How May Public Transport Influence the Practice of Everyday Life among Younger and Older People and How May Their Practices Influence Public Transport?
Lena Levin in Social Sciences vol. 8 issue 3, March 2019
This paper examines public transport use through the lens of practice to understand the perspectives of two categories of public transport users: Younger and older people. In taking this approach, we assume that the forms of mobility in a society are dependent on citizens’ everyday practices and on the structures of the cities, landscapes, etc. Transport needs and accessibility may vary depending on contexts (i.e., where and how we live) and on the various resources of groups of citizens. Results indicated that younger people are repeatedly referred to public transport to meet their mobility needs, while older people are more often car-dependent. Local variations, among both younger and older people, indicate higher confidence in public transport in big and medium-sized cities and a greater desire for car ownership in small cities. For the transition to sustainable mobility, e.g., public transport, transport associations and local governments should be responsive to the practice of everyday life among citizens: e.g., younger people’s leisure activities in afternoons and weekends, and older people’s wish for accessible transport service outside the dominant flow of passengers and their daily commuting practice. The data come from Sweden, specifically from focus groups with teenagers aged 14–16 years and retired people aged 63–97 years.
Urban Transport and Eco-Urbanism: A Global Comparative Study of Cities with a Special Focus on Five Larger Swedish Urban Regions
Jeffrey Kennworthy, Urban Sci. 2019, 3(1)
Urban transport is critical in shaping the form and function of cities, particularly the level of automobile dependence and sustainability. This paper presents a detailed study of the urban transport eco-urbanism characteristics of the Stockholm, Malmö, Göteborg, Linköping, and Helsingborg urban regions in southern Sweden. It compares these cities to those in the USA, Australia, Canada, and two large wealthy Asian cities (Singapore and Hong Kong). It finds that while density is critical in determining many features of eco-urbanism, especially mobility patterns and particularly how much public transport, walking, and cycling are used, Swedish cities maintain healthy levels of all these more sustainable modes and only moderate levels of car use, while having less than half the density of other European cities. Swedish settlement patterns and urban transport policies mean they also enjoy, globally, the lowest level of transport emissions and transport deaths per capita and similar levels of energy use in private passenger transport as other European cities, and a fraction of that used in lower density North American and Australian cities. Swedish urban public transport systems are generally well provided for and form an integral part of the way their cities function, considering their lower densities. Their use of walking and cycling is high, though not as high as in other European cities and together with public transport cater for nearly 50% of the total daily trip making, compared to auto-dependent regions with between about 75% and 85% car trips. The paper explores these and other patterns in some detail. It provides a clear depiction of the strengths and weaknesses of Swedish cities in urban transport, some key policy directions to improve them and posits possible explanations for some of the atypical patterns observed
Mobility as a service: Comparing developments in Sweden and Finland
Göran Smith, Jana Sochor, Steven Sarasini, Research in Transportation Business & Management, June 2018
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) developments have thus far progressed along different trajectories in Sweden and Finland, two pioneering countries in MaaS. Still, little is known about why this is. Addressing this knowledge gap, we investigate the role of institutions as key structures given their capacity to bring about differentiated outcomes. Based on 31 interviews with key stakeholders, we first describe drivers and barriers of MaaS developments in the two countries. Thereafter, through an analysis of similarities and differences across the cases, we identify a set of general implications for MaaS policymakers and practitioners. Developments in Finland demonstrate the importance of top-level support, of inter-organizational collaboration and of trust among key stakeholders. The Swedish case reiterates the need for inter-sectorial collaboration, particularly with regard to creating the right conditions for commercialization, and to involving stakeholders on both strategic and operational levels of the transport sector in developing the vision for MaaS. Lastly, we assess the utility of the applied theoretical framework, and comment on the necessity of recognizing that both practice-based and structural changes are needed in order to facilitate institutional change.
Networked authority and regionalised governance: Public transport, a hierarchy of documents and the anti-hierarchy of authorship
Alexander Paulsson, Karolina Isaksson, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, Dec 2018
This paper is concerned with the authority of written documents and how these artefacts work as governance devices. Networked authority is introduced as a concept to elucidate how documents accumulate formal power in a collaborative process, where several formally independent but informally interdependent organisations together point out the direction of regional public transport planning in the form of one strategic document. Drawing upon recent research on bureaucracy, authority and documents, the paper empirically explores these connections in the context of public transport in Stockholm, Sweden. Based on this case study, authority was found to be accomplished as the written document reproduced an existing hierarchy of documents, through an anti-hierarchical process where the newly formed Regional Public Transport Authority involved several formally independent but informally interdependent organisations, and by lacking a sole author. These three features are crucial for understanding how a collaborative process erodes individuality and personal responsibility, while producing anonymous, networked authority. These results are discussed in relationship to Foucault’s notion of authorship, the author-function, which is derived from legal–institutional networks, much like networked authority. Understanding how networked authority is accomplished through a hierarchy of documents and an anti-hierarchy of authorship contributes with new knowledge on documents and how these work as governance devices in regional governance.
