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While attention has been paid to travel satisfaction studies during the last decade, less research has investigated the relationship between the influence of a sense of place – and more particularly the psycho-environmental concepts of workplace attachment and workplace satisfaction – and commuting satisfaction. Using a retrospective survey, this paper focuses on the relocation of a workplace within the city of Montreal (Canada); the McGill University Healthcare Centre. It examines the motivations and barriers involved in the evolution of commuting characteristics, using the theoretical framework of mobility biographies. The empirical analysis includes a large dataset of independent variables, applying a multinomial logistic model in order to explain the transition of the employees’ commuting satisfaction. With regard to the measurement of change in commuting satisfaction, the findings confirm the role of attitudes, while taking into account the contextual differences before and after relocation. The change in travel time is found to be an important factor in the evolution of commuter satisfaction, whereby reduced commuting time improves satisfaction, as expected. In addition, the more an employee is attached to the new workplace, the more the commuting satisfaction will increase. The results provide further evidence that the meaning of the workplace goes beyond a location or a space, and opens up new avenues for research in travel behavior. more...

Introduction Promoting active transport offers the potential to increase population physical activity levels. Compensation theories state that above-average physical activity in one activity is compensated in later activities; a mechanism that results in stable levels of total physical activity. Little is known about possible compensation of transport physical activity among older adults. Methods GPS (Global Positioning System) and accelerometer data collected among older adults (65+) were pooled from four cohorts in Canada, Luxembourg, and France (n=636, collected between 2012 and 2016). Physical activity was measured as total volume of physical activity for trips and non-trip activities. Robust linear regressions on person-centered data were used to test within-person associations between transport and total physical activity. Results 636 older adults – median age of 76 years, 49% women - provided accelerometer and GPS data for at least 4 days. 18% of the total volume of physical activity was related to transport. A positive association was found between physical activity during a trip and the physical activity during the next hour, among those with lower levels of regular physical activity. Negative associations - indicating partial compensation - were found between transport physical activity during a day, and both total physical activity during the next day and non-transport physical activity during the same day. No differences were found between the four study cohorts. Conclusions Transport physical activity is compensated partially by older adults during non-transport physical activity. Given the presence of compensation, we strongly recommend evaluations of transport interventions to measure and analyze both non-transport and transport physical activity. more...

Confronted with negative environmental impacts, rising fuel costs and increasing congestion, many cities are implementing sustainable mobility measures to improve the flow of passenger and goods. Examples of these measures are use of public transport, cycling, walking, energy efficient vehicles, biofuels. The challenge before transport decision makers is which one(s) to choose for implementation as often there is no or limited quantitative data available on the subject. Moreover, the context of each city, its geographic and transport conditions restrict the generalization of results obtained in experienced cities. In this paper, we are investigating application of ideal solution based multicriteria decision making (MCDM) techniques namely fuzzy TOPSIS, fuzzy VIKOR, and fuzzy GRA for sustainability evaluation of urban mobility projects. A real application for city of Luxembourg is provided. Three projects are evaluated namely implementation of a new tramway in the city center of Luxembourg, re-organization of existing bus lines in the city to perform optimized service, and implementation of electric vehicle car-sharing stations in the city. Sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the influence of input parameters on modeling results. The proposed work is one of the first few works to investigate application of ideal-solution based multicriteria decision making techniques for sustainability evaluation of urban mobility projects under uncertainty. Besides, the best alternative is selected using veto thereby overcoming the limitations of single MCDM methods. more...

International audience; This article uses structural equation models (SEM) as a data-mining tool to unravel the endogenous relationships among attitudinal measurements, satisfaction and the perceived utility within the theory of planned behaviour. Based on a mobility survey among Luxembourg cross-border workers, this experiment yields a critical view about the specification of measurement indicators to be used for the survey of attitudes and beliefs and to test SEM as an exploration and data-mining tool. The findings show that: the impact of attitudes on mode choice is mediated by self-reported satisfaction with commuting. Furthermore, using SEM with semantic differentials is efficient to estimate attitudes about transport modes in complement of Likert scales used for beliefs. more...

One of the determinants of travel satisfaction is ‘dissonance’, or the difference between someone’s actual travel and their preferred or ideal travel. Previous studies never questioned the use of ideal travel as a reference point to assess travel satisfaction. We assess how and to what extent changes in commute dissonance, among other determinants, affect commute satisfaction by applying the prospect theory with alternative reference points. Results indicate that negative dissonant commuters (i.e., actual commute time > ideal) are significantly less satisfied with their commute, but the opposite does not hold. By using data from a retrospective survey among staff of the relocated McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Canada, we found how the reference point of the previous commute time is more salient and impactful. This study provides evidence for policy makers about the positive effects of transit oriented developments in terms of increased levels of commute satisfaction. more...

