Transport Transitions: Advancing Sustainable and Inclusive Mobility

The transport sector accounts for a third of greenhouse gas emissions, and over half of these are generated by households. How can we effectively leverage a change towards less carbon-intensive mobility? Motivations for modal choice have been studied by various disciplines, and there is a consensus that the determinants are essentially rational and cognitive. However, research over the past thirty years has demonstrated the effectiveness of sensory triggers. The present study, in the field of sensory marketing, focuses on the complex experience of mobility change, notably the consumer’s senses. We adopt a qualitative, exploratory approach. Two series of interviews were carried out with 18 people who had recently changed their means of mobility. Considering the user as a meaning-producing actor, the present study examines both individual and contextual motivations, and socio-cultural, experiential, and symbolic aspects of mobility. We analyze the corpus of verbatim from the perspective of the framework developed by Krishna, and highlight both the multiple sensory characteristics of the new mobility experience, and their consequences on attitudes and behaviors. Attitude, memory, and behavior are affected by both grounded cognition and grounded emotion. Our results have implications for policies that encourage people to test soft mobility options.

With the growing need to limit car dependence, public transportation appears as a key means of ensuring the transition to greener cities. However, access inequalities in undergrounds, tramways and buses are still considerable and intra-urban accessibility for all is still far from being achieved. Not only the usually labelled “people with reduced mobility (PRM)” but everyone could endure some types of barriers in their daily transit routes. The extent and severity of the resulting disparities are still seldom studied, accessibility being generally considered as the same for everyone. Conversely, this paper adopts a people-centered perspective to analyze and model constraints faced by selected vulnerable users in their use of public transport. We used mixed-methods, combining different survey and modelling techniques to enrich the usual accessibility approaches. The study is grounded in two cities—Brussels and Strasbourg —, enabling the development of adaptive metrics in various geographical environments. It focuses mainly on the impact of physical disability, visual impairment, old age and poverty on transit users’ behaviors. This approach leads to identifying failures and disincentives of each transport system. We conclude by discussing dissemination to transport operators and future research prospects.

The N/M20 Cork to Limerick Project is a key element of Project Ireland 2040, the Government’s long-term strategy to make Ireland a better country for all. The NDP outlines that the project would improve connectivity between Ireland’s second and third largest cities by enhancing the transport network.A multi-disciplinary team have formed with sustainability and future-proofing fundamental to the planning and design process, responding to European goals to reduce transport related emissions. From Phase 1, road and rail were investigated, looking at use of the corridor and the opportunities available for behavioural change.At Phase 2, attributes including accessibility and integration were addressed, analysing the potential socio-economic impact of the scheme on vulnerable groups, journey times and multi-modal travel. Emerging guidance documents, including NIFTI, were managed proactively, with their requirements incorporated into the appraisal process at the earliest opportunity. Phase 2’s conclusion saw “Our Transport Solution” emerge, a multi-modal proposal incorporating road, rail, bus, active travel and environmental aspects to address the issues and opportunities identified in the corridor.Phase 3 has seen the refinement of “Our Transport Solution”, responding to further changes in Irish and European guidance and investigating opportunities for a mobility hub network within the study area.

As society strives to tackle the challenges of global population growth, increasing urbanisation, continuous transportation emissions and climate change, the ongoing development of sustainable urban mobility is of critical importance. Putting sustainable mobility at the forefront of the discussions and debates not only can tackle these challenges but also provide an opportunity to enable communities to have a stronger voice, ensuring the development of more liveable places, improved active travel, i.e. walking, cycling, increasing the use of public transport, and overall improving citizens’ health, well-being, and quality of life. Achieving these will have a direct consequence of reducing level of social isolation, allowing for more efficient movement, facilitating access to education and employment opportunities, and enabling economic growth. Moving towards the implementation of sustainable urban mobility, and understanding and assessing its impact, can successfully be achieved through effective planning and collaboration. According to the European Commission, this planning and collaboration can be undertaken through the application of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) and these are considered essential urban land use and transport planning tools for urban areas that are looking to move towards more sustainable and citizen-centric mobility. This paper will consider the importance of sustainable urban mobility regarding implementation and impact within an ever changing and evolving urban society and the importance of citizen collaboration.

Purpose: The primary objective of this paper is to develop a framework that will support municipal governments and policymakers to capture a city’s capacity and maturity for adopting and implementing innovative mobility solutions for both passenger and freight.Methods: This paper adopts a three-step which starts with the definition of the “city-led innovation” and “Innovation Readiness” for mobility planning based on literature and lessons learned from the European funded H2020 SPROUT project. Then, it identifies the elements and sub-elements of the urban mobility ecosystem through systematic literature review and validates them through workshops with SPROUT mobility experts. The third step focuses on assigning weights to these elements and sub-elements by applying an AHP to the opinion of specific mobility experts.Results: The main finding of this study is the definition of the Innovative Urban Mobility ecosystem which consists of six elements along with eleven sub-elements that capture the city’s readiness for innovation. The prioritization methodology highlighted that the most important element is the Innovative Governance & Growth which holds the importance at 40% followed by Innovative People & Stakeholders (20%) while the least important was Smart & Easily Accessible with 9.50%. A further investigation on sub-elements level revealed that the most important factors are Mobility Planning (11.66%), Public Investments (16.52%) and Cities Capacity (13.67%) while the least important sub-elements are Inter-departmental coordination (5.70%), Openness (4.61%) and Industry Diversity (6.32%) highlighting the important role of public authorities.Conclusion: In conclusion, this article suggests that by using the proposed framework, cities can better prepare the conditions to harness innovation by implementing city-led, instead of industry-led, initiatives in mobility. Furthermore, it proposes that this framework can serve as a foundation for creating a self-assessment tool that allows cities to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in relation to elements within the ecosystem.

Many cities today are struggling with increasing urban car traffic and the associated negative effects such as emissions, air pollution, accidents and noise. To overcome these challenges, cities are investing in public transport services or reducing fares, building cycle paths or implementing measures to reduce car traffic. These include measures such as one-way streets, reduced speed limits or reduced parking spaces and increased parking fees. However, it is important for city administrations to know the effects of their measures in advance, both to anticipate their impact and to discuss them with the public and legitimize their actions. Therefore, this study describes the application of an agent-based travel demand model in combination with a microscopic traffic simulation model to simulate the effects of a baseline scenario and a redesign scenario of urban transport infrastructure on a small spatial scale of an inner-city neighborhood. From the results, we can infer the impact of different measures on mode choice and traffic volumes. The presented methodology show a high potential for planning, evaluation and decision making in the field of sustainable urban mobility.

UPPER is a HorizonEurope innovation project aimed at spearheading a Public Transport revolution, to support European cities in its objective of climate-neutrality by 2030, in line with the goal of Cities Mission. The project is implementing more than 80 mobility measures in ten European cities, being eight of them included in the Cities Missions program. To achieve its main objectives, the project is performing a user research to map the citizens mobility needs and patterns. As part of the qualitative user research, this paper presents a Netnography study, performed to investigate the citizens satisfaction with different transport modes, in five cities that are part of the Living Labs’ of the UPPER project: València, Île-de-France, Rome, Oslo and Mannheim. More than fifteen thousand comments and reviews have been collected from sources like TripAdvisor, Google Reviews and Twitter, to assess six different transport modes: shared bike, bus, tram&subway, taxi, shared LEV and shared car. The comments have been analysed employing natural language algorithms, that allowed us to extract the sentiment polarity (positive, negative, neutral), and the emotions (anger, joy, sadness) including the hate level. The results are presented aggregated per transport mode for all the cities, showing differences in the way citizens perceive and are satisfied with the communal transport modes, and the individual and shared transport modes. The results also present the differences in the topics per gender.

In this paper, we study the determinants of the transport mode choice of the trips to and within protected areas among the Czech adult population and the potential to change from cars to more sustainable transport modes. To do so, we designed a series of choice experiments. We distinguish one-day trips by couples (without children), one-day trips by families with children, weekly visits by couples, and weekly visits by families with children. The scenarios consist of various combinations of monetary costs of trips, travel time, characteristics of the environment around the parking lot/public transport stop, and the parking fee. In addition, various socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents were collected.Parking fees effectively reduce car usage even for travelling within protected areas. In the case of both couples and families, an increase in parking fees by 50% would decrease the share of cars by 6 p.p., and other modes (public transport, walking and cycling) would gain about 2 p.p. each. The travel time is also important: the reduction of the time spent in public transport by 20% would lead to an increase in public transport share by 3 p.p. and a decrease in car share by about 2 p.p. The relative strength of travel time and financial costs differ from travels to the protected areas. For families with children, the parameters of public transport (travel time, price) have negligible effects on the stated modal split.

Demand responsive transport (DRT) has received significant attention in recent years as a transport mode that can bridge the gap between personal motorized travel and public transport. It combines the best of individual cars and public transport: it can be more flexible, than traditional public transport, resembling the convenience of owning a car, but it does not come with the high cost of owning and maintaining a vehicle for the user. We conducted a stated preference (SP) survey about potential users’ preferences towards demand responsive transport at a rural Eastern European town in Hungary, Kiskunhalas, Hungary, and modelled individuals’ preferences towards DRT using a multinomial logit model. We had 6012 responses from a sample of 501 individuals, that was representative of the settlement with respect to age and gender. The results show that all else being equal, individuals find the DRT service the second most attractive mode of transport after cycling, meaning that a DRT service could have a potentially large uptake in the population. Our results could be used by decision makers and service providers for the design of a DRT service.

The mobility sector is a major contributor to climate change in Switzerland which is mostly due to its high reliance on private passenger cars. While initiatives, policies and alternative mobility solutions aimed at promoting car reduction are growing in urban areas, rural regions, which face unique challenges due to higher car dependency and limited alternatives, are lagging behind. This paper investigates current mobility behaviour, needs, and attitudes towards new mobility services in rural regions focusing on the Swiss touristic region of Toggenburg. A survey conducted among tourists (N = 572) travelling to Toggenburg identifies several key determinants influencing car use reduction. In particular, it reveals that women, low-income households and resident of more urban areas tend to be more receptive to the idea of reducing their car use. Other factors contributing to this receptiveness include biospheric and egoistic values, as well as the availability and affordability of alternative transportation options, such as car sharing or on-demand services.

This paper investigates the rural mobility and accessibility challenges of a specific target group - Seniors. The target group is those over 66 years of age entitled to use the Public Transport (PT) Free Travel Scheme in rural Ireland. The paper explores at a high level some of the projected rural PT challenges and requirements over the next twenty years, noting that statistical predictions show that there will be a significant population demographic shift.Astonishingly, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has forecasted that by the middle of this century, the Irish Senior's age profile will have increased by 98%. By 2051, over 1.6 million over 65’s will be living in the Republic of Ireland [1].Using the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal factors (PESTEL) framework, the literature review explored existing research concerning mobility and accessibility challenges faced by Seniors.Twenty-seven qualitative, in-depth interviews with stakeholders within the ecosystem were undertaken. The stakeholders included rural PT customers, Local-Link managers, National Transport Authority (NTA) senior management, a Minister of State, and a European parliament policymaker.To address the breadth and range of the research, the interviewees were subdivided into two stakeholder groupings, Tier 1 and Tier 2. Tier 1 interviewee feedback spotlights that the PT network system does not exist for rural patients to access hospital facilities. The findings indicated that Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is potentially revolutionary in the PT arena to help address transport poverty in rural locations.Finally, this paper suggests several short-, medium- and long-term recommendations based on the research findings. These recommendations are a potential springboard to ensure that rural PT is suitable for future Irish generations.

