Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

<p>The bicycle is an individual means of transport. Many people prefer to cycle over short distances and in congested areas rather than take travel by car or public transport. This is a study of the use of bicycle as an option for commuting to work. It is a comparison between three cities: Stockholm, Copenhagen and London. The comparison is focused on solutions that benefit commuter cyclist and performed by studying cycle policies and other related documents. Results of this study shows that bicycle commuters are a targeted group in cycle policies in all three cities, for commuter traffic to increase booth an enhanced sense of security and the opportunity to travel at a high speed by bicycle is important.. In Stockholm and London efforts to increase the number of cyclists begin by improving the quality of transport for those who already cycle. The cycle network in Copenhagen is more comprehensive and the level of bicycle use and commuting is at significant higher level in comparison to Stockholm and London. The possibility to combine cycling and public transport is a target for all three cities, one important measure is to increase bicycle parking facilities at terminals and other public places.</p><p>Although there are differences in the three cities regarding bicycle commuting today, targets and measures for the futures they do correspond in quite a few places; parallels that could serve as examples of the ways in which a high degree of bicycle commuting can be attained.</p>

optimizationover a discrete number of random variables. In this paperwe extend this theory from the discrete to the continuous case, andconsider the limiting distribution of the location of the best offer asthe number of offers tends to infinity.Given a set   Rd of possible offers we seek a distribution over ,the argmax measure of the best offer. It depends on , the samplingdistribution of offer locations, and a measure index , which assignsto each point x 2  a probability distribution of offers.This problem is closely related to argmax theory of marked pointprocesses, altough we consider deterministic sequences of points inspace, to allow for greater generality. We first define a finite sampleargmax measure and then give conditions under which it converges asthe number of offers tends to infinity.To this end, we introduce a max-field of best offers and use continuityproperties of this field to calculate the argmax measure. Wedemonstrate the usefulness of the method by giving explicit formulasfor the limiting argmax distribution for a large class of models, includingexponential independent offers with a deterministic, additivedisturbance term. Finally, we illustrate the theory by simulations.

Reducing vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) has become an important goal for improving environmental outcomes and reducing the costs of travel and infrastructure. One way to accomplish such reductions could be to enact policies that foster more compact development. However, while it is accepted that compact development is associated with lower VMT, there remain disagreements about the efficacy of this policy lever. One issue casting doubt on the power of compact development relates to travelers' exposure to density. A conventional view holds that many travelers' neighborhoods are "locked in place" because change in established neighborhoods is slow. Additionally, conventional explanations of the effect of denser development focus on travelers' own neighborhoods, or on the metro area as a whole, failing to isolate the effect of densifying nodes near, but outside of, the travelers' neighborhoods. This study employs housing and travel data from the Seattle-Tacoma, Wash., where policies aimed at encouraging compact development have been in place since the mid-1990s. Findings suggest that 1) in established neighborhood, incremental change often results in exposure to substantially higher density, and 2) that even where localized density is constant, increases in density at intentional nodes or other areas near, but outside of, a traveler's own neighborhood, has a strong effect on VMT. The findings tend to undermine some of the key doubts about using land use as a policy lever for VMT reduction.

Många hushåll och individer har i dagens samhälle tvingats börja pendla till sina arbeten bl.a. på grund av en förändrad arbetsmarknad. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att se om individer som pendlar regelbundet har ett lägre KASAM. Utgångspunkten var att individer med en mer extern kontrollokus ofta har lägre KASAM och att pendling hypotetiskt sett bör påverka individen lokus i en extern riktning. Sammanlagt 27 försökspersoner i åldrarna 22 – 50 år undersöktes med hjälp av KASAM test och I-E test. Deltagarna togs med bekvämlighetsurval från ett nordiskt flygbolag i Sverige, där 13 personer pendlande till arbetet och 14 var bosatta på arbetsorten, vilket visade att KASAM var signifikant lägre på 5 % nivå för de pendlande individerna, samt att kontrollokus var signifikant mer externt, också på 5 % nivå. Vidare forskning bör fokusera på individer från andra branscher för att se om resultaten är allmänna.

