Journal of Urban Mobility最新文献

The evolution of urban morphology and urban mobility reveals a complex and multidimensional relation that has been historically linked to the evolution of technology and its influence on people's behaviour, desires, and needs. The increasing level of digitalization of human interactions in both social and work environments has created a new paradigm for urban mobility. Alongside, sustainability concerns are also accelerating the design of new policies for improving citizens’ quality of life in urban areas. To address this new paradigm, municipalities need to consider new methodologies encompassing the different dimensions of the urban environment. This can be achieved if key stakeholders participate in co-creating and co-designing new solutions for urban mobility. In this paper we propose a multidisciplinary approach to these problems, supported by service-dominant logic concepts. The approach was used to design the CoDUMIS framework that brings together four dimensions of urban areas (social, urban, technological, and organizational). The application of the framework to four distinct cases, in Portuguese municipalities, resulted in a set of guidelines that help municipalities to improve their services and policies in a participatory environment, involving all the stakeholders.

The air quality in many German cities does not comply with EU-wide standards. Vehicle emissions, in particular, have been identified as an important cause of air pollution. As a result, driving bans for diesel vehicles with critical pollutant groups have been imposed by courts in many places in recent history. Against the backdrop of the growth of major German cities over the last few years, the question has become whether and how a change in the modal split in favor of more environmentally and climate-friendly public transport sector can be achieved. The Federal City of Bonn is one of five model cities that is testing measures to reduce traffic-related nitrogen dioxide emissions through a Climate Ticket as a mobility flat rate for one year for 365 €, which is part of the two-year "Lead City" project funded by the federal government. A quantitative survey (n = 1,315) of Climate Ticket users as well as the logistic regression carried out confirm that a change in individual mobility behavior in favor of public transport is possible by subsidizing the ticket price. The results show that individual traffic could be saved on the city's main congestion axes. In order to achieve a sustainable improvement in air quality, such a Climate Ticket must be granted on a permanent basis, with a well-designed mobility offer and must be generous in terms of the group of authorized persons and the area of validity.

Public Transit (PT) systems aim to provide social, economic, and environmental benefits to modern cities offering reliable transportation service to users and ultimately reducing the problems related to traffic externalities due to car dependency. With the growing trend of urbanization and the associated phenomenon of cities’ sprawl being increasingly evident, significant attention should be given to understanding PT systems’ performance and then improving their efficiency. Considering the spatial characteristics of the PT system's performance promotes the environmentally friendly transport “character” that every city endeavors. This paper aims to incorporate the spatial spillover effects of a realistic PT system by augmenting information about the service network along with socio-economic variables, in a spatial demand-supply econometric framework. In detail, geographically separated demand and supply information on bus stops and lines was analyzed by a spatial econometric model, namely, the Spatial Lagged X (SLX) model which may be formatted so that can soundly handle, spatial and –in particular- network data like those coming from the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) protocol widely used in PT systems. The novelty and the importance of the proposed model rely on the ability to introduce transit network structure within the framework of spatial econometric regression, fostering the explanatory statistical analysis over networked information. The developed modeling approach was applied to the urban and rural PT system of Nicosia (Cyprus), incorporating the spatial spillover effects of the system over more than 1,500 bus stops, 40 lines, and 252 different but spatially connected postcode areas. The results of the SLX model were compared with other demand models of this form typically used, namely the Ordinary Least Square model and standard Spatial Autoregressive models, providing solid evidence of the benefits of incorporating the network structure in spatial demand modeling, giving valuable input for further planning purposes.

Climate change is considered the most pressing environmental challenge of our time, being transport one of the major contributors. Consequently, transport models are required to test different urban mobility policies that can shift travel to more sustainable transport modes (e.g., active modes). This paper focuses on the development of a validated agent-based model (MATSim) applying a novel open-source methodology to generate the main input datasets, easily transferrable to any region in England. Required input datasets (synthetic population and network) are described with a high level of detail, identifying the datasets and tools used to develop them, with special interest in the simulation of cycling routes. A new attribute (quietness) ranking roads for cycling depending on their built-environment characteristics was incorporated into the MATSim bicycle extension. The results obtained in this paper show the baseline transport model of the Tyne and Wear region (England), where discrepancies up to 3.5% in transport mode shares and minimal differences in vehicle counts in urban areas were obtained, and a realistic representation of the routes chosen by the agents using bicycles is obtained. This provides the basis for the development of similar MATSim implementation in other UK regions.