This paper studies whether and how different demographical and societal determinants affect people’s valuation of ecological sustainability in mobility. The data has been collected in Fell Lapland in the spring of 2022. The analysis is done by using multinomial logistic regression. The results show that age, certain occupations, and car ownership do affect the responses. Teacher or researcher, or expert as an occupation increases the value of ecological sustainability in responses and car ownership reduces it. The effect of the age determinant cannot be interpreted unambiguously. Other occupations, gender, tourism, being an inhabitant of the region, and obtaining a driver’s license have also been tested as determinants and found to be not significant in valuing ecological sustainability in mobility.

The Beyond MaaS concept aims at combining digital mobility services with the digitalized information about the contexts and reasons of mobility in an intelligent way. Trip planners and various degrees of MaaS approaches have made public transportation easier to use but the modal shift to more sustainable mobility is still lagging the goals. Integrating rich, machine-readable digital representation of destinations and services making people to travel and mobility service, it is possible to optimize human activities as a whole and create new schemes that attract people more often to use sustainable transport modes. This paper provides an example of the Beyond MaaS concept aimed at tourism in rural areas: Enriched Travel Chains. The concept aims at making multi-part public transportation travel chains more attractive by automatically suggesting the traveler PoIs and activities for the waiting times between the travel chain parts. Enriched Trip Planner (ETP) realizes the concept as a web application. The first experiences from the implementation reveals the challenges with scarcity and quality of tourist service and PoI data. On the other hand, first impressions from the tests of the ETP prototype provide promising directions for further development utilizing crowd-sourced or niche data for tourist mobility for special interests.

This study investigates how car age, driving power and area type affect the average annual mileage of passenger cars in Finland. For the analysis, data from the Finnish car fleet register and vehicle inspection records from 2012 to 2022 are used. The results of this study indicate that newer cars have a higher annual mileage compared to older ones. Regarding driving powers, diesel cars have the largest mileage in Finland, mainly due to the taxation system making diesel less expensive on high mileage. Battery electric vehicles on average have lower annual mileage compared to plug-in hybrid vehicles. For area types, cars have higher mileage in rural areas compared to the more urban areas. These findings are consistent with previous studies conducted in various countries and regions. The study contributes to the development of more accurate passenger car emission calculation models for Finland.

Parking measures are typical for cities that aim to improve the liveability in terms of air quality, noise, congestion and space. The strategic transport models, used to determine the effects of (policy) measures, do not incorporate the effect of parking behaviour during the trip. The behaviour of parking the car near the destination, and walking the last bit, is not yet modelled in these models. In order to incorporate this behaviour in the static traffic assignment, a methodology is developed. The methodology is twofold. First, the parking capacities, i.e. the number of available parking spaces per destination zone are determined using spatial data. Second, these parking capacities are used in the traffic assignment, which uses parking and walking links. In this way, the extra search time for a parking space is modelled, as well as the diverting behaviour when (almost) all parking spaces are occupied. Simulations for a use case in Amsterdam show that the diverting behaviour is modelled and show possible effects of parking policies, for instance on the amount of car traffic in the city.

The driving style is a crucial variable for real-world vehicle energy performance. This study uses a state-of-the-art methodology to separately assess its impact on the energy consumption. A benchmark driving cycle is modified according to specific driving styles, and the corresponding energy consumption is theoretically simulated. The driving style characterisation includes acceleration, braking and gear-shifting patterns for each driver through ad-hoc metrics. The methodology establishes a comparative analysis regarding the energy impact of a pool of drivers. Furthermore, the variability of a driver’s consumption on different vehicle technologies is assessed by considering an internal combustion engine- (ICE) vehicle and a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). The results reveal that each driver exhibits characteristic and heterogeneous acceleration and braking styles, with the gear-shifting style playing a significant role in the vehicle’s fuel consumption. From a policy perspective, this work contributes in the understanding of the discrepancies in energy consumption between officially reported values and the real-world performance.

Powered two wheelers are a consistently popular mode of transportation and riding them is a widely practiced recreational activity. However, with regards to safety powered two wheelers are clearly vulnerable road users, for whom accidents of all types yield more severe outcomes on average than for larger vehicles. One way to ensure the safety of powered two-wheeler riders is to identify challenging infrastructure properties, such as transversal evenness qualities or potholes, through the use of probe vehicles. We present the analysis of infrastructure properties through data collected with a motorcycle probe vehicle, previously employed to study human driving dynamics and assess the risk thereof. We present the first steps towards a new standardized evaluation of motorcycle driving dynamics data for this purpose and show that our outcomes can be achieved based on in-vehicle driving dynamics data. This holds the potential to enable the provision of safety relevant data from everyday driven vehicles, which represents the needs of powered two wheelers as much as those of passenger cars or larger vehicle-types and could serve as a template for similar analyses employing smaller probe vehicles like bicycles or (e-)scooters.

An innovative, clean, and practical solution to overcome the lack of capacity of regular bikes compared to personal vehicles is the e-cargo bike. While most of the research on cargo bikes has been made on their usage for logistics purposes, only a few studies have been deepening into their personal mobility use. This paper aims to analyze and reveal the potential of regular cyclists to become cargo bike users by surveying a well-established cycling community that uses the services of the regional parking agency. Results show that among non-cargo bike users, 45% of them are potential users interested in using this innovative vehicle. The sample indicates that age, education, environmental awareness, and family situation related to children are factors that have a positive influence on cyclists to become cargo bike users. While the top barriers mentioned were associated to the lack of safe bike storage and cargo bike prices, motivators to use them are primarily related to benefits for the planet and money and timesaving.

Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2023 sets out aims to increase active travel trips by 50% and to shift 30% of escort-to-education trips to sustainable modes of travel by 2030. Promoting cycling to school requires a full understanding of the barriers to cycling to school for different groups. Previous work by the author identified gender differences in perceptions of cycling among secondary school students. In addition to gender, this study focuses on the affluence effect.A survey was completed by 306 students across six schools in Limerick City and Suburbs. The Family Affluence Scale 2 (FAS 2) was used to categorise students into affluence groups and students responded to Likert Scale questions.The results showed that as affluence increases, the gender gap in active travel (walking and cycling) rates increases. Among those in the highest affluence group, boys were approximately 2½ times more likely to walk or cycle to school than girls. Tukey-Kramer ad hoc tests comparing mean differences between responses in different affluence groups revealed that there is a particular affinity among the most disadvantaged boys and the most affluent girls towards travelling by car to school compared with other means of travel. These findings have implications on messaging to promote cycling to school to various affluence groups.

To encourage walking and cycling, Frankfurt is redesigning several side streets with a variety of provisional measures, including cycling priority, modal filters, multifunctional lanes, green elements, etc. If these experimental measures are effective and accepted, they will be made permanent. The effects are therefore evaluated using quantitative and qualitative research methods. The paper centres on the analyses of Oeder Weg, a bustling business and shopping street. So far, the surveys have revealed notable differences between various groups, such as the assessment of perceived traffic safety and the approval of individual measures. Many residents and almost all cyclists are in favour of the redesigned road space because they feel safer and the street is more attractive to use. Frequent car users complain of poorer accessibility and lack of parking facilities. Also, local businesses react heterogeneously. While restaurant owners are pleased about more outdoor space and an increased quality of stay, many retailers complain about the worsened conditions for customers who come by car. A large proportion of the customers surveyed does not share this assessment though, as many come by bicycle or public transport. The traffic observations have shown that objective traffic safety has improved at conflict points in the road space, e.g. through new markings in the dooring zone or curb extensions in intersection areas. Overall, the modal shares have shifted considerably. Motorised individual transport has decreased significantly in Oeder Weg, but has increased in some adjacent streets, which has led to an adjustment of the traffic guidance measures.

Using OpenStreetMap data, we approximated the scale of investments needed to make cycling a safe mobility option for the residents of EU major cities. We extracted data about existing cycle tracks, cycle lanes, and shared cycle and pedestrian tracks, within the administrative borders of 423 Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) urban nodes (as proposed by the European Commission in 2021). As of 2022, the infrastructure amounted to 61,862 km. Afterwards, we used a simplified version of the Sustainable Safety approach to evaluate for each of the cities whether the amount of infrastructure is sufficient. The public road network was divided into two categories: main roads (where segregated cycling infrastructure is necessary) and local roads (where, because of low volume and speed of motorised traffic, cyclists can safely share the carriageway with cars). By comparing the extent of the (selected) cycling infrastructure with the main road network we arrived at the investment needs, amounting to 97,000 km across the analysed cities. On average, current cycle infrastructure covers approximately 40% of the needs, but the percentage varies significantly between different countries – from less than 10% in Malta, Greece, Portugal and Cyprus to more than 80% in Netherlands and Finland.

Although behavioural nudging has been often used as a method to promote sustainable choices, its application is quite limited in the field of active mobility. Gamification and rewarding schemes appeared recently in mobility sector to nudge urban cycling. The scheme presented in this paper was based on a TRL9 antifraud system to certify, monitor, and reward urban bike rides in in 3 different cities during 2022. About 1,500 users were engaged in Braga, Istanbul, and Tallinn, saving more than 133 tons of CO2 in 6 months, and spending more than 85,000 euros in local shops. The paper presents the quantitative (KPIs based) and qualitative (users questionnaires based) assessment as well as the additional data analysis results that were carried out during the scheme testing. The correlation between trip, weather and socio-demographic data provided valuable knowledge that can be used to target vulnerable groups and to enhance the cycling incentives for bad weather days. The knowledge extracted can be integrated into the climate neutral strategies of the transition cities/regions for designing and implementing more efficient future actions and investments to successfully promote greener and more active mobility, ensuring high levels of cycling throughout the year.

The contribution presents a transport demand model based on open data and freely available information. The model is based on the classic sequential four-step model structure but runs on microscopic scale using disaggregate data. It includes the modes ‘walk’, ‘cycle’, ‘car’ and ‘public transport’. Various open data sources and information are used to estimate and run the model, such as OpenStreetMap data and freely available census and postal data, freely accessible information (e.g., mobility indicators) from publications of national and urban household surveys on traffic behavior or freely available information on transport costs. The result of the study is a disaggregate microscopic transport model for passenger transport. The proof of concept reveals a high initial model accuracy and its responsiveness to different measures.

Transport is one of the largest emitting sectors of greenhouse gas emissions and to reach climate targets, transport emissions must be reduced. In Finland, 97 municipalities have set ambitious target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2030 from 2007 levels. Regions and municipalities need tools to evaluate whether their planned measures align with emission reduction targets. This study presents a novel regional scenario tool, specifically designed for estimating the influence of mobility measures on modal shift and, consequently, regional transport emissions. Moreover, the tool takes into account the evolution of regional car fleets, and their impact on regional passenger transport emissions. The effects of various mobility measures are estimated with demand elasticities and diversion factors. The developed scenario tool is demonstrated with two scenarios, which include changes in travel time and travel cost of both private cars and public transport. These alterations were found to result in shifts in modal share and further transport emissions. The results demonstrate that demand elasticities are stronger for travel time compared to travel cost. The tool created in this study is designed to assist local authorities with climate work and decision-making process, thus contributing to the achievement of climate targets.

