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Purpose – The objective of this chapter is to draw the attention of policy makers in the fields of urban planning and transport in China to the importance of developing more balanced multi-modal transport systems and the corresponding land-use patterns to support transport systems, particularly walking and cycling in order to address the issues arising from the dense, highly mixed land-use pattern in many Chinese cities. This will help to reverse current planning practices which give car-oriented development top priority and less consideration of walking and cycling.

Methodology – Statistical methods have been applied to analyse modal split in some cities in Japan, Beijing and Shanghai using travel surveys, plus analysis of the experience of policies in various cities around the world, especially in terms of the relationship between the modal shares for public transport and car. Door-to-door travel times have been analysed for Shanghai to understand the potential of cycle or e-bicycle in a dense urban environment.

Findings – The change in travel modal split in Beijing in recent years suggests that simply encouraging public transport cannot control use of car. The data from Japan also shows that normal bus services cannot compete with the car, but it is clear that people will travel less by car if there is a high non-motorized share in the city. Because of the low density of the metro network, the door-to-door travel speed by metro is not as fast as is often imagined, due to the long off-metro time. The people who use metro are often not the people who live very close to metro stations, but some distance away, so improving the connection to the station by cycle or e-bicycle could greatly reduce the total travel time by metro.

Research limitations and implications – More analyses should be conducted in medium-size and small-size cities in China, where the local capacity is low and there is great potential to travel by walking and cycling, but only after clear guidance and policy instruments have been provided by higher authorities.

Practical and social implications – There is still a relatively high share of non-motorized travel in China. Many cities still have extensive cycle infrastructure established under the State Code of Urban Road Transport Planning issued in 1995. Encouraging non-motorized transport systems is not only possible, but also good for the environment, and contributes to travel efficiency and social inclusion.

Originality – This chapter is the summary of several original research studies using primary survey data, encouraging public transport in China. This is the first research to show the great potential of non-motorized mode for controlling car use and improving urban mobility in China. It is also the first chapter to point out the integration of multi-modal transport systems with the corresponding built environment in China.

This chapter presents a discussion of innovations in pedagogic approaches for high-achieving, pre-degree pathway program students at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

The question under discussion in the academic language classroom is the extent to which dynamic cohorts of multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary students are being enabled to fulfill individual learning goals as well as the institution’s expectations of pathway learners and academic language users. Wingate (2015) argues that in the absence of an epistemological and socioculturally embedded literacy instruction, students are not equitably prepared for success in the discipline or the wider institution. The chapter reviews critiques of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and Academic Literacies by addressing “the best of both worlds” (Wingate & Tribble, 2012, p. 492) approach.

The chapter continues with a case study into the Academic Vocabulary in Literacy strand of the Foundation EAP course on the International Foundation Programme at Edinburgh University. There then follows close analysis of innovation by course designers to adapt the “best of both traditions” model (Wingate & Tribble, 2014, p. 2) into an integrated academic language and literacy approach. It is posited that this approach could enable attempts at transition for high-achieving foundation students by experiencing language in dynamic and multi-modal genres.

This paper outlines a steady state multi-modal equilibrium transportation model which contains elastic demands and deterministic route-choices. The model may readily be extended to include some stochastic route-choice or mode choice. Capacity constraints and queueing delays are permitted; and signal green-times and prices are explicitly included. The paper shows that, under natural linearity and monotonicity conditions, for fixed control parameters the set of equilibria is the intersection of convex sets. Using this result the paper outlines a method of designing appropriate values for these control parameters; taking account of travellers' choices by supposing that the network is in equilibrium. The method may be applied to non-linear monotone problems by linearising about a current point. An outline justification of the method is given; a rigorous proof of convergence is as yet missing. Thus the method must now be regarded as a heuristic.

Lockheed Martin has been a premier builder and developer of manned aircraft and fighter jets since 1909. Since then, aircraft design has drastically evolved in many areas including the evolution of manual linkages to fly-by-wire systems, and mechanical gauges to glass cockpits. Lockheed Martin's knowledge of manned aircraft has produced a variety of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) based on size/wingspan, ranging from a micro-UAV (MicroStar) to a hand-launched UAV (Desert Hawk) and up to larger platforms such as the DarkStar. Their control systems vary anywhere between remotely piloted to fully autonomous systems. Remotely piloted control is equivalent to full human involvement with an operator controlling all the decisions of the aircraft. Similarly, fully autonomous operations describe a situation that has the human having minimal contact with the platform. Flight path control relies on a set of waypoints for the vehicle to fly through. This is the most common mode of UAV navigation, and GPS has made this form of navigation practical.

