Automobile traffic has been recently on the rise in many post-socialist cities despite EU policies fostering public transportation and active modes of travel. Against this background, the contribution of this paper is to look deeper into the travel behaviours of residents using a survey of 887 questionnaires as well as GPS travel recordings (almost 3 billion logs) conducted in the city of Poznań (539,000 inhabitants). Based on our analysis we found that proximity to public transport and cycling infrastructure seem to be among the most important factors influencing travel behaviours of inhabitants. What is more, their accessibility affected also residential locational preferences. However, we also observed that even in neighbourhoods with good accessibility, commuting by car plays a major role.

Jak zmieniła się codzienna ruchliwość mieszkańców polskich miast? 50 lat badań zachowań transportowych ludności w Polsce

Investments in light rail transit (LRT) have become increasingly popular solutions to promote sustainable urban transportation. However, their impacts on cities are still subject to discussion in the academic community. There is a clear need to better understand the potential impacts of LRT projects, particularly in contexts other than major cities. In this study, we focus on the Olsztyn tram project, which has been implemented in a city of 173,000 residents situated in northeastern Poland. The paper combines different perspectives and data sources, including a study of residents’ stated preferences concerning travel behavior and modelling of housing price effects using the difference-in-differences approach. Our results suggest that the Olsztyn tram project led to a moderate change in travel behavior by increasing the frequency of public transport use but did not result in a substantial shift away from car commuting. Concerning the property market, a decline in prices was observed during the construction phase, but no statistically significant effects were found after completion.

The study takes a comparative approach by investigating the situation in the hinterlands of two different port areas in Europe: Antwerp (Belgium) and Gdansk-Gdynia agglomeration (Poland). Both port centres have an important road hinterland connection that faces competition from other alternative modes of freight transport. However, the Port of Antwerp is already one of the leading ports of the continent while the ports of Gdansk and Gdynia are at the stage of building their competitive position. In the paper the results for both ports obtained using different methodologies are compared. Existing spatial analogies allow making conclusions that are valid for both environments.