Moderate sized European cities often face the problem of daily traffic congestions on entrance roads due to the high number of commuters. This affects regional buses and lead to delays. An urban ropeway in combination with park and ride lots at the city border could be an attractive supplement in entrance corridors without high performing public transit (PT) services and can lead to a modal shift to PT. Ropeways offer a high service rate that leads to no noticeable waiting times and no delays due to the usage of an independent track above ground level. In addition, the offered high capacities promise lower crowding levels than in regional buses. We conducted a stated choice experiment that includes the transport modes car, regional bus and ropeway in Graz, a moderate sized city in Austria. The results of the estimated ML-model with the attributes walking, waiting and in-vehicle-time, interchanges, crowding, reliability and travel costs as well as the personal attitude about an urban ropeway showed that mode-specific properties of the ropeway and personal attitude have a significant influence on choice behavior. In addition, interchanges in a ropeway trip chain have a less negative influence than in chains with a regional bus.

In the mission to reduce transport carbon emissions, cities and towns are working to discover, develop and integrate more sustainable ways to travel. Micromobility brings great opportunity to aid this movement. This paper summarises the evolution of shared e-scooter schemes, using the UK’s West of England e-scooter trial as a case study alongside associated research. It sets out three key properties required to support a successful scheme; usability, operational sustainability and policy delivery. The paper concludes that all three properties must work in balance, and this is achieved through stakeholder communication and collaboration, underpinned by effective scheme monitoring. It emphasises that no two schemes are the same and even the most successful schemes are required to continually adapt.

Electric shared mobility hubs are convenient access points, offering charging infrastructure, parking spaces, and user-friendly platforms/apps for seamless booking and return of vehicles. They encourage the usage of more sustainable alternatives to private cars. The paper describes three research projects, where we designed or implemented mobility hubs. The I-SharE LIFE project aims to demonstrate the practical and economic opportunities of various service models in small to mid-sized urban areas, to facilitate the development of potential hubs as alternative to private car and the behavioral change at neighborhood level for e-mobility. The second project is represented by the Smart Sustainable District research activity, carried out at Politecnico di Milano to draft practical guidelines as a strategic and methodological support for urban transformations, to aid public decision-makers and private operators. UR-DATA - a Horizon Europe project (Twinning for Excellence in Smart and Resilient Urban Development: Advanced Data Analytics Approach) shows how actions concerning the analysis of smart and sustainable city performances, in the city of Niš (Serbia), can contribute, at local district level, to the development and planning of a potential shared mobility.

Free-floating shared micromobility services have been present in cities all around the world, however little is still known about the interaction between shared e-bikes and e-scooters. In the last few years shared e-scooters have experienced rapid growth worldwide, which, in some cities, jeopardizes the usage of shared e-bike services. Thus, this research work aims to explore if free-floating shared e-bikes can disrupt the usage of established e-scooter services. A case study in the city of Braga, north of Portugal, is developed from September of 2022 until May of 2023 in order to allow the comparison and contrast of the trips made by each micromobility mode, travel time, main origin and destinations of trips, as well as trip characteristics (e.g., vehicle rotation, the total number of trips per micromobility mode, total distance traveled). Results show that shared e-bikes and e-scooters are only used within city boundaries, and most of the trips originated in the parish where population density is higher. In Braga, riders prefer e-scooters when using a shared micro vehicle, since more than 98% of the trips made in the period studied were made by this mode. Also, shared e-scooters traveled more than 260,000 km in these nine months, while only 2,400 km were traveled in e-bikes. In short, Braga has experienced a rapid establishment of shared e-scooters instead of shared e-bikes, it can be due to the fact that trips on e-scooters are seen to be fun, pleasant, and quicker by riders.

App-based Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platforms combining public transport, car- and micro-mobility-shared services with dynamic carpooling are emerging as viable alternatives to solo car use for sub-urban contexts. Insights from real-life implementation are however still limited. Which practical challenges affect MaaS platforms leveraging carpooling? We tackle this question from the perspective of potential users of the Swiss-based MixMyRide platform, engaging them in co-design workshops. We find four elements of practical interest, resonating with limitations already identified for carpooling. First, carpooling increases the number of inter-changes potentially affected by delays. This requires real-time traffic information data, re-scheduling tools, and features for quick interaction between users. Second, as social control is low, features to create trust between strangers are needed, which calls for trade-offs between strict identity checks and quick registration. Third, carpooling pick-up/drop-off may endanger safety if bus stops are used. This requires in-advance agreements, negatively affecting the MaaS’ dynamism. Fourth, car-pooling offer is not granted. To accept possible discomfort, decreased flexibility, and effort to enter ride offers, drivers need incentives, such as sharing of travel expenses, virtual or tangible rewards by public institutions, and feedback on saved emissions.

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a widely researched topic with increasing interest in recent years. While numerous factors have been examined in relation to users’ willingness to embrace a MaaS scheme, a notable gap in the literature is being observed on how individuals’ opinion for micro-mobility affects their tendency to adopt such systems. This study employs a hybrid logit model, that examines the interplay between these two emerging transportation services and investigates how micro-mobility perceptions shape individuals’ choices. To accomplish this, a latent variable for micro-mobility positiveness is constructed to quantify the potential impact of micro-mobility on users’ MaaS preferences. The study focuses on the Greek city “Thessaloniki”, and a sample size of 392 individuals was used. The model provides important insights on the key determinants influencing users’ choices regarding MaaS utilization and provides evidence that micro-mobility can be considered a positively influential factor to the wider adoption of such scheme. This research also reveals aspects that should be further analyzed to a greater extent. Specifically, understanding why workers, bus passengers, and people that frequent commute as car passengers are more willing to use a MaaS system, can offer valuable insights to researchers.

App-based ridepooling offers the chance to provide a high-quality public transportation service in areas that have been inadequately served so far. One of the main strengths of ridepooling services is their ability to offer direct access to the public transport system and thus provide an attractive service on the first and last mile. While traditional on-demand services have so far been quite inflexible, due to having a fixed timetable, needing to be ordered in advance of the trip via a call centre, app-based ridepooling promises a true on-demand service for the user.This study is based on a household survey carried out in June/July 2022 in suburban areas of Hamburg, Germany's second-largest city. We investigated one area with a modern app-based on-demand service, as well as one area with traditional dial-a-ride transport with telephone booking options. Similarities as well as differences in the perception of these different services were investigated.The results show that the modern on-demand services are significantly better known and more frequently used than the traditional dial-a-ride transport services. At the same time, the same features of demand responsive transport (DRT) service are shown to be important to people, regardless of the type of DRT service offered. In particular, flexible booking options should be highlighted, which modern demand responsive transport is better able to fulfil.

This paper introduces the Autonomous Network and Traffic Management Engine (ANTME). ANTME is an innovative network and traffic management solution – aimed at empowering corridor-level operators to create and implement collaborative response strategies for handling major planned and unplanned events. ANTME provides stakeholders with increased common situational awareness of corridor conditions and disruptions, seamless communication across entities for better response times, and efficient event response and management, based on actionable intelligence for complex decision-making. ANTME is built upon a scalable architecture that seamlessly integrates state-of-the-art technological components, striking a balance between various levels of automation and human interaction. The paper also presents the initial pilot round of the ANTME platform validation in Athens.

This paper attempts to predict average daily bicycle volumes on a nationwide level using crowdsourced GPS data from the CITYCYCLING campaign in Germany. The data source was 514 permanent counting sites across the country as well as the campaign-generated GPS bicycle volumes of about 300,000 participants and 7.5 million tracks from a smartphone app. For model building, Gradient Boosting Regression and Support Vector Regression were selected. The results show a medium to high model fit for the prediction of bicycle volumes at sites with permanent counters. To illustrate this, the models are applied to the road network of a district of the city of Dresden, Germany.

Modern drivers equipped with GPS-enabled devices digest traffic information and work as traffic information providers. Driving experiences and fuel consumption are also shared in novel systems to help users’ route choices. Navigators in special terrain cities like Genova, Italy achieve sub-optimal results when they reroute the traffic greedily towards light-congested roads inducing new traffic jams. Furthermore, the absence of user preferences and advanced profiling curtail the competency of navigators to provide need-based responses to their users. This article aims to present a deliverable for Green MaaS for an adaptive urban planning project Liguria region in Italy to fill the gaps present in current navigators suggesting more optimal routing solutions considering the user requirements. The GeTUP application provides a specific pertinent and germane service equipped with an interface that is competent to acclimate to the characteristics of its users. The logical navigation algorithm is based on automated self-learning internet-of-things-based architecture that works on user choices to generate high-level route information. On receiving the request, the server executes the search algorithm based on the provided origin, destination and percentage of desired high-level information required based on the user profiling. The results are based on both the real-time traffic rhythm and near-future traffic distribution estimates based on the rerouting decisions. GeTUP application is implemented as a pilot MaaS solution for the city of Genova. The real-time data obtained upon evaluation revealed that the application contributes actively to coordinating the traffic based on user decisions and preferences between different alternatives and alleviates congestion situations.

In recent decades, countries have adopted and tried a number of measures aimed at reducing car use and increasing the use of public transport (PT). Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) systems could open up new opportunities to meet both sustainability goals and traveler needs. The fusion of digital climate and environmentally friendly capacity and traffic management, complemented by the associated digital information infrastructure, represents a great opportunity here for the promotion of sustainable mobility. This integration leverages extensive expertise from operators of traffic routes and means of transport, augmented by real-time situational awareness within their respective networks. The MUST (multimodal traffic control through a combination of innovative communication channels) project encompasses a consortium composed of transport operators, the largest Austrian automobile association, industry leaders, research institutions, and the Austrian national public broadcaster. The primary objective of the MUST project encompasses an assessment of the current information and communication channels within the consortium, while simultaneously conducting a prospective evaluation for both enhancing existing channels and introducing entirely new ones.

Automated Vehicle (AV) services hold significant potential for revolutionizing public transportation networks across Europe, promising to elevate public service quality and enable more sustainable, citizen-centric mobility. However, to successfully integrate these innovative mobility options, it is crucial to understand their economic impacts on public transport systems. This study aims to provide a comprehensive cost analysis of AV mobility services, particularly automated minibuses, through a scenario-based approach using a developed Fleet and Cost Calculator. Employing a sequential exploratory research design, we collected qualitative and quantitative data to clarify the pivotal criteria influencing AV service costs. As part of the Horizon ULTIMO Project, we calculated and analysed AV service costs within the Oslo-Groruddalen (Norway) demonstration site across two different mobility scenarios. The analysis not only highlights the economic feasibility of integrating AVs but also provides recommendations for the use of automated mobility services, focusing on cost efficiency. In terms of economic feasibility, the analysis showed that AV service costs can decrease between 2,5% and 56% by adapting certain operational factors, such as vehicle supervision, energy costs, and maintenance costs.

Shared automated electric vehicles (SAEV) can increase safety, reduce congestion, and provide environmental benefits to the urban transport system. Nonetheless, SAEV’s governance in the urban transport system is challenging. This paper proposes a novel interdisciplinary methodology and contributes to the governance debate from the ‘policy’ and ‘polity’ dimensions. We attempt to draw insight from the Norwegian cultural context and a willingness to use SAEV survey in Oslo, Norway. We analyse informal institutions from the cultural viewpoint using the Hofstede 6D model vis-à-vis a quantitative willingness to use SAEV survey. Then, we combine insight from the cultural indicators and survey to draw insight on the appropriate governance approaches from the ‘policy’ dimension of governance to promote SAEV deployment in Norway.