This thesis compared revealed-preference automobile morning work commute trip data from GPS-equipped instrumented vehicles of Commute Atlanta participants with transit commute alternatives identified in the regional planning model transit network. The Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual (TCQSM) travel time level of service (LOS) measure for transit was applied to these GPS automobile and modeled transit data. To quantify system-level transit availability, the TCQSM service coverage LOS was applied to the Atlanta region and Atlanta s transit service area LOS was calculated as C. Most of the commuters in this study would experience transit-auto travel time LOS of F. The analyses revealed that revealed automobile travel times were 45% shorter than the model-reported automobile travel time skims for the same origin and destination zones. Transit traces, calculated by manually tracing the trips from origin to destination via the most preferable transit mode, were about 24% longer than the minimum travel-demand-modeled transit skims. Only about 9% of commuters drove directly to work more than 95% of the time and only 6% of commuters left home within five minutes of their median departure time more than 95% of the time, indicating that the convenience and flexibility of the automobile is likely to be a significant element in these commute mode decisions. Commuters perceive the total transit trip time as between being 1.25 and 2.5 as long as the actual (modeled) time, and only about 25% of commuters could take transit without having to transfer. The calculated total cost of driving to work exceeded the cost of transit, but automobile operating costs alone did not exceed transit costs for about half the sample.

The junior high schools and primary schools which are numerous and located in the equal distribution are the largest public facility lands in Taiwan. Under the circumstances that the urban area not only has high density of population and spends expensive cost but also has not enough public facilities, the campus which has the green land as well as open space is becoming the only chance of the neighborhood accessing to nature. Proper adjustment of campus planning or architectural design of school buildings is to make the best use of the limited resource of public facilities in the city and to bear the duties and responsibilities of improving the community environmental needs. Regarding ¡§Challenge 2008: National Development Program¡ÐThe Community Landscape Construction of the New Hometown¡ÐCommunity Landscape Construction Program,¡¨ we expect to build up a living space of high quality and humanization to make the best of the characteristics of the local nature, history and cultural landscape. We aim to reconstruct urban and rural landscape to push forward the improvement and to stimulate the potentials of the development of the Taiwanese society step by step; and ¡§the commuting networks of community school children¡¨ is the most urgent item to subsidize. In Kaohsiung City, there are already 5 commuting networks of community school children completed at the first phase. This research proceed beneficial evaluation on the commuting networks of Ling-Jou Primary School after it is put in usage to collect the empirical data. Hence, a significant feedback and improvement in this program can be achieved. The researcher selects three dimensions including the dimension of ¡¥functions¡¦, ¡¥psychologies¡¦, and ¡¥policies¡¦ of the commuting networks in the community as the evaluation of effectiveness based on literature review, the researcher also interviews students, inhabitants and teachers to collect the data of their feedback of every specific item including the safety of school trip, the convenience of pick-up students, the facilities of the commuting networks, recreational function, beautiful natural scenery, the levels of satisfaction, the whole environmental image, identification with schools, the creative potential of the public to resolve problems, the experience and ability of participating in public affaires, the buildup of the multiple space aiming to satisfy the human needs, and the effect of publicizing the facilities of the primary schools.¡@ The results of the present study reveal that: (1) The planning and use of the commuting networks in the community which leads to the interaction between school and community is an efficient method to combine school and community so as to help community inhabitants to build up identification and participation with schools. (2) The case of the commuting networks in the community helps the public to perceive the questions, to estimate the reality, to stir up the imagination, to create community features, and to reveal the meaning of community participation. (3) The commuting networks provide the green land, barrier-free pathway so that the inhabitants enjoy doing exercise and taking a walk to achieve the recreational function. The dimensions such as the construction will begin upon the integration of the public ideas can meet the demand of human nature; according to all the interviewees, it is believed that the effect of publicizing the facilities of primary schools provides with a platform for the interaction between school and community, merging the ideas of the inhabitants into the facilities of schools, combine public art to uplift the quality of recreational life of the public, etc. However, the utilization of the inhabitants also increases the burden on the maintenance management of the school. In the other hand, the relevant suggestions to improve the publicizing the facilities of the primary schools as well as urban space planning are provided.

