One of the most important impacts of access to transportation infrastructure is the economic and social well-being of residents. However, it is important to know, how much of an impact it has? Which of the access routes-road, rail, or air-has more impact? What methods can be used to assess this effect? Does this effect vary from country to country? This study attempts to provide a framework to examine the correlation between the access of a country’s cities (to various types of rail, air, and road transportation networks) and the economic and social parameters of its inhabitants. For this purpose, the connection of the city to the rail network was calculated by taking into account the distance in time between the city and the nearest station. A city’s road access is calculated by finding the average road distance of a city to other cities in that country. A city’s access to air traffic is calculated based on the weekly flights of that city’s airport (if that city has an airport). To evaluate the performance of the proposed framework, a case study is conducted in Iran. The results of the case study show that the access of cities to transportation networks strongly influences economic development and population size in Iran. Pearson’s correlation coefficients between transport infrastructure and economic growth and population size are 0.641 and 0.725, respectively. It was also found that among the transport networks, road transport is more correlated with economic development and unemployment rate of Iranian cities compared to other transport modes.

Combining public transportation (PT) with Bike-Sharing Systems (BSSs) offers a pathway toward the sustainable development of urban mobility. These systems can reduce fuel consumption, air pollution, and street congestion, especially during peak hours. Moreover, PT and BSS are frequently used by individuals without access to private vehicles, including low-income groups and students. Whereas increasing PT network infrastructure is constrained by issues such as high capital costs and limited street space (which inhibits mass transit options like BRT or trams), BSS can be used as an adaptable and affordable solution to fill these gaps. In particular, BSS can facilitate the “first-mile–last-mile” legs of PT journeys. However, many transit agencies still rely on traditional joint service planning and overlook BSS as a critical mode in integrated travel chains. This paper proposes that PT and BSS be considered as a unified network and introduces a framework to assess whether access to this integrated system is equitably distributed across urban areas. The framework estimates demand for travel using public mobility options and supply at the level of Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZs), treating PT and BSS as complementary modes. Spatial accessibility analysis is employed to examine connectivity using factors that affect access to both PT and BSS. The proposed approach is tested by taking Tehran as the focus of the case analysis. The results identify the most accessible areas and highlight those that require improved PT-BSS integration. These findings provide policy-relevant suggestions to promote equity and efficiency in urban transport planning. The outcomes reveal that central TAZs in Tehran receive the highest level of PT-BSS integration, while the western and southern TAZs are in urgent need of adjustment to ensure better distribution of integrated public transportation and bike-sharing services.

REVIEW OF "FACTORS INFLUENCING THE CHOICE OF TRANSPORTATION APPLICATIONS IN URBAN ENVIRONMENTS: A STUDY IN BANGKOK, THAILAND" The research paper, "Factors Influencing the Choice of Transportation Applications in Urban Environments: A Study in Bangko...

Public transit agencies are increasingly expected to support smart city goals, but the existing assessment tools often examine transit technology, urban design, environmental performance, or service quality separately. This paper develops a multidisciplinary framework for assessing how ready a public transit system is for integration into a smart city environment. The framework organizes readiness into eight dimensions: technological integration, accessibility, mobility, sustainability and environmental impact, data security and privacy, resilience and adaptability, community engagement and feedback, and safety, security, and rider comfort. These dimensions are further divided into operational subcategories that can be examined using quantitative indicators, public documents, and expert ratings. The framework is applied to Austin, Texas, using CapMetro service information, static GTFS data, census and ACS data, public agency documents, and a short expert rating exercise. The Austin case indicates relatively stronger performance in sustainability and technology adoption, supported by electric and hybrid fleet investments, mobile fare payment, and real-time vehicle information. Lower scores are observed in resilience, community feedback, mobility, and spatial accessibility, particularly in areas where peripheral neighborhoods have limited stop coverage or long scheduled headways. The paper contributes a practical screening tool that can help planners identify where public transit systems are aligned with smart city objectives and where additional investment, governance, or data transparency is needed.

Human factors remain a leading cause of occupational accidents and fatalities in the construction industry. Although human factors are a major contributor to construction accidents, their relative impact across different construction subsectors has not been fully quantified. This study presents a comparative analysis of accident and fatality data from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for three major construction subsectors, NAICS 236 (Construction of Buildings), 237 (Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction), and 238 (Specialty Trade Contractors) from January 2010 through June 2025. Seventy human-factor-related keywords were categorized into eight categories, and accident counts, fatality counts, and fatality rates, defined as the proportion of investigated cases that were fatal, were computed. Twenty-four high-frequency keywords (≥60 investigated accidents) were further analyzed across the three subsectors. Descriptive methods, including risk matrices, Pareto analysis, and category-level fatality rate comparisons, were applied to identify the factors contributing most to fatalities. Differences between subsectors were tested using permutation-based chi-square tests with Benjamini–Hochberg correction for multiple comparisons. Results indicate substantial variation in both frequency and severity among keywords. At the category level, cognitive or perceptual errors, procedural violations and unsafe acts, and judgment and awareness failures in equipment use showed significantly higher fatality proportions in Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction than in the other two subsectors, whereas at the keyword level only lost balance and inattention differed significantly once the correction was applied. The findings provide a data-driven basis for prioritizing targeted safety interventions and tailoring human factor mitigation strategies to subsector-specific risks.