It is argued in the life-oriented approach that travel behavior affects life choice and vice versa with resulting impacts on quality of life (QOL). By deepening the analysis of interdependences between daily mobility and life event (relocation) and their relationships with QOL, this article focuses on two challenges. It aims at analyzing how these life events first, encourage travel behavior changes, especially mode choice, and second, improve or decrease people’s QOL. By radically changing living context and built environment, relocation also affects routine and satisfaction. These relationships are investigated in the Luxembourg cross-border area, where great differences related to real estate price encourage residential moves from Luxembourg to neighboring countries, while the general decline in public transport efficiency at the border may support car use. We use both mixed and ordered logit models. The first one investigates whether individuals’ life-stage changes and residential relocation are significant regarding their mode choice decision. The second estimates individuals’ global QOL and the roles of complementary factors (changing housing conditions, built environment, subjective satisfaction, travel time and socio-economic characteristics). The analysis reveals several results. The effect of the different factors is consistent with travel mode choice literature despite the specific cross-border context. Nevertheless, relocation, mainly oriented towards a cross-border suburbanization, significantly increases the probability of using the car for daily activities. These trips and especially the journeys to work are the least satisfactory aspects of daily life after relocation but does not affect the general level of QOL. At the opposite, the better housing conditions after relocation have positive effect on the QOL. From a policy perspective, this life-oriented approach in cross-border context confirms the influence of life events on QOL while it demonstrates a higher importance of housing conditions than spatial constraints on relocation and satisfaction. more...

The central question is to ascertain whether general energy beliefs have any influence on transport mode choice. These beliefs are explored and determined by using one short open question. Based on an alternative approach of free associations instead of a standardised scale of behaviour, this question is included in a quantitative survey and allows us to obtain meaningful words. These exploratory results show first that beliefs about energy can be considered as general representations like a cost, a power or even an environmental issue. These beliefs are included in a logit model of mode choice that also considers more conventional factors representing socio-demographic characteristics, socio-economic aspects, as well as territorial structure and function. The final results demonstrate that energy beliefs influence mode choice if they include an environmental component, which expresses the negative effects of energy. The effects of these beliefs nonetheless are smaller than those of situational constraints. more...

Background Various epidemiological studies give strong evidence that social integration, physical activity and mobility are favourable for healthy ageing. The more mobile and socially integrated elder individuals are the better is their health compared to others in the same cohort of age. When it comes to critical assessment of accessibility and tangible barriers or obstacles for everyday mobility and physical activity in (urban) environment(s), numerous studies in the fields of urbanism, geography, planning studies as well as architecture and even social sciences do exist. With an ageing population as important challenge for most Western societies, it is not very surprising though, that the identification of potential obstacles and barriers to mobility and social activities, which are not related to pathological issues, is an important task for research and practitioners in order to increase public health and the well-being of elder individuals. Some components of healthy aging including physical activity, social participation or mobility have been linked to dimensions of the built environment, but a more profound understanding. of the processes linking environments to health among older adults is still lacking. Methods The international, multidisciplinary project "Contrasting Urban Contexts in Healthy Ageing" goes beyond the compilation and combination of the results from separate studies, but collects and analyses detailed data on daily mobility and health outcomes among older adults in contrasted urban settings in Montreal, Paris and Luxembourg. The proposed paper will present first results from Luxembourg, where a "classical" quantitative survey dealing with well-being, health, mobility and the perceived environs has been combined with the collection of GPS-data and data on physical activity (accelerometer) during 7 days with 500 persons aged 65 and older. As this approach does take into consideration demographic characteristics as well as spatial qualities, an innovative, unique and robust strategy for socio-spatial sampling had been developed and applied. Results The study shows that - as expected - serious health issues do affect mobility behavior (and vice versa). Nonetheless, confirmed habits tend to be very stable. Furthermore, the general character as well as the attachment to the neighbourhood can play a certain role. Conclusions The analysis of the first batch of data proves that the multidisciplinary perspective and integrated empirical approach does deliver new, reliable information on how characteristics of urban environments relate to the crucial dimensions of healthy aging and mobility behaviour. Language: en more...

The Eα class II gene of the major histocompatibility complex is expressed in a variety of immunocompetent cells. Part of the control of tissue-specific expression is mediated by a block of sequences found far upstream of the transcriptional starsite; this stretch is necessary for expression in the B lymphocytes of transgenic mice, but largely dispensable elsewhere. We review the evidence for the role of this region in E α transcription in transgenic animals, as well as data from transfections into tissue-culture cells, which indicate that this region has non-specific enhancer activity. We discuss possible models to explain how a non-specific enhancer can participate in cell-specific control. more...