Moshe Givoni (p)

There is an urgent need for understanding if and when investments in transport infrastructure are 'useful', and not 'wasteful'. Empirical research to determine if investment in transport infrastructure are 'productive' have not come with a definitive answer and are limited in explaining the impacts of such investments and the processes through which they materialise. A different, better approach is to try and assess the processes through which investments in transport infrastructure modify the economic geography landscape of a region or country.

The "New Economic Geography" (NEG) suggests that the concentration of economic activities is determined by the tug of war between 'centripetal' and 'centrifugal' forces (Krugman, 1998) which in turn very much determine the balance between the economic and geographical core and periphery regions. Transport can, and should be, understood as the balancing factors between these forces.

In the above context and in order to take a snapshot of core-periphery relation in Israel and to understand the balance between 'centripetal' and 'centrifugal' forces, travel patterns between centre and periphery in Israel in 2007 are analysed using Mobile Phone signal tracking. By dividing the country into: North, Center and South regions the level of (transport) movement across and between regions is analysed.

It is clear from the results that despite Israel being a very small country the level of inter-regional travel (on week and weekend days) as a proportion of overall travel is small. Despite the relatively short distances and the fact that there is a clear economic core in Israel (the Metropolitan area of Tel Aviv), the periphery regions remain independent. Analysis of the inter-regional travel that does take place suggests a greater dependence (travel) from the periphery to the centre than vice versa. This raises the question of whether additional investments in long-distance transport infrastructure in Israel would increase the dependency of the periphery on the centre and could increase core-periphery disparities.

Elena Guk (p)

In 20th century, many new industrial areas had been developed in the Arctic. Construction of one of the largest Soviet mining plants was interconnected with planning of Norilsk, and now it’s the second most populated city in the Arctic, estimated as one of the most polluted settlements in the world. The research has showed that remoteness of the area in combination with hazardous climate and industry caused emergence and development of specific travel practices in Norilsk Region.
The work analyses various forms of travel inside and outside the region. For the purpose of the research, Norilsk Region has been defined as area of accessibility by local transport from Norilsk. It has been found that the region includes neighborhoods of Norilsk, seaport town Dudinka and lakes of western Putorana Plateau (roughly 100-200 km from the city).
According to the research, remoteness of Norilsk Region can be divided, on the one hand, into outgoing, incoming and local, and on the other hand, into economical, geographical, informational and social. This case reaffirms and develops Huskey's (2005) definition of “remoteness” of northern regions as a multidimensional concept: it can be measured in geographical, cultural and institutional terms.
It was concluded that in changed economic and political conditions local recreational practice, combined with travel, has showed its resilience: it’s still on demand, remaining the essential part of everyday living and determinant of well-being of area inhabitants, not only due to its necessity for healthcare in pollution conditions but also because of underdevelopment of other public services and ways of free time spending.

References:
Huskey, L. (2005). Challenges to economic development: dimensions of “remoteness” in the north. Polar Geography, 29:2, 119-125.

Paul Plazier (p), Gerd Weitkamp, Agnes van den Berg

The introduction of electrically-assisted cycling or e-biking is one of the most important developments in transportation in recent years. E-bikes permit cycling longer distances at higher average speeds compared to regular bikes. When substituting for use of cars and public transportation, they can potentially play an important role in the development of sustainable transport systems that support active, healthy lifestyles. This study focuses on the potential for e-bike use in rural areas. Rural areas are often characterized by a combination of low-density settlement patterns, spread activity locations, loss of facilities, high (forced) mobility, high car-dependence, inadequate public transport provision, and overall low rates of active mobility. In transport-disadvantaged areas, alternative strategies are needed to provide residents with sufficient mobility levels. Here, e-bike mobility could play a role in complementing existing transport systems to increase personal mobility and quality of life.

Amidst high dependence on motorized transportation, this study explores to what extent e-bikes could further contribute to mobility and quality of life in rural areas. To gain insight in this potential, we set out a survey in eight rural municipalities in the north of the Netherlands. The survey inquired respondents on a variety of aspects regarding their mobility: their activity places; perceived accessibility of these activity places, associated transport options and attributes that might further or hinder their mobility; perception of different transport modes available to them; and time-organization of different activities conducted. Such questions permit to reconstitute participants’ everyday space-time geographies. Finally, respondents were asked if, and under what circumstances, e-bike use could be beneficial to their current mobility situation. The survey results will provide local authorities with knowledge on residents’ propensity to use the e-bike, which can guide future transport policy making. Furthermore, the results will serve to formulate different respondent categories which will serve as input for a follow-up e-bike pilot to be held in one of the rural municipalities. This will permit to study actual e-bike use, travel behavior, attitudes and motivations of e-bike pilot participants in a rural context.

Taede Tillema (p), Lucas Harms, Peter Jorritsma, Hans Wüst

'Population decline' and 'urbanization' illuminate in fact two sides of the same coin. A 'pull' to the city shrinks the size and changes the composition of the population in outlying regions. This can cause a chain reaction. Public (e.g. schools, hospitals) and private (e.g. retail) facilities pull away and / or cluster in larger villages. This has direct impact on the viability of such areas. In addition, the displacement and decrease in provisions affect accessibility of business locations and travel patterns. The manner in which travel patterns develop is a complex process, which depends on changes in the size and composition of the population and changes in behaviour. Fewer people in an area ('size') means less travel at the macro level. Additionally, travel patterns are influenced by the composition of the population and trends therein (more elderly, more single households). Other lifestyles and living patterns may also change individual behaviour.
In the Netherlands, especially some regions in the north (i.e. provinces of Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe), the southwest (province of Zeeland) and the southeast (i.e. southern part of the province of Limburg) face population decline. This process started somewhere in the second half of the 1990s. Using data from the yearly Dutch National Travel Survey and using demographic data from Statistics Netherlands, in this paper we aim to gain greater insight into how the complex system of factors mentioned influences travel patterns of groups of people living in regions facing population decline, and, how this has changed over the last two decades. We make a distinction between changes in the number of trips over time, and changes in the modal split. Moreover, we aim to look at how the direction of traffic flows has changed, for instance due to the potential relocation and concentration of services (e.g., education, shops) in larger villages. These analyses may give greater insight into quality of life issues (e.g. ‘transport poverty’) in regions facing population decline.