Journal of Urban Mobility最新文献

Electric scooter sharing systems have emerged as an innovative short distance transport mode. Since these systems are dockless, they require collection for maintenance and charging, as well as rebalancing operations citywide, justifying the need for an integrated analysis. This work performs a Life Cycle Analysis to assess the environmental impacts of all stages of a shared e-scooter, based on the use case of Lisbon, Portugal. Results indicate that an e-scooter emits 804 to 1679 g  $C{O}_{2eq}$/km, which is justified by its low use rates and reduced life span. Its production accounts for more than 70% of impacts, collection and distribution processes for 6% and vehicle use corresponds to 17%. Increasing the shared e-scooter life expectancy reduces environmental impacts by 26 to 47%, while increasing the kilometers per day reduces the impacts between 50% to 80%. Also, a less frequent collection of e-scooters would improve the results between 7 and 42%. These results enabled defining specific strategies and policies to guarantee a more sustainable deployment and operation of shared e-scooter systems.

The 15 min city (or “X-minute city” in general) concept aims to give people access to all essential services and daily needs (e.g., healthcare, education, etc.) within X minutes of active transportation, to improve transport equity, sustainability, and traffic safety. To date, there is a lack of methods and tools to assess to what degree cities currently, or after implementing policies, comply with the X-minute city concept. This research aims to develop a methodology for quantifying the X-minute city through a metric (CS_x) that was developed based on an accessibility framework and tested for cycling mode in the Utrecht region in the Netherlands as a study area. Travel data from the Netherlands mobility panel were analysed to determine input characteristics of the metric, such as the weight of destination types. Standardized gravity-based 2-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) accessibility scores for all destination types were weighted and aggregated into a composite metric that shows relative scores as an X-minute city. The results of the analysis show that 100% of the population in the Utrecht region has access to at least one destination for all 9 destination types within 15 min, whereas this number reduces to 94% within a 10 min cycling threshold; indicating the status of Utrecht as a cycling city with cycling-friendly infrastructure. Furthermore, low-income groups do not have lower cycling accessibility to the services in the 15 min city in the study area, reinforcing the notion that cycling can be an effective solution to reduce transport inequalities. The developed metric can be used to assess cities on their way towards becoming X-minute city, prioritise neighbourhoods to develop, set quantifiable goals, and evaluate planning scenarios.

The concept of a x-minute city (or 15-minute city) has recently emerged and has been endorsed by many policymakers across the globe, with the aim of achieving a wide array of economic, environmental, and social goals related to people's quality of life and community cohesion. The concept refers to developing neighborhoods in which destinations of interest are accessible locally by active transportation modes. Despite the popularity of this concept, there has been little effort to understand its determinants, and policy directions related to this concept seem thematically and geographically dispersed. To address this gap in the literature, this study aims at understanding the developed x-minute city policies across North America and Australia. To achieve this goal, a detailed analysis of different x-minute city policies that have been recently developed was conducted. Using scholarly work, news articles, and a systematic identification approach several cities in North America and Australia were identified to be included in the research by reviewing their planning documents. In total, 15 cities were identified with very recent plans and documents that incorporated the concept of x-minute cities. Based on the analysis, several cities incorporated the concept of x-minute city with the idea of achieving complete local living, while introducing several targets, goals, and measures. Nevertheless, most of the cities operationalized the concept differently by using various types of modes of transportation, cut-off values, and destinations. This study offers transit practitioners and planners a better understanding of the determinants of the concept, helping them in incorporating it into future plans.

With the introduction of automated vehicles, new operating regimes for public transport services will become possible. A station-based Automated Transit on Demand service could be an attractive alternative to the current modes of transportation. In this paper, the impact of this kind of service on the modal share for the city of Zurich, Switzerland, and its surrounding area is modeled using an agent-based approach. Different scenarios regarding the operating area, pricing scheme, and a cordon charge are tested on their potential to make use of the benefits of the new service while preventing an overflow of automated vehicles in the urban core. Results show that if left unconstrained the proposed service can substantially impact the demand for public transport. A pricing scheme that bases the pricing of the new service relative to the accessibility of the current public transport service is a promising solution to increase the accessibility of the rural areas while maintaining a high modal share for public transport in the city center. Finally, using an optimization algorithm we show that the total car-fleet and public parking space can be reduced at the cost of a slight increase in vehicle kilometers traveled. Moreover, we find that the cost coverage of the proposed transit service is potentially much higher in comparison to current public transport services.