There has been a lively debate over using land use strategies to reduce automobile dependence over the past decade. As a part of the issue, this study investigates the spatial characteristics around workplaces and their relationships to commuting made by the employees in metropolitan Dallas-Fort Worth. The tools of geographic information systems (GIS) are utilized to measure workplace environs. Several statistical methods are applied to analyze commuting behavior. This study finds that low-density suburban workplaces are associated with shorter vehicle travel times but more drive-alone trips. While major suburban centers attain some level of compact development in terms of local activity mix and regional accessibility, employees in these centers are far more automobile dependent than employees in older centers in the central city. In the suburban locations, workplaces in residence-based centers and master planned communities with a mix of activities are associated with less drive-alone commuting and more carpooling. Workers take advantage of the abundance of activities, as larger and denser centers are associated with more non-work activity stops after work. Yet, the trip chaining is overwhelmingly driven by automobile use. This study also finds that spatial factors are significant in explaining commuting behavior. Yet, the importance of spatial factors varies with the aspect of travel. Spatial factors do a better job in explaining travel times than in explaining travel mode and trip chaining. The way a particular spatial factor affects commuting also varies with the aspect of travel. For instance, land use intensity factors are associated with longer travel times but less drive-alone trips. While this study suggests that concerted planning may affect travel, some socioeconomic variables, including income and automobile ownership, are strongly related to more automobile travel. The findings suggest that the land use strategies to cope with transportation and air quality problems, such as new urbanism and jobs-housing balance, would be a viable option in and around employment locations. But, such strategies should be carefully designed because of the differences in effectiveness of spatial factors with travel outcomes and the trade-offs between travel outcomes with a particular spatial factor.

Bike-n-Bus includes any number of methods where bicycle serves as the access mode to some form of bus transit. This study examines bike-n-bus operations in the United States based on telephone interviews with transit professionals from 33 transit agencies across the lower 48 states. It reviews past trends in research and gives some history of bike-n-bus in the U.S. and abroad. A brief explanation of methodology is followed by a description of the various facets of U.S. bike-n-bus operations, based on both interviews and the literature, with commentary by survey respondents. The study ends with a long term vision for bike-n-bus based on the characteristics of that mode-couple. Conclusions are addressed to various audiences: transit agency, community leader/ policy maker, and researcher. Included are suggestions for possible next steps in research and implementation. These findings would be of interest to those studying transit and bicycle travel, developing travel demand models, managing a transit agency, or those with influence over bicycle policy and infrastructure. Most transit agencies have installed front-mounted bicycle racks on their entire bus fleet, and expressed satisfaction that the amenity accommodates bicyclists. However, agencies have made only moderate efforts to follow-up on this success. Studies suggest that cycling to transit can be competitive with the private automobile in journey-to-work trips and attracts new riders to transit. Better bicycling infrastructure is the most significant way to increase the number of bike-n-bus riders. However, transit agencies seem reluctant to support these improvements.

This report is a summarization and extension of previous work done by Dr. Efraim Armendariz, University of Texas at Austin, and Dr. Henry E. Heatherly, University of Lousiana Lafayette, on the topic of rings with commuting ideals. Some of these authors’ results are extended to one-sided ideals instead of two-sided ideals. Topics discussed include homomorphic images of rings with commuting left ideals, finite direct products of rings with commuting left ideals, rings of n x n matrices over a ring with commuting left ideals, constructing rings with commuting ideals using an idempotent, and simple rings with commuting ideals over polynomials in X. Examples are given to illustrate some properties of rings with commuting ideals. A short a discussion regarding the inclusion of ring theory in the secondary mathematics classroom is also included. / text