The UK's NHS is the largest employer in Europe with approximately 1.3 million staff. Around 83% of the journeys associated with the NHS are made by private car. In this context, every healthcare authority was required to produce a travel plan by December 2010, including an emphasis on promoting walking and cycling as a means of accessing hospitals. Evidence shows that although the take-up of travel plans is increasing across the NHS, the impact of travel plans in promoting walking as a travel option is relatively low among hospital staff. A scoping study has been conducted aiming to bridge the gap between research and practice by capturing the views of the NHS representatives on hospital travel plans by a nationwide survey and review of hospital travel plans. The survey findings show that despite having a high potential to promote walking as a key travel option among the hospital staff, the measures to promote walking were cited as the least effective. A Spearman's ρ correlation coefficient test was performed to evaluate the correlation between travel plan measures to promote walking and restrictive measures to reduce the use of cars. The results show that the effectiveness of measures to reduce the use of cars is positively correlated with the effectiveness of measures to promote walking. The effectiveness of travel plan measures to secure the targeted outcome is attributed to the methods used to address the determinants for changing travel behaviour whilst designing travel plan measures and the successful adoption of innovative strategies in the given context. A theoretical framework has been developed based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour and five key research hypotheses have been proposed to demonstrate the key determinants for changing travel behaviour. The analysis was based on a nationwide survey among the NHS hospital staff in England in 2013. There were 863 completed responses, out of which 459 responses were from hospital staff, who solely relied on car journeys for commuting purposes. Structural equation modelling was performed to investigate the effects of socio-economic, psychological and situational factors in determining intention to change travel behaviour among the car users only. The model estimation results show that the effects of cognitive attitude towards walking and objective mobility were significant on determining intention to change travel behaviour. The respondents exhibited a habitual nature of travel behaviour, which is characterised by longer commuting distance and journey time than the national UK average. The practical implications of the study were addressed by providing recommendations that need to be considered whilst designing travel plan measures. The recommendations were based on the concept of Model for Planned Promotion. This study provides a basis for further conceptualisation of travel behaviour change and identifies several areas that need further investigation in relation to designing interventions to promote walking in the context of healthcare.

The travel and tourism industries are today facing unprecedented challenges in coping with emerging technology paradigms. Consequently, reengineering traditional travel business models is necessary. Internet technologies coupled with increasingly complex software applications and information structures are distracting travel companies from the strategic elements of providing values to travelers.

Independence for individuals with disabilities can be facilitated through the use of devices that have been created and adapted for these individuals. Research regarding the use of technology to afford independence to those with disabilities is growing as new devices are being created. One such device is the Travel Assistance Device (TAD) which has undergone conceptual tests to assess if the individual components of the device work as intended. The purpose of this research study was to determine whether the prompts given by the TAD would exhibit stimulus control over the participant's behavior of pulling the cord to stop the bus at the appropriate time and exiting the bus at the appropriate stop. Results show favorable outcomes for the 3 participants who were able to pull the bus cord at the appropriate stops and exit the bus only when the TAD delivered prompts. Future implications in parent training are discussed.

Den hållbara samhällsutvecklingen hotas av att människor i samband med globaliseringen reser allt mer. Ett ökat behov av att resa har resulterat i större mängder växthusgasutsläpp som i sin tur har en negativ påverkan på klimatet. Förbränning av fossila bränslen står idag för den största andelen utsläpp av växthusgaser i relation till den totala mängden utsläpp i Sverige. De klimatpåverkande utsläppen från vägtrafiken har från och med år 2010 minskat med 18 procent, men för att nå Regeringens uppsatta klimatmål måste utsläppen fortsatt minska med åtta procent varje år fram till år 2030. I linje med Regeringens klimatmål krävs en samhällsomställning med mål att minska transportsektorns koldioxidutsläpp.   I denna studie läggs fokus på begreppet hållbart resande med syftet att kartlägga studenters resvanor till och från Högskolan i Gävle och dessutom se över vilka behov, möjligheter och hinder som studenterna upplever i samband med val av transportslag vid resor till och från Högskolan. Detta för att vidare kunna presentera åtgärdsförslag vilka ska främja ett mer hållbart resande. För att kartlägga studenternas resvanor utfördes en kvantitativ enkätundersökning. Enkäten besvarades av 106 studenter på Högskolan i Gävle och var indelad i sex olika delar. Den första delen bestod av grundläggande frågor såsom ålder och kön. I den andra delen kartlades studenternas förutsättningar för ett hållbart resande till och från Högskolan. Den tredje delen berörde studenternas faktiska resvanor till och från Högskolan. Den fjärde delen avsåg undersöka studenternas möjligheter och hinder. I den femte delen behandlades digital undervisning och huruvida studenternas skulle föredra detta. Den sjätte och sista delen avsåg kartlägga deltagarnas attityd gentemot miljöproblem för att se om det fanns ett samband mellan attityderna och studenternas val av transportmedel.    Resultatet av enkätundersökningen visade att studenterna i genomsnitt reste 25,2 kilometer från sin bostad till Högskolan. De flesta deltagarna valde transportslaget kollektivtrafik som det primära transportslaget under vinterhalvåret. Under sommarhalvåret valdes transportslaget cykel flest gånger. Den mest betydande faktorn vid val av transportslag var tidseffektivitet och bekvämlighet och de studenterna med lång resväg föredrog i högre utsträckning digital undervisning än de med kortare resväg. Resultatet av undersökningen visade även att deltagarnas val av transportslag inte hade något samband med deras attityder till miljöproblem. Däremot fanns ett samband mellan studenternas attityder till miljöproblem och påverkande faktorer vid val av transportslag. Resultatet av denna resvaneundersökning visade att transportslaget bil inte används i samma utsträckning som i många andra tidigare utförda resvaneundersökningar, vilket är anmärkningsvärt. Resvaneundersökningen påvisar dock ett behov av vissa förändringar och förbättringar som på sikt skulle främja ett mer hållbart resande för studenterna på Högskolan i Gävle.

