Abstract

An efficient transport service allows a society to have economic progress and improves quality of life. Part of this structure is the issue in the determination of pricing the service of it, thus, the incomes of the offeror and good service to the user can be guaranteed. In Ecuador, the National Traffic Agency establishes a methodology that considers the offer of kilometers and operating costs. However, this methodology does not establish how to get and analyse the information that feeds the model, this aspect can generate biases and subjectivities at the time to define the rate. This study seeks to detect deficiencies in the methodology and suggest the relevant changes as an alternative to it, for this a mixed approach is considered, which not only considers surveys but also instrumentation and hi-technology to measure fuel consumption, tire wear, distance traveled and number of passengers. Once the analysis of the methodology was developed, a new approach to information gathering was proposed; and to validate, an experiment was applied to a canton of the country, with this it was possible to obtain rates that better represent the reality of the sector under analysis.

Abstract

Digital divide concept has been drawing attention in the world since the first appearance of the internet. It explains the inequality between people caused by their ability to access any technology and interpret this technology to be able to use it. The concept emerged as a consequence of technology diffusion, and related information and communication technologies that came into people's life. Since there is a huge population living in different countries and cities who is affecting from digital divide, it become a multi-dimensional complex phenomenon which have different types and dimension. The increasing role of smart phones in daily life triggered mobile apps to become one of the most popular ICT-based services and the process of using public transport is intended to be supported and eased by mobile applications in smart phones. However, whether these services are able to be accessed and used by every person in population is rather unclear. The case study conducted in the thesis analyzes this ability to access and use of the mobile public transport applications. In this context, digital divide is approached from two different perspectives; the types and the dimensions. As a case, METU campus were selected in the frame of mobile public transport applications of Ankara, to investigate the validity of access and social digital divide, and the effect of income, education level, occupation, age and gender on digital divide. Thesis (M.S.) -- Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences. City and Regional Planning.