentration gradients. The pump is an active transport system and can translocate cations against their natural concentration gradients. The actions and interplay of these two kinds of transport proteins control crucial cell functions such as active transport, excitability and cell communication. In this paper, we will describe and compare several features of the molecular organization of pumps and channels. As an example of an active transport system, we will discuss the structure of the sodium and potassium ion-activated triphosphatase [(Na+ +K+)-ATPase] and as an example of a passive transport system, the communicating channel of gap junctions and lens junctions.


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