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Public Transportation (public + transportation)
Selected AbstractsA BROAD PERFORMANCE BENCHMARK BASED ON CITIZENS' PREFERENCES: THE CASE OF SWEDISH PUBLIC TRANSPORTATIONANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2009Magnus Söderberg ABSTRACT,:,Benchmarks have been recommended for assessing the relative performance of local government services. However, these are often narrowly defined and therefore ignore important welfare dimensions. This paper proposes a framework for benchmarking based on a combination of production and cost characteristics and citizens' subjective perceptions. An evaluation consisting of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and different regression models is applied on all 21 Swedish regional public transport authorities, covering the period 2002,2006 (n = 103). The results indicate that the industry as a whole is about 70% efficient and that efficiency can be improved by increasing the sizes of the urban and the bus vehicle-km shares. The optimal ownership structure is to have one large owner combined with about 25 small owners. [source] The Anticipated Capitalisation Effect of a New Metro Line on Housing Prices,FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2008Claudio A. Agostini H54; R21; R53 Abstract Housing units with closer access to public transportation enjoy a higher market value than those with similar characteristics but poorer access. This difference can be explained by the lower cost of transport to the main workplaces and shopping areas in town. For this reason, investments in public transport infrastructure, such as building a new metro line, are capitalised totally or partially into land and housing prices. This work empirically analyses the degree of capitalisation into housing prices of the benefits of the new Line 4 of the Santiago metro system, which began operating in December 2005. We focus on anticipated capitalisation into housing prices at the moment construction of Line 4 was announced and at the moment information on the basic engineering project was unveiled, identifying the location of the future stations. We use a unique database containing all home buying and selling transactions in the Greater Santiago area between December 2000 and March 2004. The results show that the average apartment price rose by between 4.2 per cent and 7.9 per cent after construction was announced and by between 3.1 per cent and 5.5 per cent after the location of the stations was identified. These increases were not distributed evenly, but depended on the distance from the apartment to the nearest station. An indirect effect of this kind of capitalization is that property tax collections will increase if property is reappraised following the price rise. This effect is not negligible in magnitude and could represent 11 to 17 per cent of investment in the new metro line. This raises and interesting discussion on how the metro network extension is financed. [source] Survey findings on characteristics and health status of clients treated by the federally funded (US) Health Care for the Homeless ProgramsHEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 1 2009Cheryl Zlotnick RN DrPH Abstract For almost two decades, the US Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) Program has funded clinics across the country for homeless populations. Between October and December 2003, for the first time ever, a nationally representative sample of the almost 200 HCH clinics with a response rate of approximately 71% (the HCH User Visit Survey) was created to examine the health status of its users (n = 1017). This study employed the HCH User Visit Survey's cross-sectional data set to evaluate health indicators of individuals using HCH Services with the US population, and compare individuals who reported they routinely used HCH clinics (,usual' HCH users) to those who did not (,non-usual' users). HCH users had poorer health status than the US population (44.0% versus 12.3%, respectively). Usual HCH users had similar healthcare status compared to non-usual users, but were more likely to be uninsured, non-English speakers, and walking or taking public transportation to their medical appointments. Usual versus non-usual HCH users were also more apt to have slept in cars, buses or on the streets in the week prior to the survey (14.8% versus 4.3%, respectively). This study shows that the HCH clinics are serving homeless individuals who have a variety of complex health and psychosocial needs, and its most frequent users are those who experience the most barriers accessing care. [source] Structural Modeling of Car Use on the Way to the University in Different Settings: Interplay of Norms, Habits, Situational Restraints, and Perceived Behavioral Control,JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 8 2009Christian A. Klöckner This manuscript presents the results of the application of an extended norm activation model to the explanation of car use on the way to the university with a sample of 430 students of 3 German universities. The proposed two-stage structural model is supported by the data. First, a norm activation process starting with awareness of consequences activates subjective and personal norms. Second, behavior is determined by car-use habits, perceived behavioral control (PBC), car access, and effort to use public