Management of Competitiveness of Metropolis Public Transport in the COVID-19 Pandemic Based on Core Consumers’ Values

An Integrated Assessment of the Competitiveness of a Sustainable City within the Context of the COVID-19 Impact

It is crucial for a city to ensure economic stability and growth, along with social security and prosperity, not only for the present, but also for future generations. Increasingly, researchers are highlighting the need to apply sustainable urban growth principles to the field of urban development, arguing that this would reduce the negative impacts of urbanization processes (poverty, air pollution, unemployment, and crime). At the same time, cities are competing with one another to maintain their position in the urban hierarchy, not only in the short term, but also in the long term. The COVID-19 pandemic affected many areas of our everyday life: over 5.85 million deaths, increased unemployment, the introduction of restrictions, the closure of national borders, and various other circumstances have all undoubtedly affected to a certain degree those factors which serve to influence competitiveness. The aim of this article is to conduct an integrated competitiveness assessment of the Baltic capitals within the context of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for the period 2015–2020, according to an integrated assessment model for urban competitiveness (MDK), which is based upon the principles of sustainable development. A systematic and comparative analysis of the concepts published in the scientific literature has been performed, the concepts of sustainable city and sustainable urban competitiveness have been formed, research and methods of urban competitiveness evaluation have been carried out, and a comprehensive competitiveness assessment of the results of the study showed that the evaluation of integrated competitiveness of a sustainable city in the context of the impact of COVID-19 (using the Baltic capitals as an example in the period 2015–2020), in terms of the multi-criteria SAW and TOPSIS evaluation methods, is in the highest position in 2016–2019. Vilnius is in second place during the whole period 2016–2019. Riga takes third place in 2015–2019 (except in 2020, when it exchanges places with Vilnius and takes second place). Meanwhile, the results of the COPRAS multicriteria method differ from those discussed above. In 2016, 2019, and 2020, Tallinn is in the highest position, and in 2015, 2017, and 2018, it is surpassed by Vilnius. Riga remained in third place from 2015 to 2019. In 2020, Vilnius took over this position.

The role of current transport expenditure in mitigating the risk of modal shift during Covid-19 - Lessons from Polish cities

This article shows that current expenditure allocated by local authorities for the routine maintenance of public transport (i.e., providing passengers with clean and frequent services) is crucial to effectively limit the modal shift from public transit to private cars during the Covid-19 pandemic. In our analysis, we define public transport as the bus, tram, metro and trolley operations which are ordered and funded by 11 local authorities in Poland; we also assume that the modal shift is reflected in the growth of traffic congestion. Taking into account these assumptions and considering the long-term financial data from 2010 to 2020, we then conduct hierarchical linear regression and state that cities with a higher share of current expenses in cities' total annual transport expenditure have registered during the pandemic a lower number of weeks with congestion level exceeding the pre-pandemic level. We argue that this is due to the allocation of current expenditure to cleaning services and the transport service supply, which could have a significant impact on perceptions of crowding and safety on public transport. Both issues belong to the essential determinants of the quality of public transport services and could play a key role in mitigating the modal shift by reducing the fear of catching Covid-19. In contrast to this finding, we also show that investment expenditure (allocated to improvements of transport infrastructure) does not have a similar impact on the congestion during the pandemic. In this context, we emphasise that cutting spending on cleaning services and the transport supply service as a response to the reduced number of passengers would be more devastating for public transport than postponing new infrastructure investments. Based on the results achieved in the analysis, we provide recommendations for local authorities that can help implement new funding models and reframe local transport policy, namely: (1) close the funding gap resulting from lower revenues to local budgets, (2) provide resources for maintaining the infrastructure investments and adapting them to a "new normality", (3) maintain the attractiveness of public transport post-Covid.

Loyalty of Paratransit Users in the Era of Competition with Ride Sourcing

As a mode serving urban mobility in developing countries, paratransit is experiencing competition with the fast and massive growth of ride sourcing. This study aims to investigate the loyalty of paratransit users in Bandung, Indonesia, in the era of competition with ride sourcing. Data collected by questionnaires and distributed to 400 paratransit users in Bandung were analysed using hierarchical structural equation modelling. The analysis shows that satisfaction is positively influenced by service quality variables. Though there is less satisfaction compared to the previous decade, satisfaction with the service still has a positive influence on total satisfaction with the mode. It can also be concluded that loyalty is positively influenced by satisfaction. Satisfaction with the image and the unique characteristics of paratransit retains passengers’ intentions toward loyalty in the future, including current personal characteristics (i.e., age, income, occupation) and travel characteristics (i.e., fare, vehicle ownership) of passengers. This study warns of the high probability of mode-changing behaviour from paratransit to another mode.

Open Business Model of COVID-19 Transformation of an Urban Public Transport System: The Experience of a Large Russian City

Dialectics, or developmental transformation, would eventually cause any system to change. The level and depth of these changes vary and depend on the power of external influence and system reservation mechanisms. The art of managing system processes consists of two main aspects. The first aspect involves the sagacity of managers and predicting general environmental change trends (and their impacts on the managed system). The second involves adjusting to these trends, maximizing possible benefits, and minimizing the negative manifestations of this process. Innovation plays an important role, contributing to system transformations with maximal effect and minimal loss. Public transport systems are important elements in cities, as they provide spatial mobility for at least half of the citizens of a city who cannot use individual transportation. Modern urbanization and peculiarities of the social–economic statuses of many citizens contribute to the fact that organized public transportation is unprofitable. The low solvency of citizens who use public transportation services means that passenger transport systems do not work with enough profitability. As a result, governing institutions often choose to subsidize unprofitable transporter activities, thereby prolonging the functioning of unprofitable routes. This is possible only in conditions of sustainability (in regards to a non-optimal system), when the environment is calm, and its negative impact is low. “Black swans” (according to N. Taleb) are bifurcation factors that break the sustainability of non-optimal system. Urban public transport (UPT) of a large Russian city, Tyumen, experienced it in 2020, in connection with the COVID-19 lockdown. The sharp decrease in population mobility in Tyumen, in 2020–2021, caused the need for a complete transformation of the transport service system. However, managers did not want to fundamentally change a system that consensually suited most counterparties. The search for new balances in a system that demands transformation is one way for sustainable provision. This article looks at the transformation and sustainability of a UPT system in the large Russian city of Tyumen, under conditions affected by the negative impact of COVID-19. Results of a comparative (i.e., pre-crisis (2019) and crisis (2020)) Pareto analysis of the contributions of different UPT routes are presented. Transformation of the structure of the UPT route system can overcome the “crisis” COVID-19 period and minimize its financial-economic costs.