This chapter develops a comprehensive framework for evaluating planning decisions that affect walking conditions (“walkability”) and walking activity. It identifies various walking economic impacts (benefits and costs), describes methods for measuring those impacts, and discusses how to apply this information, based on the literature. The chapter finds that walking plays a unique and important role in an efficient and equitable transportation system, including affordable basic mobility, exercise and recreation, and access to other modes including public transit and parked cars. Walking is typically the second most common travel mode by trip mode share, and is particularly important for physically, economically and socially disadvantaged people. Improving walkability, increasing walking activity, and creating more walkable communities provides various economic, social, and environmental benefits. Conventional planning tends to undervalue many of these benefits, resulting in less support for walking than is optimal. Decision-makers increasingly want more comprehensive evaluation which considers a wider range of planning objectives and impacts. More comprehensive benefit analysis tends to justify more support for walking, and could lead to better planning decisions. Improving walking conditions helps create a more diverse, efficient, and equitable transport system which responds to changing demands and future needs. Walking is particularly important for disadvantaged people who tend to rely on walking for basic mobility, many of whom are constrained if walking conditions are poor. The analysis presented in this chapter is significantly more comprehensive than generally used in planning, and if used could lead to improved planning and enhanced walking.

This chapter focuses on the impact of digitization on the conception, development and examination of the doctoral thesis in the contemporary university.

The approach taken is that of reflective inquiry. The author has taken a lead role in the editing of two handbooks for Sage: one on e-learning research and the other on the digital dissertation/thesis, and this chapter reflects on the changes taking place in higher education as a result of digitization. A number of examples are used to illustrate the possibilities afforded by digitization not only at doctoral levels but also in all dissertations.

It is proposed that digitization affects not only the conception and direction of doctoral research for the student but it has implications also for supervisors, those who ‘upgrade’ work from MPhil to PhD levels and also for examiners and librarians. Changes in the format of the presentation of the digital thesis allow moving image and sound, as well as still images, to be incorporated into the main body of the text rather than be relegated to an appendix (e.g. in a CD-Rom). The storage of the completed thesis in digital form, via a number of different repositories, allows for greater access and use.

One of the major implications of the digital thesis is that all universities must regularly re-visit their regulations to ensure that the parameters for doctoral research are clear, and that they are appropriate for the kind of research that is undertaken by students. Many universities are now making a digital copy of the thesis for principal submission, with print copies as optional.

Consideration of the implications of the digital thesis for students and universities is essential not only in terms of knowledge creation but also in terms of validation of such knowledge and its dissemination and use.

Purpose – The chapter reviews public bicycle scheme implementation processes and impacts and will assist decision makers and stakeholders considering such schemes.

Approach – The chapter customises the Van de Velde typology for describing public and private interventions in public bicycle scheme implementation processes. The chapter considers schemes worldwide, but has a particular focus on France and Spain where these schemes are considered as a public service.

Findings – The authors draw several conclusions on how to optimise public and private involvement in order to achieve the desired impacts. First, public bicycle schemes have to be integrated within cycling and urban mobility policies. Second, local governments have to ensure that contracts with private sector operators make maximum use of the operator's skill, and by so doing will meet multi-modal travel behaviour objectives.

Research limitations/implication – The chapter highlights the need of further research into organisational and contractual performance, the special economic features of industries based on the supply of a service through a network, and cost–benefit analysis.

Practical implications – Public decision makers benefit from experience which is able to be assimilated and transmitted through international projects undertaken by international experts in the field.

Social implications – Public bicycle schemes enable relatively easy and cheap access to sustainable modes of transport, and they contribute to an overall transport system with cycling as a prime means of movement, and towards cities which are more pleasant to live in.

Originality – By integrating the main relevant data and publications into this worldwide overview, the chapter forms an essential starting point for future work relating to public bicycle schemes.

The continuing urbanization, the still increasing cargo distribution volumes towards the city centers and the spectacular growth in road transportation are deteriorating the traffic situation in large cities, and so a heavy threat for fast, predictable and cost-effective city logistics. Now is the time to develop new standardized logistic concepts, including the use of all available modes of transport. Standardized city boxes, vehicles, handling equipment and city access rules will support the interchangeability within logistic networks and will encourage the implementation of new concepts for city logistics offering a better service for equal or even lower costs. Shuttle concepts for road-bound distribution will result in better vehicle utilization, less environmental impact and better quality of life. Furthermore, rail-bound systems for the combined transport of passengers and freight have a large potential for regional and city-bound cargo distribution.

For area's with a suitable waterways network, barge transportation can be used both for long-haul and bi-modal (barge-truck) city logistics.

Partnerships between transportation companies, retailers, logistic providers and local/regional authorities will be required to introduce new logistic concepts. These will be necessary to maintain efficient city logistics and to improve the quality of life in the cities.

In this chapter, I describe a project that sought to explore the ‘lived experience’ of a group of children engaged in on- and off-screen play, during an after-school Minecraft Club. Building on established research methodologies, an approach that I called ‘rhizomic ethnography’ was developed to study this complex site of play. Drawing on the work of Deleuze and Guattari (1987), I demonstrate how this suite of participatory, playful and multimodal approaches, including use of video, comic strips and virtual model making, helped to illuminate the children's collaborative creation of a ‘virtual community’. I explain how employing a range of methods, which often emerged during the process of research, allowed for unexpected meanings to develop and, therefore, afforded new insights into the nature of children's play. Here, I also seek to demonstrate how taking an adaptive and playful approach to research, working in synergy with the research context, could have affordances for examining other examples of children's playful, social interactions.