Modeling the decision of ridesourcing drivers to park and wait at trip ends: a comparison between Perth, Australia and Kolkata, India.

It is often difficult for the ridesourcing drivers to get a trip immediately after dropping off a passenger. The main objective of the drivers is to increase their income by serving more trips. The most prominent options available to the drivers after reaching passengers' destinations are: (a) park and wait in and around their drop-off location, (b) cruise in and around their drop-off location and (c) drive to another location to receive trip requests quickly. Previous studies were conducted to understand the driver behaviour in a taxi and other similar services. However, the perception of ridesourcing drivers on parking and waiting after dropping off passengers is yet to be explored. The drivers' decision on waiting can affect users' waiting time, the number of matched trips by the TNCs, and parking spaces in the city. Moreover, drivers' waiting time tolerance can also impact other drivers' total number of trips, total earnings, total distance travelled in the city, and fleet size. The aim of this study is to understand the influence of drivers' characteristics on drivers' decision to park and wait after dropping off a passenger. This study estimates and compares the waiting time tolerance of the ridesourcing drivers using a zero-inflated cox spline model between Perth and Kolkata. It is observed that drivers in Kolkata have higher waiting time tolerance than Perth drivers. Moreover, the drivers in both the cities are more likely to wait at high-demand areas urging the urban authorities to determine spatio-temporal parking demand to design the parking infrastructure for such areas.

Potential of telecommuting for different employees in the Indian context beyond COVID-19 lockdown.

During the last decade, telecommuting has become quite popular whereas, in developing countries like India, this phenomenon is limited to a select group of employees due to various factors. The COVID-19 pandemic, the nationwide lockdown and the subsequent new normal scenario, has made the adoption of telecommuting by different type of employees indispensable thus giving us the opportunity to conduct empirical research towards understanding the factors influencing telecommuting adoption, productivity and activity-travel behaviour during telecommuting in India. The data used in this survey has been collected in two phases to capture the evolving situation of the pandemic. The analysis has been done based on revealed preference data considering three time periods i.e., before COVID-19, during COVID-19 nationwide lockdown, after the termination of the lockdown (after first wave) and for the post-COVID 19 scenario where stated preferences are considered. In the first step, telecommuting behaviour, activity-travel pattern during telecommuting and productivity is estimated based on aggregate sample data for various socio-economic groups for the period before and during COVID-19 (1. during lockdown 2. during new normal). Next, factors influencing telecommuting adoption and productivity are determined which has been used in our stated preference survey conducted in the second phase. A logistic regression model has been developed to test the association of existing telecommuting behaviour, activity-travel pattern, factors influencing productivity, socio-economic characteristics and occupation categories with future telecommuting adoption. The findings of this research can not only provide insights to urban planners and policymakers to design sustainable travel demand management strategies but can also help employers to design appropriate telecommuting strategies at the organization level which will help to attain the desired productivity levels. Our empirical analysis reveal two major findings, i.e., a large percentage of employees can achieve their desired productivity by working from home and the 'rebound' effect as identified in literature seems to have little impact in the Indian context. The novelty of this research lies in the comprehension of the adoption process, and the behavioural analysis including adoption, productivity, activity, and travel of telecommuters in the context of a developing country for the first time.

Determining the provision of wastewater management infrastructure in rural India from the local communities' perspectives.

Management of wastewater in rural areas is important for improving the sanitation services which has remained relatively neglected in India and other developing countries. This study aims to analyse the service quality of attributes of wastewater management (WWM) infrastructure and to determine their service delivery levels from local communities' perspective which is required for the sustainability of the provided facilities. The study was conducted in a few villages of the Gaya district of Bihar, India with a sample size of 1,204. Twelve attributes are identified and selected after extensive literature review, focus group discussions and experts' opinion survey, and appropriate service delivery level for each attribute is determined using level of service (LOS) scale, zone of tolerance (ZOT) and through users' satisfaction level (USL) values for each attribute. The findings reveal that while service level of most of the attributes is perceived as LOS C, the expected service level for the attributes lies between LOS A and C. The proportion of households satisfied at the upper and lower ranges of ZOT also varies from one attribute to another. The framework developed in this research would help policy makers to determine appropriate service delivery level of WWM attribute and other infrastructure in rural areas.

Determination of Appropriate Service Delivery Level for Quantitative Attributes of Household Toilets in Rural Settlements of India from Users' Perspective.

Improvement of quality of sanitation services in rural settlements is an important development goal in developing countries including India and accordingly several strategies are adopted which promote the demand and use of household toilets through creating awareness and providing subsidies to poor people for construction of household toilets with service-level standards specified from experts' perspective. In many cases, users are unsatisfied with the quality of toilets constructed using subsidies and the same remain unused. Users' satisfaction depends on their perceptions of service quality of individual attributes and overall service quality of the household toilets, which is an important determinant of sustainability and sustained use of toilets. This study aims to assess and benchmark the appropriate service delivery level for quantitative attributes of rural household toilets based on user perception. The service quality is determined with the help of level of service (LOS) scales developed using successive interval scaling technique, the zone of tolerance (ZOT), and users satisfaction level (USL) which relates service delivery levels with user satisfaction directly. The study finds that the service quality of most of the attributes of household toilets constructed using subsidies is perceived as poor. The results also suggest that most of the users expect to have a toilet with the service level of attributes ranging between LOS A and LOS B.