Abraham Leung

Island transport systems are as unique as the islands themselves, shaped by geography, politics, and community needs. Transport development raises key questions: does increased connectivity enhance or diminish islandness? Can large-scale projects balance economic goals with environmental sustainability and community needs? This special section brings together seven studies from four island jurisdictions to explore how transport configurations influence and redefine islandness. From the transformative role of fixed links in the Faroe Islands to the challenges of seasonal air travel in Akureyri, Iceland, and the extensive ferry networks in Hong Kong, these articles underscore the complexities of island connectivity. A case from Penang, Malaysia, illustrates grassroots resistance to artificial island creation, highlighting tensions between development and conservation. Together, these contributions offer fresh perspectives on the evolving role of transport in shaping island life and identity.

The segmentation of commuters into either blue or white-collar workers remains is still common in urban transport models. Internationally, models have started to use more elaborate segmentations, more reflective of changes in labour markets, such as increased female participation. Finding appropriate labour market segmentations for commute trip modelling remains a challenge. This paper harnesses a data-driven approach using unsupervised clustering–applied to 2017–20 South East Queensland Travel Survey (SEQTS) data. Commuter types are grouped by occupational, industry, and socio-demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, household size, household vehicle ownership and worker skill score). The results show that at a large number of clusters (i.e., k = 8) a highly distinct set of commuter types can be observed. But model run times tend to require a much smaller number of market segments. When only three clusters are formed (k = 3) a market segmentation emerges with one female-dominated type (‘pink collar’), one male-dominated type (‘blue collar’) and one with both genders almost equally involved (‘white collar’). There are nuances as to which workers are included in each segment, and differences in travel behaviours across the three types. ‘Pink collar’ workers are mostly comprised of female clerical and administrative workers, community and personal service workers and sales workers. They have the shortest median commutes for both private motorised and active transport modes. The approach and methods should assist transport planners to derive more accurate and robust market segmentations for use in large urban transport models, and, better predict the value of alternative transport projects and policies for all types of commuters.

Demand responsive transit (DRT) is attracting increased attention as a means to provide public transit to low-density populations. This research aims to provide a suite of evaluation metrics with low data requirement and widespread availability, so that operators, funders, regulators, and practitioners can better evaluate the performance of DRT services. Trip numbers can be divided by a number of available variables (period, trip length, population, and density) to create a number of derived metrics. By applying these variables across three different DRT service areas in Logan City, Australia, where other key factors are held constant, one can see how different formulations lead to very different readings of DRT system performance. The results confirm the dilemma of cost efficiency versus equity in service provision in low-density environments. This paper also highlights current data limitations and calls for better data collection to facilitate the development of new evaluation methods for DRT services and a new composite metric that can be used for inter-service comparison.

With ports having moved downriver, redevelopment of central city areas and waterfronts has transformed the urban centres and created new economic bases for once industrial cities. Water transit systems, such as New York’s East River and City-Wide Ferry services and Gothenburg’s harbor ferries, are being installed by economic development agencies as a device to stimulate further land development, provide tourism opportunities, and promote a new social engagement with the river. Guangzhou’s water transit system is the third largest in Asia by passenger volume, behind only Bangkok and Sydney. This paper describes the Guangzhou system in depth, comparing its operations favourably with the world’s leading water transit systems. Comparisons are made in vessel design, route design, terminals, operations, and fares. The Guangzhou case is distinctive, with a mixture of cross-river and parallel routes, and an especially unique approach to subsidy that may be an option for North American cities considering water transit. Opportunities to further improve the system in line with international trends are identified, as well as a research agenda to further the knowledge of water transit operations and regulation generally.