Exploring University Campus Community’s Perceptions and Barriers toward Biking: A Case Study of the University of Tennessee Knoxville

Bicycling constitutes an integral component of sustainable non-motorized means of travel. Despite the immense benefits of bicycling, the modal share of bicycling is quite low, specifically among young and low-income commuters e.g., college and university students. This study explores the perceptions of and barriers to bicycling of the campus community at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville with the aim to identify the factors that could enhance bike use among students at the university campus as well as highlight the barriers that keep young population away from biking. An online survey about bike use at the university campus was administered and responses to the survey were recorded. On the methodological front, a binary logit model was estimated with students’ willingness to use bikes at campus as the dependent variable. The survey results revealed that about 47% of the students considered vehicular traffic as the reason for feeling unsafe while biking and emphasized having separate bike routes. Most of the respondents highlighted the need to change clothes after biking in summer or carry things as the reason for not selecting bikes as a mode of transport at the campus, whereas inadequate bike lanes, paths, or trails, insufficient lighting along bike routes, and the lack of adequate bicycle parking were highlighted as the major barriers deterring bike use within the campus. The study suggests development of a campus bike network with proper bike lanes, bike runnels, installation of safety cameras and better lighting at the campus, and bike-supporting infrastructure such as communal showers to be provided in campus buildings to encourage bike use among university students. The study findings can assist campus transportation planners in devising a sustainable campus transportation plan incorporating the influencing factors and deterrents of bike use in a university campus setting.

Local people’s knowledge on the adverse impacts and their attitudes towards growing Eucalyptus woodlot in Gudo Beret Kebele, Basona Worena district, Ethiopia

Introduction:Growing Eucalyptus at a farm level in the form of woodlot has become popular among rural households in Ethiopia.For example,rural households mainly establish Eucalyptus woodlot as a component of livelihood improvement and diversification to meet household wood demand and generating cash income.However,there is lack of information on the growth parmeters of Eucalyptus woodlot and the factors influencing the household decision on their establishment at the individual farmland level.The objective of this study was to examine local people’s knowledge on the adverse impacts and their attitudes towards growing Eucalyptus woodlot in Gudo Beret Kebele.We hypothesized that local people’s knowledge on the adverse impacts and their attitudes towards growing Eucalyptus woodlot in Gudo Beret Kebele is affected by socioeconomic and cognitive variables.Methods:A structured questionnaire comprising closed-and open-ended questions was developed and administered to a total of n=94 households to collect information on local people’s knowledge on the adverse impacts and their attitudes towards growing Eucalyptus woodlot.The households were randomly selected through a lottery system based on their house identification numbers.Descriptive statistics,binary logit,and multiple linear regression were used to analyze and interpret the data.Results:The results revealed that about 92%of the respondents noted that growing Eucalyptus woodlot had positive impacts on the socioeconomic situation of the community considering that it contributes to economic benefits through the sale of wood products,such as poles,construction materials,and fuelwood.However,only 8%of the respondents noted that the negative impacts of Eucalyptus woodlot were attributed to the decline in crop and forage production due to its allelopatic effect,and the reduction in ground water availability.Majority of the respondents(about 68%)preferred to grow Eucalyptus woodlot in Gudo Beret Kebele.Thus,most of the respondents(about 69%)had strongly agreed to have a positive attitude towards growing Eucalyptus woodlot.On the other hand,the binary logit regression model explained about 70.6%of the variance of local people’s knowledge on the adverse impacts of Eucalyptus woodlot.Overall,the multiple linear regression model revealed that socioeconomic and cognitive variables had significant effect on local people’s attitudes towards growing Eucalyptus woodlot(39.5%variance explained).Conclusions:We recommended that foresters,natural resource experts and managers,environmentalists,land use planners,and policy-makers should take the right and careful decision by assessing the overall socioeconomic and ecological aspects of Eucalyptus woodlot based on the interests of various stakeholders including local communities.

Comparing traveler preferences for BRT and LRT systems in developing countries:Evidence from Multan,Pakistan

Rapid transit(RT)systems are becoming increasingly attractive in the developing world as they improve transportation and mobility conditions in urban areas,reduce motorization impacts and offer high quality,yet cost effective services to travelers.Light rail transit(LRT)and bus rapid transit(BRT)are RT systems that combine high capacity with relatively low investment costs,and as such,they are preferred in developing countries over regular metro systems.This paper investigates traveler preferences over alternative,planned rapid transit options for the city of Multan,Pakistan.The analysis is based on a household information survey with over 2300 questionnaires completed via personal interviews.Intention to pay for improved PT services and choice between LRT and BRT systems are investigated,using appropriate econometric models.Findings of this study can assist in better understanding the factors and their effect on choice between BRT and LRT in developing countries.Results show that potential travelers,who prefer LRT are willing to pay more for better public transport services.On the other hand,commuters and elders express a taste towards BRT implementation.Based on model outputs policy makers can develop targeted marketing policies in order to promote BRT/LRT implementation andattract candidate travelers from different groups,improving the possibility that users would support a BRT or LRT project.

Identification of contributing factors to pedestrian overpass selection

In order to improve the efficiency of overpass and the safety level of pedestrian, this paper aims to investigate the contributing factors for selective preference of overpass. Eight overpasses were investigated in Xi＇an, and a questionnaire was conducted by the pedestrians near the overpass. Totally, 1131 valid samples （873 used of overpasses and 258 non-used of overpasses） were collected. Based on the data, a binary logit （BL） model was developed to identify what and how the factors affect the selective preference of overpass. The BL model was calibrated by the maximum likelihood method. Likelihood ratio test and McFadden-R2 were used to analyze the goodness-of-fit of the model. The results show that the BL model has a reasonable goodness-of-fit, and the prediction accuracy of the BL model can reach 81.9%. The BL model showed that the selective preference of overpass was signifi- cantly influenced by eight factors, including gender, age, career, education level, license, detour wishes, detour distance, and crossing time. Besides, the odds ratios of significant factors were also analyzed to explain the impacts of the factors on selective preference of overpass.