The theoretical goal of bike-sharing services in metropolises is to serve short-distance direct trips and provide access to or egress from the closest high-capacity public transport stop. Besides citizens, bike-sharing can be popular among tourists if the service area covers the most important tourist attractions. This study aims to reveal the differences between tourists’ and non-tourists’ bike-sharing usage habits. The origin-destination data of the station-based bike-sharing system in Budapest, Hungary, were analyzed using over 300,000 rentals from September 2022. It was estimated that users were tourists if the country code of their billing address was not Hungary. Accordingly, 3.7% of the rentals were made by tourists. We found that there are significant differences in bike-sharing usage habits between tourists and non-tourists. Tourists’ renting time is longer, but the distance covered is the same as for non-tourists. Moreover, tourists mostly use the bike-sharing system in the afternoon and mostly (3/4 of their rentals) in the downtown area where the most popular tourist attractions are located. Decision-makers can use the results of this study to improve bike-sharing services and operators to optimize the reallocation.

The article analyses the attractiveness problems of public transit in the largest Lithuanian cities. The analytical-methodical part of the article discusses the concept of attractive public transport system. In the research section, the expert analysis that evaluates the public transport systems of the large Lithuanian cities is presented, and ways to improve the quality in this area are considered. Additionally, a qualitative method is applied to study the way to increase the attractiveness of public transportation services in the field of sustainable development by focusing on existing public transportation problems. The causal connections between expert evaluation and qualitative analysis are examined. Working methods and tools include analysis of methodological and scientific literature, quantitative research using questionnaires. In conclusion, the article presents a proposed solution that includes transit model, which will allow to promote and increase the attractiveness of public transport (PT) itself towards commuters.

Noise barriers are an integral part of noise abatement measures for road and rail traffic noise. To assess the quality of installed noise barriers in-situ, two standardized methods are used, which assess the intrinsic characteristics of sound reflection (EN 1793-5) and airborne sound insulation (EN 1793-6) under direct sound field conditions on roads. In a long running monitoring project funded by TII (Transport Infrastructure Ireland), over 120 noise barrier measurements have been performed in Ireland in the last 5 years. All noise barriers are timber noise barriers and are categorized as reflective and absorptive. The overall performance of typical Irish noise barriers is shown, based on the datasets available. Due to the local climate, not all measurements could be performed with the noise barrier in a dry condition. In the comparison of the results, the measured moisture content of the noise barrier is explicitly analysed and the effect of the intrinsic characteristics of sound reflection and airborne sound insulation under direct sound field conditions is shown. Finally, the obtained results are compared to the typical performance of European noise barriers obtained from the SOPRANOISE project.

The knowledge of urban logistics in European cities is fragmented and data is not harmonised due to lack of systematic methodological approaches, along with the reluctance of targeted operators to share information in a highly competitive market. A recent survey targeted on urban logistics has been commissioned by the European Commission, within the “Study on new Mobility Patterns in European Cities”, to collect data and make available indicators related to economic, environmental, and usage aspects of goods distribution and other logistics movements in EU cities. The survey was developed in 21 EU greater cities of 12 Member States plus UK, among 1590 logistics operators, between April 2021 and February 2022.Additionally, a systematic review of the main previous studies on urban logistics in the targeted cities was achieved in order to have a methodological appraisal and quantitative references to be used as background information in the selected cities, so as to validate the results of the survey and analyse any discrepancies found in the data collected by the survey with statistics from previous studies. This review revealed extreme differences in the methodologies and identified limitations in the comparisons of data collection and analysis, especially concerning the definition of indicators and consistency of targets.The survey represents a novel achievement and a credible baseline towards understanding urban logistics dimensions and benchmarking relevant indicators. As such, the outcome of the survey can serve as baseline for future data collection and analysis with the goal to develop sustainable urban logistics policies.

Rail monitoring using in-service vehicles enables the fast detection of surface defects, which are often responsible for high noise emission. In this paper a processing sequence is presented that converts axle box accelerations into rail condition indicators based on spectral characteristics of the rail surface. The methodology is exemplified with data acquired with a shunter locomotive operating at an inland harbour in the city of Braunschweig, Germany.

Investments in transport infrastructure severely impact the regions in which they are planned. These impacts can be both positive (e.g., connectivity, accessibility) and negative (e.g., environmental pollution). To advance more inclusive and sustainable development of transport infrastructure, a variety of European studies were conducted about the potential of area-oriented planning approaches in which infrastructure and spatial development are integrated. Although area-oriented approaches are promising, they are not standard practice. Barriers such as political dynamics, organizational structure and limited scope of mandate restrain National Road Authorities in becoming area partners. The successes of area-oriented projects are found in communicative and collaborative skills but are not fully developed to advance the transition to a new area-oriented planning regime. To accelerate the transition to area-oriented transport infrastructure planning, a European agenda for further action is presented.

This paper evaluates the ability of potential female employees to telecommute in the selected business organizations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The ability to telecommute by the potential female employees was determined by targeting few employment types namely clerical, professional, associate professional and manager through a pre-designed questionnaire survey. A binary logistic regression model was developed to evaluate the effects of the explanatory variables on the ability to telecommute by controlling and not controlling the “employing industries” and “employment categories”. The results of the model reveal that ‘having prior experience working from home’ and ‘increase in the frequency of telephone usage’ almost doubles the ability to telecommute, whereas ‘spending considerable time working with others’ and the ‘frequent use of the photocopier’ reduces it. The respondents employed in the ‘financial intermediation’ and ‘real estate industries’ were approximately 2.5 times more likely to be able to telecommute as compared to those employed in the ‘telecommunication industry’. Managers, associate professionals, professionals were 3.5, 2.3 and 1.5 times respectively more likely to be able to telecommute more frequently than clerical workers.

Predicting the future supply and demand of a transport network are challenging and important problems in real-time traffic management systems that are essential to enhance the decision-making process for deploying adequate traffic strategies under different conditions (e.g., road works, accidents). In the context of the TANGENT H2020 project, simulation-based and data-driven methodologies are developed focusing on the real-time demand and supply prediction problems. This paper focuses on the development and integration of the demand and supply models as well as incident detection methods into traffic simulation environments for network-wide traffic predictions. The role of each component of the framework and their interoperability is explained in the paper, using as testbed the network of Athens, Greece.

This paper investigates stakeholders’ motivations and barriers within emerging Future Flight business models. Aviation is vital for developing economies, and the urgent need for a transition towards more sustainable practices is gaining prominence. Hence, understanding the factors shaping Future Flight technology’s adoption is crucial. Drawing on ten interviews with pioneering Future Flight-related technologists, business leaders, social entrepreneurs, and policymakers, we employed the Technology-Organisation-Environment framework and Transaction Cost Economics theory to analyse critical factors influencing Future Flight business models. We show participants are concerned about sustainable aviation fuel availability and Future Flight technologies’ readiness. We emphasise the importance of technology maturity and commercial viability for successful Future Flight implementation. Smaller start-ups are poised to lead such development because of their nimbleness and sustainability focus. Concurrently, larger companies face challenges transitioning from traditional business models. We identified regulatory frameworks, social acceptance, and public demand as key drivers. Finally, we show how entrepreneurs desire standardised global regulations to support sustainable aviation practices. We offer insights into the complex dynamics of Future Flight adoption, highlighting companies’ need to evaluate their cultural and human resource strategies while emphasising global regulatory standards’ importance – as part of The CoFFEE Project’s ( www.coffeefutureflight.com ) broader research programme.

Public transport and shared mobility services are widely acknowledged as the backbone of sustainable urban transportation in terms of reduction of traffic congestion, air pollution and noise and increasing traffic safety. These services play pivotal roles in achieving the objectives of EU Cities Mission and the European Green Deal ambition of net zero greenhouse gas emission by 2050.Alongside this, the evolution of emerging mobility concepts is also transforming the future of mobility landscape, which impose a paradigm shift towards smarter carbon-neutral mobility services. Therefore, development of smart sustainable mobility solutions and ensuring improvement of customized mobility services for all citizens are key challenges for the cities of tomorrow. All of these require experimentation besides nudging people’s mobility behavior towards sustainable and climate-friendly choice of transport modes especially in Central and East European cities with high tendency for car ownership and use of private car for daily commuting.With a twofold objective of raising public transport ridership and passengers’ level of satisfaction with collective and public transport systems, this paper focuses on presenting various mobility-related solutions and measures and the implementation of the most promising ones through utilizing co-creation process for improvement of public transport service features and their smart integration with existing shared mobility services. The case study is provided for the city of Žilina as one of the twining cities in the Horizon Europe SPINE “Smart Public transport Initiatives for Climate-Neutral cities in Europe” Innovation Action project.

Multimodal Digital Mobility Services (MDMS) are defined as “systems providing information about the location of transport facilities, schedules, availability and fares, of more than one transport provider, to make reservations, payments or issue tickets”. Public transport (PT) is the backbone of a multimodal transport network and although, several MDMS solutions exist, few of them consider the traveller needs at disaggregated level, while public transport predictive data are not integrated within provided services. In addition, the Mobility as a Right (MaaR) concept that may be considered the keystone of an inclusive multimodal transport network is barely covered in literature. The MaaR concept is omitted in the majority of the MDMS and MaaS definitions, and little attention is given on incorporating it in innovative measures. This study builds on the principles of MDMS and MaaR to develop a conceptual framework for forming MDMS- and MaaR - based public transport measures to support the transition to a user-friendly multimodal transport network. To set the foundations for a structured discussion on the scarcely studied terms, first the definitions of MaaS, MDMS and MaaR are explored, to highlight key aspects and determine the potential relationship among them.

This paper addresses a railway scenario with variable composition trains, and focuses on the management and simulation of the passenger flows and trains at stations. In particular, it proposes a management system aimed at optimally routing the passengers from their entrance in the station to the correct platform segment according the train they have to board, and scheduling the train service in terms of convoy composition, capacity and destinations. The resulting system is then modelled as a discrete event system (DES) and simulated, to evaluate its performance on the basis of indicators like the queue length, the unsatisfied demand, the passenger travel time in the station, and the passenger density at the platform. The proposed station management system is then tested on a mixed real/synthetic numerical example aimed at proving the feasibility and functioning of the proposed approach.

Enabling journeys from door-to-door is an essential part of attracting people towards public transport and away from the private car. Facilitating such journeys requires comprehensive and integrated planning across modal and spatial boundaries. Public transport governance, however, is often constrained by fragmented, multi-level structures and regulatory barriers that limit the ability of responsible organisations to provide a seamless user experience. Sharing experiences between cities in different countries can accelerate learning processes and facilitate the development of more effective organisational structures and regulatory frameworks. The aim of this paper is to analyse how organisation and regulation can support (or hinder) door-to-door mobility. This is done by mapping the roles, responsibilities and relationships between actors who coordinate and collaborate on the design of public transport networks and tariff systems in the context of multimodal networks in Malmö/Lund in Sweden, Copenhagen in Denmark, Berlin in Germany and Trondheim in Norway. Information is gathered through stakeholder workshops in each country. Key regulatory and organisational challenges are identified and national differences between cases are discussed. Examples of structures and mechanisms that support multimodal integration and coordination in each country are also provided.

