Year: 2009
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This research aims to define and develop a methodology to assist an individual traveller to select healthier and more sustainable transport routes and modes among admissible transport options and highlight the trade-offs among multiple objectives in terms of health, economic, social and environmental benefits.It aims to assist an individual traveller with multi-objectives to make more informed decisions in route and mode planning.The objectives in the case study were identified as personal energy expenditure, travel time, travel cost, CO 2 emissions and energy resource consumption concerning sustainability.This research presents procedures for estimating a range of costs and benefits for journeys; procedures for determining the optimal route for an individual's trip in an urban area based on cost and benefit estimates and preference weights for specific objectives; procedures for undertaking sensitivity analysis for the optimal route; and uses of the cost and benefit estimation and optimal route generation procedures to conduct a case study for a realistic journey in Melbourne.An active transport journey planner model was developed in MS Excel to allow users to set constraints for most objectives and give their corresponding weightings, respectively.The recommended transport solution (the least total disutility one) and ranking of other options along with their detailed objective-related information are derived.A case study shows that the methodology developed could be applied in selecting more informed transport solutions based on the user's multi-objective preferences.In addition, transport options incorporating more cycling and walking have the higher probability to deliver healthier and more sustainable solution to users if social, environmental concerns were considered beyond economic issues.Meanwhile, in sensitivity analysis, the tornado diagrams and spiderplots diagrams are used for demonstrating how sensitive each transport option's disutility is to the weightings of objectives.of work or study using private motor vehicles as their main form of transport in March 2006 (ABS 2008).In addition, 19% of adults used public transport, and a further 5% either walked or cycled as their main form of transport to work or study (ABS 2008).Woodcock et al. (2007) stated that, '…fossil-fuel energy use in transport leads to many adverse effects, including climate change, physical inactivity, urban air pollution, energy insecurity, and environmental degradation…' As in many other industrialized nations, the level of physical activity among Australians is insufficient.It is demonstrated that in 2004-05, 70% of Australians aged 15 years and over were classified as sedentary or having low exercise levels (ABS 2006).There is consistent epidemiological evidence that demonstrates the role that physical activity plays as a major modified risk factor in the reduction of mortality and morbidity from many chronic diseases.These diseases include cardiovascular disease, several cancers, Type 2 diabetes, mental health and the risk of falls and injuries in the elderly (USHHS 1996;Stephenson, Bauman & Davies 2000;Armstrong, Bauman & Davies 2000).Expert groups, focusing primarily on the outcome of all-cause mortality, annual number of deaths, have concluded that the minimum physical activity recommendation for the adult population is 30 minutes of moderately vigorous physical activity on most days of the week (USHHS 1996).In recent years the focus of physical activity research has moved away from vigorous physical activity to moderate-intensity activities such as walking or cycling for transport.This has resulted from the epidemiological evidence that regular moderate-intensity activity can provide similar health benefits as vigorous activity (USHHS 1996;Blair & Connelly 1996;Pate et al. 1995).This move is reflected in the National Physical Activity Guidelines that recommend that adults accumulate, on most days, 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity physical activity that can be accumulated in bouts of approximately 10-15mins (USHHS 1996;Pate et al. 1995; ADHA 2007).The term 'active transport' relates to 'physical activity undertaken as a means of transport.This includes travel by foot, bicycle and other non-motorized vehicles.Use of public transport is also included in the definition as it often involves some walking
Author: Wenzheng Hu
Institution: The University of Melbourne
Language: English
Subfield: Transportation
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W645268039