transportation. The influence of personal norms on behavior is mediated by habits. Subgroup analyses of the second stage of the model show a high structural stability, but differences in the regression weights. [source] Obstacles to desegregating public housing: Lessons learned from implementing eight consent decreesJOURNAL OF POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2003Susan J. Popkin Between 1992 and 1996 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) settled a number of legal cases involving housing authorities and agreed to take remedial action as part of court-enforced consent decrees entered into with plaintiffs. These housing authorities faced significant obstacles that impaired their ability to comply swiftly and fully with all of the elements in the desegregation consent decrees. The obstacles fell into two broad categories: contextual obstacles (racial composition of waiting lists and resident populations, lack of affordable rental housing, and inadequate public transportation), and capacity and coordination obstacles (conflict among implementing agencies and ineffective monitoring by HUD). Findings presented here highlight the sizable potential delay between the time a legal remedy is imposed and when plaintiffs in public housing segregation disputes realize any benefits. They also reinforce the argument that implementation problems will be legion when policies impose a significant scope of required changes on a large number of actors who must collaborate, yet are not uniformly capable or sympathetic to the goals being promoted. © 2003 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. [source] Oil demand in transportation sector in Iran: an efficiency and income asymmetric modelling approachOPEC ENERGY REVIEW, Issue 4 2007Mohammad Mazraati The transportation sector in Iran consumed about 52 per cent of oil demand in 2005. This high consumption rate of oil in the sector is fuelled by many factors including fiscal policies structural, as well as infrastructural factors. The vehicle ownership (intensity), efficiency of vehicles, public transportation, transport infrastructure, per capita income, cost of vehicle use, and fuel prices are among the factors which are shaping the trend of oil demand in this very important sector. Energy in Iran is heavily subsidized and in the transportation sector, the subsidy amounted to $3.59 billion in 1996, rising to $12.43 billion in 2005. Logistic model of vehicle ownership is estimated as a function of real per capita income, length of roads and other explanatory variables. Per capita income is a cumulative non-declining variable incorporating the idea of income asymmetric. Oil demand is estimated as a function of fuel efficiency, age of car fleet, per capita income and vehicle ownership per 1,000 inhabitants. Oil demand elasticities of vehicle ownership and fuel efficiency are 1.29 and 1.11, respectively, confirming that these variables have major impacts on oil demand in the transportation sector. It is concluded that rationing of fuel or upward price adjustment merely cannot curb the fast growth of oil demand in the sector. A policy package including mandatory fuel efficiency standards, scraping of old vehicles, upward fuel price, and development of public transportation could lead to better management of fuel consumption in this sector. [source] Service delivery in older patients with bipolar disorder: a review and development of a medical care modelBIPOLAR DISORDERS, Issue 6 2008Amy M Kilbourne Objectives:, Medical comorbidities, especially cardiovascular disease (CVD), occur disproportionately in older patients with bipolar disorder. We describe the development, implementation, and feasibility/tolerability results of a manual-based medical care model (BCM) designed to improve medical outcomes in older patients with bipolar disorder. Methods:, The BCM consisted of (i) self-management sessions focused on bipolar disorder symptom control, healthy habits, and provider engagement, (ii) telephone care management to coordinate care and reinforce self-management goals, and (iii) guideline dissemination focused on medical issues in bipolar disorder. Older patients with bipolar disorder and a CVD-related risk factor (n = 58) were consented, enrolled, and randomized to receive BCM or usual care. Results:, Baseline assessment (mean age = 55, 9% female, 9% African American) revealed a vulnerable population: 21% were substance users, 31% relied on public transportation, and 22% reported problems accessing medical care. Evaluation of BCM feasibility revealed high overall patient satisfaction with the intervention, high fidelity (e.g., majority of self-management sessions and follow-up contacts completed), and good tolerability (dropout rate <5%). Use of telephone contacts may have mitigated barriers to medical care (e.g., transportation). Conclusions:, The BCM is a feasible model for older, medically ill patients with bipolar disorder, and could be an alternative to more costly treatment models that involve co-location and/or additional hiring of medical providers in mental health clinics. Future research directions pertinent to the development of the BCM and other medical care models for older patients with bipolar disorder include assessment of their long-term effects on physical health and their cost-effectiveness across different treatment settings. [source] | |||||||||||||