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) aims to offer travelers easy and convenient access to transportation modes via a joint digital channel, often in a mobile application. MaaS has the potential to fundamentally change the way we commute as it encourages a more sustainable travel behavior. MaaS, as a business model, is an innovative concept that integrates a variety of these solutions and can significantly change the mobility environment by encouraging sustainable travel behavior. Despite the existing initiatives and efforts toward MaaS solutions, there is still no consensus on the essential features of MaaS platforms for actors from the supply and demand sides. This study explores the critical features of MaaS platforms from the perspective of mobility service providers - MSP (i.e., supply-side) and travelers (i.e., demand-side). We collected data via interviews with mobility experts for the supply side and a survey for the users' side. Based on a Gaussian Graphical Model, our results show that optimizing the number and use of the vehicles and appropriate data handling are the essential features of a MaaS platform for the MSPs. For the travelers, although retrieval of personal information and enhancing services, such as suggestions on local events and concert tickets, are expected, they are considered less significant. Our study provides insights into the features of MaaS platforms through synthesized and prioritized features -including their relationships-which would be helpful both for research and practice.

Recently, in Winnipeg, the implementation of new bus rapid transit (BRT) system in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic has raised many concerns, challenging the rationale behind the untimely release. However, the new BRT service can benefit low-income, socio-economically vulnerable, and transit captive passengers who must travel to essential services and work opportunities during the pandemic. This study evaluates whether the new BRT system has positive impacts on accessibility to such essential services during the pandemic. Isochrones with different time budgets as well as times of a day are generated based on high-resolution public transit network via the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data and used for evaluating accessibility benefits before and after the BRT construction. The new BRT service in Winnipeg demonstrates varying accessibility impacts across different parts of the BRT corridor. Areas near dedicated lane-section show a significant increase, whereas areas near non-dedicated lane sections show a decrease in accessibility. Nevertheless, across the whole BRT corridor, the new BRT service presents an overall increase in accessibility to essential services. This demonstrates the positive accessibility benefits of the new BRT service to residents seeking essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic. A decrease in accessibility along some parts suggests the necessity of using local transit improvement strategies (e.g., dedicated lanes) to improve service speed when planning BRT services within urban areas.

To achieve the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Climate Agreement, it is of great importance to promote environmentally friendly means of transport. In urban areas, shifting motorized trips to active transport modes (i.e., walking and cycling) is essential. Therefore, knowledge of walking and cycling is indispensable for planning and policy, which is the basis for targeted promotion of active forms of mobility. This paper aims to identify factors that specifically influence cycling and to derive recommendations for action for planning and policy in a virtual testbed. Specifically, the influence of traffic planning measures (i.e., structural infrastructure facilities for stationary and moving traffic as well as traffic regulations) and urban design measures (i.e., the design of public space) on the promotion of cycling will be shown. For this purpose, a virtual reality simulation was used, independent of different external conditions during field surveys and the necessity of time-, cost- and regulation-intensive structural changes. Using an improved bicycle simulator, 93 people cycled through 20 variations of an approximately 680 m long road section, surveying the effect of selected traffic planning and urban design parameters. Special attention was paid to the subjective safety of the cyclists and the attractiveness of the urban environment. Furthermore, three types of infrastructure were differentiated: No bicycle infrastructure (riding on the roadway), a bicycle lane, and a structurally separated cycle path next to the sidewalk. The virtual road section represented a real location. In addition to the findings gained from the physiological optimization of the simulator, the results show that roadside greenery had the highest effectiveness in terms of subjective safety and attractiveness. Other factors with a high influence were a speed reduction from 50 to 30 km/h when riding on the roadway with cars and the red coloring of the bicycle lane, each increasing the perception of safety. In contrast, a lack of a boundary line between the cycle path and the sidewalk was unsettling for those who rarely or never ride bicycles in their daily lives. In addition, restaurant and recreation areas increased the attractiveness of the road section, although entailing a lower perception of safety. Other factors, such as motor vehicle traffic volume or vehicles parked at the roadside, showed no significant effects on the evaluation of cycling.

With the help of these findings, the consequences of traffic planning and urban design measures can be better assessed in subsequent virtual testbeds. Also, initial trends can be identified as to which planning instruments should be used as a priority to promote cycling in urban areas. Future work should validate the transfer of these insights into physical urban spaces to support further the mid-term transformation towards sustainable urban mobility using scientific evidence.