The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in change in both commute and personal travel patterns. Though, in India, lockdown was implemented from 25th March 2020, due to self-awareness and pandemic risk perception, change in commuter behavior was observed from the beginning of March 2020. The period from 15th to 24th March 2020 is considered as the transition phase of COVID-19 outbreak in India (i.e., between no lockdown and lockdown period). https://www.selleckchem.com/products/AZD0530.html This study attempts to use a decision tree approach to investigate the modal preference of 1542 commuters in association with socio-economic and travel characteristics, and safety perceptions with respect to public and private modes during transition to lockdown due to COVID-19 in India. About 41% of commuters stopped traveling during the transition to lockdown phase, 51.3% were using the same mode of transport and 5.3% of commuters shifted from public to private mode. The study findings reported different interactions of factors influencing the decision to use public or private modes of transport for daily commuting during pandemic situations like COVID-19. Interestingly, safety perceptions (associated with personal health) of commuters did not play a significant role in their mode choice behavior during the transition phase. Though people perceived public transportation as unsafe over personal vehicle use, the actual commute patterns did not validate this due to a possible reason that commuters do not have enough alternative modes. Given the uncertainties in the decision making of the commuters regarding their travel behavior due to physical distancing, the insights from this study are important to policymakers and local transport authorities to understand the change in travel patterns.The digital revolution is happening, transforming the way we move and produce. Success in the digital revolution means that the rail industries need to use the best available technologies focusing on people. The managerial and organizational practices adopted by railway entities have considerable significance for Railway's ability to succeed in global competition. One of the challenges for railway entities is to deliver innovative products, offering quickness and flexibility to respond to changing demands from their customers. Non-technological innovations and especially Workplace innovation, have a key role to play in the digitalization and acceleration of technological developments, therefore in the railway sector competitiveness. This draws attention to the importance of innovation climate and employees' commitment aiming at improving staff motivation and working conditions, thereby enhancing labor productivity, organizational performance, innovation capability, reactivity to market change, and consequently business competitiveness. As with any emerging opportunity, there is no established path to follow to activate inclusive growth in railway SMEs to uptake Workplace innovation. To address these issues, this paper develops and tests a research model that covers individual behavior, organizational practices, and process practices of innovation among employees, analyzing the impact of Workplace Innovation on firm performance.The first two cases of COVID-19 in Ghana were recorded on March 12th 2020. As a guideline, government issued directives on physical distancing and the use of face masks to curb community spread of the disease. Given that public transport has been identified as a high-risk environment for transmission, it was of interest to ascertain user and operator compliance to guidelines for public transport operations during the period, as a measure of its risk level. A roadside observer survey, of over 850 of the most popular paratransit (trotro) buses was carried out on one of the major roads in Kumasi. Compliance to the policy on physical distancing was determined using guidelines from the Ministry of Transport, while compliance to the policy on face masks was determined by the researchers themselves based on the number of commuters with/without face masks per bus. The results suggest that majority (98.0%) of buses comply with the social distancing guidelines established by the Ministry of transport, however the policy on face masks was complied with only partially in most vehicles. About 12.6% of the vehicles had fewer than three commuters without face masks, while 21.3% of buses that had fewer than 3 people with face masks. The results suggest public transport remains an area of high risk in the fight against COVID-19. It is recommended that operators are given additional directives that restrict them from allowing commuters without face masks on board their vehicles, and as well, that police enforce the policy through fines.Cycling as a form of active transport has great benefits for individuals and society, yet prevalence rates in many countries are low. The advent of autonomous vehicles (AVs) is likely to have substantial implications for cyclists, however little is known about the nature and magnitude of the likely impacts and the resulting implications for government planning and policy. The aim of this exploratory study was to consult with a range of stakeholder groups to identify relevant issues and stimulate debate about future efforts to maximize the benefits of vehicle autonomy for cycling outcomes. Interviews were conducted with key stakeholders representing government (local, state, and federal departments responsible for transport, health, and/or infrastructure), cycling organizations, technology firms, AV manufacturing/servicing companies, trade unions, the law, insurers (public and private), transport policy consortia, and academia. The results suggest that AVs have the potential to increase cycling prevalence while reducing cycling accidents, but that a range of issues will need to be addressed to optimize these outcomes. In particular, informed decisions need to be made about the infrastructure and equipment investments that could encourage larger numbers of commuters to select cycling as their primary form of transport.Nationwide lockdown for COVID-19 created an urgent demand for public transportation among migrant workers stranded at different parts of India to return to their native places. Arranging transportation could spike the number of COVID-19 infected cases. Hence, this paper investigates the potential surge in confirmed and active cases of COVID-19 infection and assesses the train and bus fleet size required for the repatriating migrant workers. The expected to repatriate migrant worker population was obtained by forecasting the 2011 census data and comparing it with the information reported in the news media. A modified susceptible-exposed-infected-removed (SEIR) model was proposed to estimate the surge in confirmed and active cases of COVID-19 patients in India's selected states with high outflux of migrants. The developed model considered combinations of different levels of the daily arrival rate of migrant workers, total migrant workers in need of transportation, and the origin of the trip dependent symptomatic cases on arrival.