The minibus taxi industry in South Africa is the most popular form of public transportation and is used by the majority of commuters. At least 65 percent of the country’s commuters make use of this mode of public transport while the rest travel by busses or trains. Although minibus taxis are the most convenient form of transportation the industry is however associated with various complaints from commuters, the media and society at large. Most of the complaints are about “violence or taxi wars”, “unsafe taxis” resulting in high accident rates and the manner in which minibus taxi drivers appear to drive, behave, over speed and overload taxis etc. All these complaints are directly related to minibus taxi drivers. The purpose of my research is to investigate whether or not all minibus taxi drivers are indeed behaving in these similar ways and whether it can hence be argued that they are all “children born from the same mother?” In the field, it was important to go beyond the stereotypes of South African minibus taxi drivers. My study focussed specifically on minibus taxi drivers in the Johannesburg – Randfontein route, which is about a forty five minute drive each way.

Submitted by Morgana Silva (morgana_linhares@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-08-31T16:54:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 14406050 bytes, checksum: 6883937022c05720a8a2b2ceeba7330a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-31T16:54:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 14406050 bytes, checksum: 6883937022c05720a8a2b2ceeba7330a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / In face of the professional diversity found in urban environment, this work disserts on the appeareance and development of a recent socio-professional category - the one of the moto-taxi pilots - focusing on a specific group of moto-taxi pilots in the city of Campina Grande - PB. Subsidized by the etnographic method, this work was developed through participant observation of a moto-taxi stand, between November of 2012 and August of 2013. The stand XXX, located at the Venancio Neiva St. - city downtown, belongs to the "white motorbikes pilots", i.e. the ones that are registered at the city's Traffic and Public Transportation Office (STTP-CG). With the objective of capturing the diverse situations that can be found in the daily lives of those workers, this research listens to what moto-taxi pilots have to say, considering the conditions that drove them to join this system and their relationships with their families, customers, associates, colleagues, employers, companies and public agents. We aimed on perceiving the tensions and conflicts that rise due to the daily relationship between "freedom" - which main representation would justify their stay in such a though job, and the restrictions to their activities, which are commonly associated to the risk intrinsically related with their job, to the urban violence, to traffic regulation, to the embarrassment by the close relationship with the costumer and the stereotypes that those workers are subject to. / Diante da diversidade profissional encontrada no meio urbano, esta dissertação tem como objetivo refletir sobre o surgimento e perenidade de uma recente categoria sócioprofissional, -o mototaxista-, apresentando como foco um grupo específico de mototaxistas da Cidade de Campina Grande- PB. Subsidiado pelo método etnográfico, este trabalho foi construído a partir de observação participante de um Ponto de mototáxi, entre novembro de 2012 e agosto de 2013. O Ponto XXX, situa-se na Rua Venâncio Neiva, Centro da cidade, pertencendo ao grupo dos “mototaxistas das motos brancas”, ou seja; aqueles que possuem cadastro na Secretaria de Trânsito e Transporte Público de Campina Grande (STTP-CG). Buscandn apreender as diversas situações encontradas no cotidiano desser trabalhadores, a pesquisa voltou-se aos discursos dos mototaxistas, abordando as condições que motivaram seu ingresso no sistema, seu cotidiano nas relações com a família e nas relações de trabalho com clientes, associados, colegas, patrões, órgãos e agentes públicos. Buscamos perceber as tensões e conflitos decorrentes da relação cotidiana entre a "liberdade" -principal representação- justificando sua permanência nessa atividade "cansada" e as restrições às suas atividades, vinculadas à insalubridade no trabalho, à violência urbana, as regulamentações de trânsito, aos constrangimentos nas relações com os clientes e os estigmas recorrentes desta atividade.