Against the backdrop of the global challenge of climate change, the concept of sustainable mobility has gained significant attention. Governments, organizations and individuals are increasingly adopting green transportation practices to reduce carbon emissions and create greener and smarter cities. Despite the growing awareness and intention to sustainable mobility, a significant gap remains between individuals’ intentions and their actual behavior; this phenomenon is well known as the intention-behavior or green gap. However, an up to date analysis that evaluates existing evidence to develop overarching approaches for further research is still lacking. Against this background we conduct a systematic literature review to explore the reasons for the green gap in the (urban) mobility context. Therefore, we have included research from different disciplines in our analysis. Based on our analysis, we propose measures to reduce the gap and develop a research agenda to stimulate future research in this area.

For tackling societal, health and environmental challenges, it is desirable to increase public transport usage and make transfers to public transport stations attractive and seamless. The study explores which factors are important for an attractive station environment and who is responsible for planning attractive transfers. It focuses on the walk to or from the station and its forecourt. First, stakeholder workshops with practitioners were conducted. Second, an online survey about the station surroundings and transfers was conducted amongst users of two stations in Berlin, Germany. Third, interviews with users applying virtual reality were carried out. Users experience and discuss ‘new visions’ of the station’s forecourt with virtual reality, applying ‘digital Tactical Urbanism’. The survey data was analyzed by using descriptive analysis, the interview data by applying thematic coding. The findings show that cycling-/pedestrian-friendliness is not adequately addressed by practitioners. It is not clear who is responsible to provide attractive, seamless and safe station environments. Wayfinding, quality of the walking environment and safety are important issues of the transfer situation. The results help to understand the needs of users and stakeholders and deliver recommendations to strengthen the combination of walking and public transport by introducing the approach of ‘digital Tactical Urbanism’.

Over the past number of years, Ireland’s National Transport Authority (the “NTA”) have been funding and overseeing the preparation of Local Transport Plans (LTPs) across the country. Such plans are prepared for regional growth centres and key towns identified in the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies, as well as other settlements identified by local authorities, and are based on the Area Based Transport Assessment (ABTA) guidance that was previously prepared by the NTA and Transport Infrastructure Ireland.In overseeing this programme, the NTA have been to the forefront of transport planning in Ireland at the local level and as such have developed a unique insight into local plan making and the relationship between national, regional and local policy. This paper summarises the approach the NTA has taken to the preparation of these plans, the key issues which have emerged, and the challenges of achieving modal shift across Ireland and the associated objective to reduce emissions from transport.

In this study we develop, the first to our knowledge, multiple linear regression model to estimate the effectiveness of the Athens’ traffic restriction scheme called “daktylios”. The utilized data involves traffic flow obtained from 50 measurement stations on road segments inside and outside but close to the restriction zone limits. Multiple linear regression models were designed to explore the parameters affecting traffic flow and traffic flow difference as a result of the scheme’s operation. Results provided insights about the variation of the traffic conditions during the implementation time of the scheme. They demonstrated a slight decrease of traffic flow for sections located inside the restriction zone, indicating the ineffectiveness of the scheme. Furthermore, specific circumstances indicated a variation of drivers’ obedience. For example, the effectiveness of the scheme varied with trip direction (from, to or within the zone), time of day and retail sales. The parameters affecting traffic flow inside the restriction zone were similar throughout the years indicating stabilized driver behavior, with the only exception being the year 2021–2022 during which traffic flow increased probably as a result of travelers’ reluctance to use public transport in fear of COVID-19. The results of the study indicate that the “daktylios” scheme needs to be revisited and probably replaced by more contemporary measures, which address the present needs and behavior of the travelers, and have the potential of being more effective.

The European Green Deal and its target to achieve a 90% reduction in transport-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 together with the new European Union Urban Mobility Framework put urban mobility and logistics in the spotlight of European mobility policies. Research and innovation are paramount to respond to the challenges and to further improve mobility and transport systems in cities, while fully tackling the negative impacts of transport. This study provides a review of recent trends, challenges and achievements of European research and innovation initiatives in urban mobility and logistics and examines their alignment with the overarching transport and mobility policy objectives. The paper identifies relevant projects that focus on urban mobility, using the Transport Research and Innovation Monitoring and Information System (TRIMIS) database. It identifies the main trends in European research and discusses main areas of development and key achievements. It also presents recommendations for future research priorities and initiatives.

Planning for “transit oriented development” has long been discussed, mostly in relation to rail and metro lines. However, modern Ireland has developed around its road network, and public transport on roads primarily means buses.Ireland’s national government is making major investments in bus operations, infrastructure, fleet and technology. For these investments to have maximum impact, the way that Ireland uses land and develops new urban areas must change.To that end, the National Transport Authority of Ireland (NTA) and Jarrett Walker + Associates (JWA) have co-authored an illustrated guidance document for planners and developers, showing how land use decisions affect the ultimate cost, usefulness and patronage of bus services.This guidance document is contributing to greater coordination among national plans, national investments, local authorities’ development decisions and private development. It provides advice that is relevant in any country and that is urgently needed to address the climate crisis.

Since 2022, Ireland’s National Transport Authority (NTA) have been developing web-based tools that are capable of undertaking connectivity assessments of settlements throughout Ireland. These tools have the opportunity to greatly enhance land use and transport planning decision making processes, and it is the intention of the NTA to introduce them as a standardised approach to connectivity analysis for use by Local Authorities and Government Bodies.The tools highlight opportunities and constraints for sustainable modes within existing transport networks, while also offering the potential to explore improved options. The application of these tools in the development of Local Transport Plans assists in the improved design of urban spaces by bringing active modes and permeability to the forefront of the planning process.These toolkits are now widely used amongst Local Authorities during development of their Local Transport Plans and have also attracted significant interest from Government Departments as they look to establish better ways to promote sustainable development methodologies.

Urban planning, either from a city or regional perspective, includes the study of land use, mobility, and transport, both of people, goods and services. In recent years, new shared service solutions have been considered to improve transport and mobility by reducing the share of privately owned vehicles. Shared solutions are also seen as a desired solution for urban planning in creating more sustainable neighbourhoods. This paper presents a study designed to map the relationship between urban planning approaches that aim to stimulate shared and active mobility and travel and shopping habits. The findings highlight that introducing several measures to stimulate more sustainable mobility had positive effects, such as reduced car ownership, and as such it should be considered when designing future urban spaces. The paper builds on a case study of Vestre Billingstad community close to Oslo, Norway.

There is a change from traditional planning approaches providing a shift toward more sustainable transport options. To support these policies, Workplace Travel Plans are applied that encourage the usage of active transport modes and sustainable behavior change. This research considers such mobility plans, where our approach provides a framework of connecting employee requirements, employer willingness, and site-specific options resulting in a list of suitable measures for a specific workplace. The utility of the measure is a value calculated for each measure, which enables the ranking of all measures. The case study was conducted an institution based in Budapest, Hungary. As a result, the most highly ranked measures are related to active modes, while the other top-ranked measures are related to different strategies, such as carpooling walking, and the traffic calming.

This paper aims to provide an in-depth knowledge of mobility in sparsely populated areas based on a quantitative and statistical approach. First, it analyses mobility practices in sparsely populated areas and compares them with those in urban areas. It then proposes an assessment of car dependency of population living in rural areas. It points out that this dependency results from either a constraint or an asserted choice, depending on existing alternatives of car use. It also analyses the degree of dependency by having a focus on multimodal practices of people living in these areas. It then concludes with the challenge of shifting populations living in sparsely populated areas from constraint mobility to chosen mobility, by offering mobility services adapted to their needs and, above all, by encouraging them to consider new practices that go beyond their routines.

A reduction in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions related to transport requires a reduction in total km driven by private vehicles. This is difficult to achieve in rural areas because public transport provision is sparse. A redesign of public transport is required to provide people with alternatives to driving. This paper assesses the improvement to the availability and quality of transport options in two areas in the UK and France where demand responsive transport (DRT) is introduced. It calculates the increase in population served, the increase in service speeds, frequency, and span in order to assess the potential for car trip replacement and associated emissions reductions.

People in rural areas must travel more often and further due to reductions in local opportunities and amenities but have poor mobility options other than the private car. The underlying cause of this is the fact that a specific rural mobility policy is absent in almost all European countries. This led to a lack of goals, obligations, and funds, and ultimately to a lack of mobility supply. A wide range of rural mobility solutions (such as, demand responsive transport, carpooling, and car sharing) already exists. These can be packaged to meet the local mobility needs, and connected to the regular public transport. Nevertheless, the implementation context for rural areas is very different from that of urban areas, not only in scale but also in the nature of the implementers, who usually do not have the skills to implement such services. Capacity building, know-how transfer, peer-to-peer networking, and exchange of experience can be essential enablers for local shared mobility implementers. As part of the response to these challenges, the SMARTA-NET project is establishing the first European network on rural mobility, aimed initially at rural municipalities and others who can act at the local level. Guidance documents are being prepared on four key topics designed to foster the capacity of municipalities to develop and implement sustainable, inclusive, and integrated mobility solutions in their territories. Guidance is then imparted through training events in 14 participating countries. Preliminary Results are a high level of interest across Europe to participate in the network and training and to exchange experience.

Smaller cities struggle to achieve carbon-neutrality goals. In Finland, the goal is to reach carbon neutrality by 2035, which means that by and large the smaller cities need to address this target. Several measures to cut carbon emissions have been analyzed in different cities, but it seems that in most cases the reductions in the mobility sector are far behind the ambitious goals, and hence jeopardize the reaching of the 2035 milestone. However, many other improvements are possible regarding accessibility, equity, health, and affordability of urban mobility in smaller cities that have traditionally relied very heavily on private car use. It seems that one of the keys is the electrification of mobility while shifting energy production from fossil energy to cleaner forms, such as wind, hydro, and solar power in the future but more effective land/use policy in the long term.

This paper examines conceptions of the common good in reports prepared in 2022 by Irish Local Authorities for public consultation on proposed active travel schemes. The proposed active travel schemes form a key component of Irish commitment to reducing transport emissions and represent a public good, which can be used simultaneously by many. The reports are intended to inform the public and local authority elected members about the proposed schemes before elected members vote whether to proceed with the scheme. Approval by elected members of Local Authority projects, including active travel schemes, sits within the Irish land use planning system, which provides for proper planning and sustainable development in the interests of the common good. This study investigates understandings of the common good found within the reports and assesses the degree to which active travel schemes are appreciated as common and public goods that contribute to transformative change in the transport sector. The paper identifies a lack of guidance on shaping reports for public consultation and calls for the development of compelling narratives of how active travel schemes serve the common good and expedite the transport changes envisioned in the Republic of Ireland’s Climate Action Plan.

The SUMP methodology is characterized by involving stakeholders and citizens using a transparent participatory approach. In this, the SUMP methodology differs from traditional transport master planning, which was primarily led by experts. During the creation of the SUMP for Izmir, which is the first full SUMP in Türkiye, citizens and stakeholders were involved in a manner distinct from the traditional citizen and stakeholder consultation events. Instead of inviting them to the domain of mobility planners, the mobility planners ventured into the streets of Izmir to collect input and feedback for the SUMP. This shift in mindset cannot be achieved overnight. In this paper we elaborate on how we organized the citizen engagement and the preparations made. The preparation comprised of three pillars: a robust communication strategy, capacity building for Izmir municipality staff and proper event planning.

