TRF - 2022

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Browsing TRF - 2022 by Author "De Silva, D"

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    item: Conference-Abstract
    Factors which influence non-recreational cycle use in the urban context of Sri Lanka
    (Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, 2022-12) Geeganage, C; De Silva, D; Perera, HLK
    Non-recreational cycling has been promoted for Colombo and other urban areas in Sri Lanka mainly through promotional campaigns and the provision of cycling infrastructures such as bicycle lanes or paths. However, there are no studies on real factors which influence the non-recreational cycling behaviour in the Sri Lankan context, suggesting that most of these infrastructure developments are not supported by studies. Information on non-recreational cyclists' preferences and behaviour is important for the effective planning of cycling infrastructure. This paper presents the findings to identify the most relevant factors which influence non-recreational cycling behaviour in the urban context of Sri Lanka. The factors which influence non-recreational cycling behaviour were initially captured through a comprehensive literature survey, and following that, the most influential cycling infrastructure-related factors as applicable to Sri Lankan urban context were identified through an online questionnaire survey. About 60 influential factors were identified in the literature, and among these, 16 cycling infrastructure-related factors, which were assumed to be applicable to a context where cycling is in the promotional stage, were selected to include in the questionnaire survey in the form of ranking questions. The questionnaire survey covered a sample of 400 online respondents, including 15% of existing non-recreational cyclists and 33% of existing recreational cyclists. The sample consisted of 61% of female respondents and 63% of respondents belonging to the age category of 26-35 years and 14% the 36-45 years. 79% of respondents were full-time employed either in the public or private sector. 44% of respondents use a car, van or jeep as the main mode of transport, while 32% use public transport. The selected 16 influential factors were divided into four categories, and the respondents were supposed to rank the set of factors in each category and finally assign the ranking for the four categories separately. Results revealed that the 'type of road facility is the most important category of influential factors, followed by 'safety attributes', 'supportive cycling facilities' and 'characteristics of cycling facilities. Among the four types of road facilities, 'riding on a dedicated bicycle pathway free of pedestrians or any other traffic' was the most preferred having 61% of respondents ranking it as their 1st choice and 'riding in mixed traffic' was the least preferred having 82%of respondents ranked it as their 4th choice. 2nd and 3rd ranked were 'riding on a demarcated bicycle lane on the road' and 'riding on a bicycle pathway shared with pedestrians' respectively. Among the three safety attributes, 'having a smooth, non-slippery riding surface' was ranked 1st, followed by 'having adequate lighting on bicycle pathways during night-time' and 'having overpasses to avoid complex intersections'. Among the six attributes under the 'cycling supportive facilities' category, 'availability of secured parking facilities at destinations' ranked 1st, followed by; 'availability of relaxing areas with basic facilities, 'availability of bicycle-friendly public transport', 'availability of locker facilities at the destinations', 'availability of a bicycle renting and sharing system' and 'availability of showers and changing facilities at destinations. The remaining six attributes under the 'characteristics of cycling facilities' had been ranked in the order of; 'having adequate shade and trees' as 1st followed by 'direct connection to the target destinations via shortest paths', 'the route having direct connections to multiple uses like banks, shopping and schools etc.', 'having a continuous route without gaps in between, 'the route to ply along pleasant scenic views' and 'high security guaranteed with CCTV monitoring' as 6th.In the overall ranking of attributes regardless of the category of influential factors, 'having a smooth, non-slippery riding surface' was ranked 1st, having a relative score of 11.3% and factors such as 'adequate lighting' (9.2%), 'having overpasses' (7.7%), 'secured parking facilities (5.0%), 'adequate shade and trees' (4.2%) and 'direct connection to the target destinations via shortest paths' (4.0%) were among the first top ten ranked influential factors along with the four types of road facilities for cycling. However, respondents had given relatively less priority in their preference for attributes such as 'availability of relaxing areas with basic facilities (3.8%), 'bicycle-friendly public transport' (3.5%), 'route having direct connections to multiple uses such as banks, shopping and schools etc.' (3.3%), 'bicycle renting and sharing system' (3.1%), 'locker facilities' (3.1%), 'showers and changing facilities at destinations' (3.0%), 'having a continuous route without gaps in between (3.0%), 'having pleasant scenic views' (3.0%) and 'high security guaranteed with CCTV monitoring' (2.3%), although most of these are perceived as important factors in similar studies conducted in contexts where non-recreational cycling is a more frequent mode of transport. The reason why some of the factors, such as availability of lockers, showers, changing facilities, direct connections, relaxing areas with basic facilities, bicycle-friendly public transport and bicycle renting and sharing systems which are highly demanded in other bicycle-friendly cities, had been given less importance by the respondents could be because they are not existing cyclists and that they may find it important once they start non-recreational cycling. The future works of this study include a stated preference survey and analyzing stated preference observations with logit choice estimations in order to identify the relative importance of identified most relevant influential factors.
