Article:Paulley, N., Balcombe, R., Mackett, R. et al. (5 more AbstractThis paper reports on key findings from a collaborative study whose objective was to produce an up-to-date guidance manual on the factors affecting the demand for public transport for use by public transport operators and planning authorities, and for academics and other researchers. Whilst a wide range of factors was examined in the study, the paper concentrates on the findings regarding the influence of fares, quality of service and income and car ownership. The results are a distillation and synthesis of identified published and unpublished information on the factors affecting public transport demand. The context is principally that of urban surface transport in Great Britain, but extensive use was made in the study of international sources and examples.

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Using data from a stated preference survey conducted in the UK, we show how the relative importance that rail travellers attach to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and faster journey times varies strongly as a function of underlying attitudes towards the environment. We specify a latent class structure that allocates respondents to two classes with substantially different valuations of greenhouse gas emissions, and show how the allocation of a given respondent to either class is a function of underlying attitudes that also drive the answers to a number of attitudinal questions. We also show how these underlying attitudes are a function of a number of socio-demographic characteristics, with female respondents, older respondents, and respondents with a university degree having a stronger pro-environmental attitude, with the opposite applying to respondents with regular car access.

Men cycle more than women and gender differences in perceptions and attitudes towards cycling may be influenced by such difference in bicycle use. However, to our knowledge, no previous research has focused on gender differences among regular cyclists. In our study, we investigated gender differences in attitudes towards cycling and towards cycling infrastructure, purpose of cycling, risk perception, and exposure to severe crashes in a large sample of regular cyclists. Following a cross-sectional design, we collected data from 2417 participants from Hungary, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, and United Kingdom. A survey was administered to an online panel of respondents. Gender differences in attitudes towards cycling were small in terms of effect size or non-significant, with women having more positive attitudes in personal benefits rather than mobility benefits. Women reported gender-stereotyped reasons for cycling more than men, except for social activities. Also, women showed higher discomfort than men cycling in mixed traffic and higher risk perception than men. Furthermore, men reported higher exposure to severe crashes than women. We contend that bicycle use and gender role (i.e. society's shared beliefs concerning a range of attitudes, norms, and behaviours that are generally considered appropriate or desirable for individuals based on their actual or perceived sex) can affect differences between male and female cyclists in perceptions, attitudes towards cycling, and cycling behaviours.

The impact of delays on passenger railways, with specific reference to the national rail network in Great Britain, is examined. A key distinction is made between punctuality (trains running late) and reliability (trains canceled). In Britain these have been combined into a public performance measure, which deteriorated markedly as a consequence of the Hatfield accident in 2000 but has since gradually improved. Causes of delay can be associated with train operators, infrastructure authorities, and external factors. In Great Britain, train operators apparently have been better able to manage delay than the infrastructure authority. Traditional means of valuing delay have used stated preference methods that incorporate a measure of mean lateness and have shown that a minute of late time is typically valued as equivalent to 3 min of timetabled journey time. This is referred to as the reliability multiplier. Studies have also focused on the value placed on the standard deviation of journey time and compare this valuation against that of mean journey time to produce the reliability ratio. The most recent work finds that the reliability ratio may be higher than previously thought, whereas the reliability multiplier may be lower than previously thought, especially for long journeys. In addition, recent work that has made use of revealed preference data to infer elasticities of demand with respect to delays indicates that most market segments are relatively insensitive to delays. In total, this recent work suggests that passengers in Britain may be becoming less sensitive to reliability, and reasons for this are examined.