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In this paper female overland documentations are examined, as narratives that could influence development processes. In thematic chapters female Overland travel is investigated and potential connection points between development processes and the travel narratives are highlighted. Therefore, the paper examined travel narratives as an integral part of shaping our worldview and political agents. Three books penned by female Overlanders have been analyzed, as well as multiple social media accounts and seven semi-structured interviews conducted. The analysis showed that female overland documentaries have the potential to influence development processes on multiple levels, ranging from real encounters to documentary practices that foster cross-cultural empathy, are actively engaging with the colonial past of the field and construct shared agency rather than singular superiority. In conclusion, the value of the narrative as instigators of change, to a Northern-centric worldview has been identified.

Price bundling, offering two or more separate products/services together in a single package at a different price from the sum of the components’ prices, is one of the most prevalent marketing practices in many industries, including hospitality and travel. Virtually all types of firms in the hospitality and travel industry, from suppliers such as hotels and airlines to intermediaries such as travel agents, are encouraging customers to purchase travel “packages” rather than a single component of travel. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the practice of price bundling by online travel agents is associated with actual monetary savings to consumers. Conventional economics theories generally assume that price bundling results in consumer savings in comparison with purchasing the same component products separately, and this is what travel agents are highlighting in their advertisements for selling travel packages. This study also investigated whether the magnitude of bundle discounts vary by four relevant variables such as travel agent, destination city, hotel class, and the timing of purchase. The results show that purchasing a travel bundle results in significantly lower consumer prices than purchasing the component products separately. However, the magnitude of the bundle savings is inconsistent across the relevant variables. In particular, Travelocity tends to offer significantly greater bundle savings than Expedia; bundles including upper-class hotels appear to provide greater absolute discounts than lower-class-hotel bundles, but those two are not significantly different in terms of percentage discounts. Some important implications of the results are discussed, along with the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.

The overarching goal of this dissertation is to examine the complex trip-, activity-, and personal-level factors impacting individuals’ well-being. This is achieved through fulfilling three research objectives. The first objective examines the fluctuation of happiness induced by the influences of daily trip and activity factors. The second objective examines the sensitivity of affective well-being to trip and activity duration. The third objective evaluates the gender differences in trip- and activity-induced well-being. Three notable findings are discerned using trip and activity episodes as well as self-reported well-being of 357 participants collected by the Daynamica smartphone application in Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area from October 17, 2016, to October 25, 2017. The first finding shows the daily happiness deviation is zero in 6% of the number of trip and activity episodes recorded in a day for all individuals. Trip-level factors associated with share of time spent on education, work, and traveling alone result in the largest happiness variability. The number of activities is the sole activity-level factor with positive influence on happiness variability. Personal level factor of gender results in a low happiness variability. The second finding indicates that positive affect is more sensitive to trip duration than negative affect. Among trip-level factors, the sensitivity of affective well-being during a trip is relatively weak when traveling by bike, bus, and rail; conducting discretionary trip purposes; traveling with spouse, family, children, and friends; conducting secondary activities while traveling; and being satisfied with the travel environment. Among personal-level factors, the sensitivity of affective well-being during a trip is relatively strong for women and African Americans. The third finding demonstrates that the top three factors yielding the highest magnitude of impact for females are associated with biking, trip destination associated with discretionary activities, and walking. The likelihood of gain to loss happiness is four times for male bikers and two and a half times for female bikers. Results of both discretionary and mandatory trip origins have the least magnitude of impact for both females and males. For personal-level factors, the magnitude of impact is low for African American females, and not significant for males.

<p> This work trip study is part of the studies on King Street closure. The objectives are to examine the effect of changed traffic conditions on change in travel behaviour, and to identify variables for choice modelling. Some behavioural changes are observed, but none is related to the increased road congestion. The household survey data shows that people did not perceive a difference in travel times before and during closure. Thus the reliability of reported times on modelling is suspected. However, modelling on time of day in a multinomial legit framework using measured travel data does not help to explain the behavioural changes with either travel time or a congestion factor. It is concluded that the changes observed in this study represent random occurrences and the change in congestion is too moderate to effect behavioural changes. </p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)