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    item: Conference-Abstract
    Identification of attributes influencing a functional park and ride systems for colombo
    (Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, 2022-12) Samarasekara, K; De Silva, D; Perera, HLK
    Colombo, being the commercial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population, is plagued with traffic congestion in most of the corridors. Improving public transportation has been identified as the foremost approach to solving the congestion considering private vehicles have a higher share of the vehicle composition and carry fewer amount of passengers. Authorities have come up with different solutions like providing flyovers, constructing bypass roads, introducing bus lanes, increasing taxes on private vehicles, and widening existing roads, yet an intact result has not been delivered to Colombo city. 'Park and Ride' has been identified as one of the functionalities to make public transport more attractive because it aims to influence travellers' attitudes and behaviour into shifting from private vehicle use to mix mode of transport. A questionnaire survey was carried out to understand the attributes that influence the choice of passengers to use the Park and Ride system. The set of attributes listed in the questionnaire was obtained from previous studies conducted in different regions under different conditions. Selected attributes were categorized in to 6 major categories as; 'parking facilities' which asks respondents to rank a list of characteristics related to the car park in a park and ride system, 'facilities and services provided at the park and ride station' which asks respondents to rank a list of characteristics related to the park and ride station, 'characteristics and facilities provided in public transportation mode', which asks respondents to rank a list of characteristics related to the mode of public transportation (i.e. train, bus LRT), 'travel time characteristics' where respondents find a list of different time components related to a park and ride system (i.e. time spent on public transportation, time spent walking to the destination), 'availability of public transport mode', which asks respondents preference regarding the availability of different combinations of public transportation modes (i.e. availability of bus only, availability of LRT and bus only, availability of bus, rail and LRT) and 'general characteristics of park and ride', where respondents find a list of attributes which does not lies under any of the previous categories. 5-10 attributes were listed under each category, and respondents were asked to rank the given list within the category based on their preference. Each attribute was given a score referring to the survey results. The number of respondents who have ranked a certain attribute as '1' is counted, and it was multiplied by a relatively higher number (multiplying factor) based on the number of attributes given under that category. The same procedure was followed to allocate scores for the rest of the ranks (2,3,4.) given for that certain attribute, and the multiplying factor was reduced when the rank reduces. Sum of the scores for ranking as '1', ranking as '2' and the rest is taken as the score for that attribute, and a score was given to all the attributes by following the above method. Further, as the last stage of this survey, respondents were asked to rank the given major categories based on their perspective. The same mathematical analysis method used for ranking the attributes within the category was followed to allocate a score for the categories also. A final score was obtained based on the 'scores given for attributes within the categories and the 'scores given for the categories itself. This leads to the identification of 40 the most prioritized attributes regardless of major category. Using the above set of prioritized attributes, a stated preference (SP) survey can be conducted with a sample size of around 400 to identify the user perception of the attributes. The initial survey was conducted to identify the most important characteristics from the long list of characteristics obtained from the literature, and the highest-ranked attributes of that initial survey can be used for the SP survey. 380 responses were obtained for the aforementioned initial survey, and the results of the questionnaire revealed that 'certain seating facility in the public transportation mode', 'availability of the washrooms at the station', 'secure parking at the station', 'time spent waiting in park and ride station' and 'displaying Information on services (bus route/time, etc.) in the station' were the highest ranked attributes. It also exposed that respondents have less concern about 'having free parking at the station' and 'having a low cost or public transportation. Moreover, the results showed that the respondents prefer to have more options as their public transportation mode instead of having a single mode. This ranking of attributes generates a clear view of approaching the planning and design stages of public transport projects by providing scientific evidence so that ad-hoc decisions will be avoided. Therefore, the findings of the study would provide useful insights into the feasibility assessment of public transport projects, especially in the Colombo region.
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    item: Conference-Abstract
    Identification of attributes on selection of a departure airport in Sri Lanka
    (Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, 2022-12) Daluwatta, O; De Silva, D; Perera, HLK
    The world has become a smaller place through the expansion of the aviation industry. Commercial airports enable millions of people to travel for business, go home for the holidays, take vacations around the globe, or travel to other important events. Most contemporary airport management studies and research focus on airport efficiency, effectiveness, processing speed, and ranks on international league tables. These policies appear to favour airports that can efficiently transport most travellers and their luggage. Identification of passenger airport choice determinants may be of great value to airport managers as it can assist with determining passengers' demand at the Airport. These studies include different airports and different segmentations of passengers. Air passengers usually choose airports after considering multiple factors such as airfare, frequency of flights or flight schedule, access time, airport delay, and modes of the Airport. The choice may be influenced by the socio-economic characteristics of the individuals and the purpose of the travel. However, there is no general approach to model how air passengers will choose their origin airport in response to attributes of the air travel, attributes of inside and outside the terminal based on their travel purpose. It is important to identify the attributes that will influence a departure passenger to select a departure airport because it is a crucial component when planning passenger redistribution policies. This paper adds to the body of knowledge by providing a deeper understanding of the variables affecting air traveller's experience as expressed by travellers depending on their trip purpose, whether it is business, leisure, pilgrimage or migrant worker trip. The objective of this paper is to identify the influential factors for selecting a departure airport by air travellers based on their travel purpose, which is fulfilled based on the data collected from air travellers who visited Bandaranaike and Mattala International Airports. For this purpose, 350 individuals were sampled using a special questionnaire through internet-based and direct personal interviews. The analysis presented in this paper has shown the important role of Air Ticket Price, The Access Time to the Airport, The Number of Transfers to the Destination and The Number of Flights per Day to the Destination were found to have a consistently significant effect on Business, Leisure and Migrant travellers while Air Ticket Price, The Cost of Getting to the Airport, The Number of Flights per Day to the Destination and Availability of multiple transport modes to the Airport were significant for Pilgrimage travellers in airport selection. As a further study, the selected attributes will be used on the SP survey to estimate a logit choice model for the selection of a departure airport. The findings of the research can be used by the airport authority and various transport operators for evaluating the changes in the service attributes in international airports improving the discounted airfares, ground access mode services, airport facilities, and airport efficiency for increasing the competitiveness of the Airport.