Erik Elldér

Shared cargo bike services hold significant potential for promoting sustainable urban mobility, yet their adoption remains limited—especially for private, everyday use. This study investigates how such systems can be more effectively integrated into urban transport by identifying key enablers and operationalizing them through a GIS-based multi-criteria analysis (MCA). Using a mixed-methods approach, expert interviews were conducted to explore success factors and barriers. Results highlight the dual function of shared cargo bikes: enabling occasional use while increasing long-term uptake by fostering trial and visibility. The study identifies both spatial and non-spatial enablers. Key spatial factors include high visibility, pedestrian flows, access to public transport and cycling networks, and placement in mixed-use areas. Non-spatial enablers include technical reliability, ease of use, strong visual identity, subsidies, and trial opportunities. The spatial enablers were operationalized into seven criteria in the MCA. Based on qualitative expert interviews and thematic analysis, the highest weights were assigned to visibility and pedestrian flows, followed by proximity to public transport and local centers, while lower weights were given to proximity to residences, population density, and access to cycle paths. The results offer guidance for station placement and demonstrate the role of shared cargo bikes in sustainable urban transport.

This study assesses the effect of weather on commuting cycling behaviour. Like previous work, the relationship between various meteorological variables (air temperature, precipitation, wind speed) and commuting cycling behaviour variation (during rush hour) is tested using multiple linear regression analyses. Unlike previous work, it includes wind direction in its analysis. Additionally, the analysis uses ‘reference’ wind direction data from meteorological stations as well as modelled ‘locational’ wind direction data. Using URock (2023a), an open-source diagnostic wind model, this study models locational wind direction in a radius around specific segments of bicycle lanes since reference wind direction data frequently does not accurately represent specific wind conditions in the urban environment. This is done for eleven locations in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and Gothenburg (Sweden) to account for geographical heterogeneities between and within these cities. The results indicate that air temperature, precipitation, and wind speed are significant variables explaining commuting cycling behaviour variation in both cities, and in both morning and afternoon rush hours. Commuting cyclists in Gothenburg, however, are found to be disproportionally more weather sensitive than their counterparts in Rotterdam. Although descriptive statistics show that locational wind direction values predictably provide a more intuitive image of local wind conditions than reference wind direction data, testing the effect of wind direction on commuting cycling behaviour variation yielded no consistent results, and no consistent difference between locational and reference wind direction values could be discerned.

This study delves into mismatches between accessibility indicators and perceived accessibility across transport modes for the case of grocery shopping. Conducted in Gothenburg, Sweden, the study combines a web panel survey with 1,423 participants and detailed location-based accessibility indicators. Findings reveal mismatches, with analyst’s overestimation (when the accessibility indicator is high, despite low perceived access) and analyst’s underestimation (low indicator, high perceived accessibility) varying across transportation modes. Notably, underestimation is prominent for car accessibility. Multinomial logistic regressions identify key variables influencing these mismatches, such as parenting status, education level and habitual car use.

A standard proposition in the migration literature is that emigrants are not drawn randomly from their source population, but rather compose a self-selected group in terms of labour market characteristics. Such self-selection refers to observed characteristics, such as education, or occupation, as well as unobserved characteristics such as cognitive abilities. However, due to data limitations, most previous studies on selectivity have analysed immigrants’ characteristics at destinations rather than using data from their source countries. This paper assesses emigrants’ selectivity patterns by following the full-risk population of natives over a long period of time (over 20 years). It also includes an innovative measure of selectivity on unobserved characteristics—namely, school performance—as a proxy for individual motivation and cognitive abilities, and it compares it to the widely used measure of income residuals. We use Swedish register data and assess the probabilities of leaving Sweden between 1993 and 2014 among men and women born in Sweden between 1975 and 1978. We further look for differences among Swedish emigrants who chose different countries of destination. The findings suggest that emigrants are positively self-selected in terms of their observed characteristics, whereas selectivity patterns in terms of unobserved characteristics are more complex. When we assess unobservable characteristics using compulsory school grades as a proxy, emigrants are found to be positively self-selected, while when using income residuals, we find that the effect is U-shaped. Individuals leaving to non-Nordic countries are also found to be more positively self-selected than those heading to neighbouring countries. We discuss these findings and their implications in light of economic and sociological theories.

This chapter outlines travel-based activities with potential for ICT-based substitution, summarizes the results of empirical studies, and reflects on the potential contribution to sustainable transport policy and planning. It aims to give a nuanced examination of substitution effects by detailing the circumstances in which the substitution potential of ICT is and is not triggered. Activities for which the empirical evidence leans towards substitution effects are commuting to work and school, telemedicine, telebanking, and several other services. Common to these activities are that they are often done of necessity, and not for pleasure. Some studies have also illustrated how telecommuting makes room for increased cycling and active travel. But care should be taken when applying policies that encourage ICT-based substitution as there are also circumstances and activities when ICT risks generating additional travel, such as shopping and leisure trips.

How cities can become more conducive to sustainable travel patterns is a pressing matter in urban research. In the built environment–travel literature, several features potentially promoting sustainable mobility remain under-researched. One concerns the precise role of local accessibility – in terms of the number, variety and specific types of amenities – in promoting the slow modes of walking and cycling and in reducing car use. Another is the possibility that the standard assumption of a linear relationship between density and (un)sustainable travel is flawed. To fill these gaps, we explore specific local amenity supply types that stimulate a large share of residents to walk or cycle, avoiding long drives, to accomplish their daily activities. In a case study of the Västra Götaland region in Sweden, we analyse a combination of high-quality micro data from registers and the national travel survey using a stepwise statistical approach. We find evidence of non-linear discontinuities and significant geographical variation in how local accessibility affects travel behaviour. While more neighbourhood amenities contribute to more walking/cycling, the effect of establishing additional amenities varies amongst neighbourhood types and travel variables. Local everyday services, for example, grocery stores and preschools, are critical in triggering change. The findings inform urban planning by showing how a basic supply of essential amenities could contribute to better prerequisites for walking or cycling and reduced car dependence by inducing residents to choose local options.