Passenger ferry boats of different capacities operate and are one of the most affordable modes of transportation. This research investigates the effectiveness of passenger ferry services within Mumbai Municipal Boundary, operating in its backwater, creek networks, and western and eastern coastlines. Passenger ferries have the potential to promote sustainable and resilient transportation in the region. The literature review shows an absence of evaluation mechanisms to assess the quality and performance provided for passenger ferries in Indian cities using the Level of Service (LOS) concept. The study aims to assess operational performance by proposing a step-by-step evaluation framework for ferry services based on the LOS. Both passengers and operators’ perspectives are considered while suggesting proposals. The outcome is in the form of a procedure that can be adopted for forming and calculating route-wise LOS and recommendations for operators to generate additional revenue. The insights gained from this research will be valuable for policymakers, academics, and stakeholders, enabling them to assess, improve, and allot investments for ferry services in their respective cities as per their unique requirements.

With the support of EU’s key funding program Horizon Europe, the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking (EU-Rail) aims to deliver a high-capacity integrated European railway network by eliminating barriers to interoperability, providing solutions for full integration, and achieving faster uptake and deployment of innovation. In this context, EU-Rail FutuRe project aims at tackling the increasing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of European interoperable regional lines by means of providing new innovative solutions to make these lines cost-effective and attractive, while meeting safety standards and improving reliability, availability, and capacity of the railway system. Interoperable regional lines are connected to the mainline railway system as part of the Single European Railway Area (SERA) and characterised by low-density passenger traffic, as well as rail freight services.

The purpose of this paper is to present an impact assessment of the new Apukka Shuttle Bus service in Finnish Lapland. The service was created to serve both overnight and activity customers at a remote tourist destination. Tourism mobility in rural areas is challenged e.g. by limited services and insufficient information. The new Apukka Shuttle Bus service was aimed to offer an easy and ecological access to a remote destination. The service was created in collaboration between the destination (Apukka Resort), a transport operator (Kutilan liikenne) and a Mobility as a Service operator (Matkahuolto). Based on the results the service has several benefits on user, organizational and societal levels.

With the support of EU’s key funding program Horizon Europe, the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking (EU-Rail) aims to deliver faster deployment of innovations in the railway design. The EU-Rail FutuRe project aims at tackling the increasing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of European interoperable regional lines by means of providing new innovative solutions to make these lines cost-effective and attractive. Setting the right level of requirements and specification for the regional rail rolling stock plays therefore an important role in meeting the FutuRe objectives. The detailed objectives are to define a vehicle concept for up to 100 passengers or corresponding freight with significant vehicle weight savings compared to existing rolling stock. The key systems for the research are the mechanical arrangement to avoid unnecessary weight and reduce maintenance costs on vehicle and track, the propulsion system which must be emission free despite that these lines often are non-electrified and the control system which may be combined with train protection system and offer autonomous running.

Recently, the focus of Irish transport policy has shifted significantly towards sustainable infrastructure development. Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) published National Roads 2040 (NR2040), which responds to policy shift placing greater emphasis on multi-modal solutions, decarbonisation, and sustainability.This research paper explores the underlying analysis of NR2040, including; (1) how it aligns with Government policies and plans, (2) underlying analysis of future scenarios; functional corridor assessment of national secondary roads; and estimation of road transport emissions, and (3) the NR2040 implementation and investment approach. In respect to methods, research topics 1 and 3 are primarily policy reviews, while the work involved with research topic 2 required extensive analysis and research tools including TII’s VISUM-based National Transport Model (NTpM) and the Irish Road Emissions Model (REM).The development of a comprehensive road transport strategy (NR2040) is a critical part of the national policy effort to reduce negative externalities associated with motorised vehicles and contribute towards the achievement of climate action targets. Thus, NR2040 provides a valuable case study for policy makers and researchers, showcasing a national shift away from the traditional ‘predict and provide’ model of transport planning in a modern European country with high car dependency and a large rural population.

European regional lines are an essential part of the multimodal mobility scheme. Despite their relevance, they are gradually being abandoned due to the increasing total cost of ownership (TCO). FutuRe FP6 project aims at the development of the traffic management/control/command and signalling system for low density lines that are not functionally/operationally fully connected with the mainline network (ER JU Multi Annual Work Program – [1]) – so called Group 2 Lines (G2), that are operated by passenger and/or freight services that do not usually enter mainline infrastructure. Following the analysis of the current regional railways key cost drivers, we will demonstrate less expensive and more advanced solutions for COTS-based Group 2 lines, having as funding pillars public radio communication & satellites in support to fail-safe highly accurate positioning, intelligent systems on-board, cloud-based control centre for vital fail-safe Interlocking and RBC related functionalities.Today’s available technologies are suitably mature for creating new solutions for low density railway; use of COTS products dramatically reduces the CAPEX and OPEX costs paving the way for long-term viability of these lines.

The Clean Aviation project TheMa4HERA “Thermal Management for Hybrid Electric Regional Aircraft” aims to develop and mature the key technology bricks to enable efficient thermal management on these new aircraft concepts, where the increasing exploitation of electrical power will come with increasing number and entity of heat sources even more widely distributed in the aircraft compartments. Collins Aerospace provides advanced Thermal Management systems and services for commercial, regional, business aviation, military, and government customers. In TheMa4HERA Collins Aerospace is leading the ventilation work package focused on cabin pressure control and ventilation in unpressurized areas. This paper presents the recent findings in the TheMa4HERA project related to the design and optimization of a novel e-fan using state-of-the-art Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling techniques. The end goal is to replace conventional bleed-air-driven subsystems in terms of performance, efficiency, and volumetric flow while reducing their weight. This e-fan is expected to be used for the ventilation of unpressurized bay areas during ground operations of HERA.

Ride-hailing apps are getting increasingly common in cities all around the world. However, the major factors that determine how supply and demand interact to determine the ultimate prices are still mostly understood. By using statistical and supervised machine learning techniques (Linear Regression, Decision Tree, and Random Forest), this study aims to comprehend and forecast the behavior of ride-hailing fares. Ten months’ worth of data were taken from the Uber Application Programming Interface for the city of Madrid and used to calibrate the model. The results show that the Random Forest model is the most suitable for this kind of prediction due to its superior performance metrics. The unsupervised methodology of cluster analysis (using the k-means clustering method) was also used to examine the variation of the difference between Uber fare forecasts and observed values to better understand prediction error patterns. The investigation found that a tiny percentage of observations (approximately 1.96%) had substantial prediction errors due to unexpected surges caused by supply and demand imbalances, which typically happen during major events, peak hours, weekends, holidays, or when there is a taxi strike. This study assists in the understanding of pricing, service demand, and ride-hailing market pricing structures by policymakers.

Mobility Management is a concept to promote sustainable transport and manage the demand for car use by changing attitudes and behaviour through so called “soft” measures (for example, information and service provision, communication or coordination). Mobility management measures do not generally require large financial investments, tend to have a high benefit-cost ratio, and are generally well accepted by citizens. They are often used as complementary activities to other “harder” measures. The City of Turku piloted three soft measures: a digital service map and two nudges. A wide team was included in both measures right from the initial planning phase. Cities can bring together relevant actors ranging from evaluators to service design to complement the work done in topic related departments. Collaboration between different actors ensures that planned actions are not only functionally executed but also designed for diverse target groups and properly evaluated. Wide enough cooperation paves the way for future scaling of successful activities with a deeper impact on travel behaviour.

At the German Aerospace Center (DLR), new transport and vehicle concepts for sustainable and user-friendly mobility are being researched. The Institute of Vehicle Concepts of the DLR developed a concept study of a modular and fully automated transport system. The so-called U-Shift enables the transport of different capsules as load carriers and changing them during operation without requiring additional infrastructure. This paper describes the vehicle concept and its project landscape developed in cooperation with other partners in order to picture the evolution towards real life testing. The latest prototype, U-Shift IV, was presented in April 2023 as a new research platform. The first active use case of the U-Shift was decided to be within a public area, in which a research operation is implemented over half a year. Testing prototypes in public areas brings new challenges for DLR in applying legal safety requirements as well as following new processes of assigning automated vehicles in Germany. Due to its interfaces and interactive research, the U-Shift concept of the DLR strongly addresses several TRA themes like user-centered transport or transport safety.

The provision of safe, resilient and smart mobility services for both passengers and goods is a key priority for the EU transport sector. Even though passenger and freight transport systems share space, infrastructure and challenges, the current governance and regulatory systems deal with them in silos. This paper aims to provide an overview of the current status of passenger and freight transportation, focusing on the specific characteristics, limitations and barriers that prevent the collaboration, as well as the interdependencies and the opportunities for synergies and integrated transport schemes. The latest research related to the adoption of effective approaches enabling integration of passenger and freight transport is also presented, towards interoperability in multimodal transport ecosystem. The concept and results from the EU-funded research project DELPHI are discussed, highlighting the role of regulatory/governance systems and data sharing schemes in the integrated passenger and freight transport. The DELPHI case studies and demonstrators are also presented, along with their expected impact on current mobility and logistics services, and how they can be sustainably implemented, replicated and widely adopted by stakeholders.

Due to still relying heavily on motorized private vehicles, mobility hinders the sustainable functioning of societies. This has led to an increasing pressure to direct individuals towards sustainable mobility options, mostly including active mobility (i.e., walking, cycling) and public transport. During the recent years, mobility has become increasingly datafied, providing new ways to increase the attractiveness of sustainable options. In this manuscript, we provide a framework to capture the different ways in which data and information can aid in making sustainable modes of mobility more appealing, serving future efforts in the domain. Overall, data and information benefits mobility organizers in their endeavor to create well-functioning mobility systems, as well as users when planning and making day-to-day decisions regarding mobility.

The Modena Automotive Smart Area (MASA) is an experimental project, based on a public-private partnership, aiming at the development of an urban living lab to test, evaluate, and implement connected and autonomous vehicles. It is proposed as a case study that contains all the key elements to convey scalability, replicability, and operational flexibility. MASA is an example of public-private partnership with the Municipality of Modena and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, strengthened by the endorsement of the Italian Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport and the support of the Emilia-Romagna Region, also involving industrial partners, in the implementation of a triple helix model. The research and experimentation activities concern interactions between vehicles, between vehicle and moving obstacle, between vehicle and city. The present contribution discusses the impact on the complexity of the urban environment both as digital and physical transformations and the possibility of a scalable model from a district area to an urban network.

Various transportation management methods have been designed to tackle traffic congestion and its side effects, and out of these methods, congestion charging distinguishes itself as quite effective. Although its primary goal is to decrease congestion, another important goal is the internalization of externalities – charging polluters an additional fee for the damage caused by their usage of the car. It has proved its effectiveness in London, Stockholm, Singapore, and other cities, by decreasing congestion and improving the modal split. Although congestion charging usually decreases car trips, some users continue using the car. This paper analyses the impact of congestion charging on these users’ route choices, using PTV Visum. The centerpiece of the paper is the prediction of traffic flow distribution using the TRIBUT Equilibrium-Lohse method in Visum. The specificity of this method, which is comprehensively explained, is that it considers both the time cost and monetary cost of a trip, while using a unique distribution of the value of time. The paper provides examples and a detailed explanation of necessary functions required for an effective estimation in Visum, while highlighting the importance of applying all steps of transportation modelling. It concludes with key findings and recommendations for further research.

The transformation of Europe towards a more sustainable built environment has large implications on the development of transport infrastructure. National and European authorities invest hugely in transport infrastructure focusing usually on improving individual links for single modes in the form of largescale projects. In practice, such planning often results in cost overruns, time delays and limited public support. Often local (land-use) planning issues become the focus instead of the overall system of transport corridors connecting individual places and services. This paper aims at exploring the concept of sustainable and inclusive corridor planning for large infrastructure development that connects with (local) land-use development and (cross) national transport needs. To this end, we examine experiences from three different cases of corridor-oriented planning in Estonia, Sweden and the Netherlands. Our findings suggest the need for a strategic programmatic approach aligning local needs, individual projects and setting overall goals for corridors and networks. This implies developing and applying multi-level governance frameworks with leadership, early and ongoing stakeholder involvement, and joint platforms for monitoring and learning.

