Academic Publications
2024 | Urban Affairs Review
Matan Singer
Abstract
There is general agreement that high housing costs in transit-oriented developments (TODs) largely stem from housing supply shortages. However, the debate persists on whether supply-side efforts could reduce housing costs in TODs. This paper contributes to this debate by examining the impacts of TOD housing stock and built environments on housing costs. The block groups of twenty-six U.S. metropolitan areas were classified into six categories based on proximity to rail, housing density, and walkability. The studied metropolitan areas were grouped into three clusters based on housing and transit characteristics. Results from multilevel regressions partly support supply-side efforts, including ‘missing-middle’ housing, showing that in two of the clusters, a larger share of metropolitan TOD housing units is associated with lower TOD rents. However, the results also show the limits of supply-side efforts to lower costs in metropolitan areas where housing in TODs is more expensive than the metropolitan average.
2024 | Findings
Karel Martens, Matan Singer
Abstract
We introduce and test a visual analogue scale (VAS) to measure to what extent people experience difficulties in reaching destinations (N=180). Known-group analyses showed that respondents who are younger, without vehicle access, or in need of a walking aid, had significantly worse accessibility. Regression analysis with reported mobility problems as dependent variables, showed that VAS replaced car availability as the sole significant explanatory variable. A separate regression model revealed that the mobility problems explain more than half of the variance in VAS (R2=0.528). These results are promising but more research is needed to scrutinize the validity of the VAS.
2023 | Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
Matan Singer, Karel Martens
Abstract
In this paper we present and test a survey instrument to determine the prevalence and severity of travel problems, defined as any difficulty a person may experience in reaching destinations due to a poorly functioning transport system. The tool distinguishes between three types of travel problems: difficulties encountered while traveling; reliance on others; and forgoing trips. The deployment of the tool prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique natural experiment. A series of tests for internal validity, consistency, and reliability, including confirmatory factor analysis, support two of the proposed travel problem indices (Reliance and Trips Forgone). Exploiting the natural experiment, known-group analyses and Two-Part regressions delivered evidence for the external validity of the indices and demonstrated the ability of the instrument to elicit insights on travel problems. We end with a research agenda for developing robust measurement tools that can be used in research and policymaking.
2023 | Transportation
Matan Singer, Aviv Cohen-Zada, Karel Martens
Abstract
The assessment of transport systems has traditionally focused on congestion and ridership as its core performance measures. These perspectives fail to account for the actual service people seek from the transport system—the ability to reach destinations. Recent studies have shifted to focus on accessibility as a performance indicator, but do not address the question whether the observed accessibility is sufficient for meeting people’s daily needs. This paper contributes to the accessibility literature by (1) applying a people-centered approach to the performance assessment of transit systems and (2) exploring the factors explaining the differences in performance between regions. The paper proposes the Accessibility Sufficiency Index (ASI) as a performance standard. The ASI is based on a sufficiency threshold representing an accessibility level that is assumed to enable adequate access to destinations. The paper uses neighborhood transit job accessibility data to calculate separate ASI scores for different sufficiency thresholds for 49 large US metropolitan areas. Regression analyses show that transit system performance is shaped most strongly by transit vehicle revenue miles, mixed land uses, and activity centering. Importantly, the size of these effects varies by the employed sufficiency threshold, suggesting that transportation and land use factors affect transit performance at different spatial scales. The results have implications for the ways we evaluate transport and transit systems and for our understanding of the factors that affect their performance.
2022 | Journal of the American Planning Association
Karel Martens, Matan Singer, Aviv Cohen-Zada
Abstract
Problem, research strategy, and findings
Many studies on transport equity have analyzed disparities in access to destinations between different population groups. In this study, we challenge this disparity approach and propose an alternative: analyzing accessibility insufficiencies. We argue that disparity analyses fall short on two accounts. First, they are based on group averages that inherently hide in-group variation. Second, they compare accessibility levels between groups without addressing whether these levels actually allow people to engage in daily activities. The proposed sufficiency approach avoids the former and addresses the latter by setting an explicit sufficiency threshold for accessibility. Empirical analyses for 49 of the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas confirmed the problematic nature of disparity analyses. In line with most literature, our disparity analyses show that disadvantaged groups are virtually always better served by transit than their more advantaged counterparts. Yet a systematic sufficiency analysis reveals large inequities in accessibility, regardless of the exact sufficiency threshold employed.
Takeaway for practice
Our outcomes underscore the need for researchers and planning practitioners to move away from seemingly neutral disparity analyses toward equity analyses of insufficiencies. Though this move implies inevitably normative, and thus politically difficult, decisions, such analyses enable professionals to systematically identify transport inequities as input for regional transport plans. They may also be used to prioritize already proposed interventions based on their contribution to a reduction in accessibility insufficiencies.