What’s mode got to do with it? Exploring the links between public transport and car access and opportunities for everyday activities among older people
Jean Ryan, K2, Lund University & Anders Wretstrand, Lund University. January 2019
The paper "What’s mode got to do with it? Exploring the links between public transport and car access and opportunities for everyday activities among older people" by K2 researcher Jean Ryan explores the links between modal options and opportunities to participate in everyday activities among people aged 65–79 and living in Sweden’s large metropolitan regions, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. This incorporated a specific focus on those considered at a greater risk of transport-related social exclusion.
Outcomes from new contracts with “strong” incentives for increasing ridership in bus transport in Stockholm
Roger Pyddoke, K2, VTI & Hanna Lindgren, Transportstyrelsen. Research in Transportation Economics Volume 69, September 2018, Pages 197-206
The Swedish Public Transport Association has adopted recommendations on incentives for increased ridership in tendered contracts, though there is little evidence on how public transport contracts should be designed to reach this goal. This study begins amassing the needed evidence by analyzing the performance of four Stockholm Region bus contracts spanning seven years, examining the new E20 contracts intended to increase ridership, customer satisfaction, and efficiency. These contracts employ 100 percent of payments to operators depending on the number of boarding and paying passengers. Using mostly monthly data, outcomes in E20-contracts in four areas (formerly governed by gross cost contracts) over three years are compared with outcomes in the years before the E20 contracts were implemented, and with two gross contracts running parallel to the E20 contract. Compared with gross cost operators in comparison areas, E20 operators performed better in terms of costs, customer satisfaction (initially worse but then better), punctuality, and canceled departures, but worse in number of departures and no better in number of passengers.
Evaluation of cost drivers within public bus transports in Sweden
Helene Lidestam, Carolina Camén and Björn Lidestam, Research in Transportation Economics Volume 69, September 2018, Pages 157-164
The supply of public transport in Sweden has been continuously increasing and as a consequence thereof, the cost for bus traffic has also increased. However, many indicators show that costs for public transports in Sweden in recent years have increased more than supply. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to test and evaluate the importance of the nine previously identified cost drivers (Camén & Lidestam, 2016) of public bus transports in Sweden. A mixed-method design, which included both focus groups and a questionnaire, was used. The questionnaire, with quantitative rating scales, was sent to representatives from the bus operators and from the Public Transport Authorities (PTAs). In the focus groups, industry associations, consultants, and politicians also participated. The results reveal what the dominating cost factors are, as well as the factors considered to be the most important, according to actors within the Swedish bus transport sector. The most important cost driver identified is peak traffic and the costs of its consequences. Read the article here:
Influence of public bus transport organisation on the introduction of renewable fuel
Malin Aldenius, K2, Lund University Faculty of Engineering. Research in Transportation Economics Volume 69, September 2018, Pages 106-115
The need to decrease emissions from the transport sector is getting urgent and public transport can play an important role in the transition to low emission fuels. To a large extent, public transport in Europe is provided by regional authorities who controls the traffic to a varying degree, from complete public monopoly to competitive tendering. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyse how the organisation of the public bus transport market influences the introduction of renewable fuels. The focus is on understanding what the motivation is for the use of different organisational forms and what challenges and opportunities the authorities in a region encounter during the introduction of renewable fuels. Interviews with authorities in ten Swedish public transport regions show that when functional requirements are used in competitive tendering it will exclusively result in the cheapest renewable fuel available. Thus, if new fuels or technologies should be able to enter the market, either it will be necessary for regional authorities to take more control using specific requirements or publicly management, or the national government must introduce policy instruments that enable new renewable fuels to become competitive on the market.
Justifying Mega-Projects. An Analysis of the Swedish High-Speed Rail Project
Erik Ronnle, Lund studies in Economics and Management. Lund 2019.
Mega-projects are a growing phenomenon worldwide. More and more projects are started and they grow ever bigger in size. At the same time, there is overwhelming evidence that mega-projects tend to run late,
overrun in terms of costs and fail to deliver the expected benefits. Paradoxically, more and more money is invested in projects that fail to deliver on their promises.
This dissertation analyses how mega-projects are justified through a case study of the Swedish highspeed rail project and the National Negotiation on Housing and Infrastructure (Sverigeförhandlingen). The dissertation finds that the Swedish high-speed rail project is being justified based on a combination of strategies: widening the scope, producing encouraging numbers, creating and mobilising stakeholders, and arguing using a policy narrative. It shows how the project leadership skilfully bypasses criticism from
cost-benefit analysis and succeeds to gather support for the project despite the numbers.
Exploring waiting times in public transport through a semi-automated dedicated smartphone app survey
Ulrik Berggren, Carl Johnsson, HelenaSvensson, Anders Wretstranda, Travel Behaviour and Society Volume 15, April 2019, Pages 1-14
Highlights
• Dedicated smartphone app survey gave important insights into PT travel behaviour.
• Trip lengths, frequencies and transfers comparable to traditional travel survey.
• Trip purpose, scheduled headway, trip duration and access mode strongest determinants for first waiting time.
• Passengers adapted first waiting times to schedule rather than actual (realised) headways.