This thesis presents two aspects of air transportation systems, capacity and efficiency. The first study improved a runway capacity simulation model for estimating the capacity of airports under various conditions. The main contribution of this study was to develop a simulation model which is able to analyze different airports with individual aircraft types. Many air traffic regulations were added to the simulation model to give more realistic results to the potential users of the model. Analysis of different separation systems between aircraft pairs show that the capacity of airports can improve by using more efficient separation systems specially under tough weather conditions. One of the outputs of the study, is an upgraded user interface which can be used by airport authorities for estimating their facilities' available capacity under different scenarios. The second study represents a new method for estimating unimpeded taxi times for taxing airplanes at airports. This study focused specifically on 6 large airports in the United States and the real ground radar data for all of the movements at those facilities. By tracking the real trajectories of every operation, the taxing behavior of each flight was analyzed. A standalone application was designed to summarize the flights information at each airport and represent the taxing behavior. The results show that using the ground radar data at airports can represent the taxing behavior in the highest fidelity. / Master of Science

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Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / Daniel Andresen / Now a days, people are more inclined towards owning a smart phone. In such a scenario, mobile application development is one of most sought after platforms. Android is one of the largest platforms that run in most smart phones from manufacturers like Samsung, HTC etc. ToGo Cabs is an Android phone cab reservation application which targets the residents of the state of Kansas. While some cab services boast about their cab being just a call away, some other taxi services boast about the punctuality of their service. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, the passengers are just tired of waiting at different locations for the cab that they have just reserved to pick them up and take them home. What we need is a reliable mobile application which reserves a cab for us from a specific place at a certain time and which tells its users the status of the cab in order to keep them from waiting for long hours. ToGo Cabs serves just that purpose. ToGo Cabs allows the users to get a cab from any location in the state of Kansas, even if they seem to be lost. One does not have to spend hours on phone with the cab services to tell them where exactly you are located currently. The Global Positioning System takes care of the current location for the users. This application shows the route to the user, which the cab would take to reach to the destination. Once a user reserves a cab, he is acknowledged with a confirmation number which he can further use to check the cab status. The application provides the user the facility to e-mail or text his confirmation number. The application can also set a reminder notification just 15 minutes before the cab pick-up. The user can also check all the trips that he has made so far, from the application.

This thesis is focused on different government approaches to taxi market. It discusses necessity of regulations in this branch. The core part of this thesis is empirical analysis of taxi markets in London, Dublin, Paris, Stockholm, New York and Prague. To study the subject more complex I also examined PHV (private hire vehicle) market which provides almost the same kind of services but it is not regulated. These markets are compared in term of supply -- number of cars per capita and price, and also in term of demand -- utilization of cars and customers content. According to this comparison I tried to find out if any of these approches can be considered as optimal, and wheather if regulated or deregulated markets bring better results. This thesis also discusses the best way how to deregulate entry into the taxi market. This will be illustrated by case study of entry deregulation in Dublin. I also provide some recommendation for taxi market in Prague.

This thesis quantitatively and qualitatively analyzes the economic regulations that govern taxicab firms in Iowa City, Iowa. Based upon a review of the relevant literature, an economic analysis of regulations and market power, and conducted interviews among taxicab owners and drivers, city staff and planners, and members of the general public, this paper will analyze the costs and implications of economic regulations and risks of regulatory capture, and identify improvements to existing ordinances and city codes. Current economic theory argues that economic regulations create both real and perceived entry barriers, and impose costs to producers and consumers. Additionally, these regulations stifles entrepreneurship and innovation, reduces driver pay, and in some instances leads to discrimination and encumbrance for the most vulnerable residents, recent immigrants and the car-less poor. On the question of whether economic regulations causes high concentrations of market power in U.S. cities, regression analysis of medium to large U.S. cities does not reveal a correlation between entry regulation and market power. Additionally, calculations of the Herfindahl (HH) Index for taxi firms in Iowa City yields a HH score of 0.103052, which is considered an un-concentrated market. However, while the quantitative data indicates that economic regulations do not cause an identifiable influence on market power, qualitative data gathered from stakeholder interviews reveal a burden in the form of unavoidable sunk costs for drivers, owners, and riders. These interviews reveal the "true" costs of regulations, as well as the perceived costs by policy makers, regulators, and the general public, who frequently underestimate the burden of regulation. This thesis further highlights how regulations arise in the policy-making process; and to what extend they stem from either anti-competitive interests between established firms, a lack of information among policymakers, or simply planners' failure to integrate taxis into a more comprehensive regional transportation system. Ultimately this thesis argues that some of Iowa City's taxicab regulations, particularly the liability insurance minimums for drivers, the terms of operation for dispatching, and the profiling of immigrant and small firm cabbies by ICPD are burdensome and unnecessary. Loosening of these restrictions would benefit small firm and drivers, the general consumer of taxi services, and compliment larger city planning goals in Iowa City, Iowa. Despite the costs and burdens, this thesis does not justify complete deregulation for Iowa City's transportation policy, particularly when case studies of such efforts have not always yielded positive benefits. Instead, this thesis advocates for "better regulation", to be enforced on a regional level, rather than at a municipal level.

