The latest tri news

16/02/2012: TRI's involvement in the conference of The Funding and Policy Challenges Ahead for Scottish Transport

y.wang2@napier.ac.uk (Yuhong Wang) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:13:20 GMT

Dr James Cooper, Senior Research Fellow at TRI, is invited to give a presentation about the strategic picture of Scottish transport at the conference of The Funding and Policy Challenges Ahead for Scottish Transport, to be hold 28th February in Edinburgh. His topic will be "Strategic Direction: Achieving Better Transport Through Planning, Budgeting and Public Dialogue", which is under the same session as the Transport Minister of Scottish government on this conference.

15/02/2012: Gender and Transport: current pressing issues

y.wang2@napier.ac.uk (Yuhong Wang) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:17:46 GMT

A new publication has highlighted many of the current pressing issues concerning gender and transport – for both young and old travellers. The papers, in a special issue, edited by Professors Margaret Grieco and Ronald McQuaid, both of Edinburgh Napier University, comprehensively pull together different approaches to understanding the issues faced by each gender, especially as they get older. The perspectives of transport specialists with backgrounds as economists, sociologists, historians, statisticians and geographers, ensures that the issue of gender and transport is comprehensively tackled with new solutions to age old problems presented.

Issues include how accident rates vary as men and women get older, the fear of going out at night as transport fails to consider the needs of different groups, how commuting varies by gender and having children, bargaining over who gets to use the car in households, how successful were marketing campaigns directed at women, the distinct issues in rural areas and other factors.

For instance, together the papers find that households use a variety of strategies to ensure safe journeys for household members and often people, especially older females do not travel out at night due to safety fears. One part solution to this may be increased use of Demand Responsive Transport (where people such as the elderly can ring up for transport), although in a new UK study Professor John Nelson found in a survey that respondents have low levels of knowledge about the places served by DRT while they have the high level of knowledge about what they have to do to use the services. Respondents have the highest satisfaction level with the fare (cost of ticket), the vehicle and driver (e.g. helpfulness, courtesy), whereas they have the lowest satisfaction level with the overall booking process but they are still satisfied with this. The respondents perceive DRT services are better or much better than conventional bus services in their areas.

The ‘Gender and transport’ papers draw attention to a range of gendered economic dimensions, attributes and issues that are often marginalised or remain unconsidered in standard approaches to transport organisation.

Papers available from Research in Transport Economics Volume 34, Issue 1, Pages 1-86 (2012) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/07398859/34/1

Editors

Margaret Grieco, Professor of Transport and Society, Edinburgh Napier University

E-mail address: M.Grieco@napier.ac.uk

Ronald McQuaid, Professor Employment Research Institute, Edinburgh Napier University

E-mail address: r.mcquaid@napier.ac.uk

15/02/2012: Mobilities: New Perspectives on Transport and Society

y.wang2@napier.ac.uk (Yuhong Wang) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:27:03 GMT

Mobilities: New Perspectives on Transport and Society, edited by Margaret Grieco and John Urry, publised in 2011.

About the Editor: Margaret Grieco is Professor of Transport and Society at Edinburgh Napier University and series editor of the Transport and Society series. John Urry is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University, UK.

Reviews: 'This valuable collection of contributions, by distinguished scholars in a variety of disciplines, offers a provocative look at the pros and cons of modern mobility. Special attention is given to some often-neglected consequences of the status quo for the more vulnerable members of society, making it an especially important addition to public policy discourse and scholarship.'
Patricia Mokhtarian, University of California, Davis, USA

'Mobilities: new perspectives on transport and society is a big leap forward for research beyond the transport/mobilities divide. It pulls together exiting debates and controversies amongst transport researchers and social scientists. It doesn't hide conflicts, disagreements and problems, but indicates future directions for sustainable mobility and transport. Urry, Grieco and the contributors are driving forward new thinking on transport and mobility. This is rich thinking and science. More of this quality is needed!'
Sven Kesselring, TU Munich, Germany

14/02/2012: TRI's Dryport project in Port Strategy magazine

j.monios@napier.ac.uk (Jason Monios) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:28:02 GMT

TRI’s Dr Jason Monios was interviewed for an article that has now been published in the February 2012 issue of Port Strategy magazine.

TRI is one of the Scottish partners, along with SEStran, in the three year Dryport project, funded by the EU Interreg IVB North Sea Region programme, due to finish in June 2012.

The article examines dryport development and operation in Europe, and Dr Monios discusses results from TRI's research over the last three years.

The article can also be read online:

http://www.portstrategy.com/features101/port-operations/planning-and-design/dryports/what-about-the-paperwork

04/01/2012: TRI welcome first PhD student from University of Maribor in Slovenia

k.cullinane@napier.ac.uk (Kevin Cullinane) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 11:12:49 GMT

The University’s Transport Research Institute (TRI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Faculty of Logistics at the University of Maribor in Slovenia to participate in a Visiting Scholar's Programme.

The Programme will initially run for three years, with the Slovenian partner sending a PhD student or Postdoc Fellow to spend three months with the Transport Research Institute (TRI) to contribute to some of their research projects.

The first visitor, Marko Intihar, has recently arrived in Edinburgh and is now preparing a statistical analysis of a database of container movements in and out of Scotland.
Marko said: "For me this is a very important life experience, because I have never studied or worked in any foreign country until now. The project I am working on includes a statistical analysis of a database of container movements into and out of Scotland."

"Edinburgh is very beautiful, during the week I work in the office, but on the weekends I become tourist so I explore the city bit by bit. Other tourists, who come into the city, have to explore the city in few days, but I have the privilege to do this in three months. The people I have met here are extremely friendly and when they notice you are foreign they always try to help you. The only thing for me that is difficult to get used to is the Scottish weather, I never know what the weather forecast is for the next four hours, but if you live here for a long time you get used to that!"

We wish Marko all the best during his time with us at Edinburgh Napier University.