For future transport planning fulfilling climate goals and reduce overall external costs generated by transportation, further policy measures need to be implemented quickly. Current research is providing an extensive list of measures and instruments to make transportation systems more sustainable. However, many of these proposals fail since single policy measures advantaging the one and disadvantaging the other group of travelers. We take this challenge as starting point to investigate which policy measures are attractive for which groups of travelers to identify the implementation potential. We do so by presenting residents in 25 large cities in Germany different policy measures. The respondents (n = 2,555) are asked to indicate their consent to the different policy measures in two steps: first, they see the measure only. Second, we present more information about the policy measure and outline advantages and disadvantages of the measure. Doing so enables us to understand which traveler type, i.e. current mode choice and mobility tool behavior, supports which policy measure and how improving information about it can help to find majority support. We find higher approval after presenting more information and a strong relationship between current mobility behavior and support for measures advocating this behavior.

Automated driving features from Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to higher levels of automation are shown to have a potential to increase traffic safety. The ability to drive safely is contingent on the automated systems understanding the road infrastructure. However, the road infrastructure has been designed over the course of a century to be optimal for human drivers. Considering the differences between human drivers and sensor-based driver assistance, it is important to ask to what extent is the road infrastructure suitable for automated driving features. Additionally, if there is already a proven safety effect, it is suggested that adapting the road infrastructure to ensure sensor detection will further increase this safety effect. Research into this domain is limited but growing. This paper explores how fundamental changes to the road infrastructure can leverage the sensor capabilities of vehicles of all levels of automation, thus giving an incremental approach to adapting road infrastructure to support Automated Driving Systems (ADS) at all levels of automation.

The level of public support for a potential policy measure is an important consideration for policymakers for whether they will implement such a measure or not – or whether they should try to influence public opinion. It is important to understand what kind of arguments are being used by people when supporting or opposing particular policy measures. Recent research has demonstrated that it is possible to develop a typology of arguments in favour or against policy measures. The typology consists of four groups of arguments in favour and four “mirror” groups of arguments against policy measures. The categorization was developed by decoding and classifying the arguments used by road safety experts from five European countries, who were confronted with several controversial policy measures. Although the typology was developed in the context of road safety, it appears that it can be applied or expanded for use in other policy areas as well.

Questions have arisen regarding whether current transport appraisal methodologies and parameters are prejudicial to sustainable transport solutions. With the emergence of the climate change and sustainability agenda, there is wide recognition of the need for modal shift from private-car-based modes to sustainable modes such as public transport and active travel. Despite this policy re-orientation, the use of the traditional appraisal methods and parameters with their inherent assumptions does not always support the policy. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is likely to recommend options that do not necessarily align with current sustainable policy goals. To cater for hard-to-monetise benefits, multi-criteria analysis (MCA) is employed in transport appraisal. However, there is a concern that multi-criteria analysis (MCA) is difficult to operate given the need for agreed weightings among stakeholders. This study summarises the challenges of the current appraisal frameworks through a literature review and analysis of the appraisal framework in Ireland. By doing so, this study aims to outline what should be improved for transport appraisal to work under the sustainability policy agenda.

Barriers to purchasing a fully electric vehicle were studied using an online survey aimed at car users located in the Helsinki region in Finland. Opinions on the significance of various barriers were asked from car users who had answered that they would not purchase a fully electric vehicle as their next car. The three barriers that would most affect their decision-making were the high purchase price of an electric vehicle, insufficient operating range on a single charge, and too few charging points in Finland outside the Helsinki and Uusimaa region. The results suggest that the desirability of a fully electric vehicle is affected not only by the availability of charging at home, or in the region where the car user lives, but also in other parts of the country where the user lives.

This study seeks to comprehensively analyze the multidimensional determinants underlying perceptions of safety, security, and comfort in transport mode choice, specifically focusing on private transport, public transport and walking. The research begins with an extensive literature review to identify and delve into the factors influencing perceptions of safety, security, and comfort across various transport modes. This inquiry is further enhanced by organizing two focused group sessions. A total of 35 key factors were identified, forming the basis for subsequent investigation. The study then progressed to the development and administration of a survey aimed at capturing responses from a diverse audience, with the goal of exploring the factors influencing perceptions related to different transport modes. A total of 302 responses were collected and meticulously analyzed to discern the factors impacting various relationships and to identify consistent perceptions across diverse transport modes. Additionally, a factor analysis was conducted to validate the findings derived from the data. The outcomes of this research constitute a significant contribution to the existing literature, offering valuable insights that pave the way for a more holistic understanding of the factors guiding transport mode choices.

The introduction of Free Public Transport (FPT) is in many cities a potential path to control and reduce the environmental, social and economic problems. FPT can take several forms from the more widely used partial FPT, which includes limitations in its application, to full FPT. This paper aims to investigate the socio-economic feasibility of introducing FPT in Athens. For this purpose, a socio-economic analysis was conducted to assess the economic advantages and disadvantages of the FPT, up to the year 2030. Four Scenarios were examined considering 0% (S0), 50% (S1), 75% (S2) and 100% (S3) fare discount, respectively, on PT tickets. Consequently, a multinomial logistic model was developed to investigate for each of the three discounts the level preferring Athenians the FPT over private car, using data from a stated preference questionnaire survey. For S1-S3 the investment and the operational costs along with the impact on travel time, fuel consumption, road safety and air pollution were estimated and monetized. The socio-economic analysis illustrated that the introduction of FPT in Athens can contribute to social welfare in the medium-term future, mainly due to the modal shift from private cars to PT. More precisely, the examined scheme shows a positive NPV and high IRR in all the Scenarios, indicating its feasibility over time. To be noted that even in extreme price changes of significant input variables, NPV remains positive, ensuring a positive impact on society.

Transport plays a vital role in social inclusion, enabling people to access essential services and opportunities. Thus, while striving to reduce carbon emissions in the transport sector, the European Union (EU) must balance its environmental targets with “social sustainability” goals and address related challenges. The EU has then proposed establishing a Social Climate Fund to support households at risk of transport poverty and reduce social exclusion risks. However, measures that can help tackle this issue are either poorly defined or depending solely on survey data. This paper aims to provide analytical evidence of transport poverty in the Republic of Ireland, using high-resolution public and private transport networks and identifying where and why people might be at risk of experiencing transport poverty. The contribution to the policy discussion focuses on transport availability as the basis for the analysis. Preliminary results suggest significant differences when comparing access to opportunities, or services, by car or by public transport. With regard to the latter, the number of individuals below a predefined accessibility “sufficiency threshold” varies significantly between rural areas, or near the country border areas, and urban settings. Future work will include a broader variety of destinations and transport poverty dimensions, such as affordability and digital connectivity, population dynamics scenarios, travel demand indicators, and socioeconomic metrics.

This work aims to understand the applicability of several recent ISO standards concerning cities’ sustainability. Among these standards, we highlight the ones related to sustainable cities and communities, namely ISO 37123:2019 - Indicators for Resilient Cities, ISO 37122:2019 - Indicators for Smart Cities and ISO 37120:2018 - Indicators for City Services and Quality of Life. Furthermore, among the long list of indicators presented in each standard, we are concerned with the ones related to transport and how they can represent a step forward in sustainable mobility promotion. Unfortunately, only a few works have dealt with this validation type. Therefore, using a NUTIII from Portugal - the Coimbra Region, a group of selected indicators concerning transport was applied to a group of municipalities. Unfortunately, the results show that most of the data needed is unavailable, and many indicators cannot be easily calculated. However, when calculated, this group of indicators can be used to compare cities’ attractions and advantages, being a precious tool to promote sustainable policies around regional cohesion and equity. Furthermore, this work can also contribute to advice regarding local applications of universal rules.

By the end of 2022, European air passenger numbers had recovered to 78% of 2019 levels. A full recovery to pre-pandemic passenger volumes was expected by the end of 2023, a performance not anticipated by most aviation stakeholders during the crisis. However, capacity issues and the outbreak of war in Ukraine, as economies were emerging from the effects of the pandemic, led to increased levels of uncertainty across aviation and airports. This volatility was further exacerbated by factors such as recruitment/retention challenges, capacity issues in larger airports and the increasing impact of extreme weather events. While smaller European airport volumes recovered more quickly than larger ones, these airports continued to face severe cost and revenue challenges, when they needed to focus on connectivity and repairing balance sheets. Already vital airline relationships and State aid became more critical to the future viability of smaller airports. Aeronautical revenue was increasingly impacted by route deals advantageous to airlines, necessitating a greater airport focus on non-aeronautical revenue. The increasing use of larger airports by low-cost carriers further affected the prospects for sustained regional airport recovery. This paper aims to highlight key influences on European regional airport passenger performance through the uncertain and challenging 2019–2022 period, the impact of increased competition, and future prospects for these airports.

The purpose of this paper is to study how smart mobility solutions in rural areas are addressing sustainability in their value propositions. A multi-case study was conducted on four smart mobility projects located in rural areas across Europe. The study evaluates how the value propositions include the dimensions of sustainability. The results show that the value propositions of the projects studied are mostly economic. Social and environmental value propositions are made mainly to end-user customer segments, but not to customer segments that can be regarded as organisational or institutional.

Ireland’s National Transport Authority (NTA) has a responsibility for the update and maintenance of the multi-modal National Transport Model which is used in the assessment and analysis of major transport schemes and interventions across the country. Central to the model functionality is the requirement for accurate and consistent land use data inputs, notably in terms of travel demand. To provide a comprehensive demand dataset, in 2023 the NTA undertook a nationwide project to reassess the base year and future year datasets for population and employment. This enhanced forecasting methodology utilized web-based technology to facilitate a collaborative project directly involving all 31 Irish Local Authorities. As part of this project, the NTA assessed how various existing datasets could be utilized together to forecast population and employment variables more accurately. This project worked to improve the consistency and accuracy of data across numerous different organizations and ensured that the data was deliverable at all relevant policy scales, from national and regional to a small area level. Central to this project was the delivery of a new digitized approach, which allowed the coordination of various datasets, firstly to facilitate the use of input data that can improve decision making processes, but also in terms of how the data was collected and controlled for accuracy and consistency. Developing this methodology and working closely with Local Authorities to collate information in an accurate and coordinated manner at a local level, has ensured that the NTA, local authorities and other agencies have robust and consistent base year and future year datasets, which can facilitate evidence-based decisions on Strategic Planning issues and assist in the realization of key sustainable development goals.

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have witnessed a radical increase in a variety of applications. While delivering obvious benefits, there are also hazards and risks regarding, for example, physical safety, people’s privacy, and cyber security. The regulatory framework on UAS was considerably changed due to the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139, which, as a centralised, top-down regulation, covers nearly all UAS, regardless of their weight and size. Although the ensuing regulations and guidelines from the European Commission and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) give detailed provisions for things like the operation and design of UAS, the implementation of said rules and the necessary procedures involved are up to the member states and their competent authorities. This paper compares current differences in selected member states considering the implementation of new UAS regulations. The results imply that there is a wide variability between member states in how they cover different aspects of the new regulation. This paper also draws preliminary conclusions on the maturity of the governance and regulatory framework.