The aim of this study was to explore how psychosocial lived experiences of taxi drivers explain accident involvement in Uganda. Face to face in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with six male taxi drivers who survived accidents while driving and still served as taxi drivers. The sample was identified with purposive and snowball sampling techniques. Ethical considerations were observed during data collection through transcription, analysis to the final compilation. Interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) was employed to each participant’s discernment of the specific and general accounts of accident narratives in a bid to make "sense" of their lived worlds as drivers and accident involvement. Three superordinate themes illuminating accidents emerged out of the data: typical routines of taxi drivers; the socio-cultural context; and the taxi drivers’ community. These were discussed based on relevant theories and previous studies as well as pertinent concepts. Considering the study results, typical routines of taxi drivers, driver community factors and social/cultural factors affect each other, these together leave driver-accident involvement inevitable. Categorically such factors include; age, formal education, driving training, driver health status, domestic concerns, significant others, competitive driving / worse-worse, other road users, Impulsive pick and drop-off of passengers, theft, driver stress, state of the road, state of the vehicle among others. Thus behavioural and cognitive remedies are herein suggested towards ameliorative and/or transformative processes of the accident endemic.

No description available.

Today, aircraft emissions represent 2.6% of total global CO 2 emissions. A partial solution to reduce emissions during the taxiing process is to use an electric taxi system instead of the aircraft's main engines as well as the towing vehicles. A literature review was conducted on three different Electric Taxi System (ETS) to gain a wider insight into the systems. Through the literature study, a comparison was made between the three different ETS in order to choose the most appropriate taxiing system that could reduce emissions emitted during the taxiing. EGTS was chosen as the most suitable concept for a greener taxiing process. The results were obtained through calculations and analyzes of emissions and fuel consumption based on the FOI3 method, ICAO database, and Safran & Honeywell models. In conclusion, the results showed that the EGTS concept results in fuel saving and emission reduction up to 56 % and two minutes of time saving during the taxiing process. / I dagsläget utgör flygets utsläpp globalt 2,6% av de totala koldioxidutsläppen. En dellösning för att reducera utsläppen under taxningsprocessen är att använda elektriska taxningssystem istället för flygplanets huvudmotorer eller bogserfordon. Syftet med arbetet är att analysera tekniska och miljömässiga förutsättningar med konceptet EGTS för att reducera ett trafikflygplans miljöpåverkan under taxningsfasen. Vi genomförde en litteraturstudie på tre olika Electric Taxi System (ETS) för att få en bred kunskap om systemen. Därefter gjorde vi en jämförelse mellan de tre olika ETS-systemen med syfte att kunna välja det taxningssystem, som hade störst potential att kunna bidra till reducering av de emissioner som släpps ut under taxningsfasen. EGTS bedömdes vara det mest passande konceptet för gröna taxningsprocesser. Resultaten togs fram genom beräkningar och analyser avseende emissioner och bränsleförbrukning, vilka är baserade på FOI3-metoden, ICAO:s databas och Safran- & Honeywells modeller. Analys och tolkning av erhållna resultat visar att konceptet EGTS leder till bränslebesparing och reducering av emissioner med upp till 56 % samt två minuters tidsbesparing under taxningsprocessen.