Beyond the dichotomy: How ride-hailing competes with and complements public transport

Since ride-hailing has become an important travel alternative in many cities worldwide, a fervent debate is underway on whether it competes with or complements public transport services. We use Uber trip data in six cities in the United States and Europe to identify the most attractive public transport alternative for each ride. We then address the following questions: (i) How does ride-hailing travel time and cost compare to the fastest public transport alternative? (ii) What proportion of ride-hailing trips do not have a viable public transport alternative? (iii) How does ride-hailing change overall service accessibility? (iv) What is the relation between demand share and relative competition between the two alternatives? Our findings suggest that the dichotomy—competing with or complementing—is false. Though the vast majority of ride-hailing trips have a viable public transport alternative, between 20% and 40% of them have no viable public transport alternative. The increased service accessibility attributed to the inclusion of ride-hailing is greater in our US cities than in their European counterparts. Demand split is directly related to the relative competitiveness of travel times i.e. when public transport travel times are competitive ride-hailing demand share is low and vice-versa.

Exploration of School Library Services for Students with Disabilities

To implement inclusive education, schools need to provide a range of services for students with disabilities. One component that must be adapted is the school library, which must also create an inclusive environment so students with disabilities can access it. This research aimed to examine and explore school libraries’ readiness to provide services for students with disabilities. This was qualitative research. The research was conducted in five school libraries in the Special Region of Yogyakarta. Data were collected through library accessibility checklist forms from IFLA, in-depth interviews, and documentation analysis. Ten informants participated, while documentation was examined from school-owned documents, websites, and school library profile videos. The results showed that only two school libraries were well prepared to provide services for students with disabilities, one of which already provided special services for people with disabilities. In contrast, other libraries have not provided services for students with disabilities because there is no need for internal schools. However, some of the school libraries have done mapping and planned the needs for developing disability services to optimize library services. Keywords: school library, library service, accessibility, students with disabilities

Child Maltreatment Prevention Service Cases are Significantly Reduced During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Investigation Into Unintended Consequences of Quarantine

Unprecedented financial and emotional stress, paired with measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 (e.g., school closures), place youth at risk for experiencing increased rates of abuse. We analyzed data from New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services to investigate the frequency of child maltreatment prevention service case openings during this time. Longitudinal counts of case openings were compiled for January through June of the years 2014–2020. An independent samples Kruskal–Wallis H-test suggested that pre-quarantine case openings were significantly larger than case openings during quarantine. To account for the possible influence of other historical events impacting data, a secondary Kruskal–Wallis H-test was conducted comparing only the 4 months of quarantine data available to the 4 months immediately preceding quarantine orders. The second independent samples Kruskal–Wallis H-test again suggested that pre-quarantine case openings were significantly larger than case openings during quarantine. A Poisson regression model further supported these findings, estimating that the odds of opening a new child maltreatment prevention case during quarantine declined by 49.17%. These findings highlight the severity of COVID-19 impacts on child maltreatment services and the gap between demand for services and service accessibility. We conclude with recommendations for local governments, community members, and practitioners.

“Any advice for a pre-dad who is freaking out?”: A qualitative analysis of paternal perinatal experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic using the reddit forum predaddit

During the COVID-19 pandemic, new parents were disproportionately affected due to public health restrictions that changed service accessibility and increased stressors. Yet, minimal research to date has examined specific pandemic-related stressors and experiences of perinatal fathers in naturalistic anonymous settings. An important and relatively novel way parents seek connection and information is through online forum use, which increased during the social isolation of the pandemic. The current study qualitatively analyzed the experiences of perinatal fathers from September to December 2020 (792 posts, 8011 comments) through Framework Analytic Approach to identify unmet support needs during COVID-19 using the online subforum, predaddit. Five main themes emergent in the thematic framework included forum use, COVID-19, psychosocial distress, family functioning, and child health and development, each of which contained related subthemes. Findings highlight the utility of predaddit as a source of information for and interactions of fathers to inform mental health services.

Service Accessibility Risk (SAR) Assessment for Pluvial and Fluvial Floods in an Urban Context

The development of strategies to adapt to and mitigate the potential adverse consequences of natural hazards requires support from risk assessment studies that quantify the impacts of hazardous events on our society. A comprehensive analysis of risk commonly evaluates the elements exposed to the hazard probabilistic scenarios and their vulnerabilities. However, while significant advances have been made in the assessment of direct losses, indirect impacts are less frequently examined. This work assesses the indirect consequences of two hydrologic hazards, i.e., pluvial and fluvial floods, in an urban context from a system perspective. It presents a methodology to estimate the services accessibility risk (SAR) that considers the accessibility of roads and the connection between providers and users of services in a city. The feasibility of the proposed approach is illustrated by an application to a pilot study in Monza city (northern Italy) considering pluvial and fluvial flood hazard with different return periods. The results in terms of the social and economic impacts are analyzed considering features of age, disability, and the different economic sectors.

Third party drug checking: accessing harm reduction services on the behalf of others

Background Drug checking uses chemical analytical technologies to analyze drugs from the unregulated market to reduce substance use-related risks. We aim to examine the frequency of third party use of a community drug checking service to explore the potential for harm reduction to extend beyond the individual into the community, increase service accessibility, and to contribute to upstream interventions in the supply. Methods Over 31 months, data were collected from a point-of-care drug checking service operated in Victoria, Canada. Through the implementation of survey questions at the intake of the service, data were collected about whether the drug check was for the individual, to sell, and/or for others. Results Just over half (52%) of service users were checking for reasons that extended beyond individual use. When checking for others, friends were the most common response, representing 52% of responses, and outreach/support workers checking for others was the second most at 32%. Twelve percent of service users reported checking to sell or for a supplier. Conclusions Third party checking is a frequent, and important aspect of drug checking services, which through facilitating community engagement and increasing accessibility, has expanded the reach of interventions beyond individuals to reduce risks within the unregulated market. Therefore, drug checking as an overdose response should be responsive and accessible for those using the service on the behalf of others.

An iterative local search based hybrid algorithm for the service area problem

This article presents a hybrid algorithm for the service area problem. The design of service areas is one of the essential issues in providing efficient services in both the public and private sectors. For a geographical region with a number of small spatial units, the service area problem is to assign the service-demand units to the service-supply units such that each facility has a service area. The basic criteria for the service areas are the highest service accessibility, the contiguous service areas, and that the service demand does not exceed the service supply in each service area. A hybrid algorithm for the service area problem is proposed by extending iterative local search (ILS) algorithm with three schemes: population-based ILS, variable neighborhood descent (VND) search, and set partitioning. The performance of the algorithm was tested using 60 well-designed instances. Experimentation showed that the instances could be solved effectively and efficiently. The solutions found by the hybrid algorithm approximate optimal solutions or the lower bounds with an average gap of 0.15%.