Public transit agencies are delivering transport services in a rapidly changing and highly competitive transportation market. Ensuring rider's satisfaction in such an environment has led several public transit agencies to adopt different marketing strategies. For example, market segmentation analyses are commonly employed by transit agencies to identify groups of users, which are subsequently used as a base for developing policies and strategies aimed at improving customer satisfaction. However, previous studies adopting this market segmentation approach have predominantly ignored spatial and contextual factors related to the transit network and the built environment of where a user resides, resulting in network-wide policies that are difficult to implement especially for agencies with scarce resources. This study presents a new segmentation approach that incorporates spatial and contextual factors in addition to other rider's preferences and satisfaction levels with commuter rail service in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Canada. Including these factors in a market segmentation analysis has enabled us to recommend service interventions at a local and finer scale compared to previous studies, while at the same time providing the greatest impact on a specified segment of riders. This research provides transit planners and policy makers with a spatial segmentation approach, which can be used to maximize the benefits of service improvements intended to increase satisfaction with public transit among certain groups of users in a region.
The growth rate of adults older than 65 in Canada is increasing more rapidly than the population as a whole. This increase is reflective of the aging baby boomer population. That population is known to have a strong attachment to automobiles, which might be reflected in their travel behavior as they move toward different stages in their older life. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the travel behavior, mainly public transit usage, of Canada’s older population relative to younger cohorts. A pseudocohort analysis was conducted in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, of residents who were 50 or older to follow changes in public transit use of similarly aged respondents from 1998 to 2013. The results revealed that older generations used public transit more than younger generations did at the same age. In addition, the most recent survey year showed a stagnation of transit use across all age groups. Differences in transit use between males and females were more pronounced in earlier cohorts, but the difference was decreasing in more recent years. These findings add to the growing body of work suggesting that the nature of transportation behavior in seniors is changing, and accordingly planners and engineers cannot expect the baby boomer generation to behave the same way as previous generations. Addressing the transportation needs of seniors around the world will be an important challenge for planners and engineers, as the population of seniors is growing more rapidly than the population as a whole in the majority of developed countries. This growth imposes new challenges on the transportation system because of differences in the travel behavior of today’s older adults compared with that of previous cohorts of seniors.
Many cities across the world are actively promoting cycling through investments in cycling infrastructure, yet ensuring that the benefits from these investments are distributed equally in a region and not benefiting only one group is an important social goal. The aim of this study is to develop a methodology that can help in identifying where new bicycle facilities can be built in a region while prioritizing investments for those who need them most. The study uses Quebec City, Canada, as an example since the city has recently made a strong commitment to provide safe and attractive bicycle infrastructure to its residents. It also uses a GIS-based grid cell model to identify priority areas for cycling investment in different parts of the city. This is followed by a proposal for a new set of facilities based on a multi-criteria approach. These proposed facilities are then evaluated through a level of usage analysis to determine which routes will provide the maximum benefit to existing and potential cyclists. Finally, an equity analysis is conducted to evaluate whether the new facilities will meet some of the travel needs of individuals residing in socially deprived neighborhoods. This step in the evaluation process proposes a new social equity component in bicycle planning processes. This research can be of value to planners, engineers and policymakers working toward investments in bicycle facilities because it shows the full process of planning and evaluating different cycling facilities while incorporating social equity principles.
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