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This paper examines the role that public transport last mile problems play in mode choice decisions of commuters, while controlling for trip, built environment, and decision maker related variables. Last-mile problems arise due to lack of adequate connectivity between transit stops and trip origin or termination points. The paper is motivated by previous literature which has pointed out that high-quality public transit needs to consider end-to-end connectivity from trip origins to destinations. In contrast to previous work on transit last mile problems which has focused on physical distance and sidewalks to transit stops, we consider a wider range of area factors including transit availability, job accessibility, parking costs, the quality of the pedestrian environment and risks to pedestrians from vehicular traffic, and social characteristics such as street-level crime. Using a discrete choice model, our goal is to unpack ways in which such factors contribute to the last mile problem in home-based work trips, while controlling for these wider range of factors as well as the usual variables such as cost and trip time that inform mode choice. We find that the prevalence of non-domestic violent crimes reduces the odds of using all types of non-motorized alternatives as well as transit that is accessed either by walking or driving. Using compensating variation to measure welfare changes, we show that there are significant benefits that could be brought to transit service users Preprint submitted to Journal of Transport Geography June 9, 2016 through increasing safety in the transit access trip. By separately controlling for origin and destination transit accessibility, we show that improved destination accessibility significantly boosts transit use to a greater degree than increases in origin level accessibility. These findings argue for improving accessibility and related job densities at employment centers.

A variety of transit decision support tools have been developed in the Chicago, Illinois, metropolitan area in recent years, including the Regional Transportation Asset Management System of the Regional Transit Authority and the Spatial Decision Support System of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Although the Chicago metropolitan area has a variety of public transportation services, the quality of service available in an area and the extent to which transit allows area residents to access employment opportunities spread out across the six-county region vary substantially. This paper focuses on a spatial analysis of the variations of local transit service quality indicators as well as a composite regional employment accessibility measure. It explores the quality of the transit system in the Chicago region through a set of supply- and demand-side indicators at the census tract level. The supply-side indicators include a composite index of transit availability and frequency and transit station asset information. The demand-side measures include the computation of the regional employment accessibility index using a gravity model and transit travel times from travel demand models. A series of these indicators is mapped over the Chicago region at the census tract level. The paper also ranks census tracts on the local transit measures, as well as on the regional transit-based employment accessibility measures, and identifies those areas that are well off and worst off in regard to both types of indexes. The paper draws policy conclusions emanating from each of these categories.

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This research employs novel techniques to examine older learners' journeys, educationally and physically, in order to gain a 'threedimensional' picture of lifelong learning in the modern urban context of Glasgow. The data offers preliminary analyses of an ongoing 1500 household survey by the Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC). A sample of 1037, with 377 older adults aged 60+, was examined to understand older learner engagement in formal, in-formal, non-formal and family-learning contexts. Preliminary findings indicate that all forms of older learning participation are lower than younger and middle-age counterparts. However, there is a subset of 'actively ageing' , socially and technologically engaged older adult 'learner-citizens' , participating in educational, physical, cultural, civic and online activities (including online political discussions and boycotts). These older learners were more likely to be working, caretakers and report better health overall. Long-term disabilities were associated with less engagement in non-formal learning activities. Additionally, engaged older learners' GPS trails show more city activity than their matched non-learningengaged counterparts. Place-based variables, such as feeling safe and belonging to the local area, moderated adult participation in learning activities. The full data-set will be accessible to researchers and the general public via UBDC, providing a complex data source to explore demographically diverse learners' within an urban context.