The evolution of land use occupancy in various cities worldwide is swift. Land-use planning processes are still recent in most Latin American countries with significant socio-spatial inequalities. Due to rapid urban growth and real estate pressure, peri-urban areas of metropolises become susceptible to economic interests that can disrupt land use and municipal planning. Therefore, considering spatial justice, it is crucial to analyse possible future urban scenarios regarding socio-economic activities and their spatial distributions. This research seeks to define optimal locations and suitable urban growth areas, ensuring socio-spatial equity and justice. The study area is the municipality of Chia, on the outskirts of the metropolis of Bogota, Colombia, where the research proposes an analysis of urban morphology and the (social) intensity of activities and infrastructure. As a methodology, space syntax and the distribution of residential and non-residential activity data are applied through a predictive model. The study concludes that future mitigation of urban inequalities based on land use will be difficult to achieve owing to the location of urban sprawl areas.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a worldwide disruptive event that impacted, to a greater or lesser extent, all countries and economic activities. In the transport sector, stakeholders are still dealing with and learning from its consequences, as many users have changed their preferences towards private and less sustainable modes. In this paper, a mixed logit modelling approach was applied to a vast database from a stated preference survey conducted in Germany to assess the influence of COVID-19 on mobility preferences in three different stages of the pandemic period: lockdown (high-risk of spread, May 2020), post-lockdown (medium risk of spread, June 2020), and a period where the number of infected cases was lower (small risk of spread, October 2020). Several variables were included in the analysis, such as sociodemographic characteristics, mobility habits and preferences regarding future mobility solutions. Three models were developed, one for each pandemic stage. A comprehensive and reflective analysis of the models’ results, aligned with other studies’ findings, shows that the utility of public transport (PuT) and bicycles, based on individuals’ sociodemographic characteristics and choice attributes, compared to cars was affected by the pandemic state. Regarding the influence of crowding inside PuT during the different periods, it was concluded that users are more willing to pay an extra for their monthly passes to have available seats in PuT in the latter stage of the pandemic. The availability of dedicated bike lanes and a shower at the destination were considered attractive factors for cycling during the lockdown phase. Regarding the private car use, the cost of parking is the only attribute that demonstrates a causal effect on the preference for using this mode. This attribute holds a greater relevance during the post-lockdown and “new normal” periods. The results of this study can be helpful to guide policymakers on the definition of actions to counteract the increasing preference for private transport in the future and during disruptions.

There is no bigger problem in daily urban life other than traffic congestion in Metro Manila, the capital of the Philippines. With a population of around 13.5 million people in 2020, this metropolis is globally notorious for its ‘carmageddon.’ Its streets transform into giant parking lots, which entails the loss of time, productivity, and other vital resources. Car-centrism is at the core of this mobility problem. However, government solutions to the traffic problem are overly focused on infrastructure and technological interventions. In this article, we engage with how civil society plays a fundamental role in initiating and sustaining street experiments in constituent cities of Metro Manila and how they influence change in transport governance through utilising the (1) bibingka or sandwich approach and (2) acting as a ‘critical friend.’ We share an example of the bibingka approach through the Bayanihan sa Daan (Collective Heroism in the Road), a road-sharing initiative in the busy streets of the Ortigas business district in Pasig City, Metro Manila. Meanwhile, we present cases of how civil society organisations acted as a critical friend to initiate street experiments and reforms through organisational partnership or appointment of their members to positions in government transport agencies. Through these approaches, we show that civil society participation in initiating street experiments is critical to ensuring that solutions to the traffic problem contribute to the mobility of people rather than of cars. In this vein, we put forward street experiments as fundamental to ensuring just transitions towards realising mobility justice, especially in cities of the Global South.

In the past three years the 15-minute city planning concept has captured the attention of policy makers and the public worldwide. Some regions have included it in their planning goals and others modified it to 30 min to make it more attainable in their local context. The goal of this research is to measure whether the 15- or 30-minute city goals align with current travel behaviour and land use patterns in the North American context using Montreal, Canada as the case study. In doing so, we look at which destinations are cultivating local travel patterns consistent with the 15- and 30-minute city concepts and identify any unique qualities of these areas using the 2018 Montreal origin-destination travel diaries. Our bivariate analysis finds very few destinations in Montreal where a high number of trips and high percentage of trips are ending using a sustainable mode of transport and below the 15- or 30-minute travel time threshold. We further investigate the land use patterns that align with the 15- and 30-minute city to recommend realistic planning goals and policy interventions that match the North American context. The findings from this research can be of interest to transport professionals and policy makers trying to implement the 15- or 30- minute city concepts to their regions.

The 15-minute city theory has recently become a popular paradigm in urban development. It claims that everyone should have access to the essential services, facilities and green spaces within a 15-minute walk. This article tests this concept in Oslo, Norway using a mixed-methods approach, based on a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) analysis of accessibility, review of relevant plans, interviews with planners and a case study of the Hovinbyen area. The objective was to find out to what extent Oslo is a 15-minute city, and discuss how this concept can be integrated in urban planning strategies more generally. The study shows that the central part of Oslo is already a 15-minute city, and that several areas are transforming in this direction. However, many suburban neighborhoods have low accessibility scores, and, according to the plans, will likely not change much in the future. This article argues that the 15-minute city concept cannot serve as the main development strategy, but such an analysis can be useful as a diagnostic study or to assist planning in rapidly changing areas or city extensions. The concept can therefore be considered as a flexible tool to support other planning strategies that share the same goals and ambitions. Any interventions that such accessibility analyses suggest should be contextualized and developed in combination with other qualitative assessments and in partnership with local communities.

This study provides a qualitative exploration of the spatial equity implications of Barcelona's superblocks strategy, focusing on the newly pedestrianised “green axes” implemented in 2023. By examining the extent to which pedestrianisation may contribute to the creation of “winner” and “loser” streets in the same neighbourhood, the study complements previous literature in this area, which has mainly focused on assessing spatial equity between different neighbourhoods. The study is based on 11 qualitative interviews and a focus group with key stakeholders involved in the design and implementation of the superblocks plan. In the findings, I review the main spatial equity implications of the new green axes, identify trade-offs between equity and viability of implementation, and examine the measures taken by the municipality to minimise inequities between streets. My findings show that the spatial equity implications of pedestrianisation are complex and multidimensional. Although pedestrianisation may strengthen inequities between streets, the gains experienced by pedestrianised streets are not limited to residents living on those streets. However, pedestrianised streets risk becoming a victim of their success, experiencing significant public space and gentrification pressures. Transforming more streets simultaneously might contribute to spread these pressures more evenly, but risks creating greater political and social backlash.