2022 | Journal of Transport Geography
Matan Singer, Aviv cohen-Zada, Karel Martens
Abstract
Recent transport equity literature suggests that accessibility analyses should move beyond mapping of the uneven patterns of access to opportunities. Instead, this literature proposes a sufficientarian approach, according to which all individuals are entitled to a minimum level of accessibility. In line with this approach, in this paper we ask: “What are the spatial patterns of accessibility insufficiency in U.S. metropolitan areas?” We use the Accessibility Fairness Index developed by Martens (Martens, K., 2017. Transport justice: Designing fair transportation systems. Routledge) and others to measure accessibility insufficiency. This index accounts for both people's accessibility shortfall compared to a sufficiency threshold and the number of people affected by these shortfalls. We limit our analysis to 49 of the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas and to people particularly reliant on transit, as they are especially likely to experience insufficient accessibility. We analyze first the spatial patterns of accessibility insufficiency for all 49 metropolitan areas jointly, for sufficiency thresholds ranging from 1% to 50% of average regional car-based accessibility. We find that accessibility insufficiency among people relying on transit is strongly concentrated in the first 10–30 km ring around the metropolitan core, with a more dispersed pattern only prevalent for the lowest 1% threshold. Next, we compare the 49 regions using only the 10% sufficiency threshold. Results show that most regions have a strong concentration of accessibility insufficiency in the urban cores and inner suburban ring. Urban densities in these clusters are relatively high, underscoring the favorable conditions for introducing efficient transit service. We conclude that accessibility insufficiency is not merely an issue of far-flung exurbs and the metropolitan fringes, but just as much a problem affecting the large transit reliant population in the urban cores and inner suburban rings. This underscores the possibilities for addressing the issue through increased and targeted investments in high-quality transit systems and transit-corridor urban densification.
2021 | Cities
Matan Singer
Abstract
Housing and transportation affordability is a major problem for low-income households, yet studies on the issue tend to focus on the average household. Consequently, relatively little is known about the factors that affect affordability for low-income households and the neighborhoods that are affordable to them. This study addresses these issues and examines how housing...
2021 | Transportation Research Part A
Louis Merlin, Matan Singer, Jonathan Levine
Abstract
The success of transit systems, traditionally gauged through ridership metrics, must also be assessed via transit accessibility because accessibility to destinations indicates the quality of service that transit provides. Using a structural equation modeling approach, we explain transit accessibility and transit ridership in 2017 for 50 large urbanized areas...
2019 | Social and Cultural Geography
Matan Singer, Gillad Rosen
Abstract
Little research has been devoted to uncontested human services facilities, nor to the legal frameworks siting proposals are situated in. To address these, this paper examines group homes that operated in Jerusalem, Israel, between 2002 and 2012, identifies and explores a range of responses group homes encounter. Results point to only low levels of opposition...
2018 | Transport Policy
Jonathan Levine, Matan Singer, Louis Merlin, Joe Grengs
Highlights
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On a per-exclusive-guideway-km basis, LRT capital costs are about double those of BRT.
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As BRT guideways become more complex, their guideway costs tend to converge with those of LRT.
2015 | Transport Reviews
Patricia Mokhtarian, Ilan Salomon, Matan Singer
Abstract
We review a number of theories of motivation, and typologies of motivations, in psychological theory and in application to a variety of specific contexts, including shopping, eating, leisure, tourism, and travel. A recurring theme is the distinction between extrinsic (instrumental, utilitarian, functional) and ntrinsic (autotelic, hedonic, experiential) motivations...
2014 | Transport Reviews
Ilan Salomon, Matan Singer
Abstract
In transportation, informal transport refers mainly to the use of paratransit services in the developing world. In this paper we argue that informal travel may include, in addition to mode and users, also other travel pattern elements, such as trip planning, structure, purpose, and destination. Each of these can be placed along an axis ranging from formal manifestations to informal ones, thus creating a ‘formality scale’. Moreover, these elements may be combined in numerous ways, creating a multitude of travel patterns that may be placed all along the formality scale. After providing a definition of formal, semi-formal, and informal travel and characterizing travel patterns according to the formality scale we identify population groups which exemplify semi-formal and informal travel patterns. Next, we analyze the 2009 US National Household Travel Survey, which suggests informal travel may be growing. This leads to a discussion on various factors that might affect travel formality. Most notably, the growing use of information and communication technologies may be shifting travel toward the informal end of the axis. In turn, this might affect trip symmetry, which may result in further effects on the transportation system.
2014 | Transport Reviews
'Informal Travel': A new conceptualization of travel patterns?
Ilan Salomon, Matan Singer
Abstract
In transportation, informal transport refers mainly to the use of paratransit services in the developing world. In this paper we argue that informal travel may include, in addition to mode and users, also other travel pattern elements, such as trip planning, structure, purpose, and destination. Each of these can be placed along an axis ranging from formal manifestations to informal ones, thus creating a ‘formality scale’...
2014 | Journal of Transport Geography
Filippo Dal Fiore, Patricia Mokhtarian, Ilan Salomon, Matan Singer
Abstract
This paper’s goal is to propose a set of perspectives on how mobile phones and computers might affect travel: by tapping into basic needs of travellers; by affecting some preconditions for its spatial configuration; and by altering its costs and benefits. In the age of ‘‘digital nomadism,’’ mobile technology is likely to play an important role for the new mobility and work-life arrangements...
2013 | Land
