A Cluster Analysis of University Commuters: Attitudes, Personal Norms and Constraints, and Travel Satisfaction.

Higher education institutions are recognised as settings where the community's awareness of sustainable mobility can be strengthened or reshaped. The first objective of the present study was to identify groups of commuters based on their modal choice in a large higher education institution in Italy. The second objective was to compare the groups on socio-demographic and psychosocial variables, specifically attitudes, personal norms, personal constraints, and travel satisfaction. The cluster analysis revealed five different types of commuters: car-oriented, two-wheeled urban users, pedestrians, long-distance commuters, and regular bus users. Attitudes, personal constraints and norms, and satisfaction differed in the five groups of commuters. The present study provides insights for behavioural change programmes and organizational policies on sustainable mobility.

Evaluation on the Use of Italian High-Speed Rail to Support Transportation Network for Transplantation Activities.

BACKGROUND: One of the main activities connected with transplantation is the rapid and timely transportation of patients, medical teams, and human organs from donation to transplantation centers under the compliance of national guidelines and principles of quality, performance, and safety. High-speed transportation on a railway network is becoming relevant both in terms of performance and extensiveness of the service. METHODS AND OBJECTIVES: Our study explores the feasibility of adopting a high-speed rail network for the transportation of those organs with large cold ischemia time and those less influenced by transportation-related perturbations (ie, temperature, speed, vibrations), assessing savings and relative performance improvement. In this study, only kidneys have been considered; the transplantation database has been integrated with the national high-speed railway network and timetables. A function is implemented that allocates to air transportations those records with 1 of the 2 ends situated on islands, remote regions, and abroad, while rail transportation is preferred where constraints on capacity and compliance with cold ischemia time are met. Road transportation is still feasible for those records involving 2 adjacent regions and for intraregional transportation. RESULTS: The opportunity of integrated road-rail transportation in place of air or all-road transportation allows users to lower generalized costs and reduce driven distance for personnel and vehicles allocated to a regional transplantation center's fleet and staff. Savings in fleet and staff usage can serve to improve the performances at the local level. CONCLUSIONS: The knowledge and analysis of transportation alternatives for human organs with less stringent safety and preservation criteria allow a more efficient allocation of resources both at the local and national level-without compromising quality and reliability of the system.

Analysis of the Relationship between Turning Signal Detection and Motorcycle Driver's Characteristics on Urban Roads; A Case Study.

The investigations on the effectiveness of the turn signal in motorcyclists understanding of motorists' potential intentions in potentially dangerous car-motorcycle interactions and on the relationships among some variables that could influence the perception of rear and front turn signal status are examined in this paper. The investigations have been based on data pooled from the answers of a survey of 136 motorcycle riders, with special regards to the correct detection of turning indicators. Experimental videos have been realized during in-situ simulations, both in urban and suburban areas, recording vehicular interactions in three-leg road intersections, able to potentially generate crash risks, through a 360-camera mounted on a motorcyclist's helmet. The blinkers detection rate has been combined with other factors related to motorcyclist's characteristics and test context (e.g., age, gender, location of the test site, presence of a car behind tester vehicles and if the motorcyclist are also habitual car or bicycle drivers) in a stepwise logistic regression that modelled the odds of detecting the turn signal turned on as a function of significant factors. Within the limits of the proposed methodology, the results highlight the low percentage of correct sighting of the turn indicators and confirm the existence of a relation between the detection of the turn indicators aspect and some of the variables considered (e.g., age, being habitual cyclist or car driver and the presence of a car occluding the views), suggesting the opportunity to further investigate the phenomenon through the use of ad-hoc simulations, in order to highlight connections among the factors that can influence the perception of turning indicators in potentially dangerous contexts for cars and motorcycles.

Indoor Air Quality Real-Time Monitoring in Airport Terminal Areas: An Opportunity for Sustainable Management of Micro-Climatic Parameters.

Indoor air quality (IAQ) management in public spaces is assuming a remarkable importance. Busy environments, like airport terminals, are currently regarded as possible hotspots and IAQ is a crucial element for passengers and staff protection, as well as a key aspect of airport passenger experience. A one-month monitoring period has been performed on IAQ in the airport of Bologna (Italy), as prototypal example of large regional airport. Four strategic areas within the airport have been equipped with electronic monitoring platforms, including different contaminants and two microclimatic sensors. Data suggest that daily variation in IAQ parameters typically follow the activity pattern of the different environments under study (i.e., passengers' flows) for gaseous contaminants, where particulate matter counts oscillate in a definite range, with a significant role played by ventilation system. Gaseous contaminants show a correlation between indoor and outdoor concentrations, mainly due to airside activities. Micro-climatic comfort parameters have been tested to match with standards for commercial environments. As results appears in line with typical households IAQ values, the current air ventilation system appears to be adequate. Nevertheless, an integrated air management system, based on real-time monitoring, would lead to optimization and improvement in environmental and economical sustainability.