Across the globe, governments are promoting electric vehicles (EV) because of their benefits such as improved air quality, reduced fuel consumption, and improved energy security. Government of India (GoI) has also launched a series of policies and schemes to help promote EV adoption. However, different states offer different incentives in the state landscape providing non-uniform economic benefits in the country level. The main findings magnify the huge discrepancies in the policies implemented by various countries, which do not aim towards a coherent strategy approach. This paper uses Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) method to compare the EV policy’s’ qualitative parameters across 12 Indian states to propose a working approach for “best-practice” and “unified” EV policy in India, by reviewing individual state policies. This would help in better adoption, implementation, and monitoring of EV vehicles in India.

Unprecedented development in Indian cities, including tier II and tier III driven by population growth and increased vehicle ownership has created urgent transport infrastructure and urban planning challenges. These challenges include traffic congestion, parking issues, pollution, and pedestrian safety concerns, all exacerbated by the growing number of private vehicles. This study focuses on evaluating parking policies in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (formerly Aurangabad), Maharashtra, India. It aims to develop a methodology for assessing on-street and off-street parking performance from user and management agency perspectives. The methodology includes a comprehensive review of parking policies across India and primary surveys involving license plate tracking, parking inventory, and interviews. The study analyzes various parking statistics and employs the Parking Performance Index (PPI) as a tool to assess parking issues. PPI measures user satisfaction, parking management, and service quality, considering factors like parking costs and search time. Clustering techniques define Parking Level of Service (PLOS) criteria, and a single index combines multiple parameters. The study underscores the importance of parking occupancy and highlights that areas with sufficient capacity still face congestion due to mismanagement and inadequate signage. Ultimately, the research aims to enhance parking policies and service quality in the studied city and other Indian urban areas.

In recent decades, there has been a continuous rise in interest surrounding shared mobility services. The deployment of these services has faced numerous obstacles during both the planning and operational stages. The objective of this paper is to define a comprehensive and general-purpose evaluation framework to support the impact assessment of sharing mobility policy/actions for both the monitoring of existing projects (ex-post) and the evaluation of simulated scenarios (ex-ante).We propose a multi-criteria analysis able to consider both quantitative and qualitative impacts. Emphasis is given on structuring the problem by identifying the most significant economic, social, environmental, and mobility impacts of sharing services and giving examples of key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be employed to gauge them.Finally, the paper presents the possibility of implementation in the city of Niš (Serbia) within the Horizon Europe project UR-DATA. Niš, the third largest city in Serbia, currently lacks a sharing mobility system.

This research paper seeks to achieve three objectives: (1) assess the high-level impact of severance for Active Travel (AT) users in Ireland through a policy and literature review; (2) analyse a severance case study along the M50 in Dublin, exploring potential interventions; and (3) outline the implications of this study for transport planning practice and further research. Research objectives 1 and 3 are primarily literature and discussion based with research showing that a single definition for the term severance has not been agreed upon as multiple interpretations exist. To investigate M50 severance, residential address points from Geo Directory were mapped in GIS with Liffey Valley Shopping Centre as the destination identifying desire lines using the ‘Near’ tool and the points of severance.Case study results are twofold. Firstly, there is North-South severance on either side of the River Liffey valley and the N4. This is due to a lack of AT accessible road connections over the river. Secondly, there is East-West severance between the Palmerstown community to the east of the M50 and the Liffey Valley shopping centre on the west side, due to the M50 not having a crossing point.This research is focused on the M50 orbital motorway in Dublin, and associated areas like the Liffey Valley, to inform future research on how to identify severance issues and highlight its importance in project planning. Further research on this topic could develop robust standards to define severance in an Irish context, as a standard definition does not currently exist, and included across projects as part of improved project checks to ensure severance is avoided and mitigated.

This paper is designed to present to the transport research community the wide existing body of work and potential future applications of the method of System Dynamics (SD) within transport research. We introduce the reader to the basic concepts of the SD method, and discuss previous reviews of academic SD papers, before setting out a systematic review on SD in transport. We find that over 400 papers have been published over the past 40 years, with over 80% in the past decade. The most popular topic is strategic and sustainable policy, but alternative fuel vehicle uptake and maritime applications have been increasingly popular over recent years. SD is also being adopted outside academia in both consultancy and governmental organisations, so we believe that this paper is a timely contribution to embedding SD as a leading emerging method within transport research, which will encourage all members of the community to consider adopting it within their toolkit.

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) levels have been defined based on the degree of integration. However, many cases have not yet been integrated with the highest level, ‘Integration of Societal Goal’. Therefore, this study focuses on the highest level, level 4, to guide the further development of MaaS. Based on a case studies, the relationship between the ‘Societal Goal’ and MaaS is a fundamental goal and objective to implement MaaS. In addition, the relationship between the integrations from levels 1 to 3 is not in linear steps. Nevertheless, they are choices of means to render MaaS successful under the societal goals. Based on this observation, we proposed a new diagram.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland’s (TII) primary functions are to operate, maintain and extend the life of national roads, tunnels, and light rail infrastructure in Ireland. Among the priorities for investment include the use of asset management principles to manage assets safely, sustainably, efficiently, and effectively over their useful life. This paper describes TII’s journey in asset management including the development of TII’s recently published Asset Management Policy, Strategy and Framework, as well as the ongoing development of Strategic and Group-level Asset Management Plans for the various asset classes within TII to align with its overall strategic objectives and organisational goals. A best-fit approach has been developed which addresses TII’s changing operational conditions and commitments in terms of sustainability, circular economy, and climate adaptation. A hierarchical structure based on the “line of sight” principal is presented in which TII proposes to achieve its overall asset management objectives in line with an ISO 55000 integrated asset management system approach.

This study explores the public acceptance of reduced speed limits on Greek motorways, investigating a decrease from 130 km/h to 120 km/h and 110 km/h. The inquiry is grounded on the urgent need to enhance road safety and achieve sustainable mobility, as high speeds significantly contribute to road accidents, air pollution, and fuel consumption, imposing economic burdens up to €8 billion annually on Greek society. Using a meticulously designed questionnaire, respondents were presented with scenarios involving different speed limits, evaluating their choices based on travel time, fuel consumption, and road accident risks. The resulting data was analyzed using binary and multinomial logistic regression models. Key findings indicate that involvement in property damage crashes, past traffic code violations, gender, and income are significant predictors in accepting speed limit reductions. Notably, individuals acknowledging the crucial role of speed in road accidents were more amenable to speed limit reductions. The study offers invaluable insights for policymakers and stakeholders, providing a nuanced understanding of public perception and acceptance of reduced speed limits, crucial for devising effective and widely accepted road safety interventions in Greece.

Lane splitting (LS) is the practice of riding a powered two or three-wheelers (PTW) between lanes when the traffic is slow or vehicles are stopped. Although lane splitting was forbidden in France before 2016, it was a common riding practice among PTW drivers. Two experiments (2016–2018 and 2021–2023) were conducted allowing lane splitting on highways and urban expressways in several counties. In those area, lane splitting was allowed and regulating by several specific conditions. The objective of this paper is to present the results of the second experiment by questioning the social acceptability of lane splitting within PTW drivers according to their driving experience. Drivers’ experience will correspond in this study to previous LS practice and compliance with the LS rules before the beginning of the experiment. The sample is representative of the French population and composed of 817 PTW drivers. Analysis of PTW drivers profiles based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology highlight differences in terms of social acceptability depending on whether or not LS is practiced, as well as the degree of compliance declared.

TRIMIS is a transport policy support tool that provides open-access information on transport research and innovation. It supports the vision of a clean, connected, and competitive European transport system and exemplifies the European Commission’s commitment to open science. TRIMIS collects, curates, analyses, and disseminates European and non-European data on transport research and innovation. It also analyses technology trends and research and innovation capacities in the transport sector. TRIMIS maintains an open database of almost 9,000 transport research and innovation projects and programmes, including Horizon Europe, Horizon 2020, FP7, Interreg, Connecting Europe Facility, and projects funded by Member States. This paper aims to provide an overall understanding of TRIMIS, its objectives, ecosystem, and details on how it contributes to supporting EU transport policy.

According to the International Labour Organization’s latest figures,  women make up just 16.8% of those working in transport globally. This makes it one of the worst-performing industries worldwide- both across the public and private sectors, from boardroom to engine room. Improving gender diversity in the transport sector workforce is essential to achieve its innovation, sustainability and financial goals, while tackling the current, and profound, skills shortage. This paper provides an insight into the challenges and opportunities women face when they choose to work in transport. It is grounded in a review of published literature and primary data collection among a sample of men and women working in the sector. The findings offer an overview of women’s global employment in transport, including all modes and sectors of transport. The study is presented as a toolkit highlighting the challenges women face when entering, working, and progressing in the transport sector, identifying five main areas or entry points where actions and measures could provide the most impact in accelerating gender balance and some 25 case studies. This paper presents the main findings from the study.

Compared to the development of low carbon emission technologies such as EV, the adaptation of existing transport infrastructure to increase its ability to absorb and recover from the effects of climate change is relatively unexplored. Bridges form a critical link in our transport systems, and many have a design life exceeding 100 years. Therefore, they are one of the key climate-change relevant elements that needs to be considered when future proofing our transport networks. With substantial maintenance backlogs worldwide and limited budgets, the bridge management process is becoming increasingly critical to support connectivity across our regions. Existing bridge management systems have significant limitations. They often operate in isolation from other asset management tools and lack interoperability with geographical, societal, and climate-related data sets. These systems have limited capability to incorporate data from sensors, leaving engineering judgment as the primary decision-making factor within constrained time and financial resources. To address these challenges, it is essential to develop comprehensive bridge management systems that integrate with various data sources. This paper provides an overview of the current bridge management process in Northern Ireland and presents a number of interventions to improve the robustness of the decision-making process including enhanced interoperability with other data sources and improved inspector training using virtual reality.

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are being developed as an alternative to conventional transportation, which comes with great timing as there is a global shortage of skilled commercial drivers. However, the complexity of the driving task is extremely difficult for an AI system to solve, meaning that SAE level 5 vehicles are quite far away. During this interim period where we will have public roads with mixed traffic, remote operation could be a solution for facilitating the introduction of AVs.As a remote operation station will be more similar to a simulator environment compared to a conventional cab, there might be a broader base for future recruitment of operators compared to drivers. This paper consists of subjective ratings from two simulator studies, comparing the performance of experienced drivers and experienced video gamers. Here we present the perceived performance and comfort of the simulator experiments, while comparing the groups in different conditions to see if one has an advantage over the other as potential employees.

The rail sector is experiencing an aging workforce that is approaching a well-deserved retirement, while rail enterprises, in many European Member States, are reporting difficulties to find railway engineers. Educational and training pathways are essential to prepare students, transitioning employees and current rail professionals for fulfilling and impactful careers in the sector for the coming decades. The EU project STAFFER, “Skill Training Alliance For the Future European Rail system” is the Erasmus+ Sector Skills Alliance for rail consisting of 31 full partners and 17 associated partners from 12 EU countries.STAFFER is aimed at developing a holistic Blueprint strategy to recognize present and new skill needs suitably and timely.In synergy with the European Year of Skills, a common methodology for the identification of current and future skills and competence needs for the whole complex rail system is developed.

Ports are key components of the supply chain management and overall economy, by granting access to resources via transportation and services, while pursuing safety and security. Europe accommodates more than 1,200 ports, associated with adverse environmental impact, due to greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants. Although the EU prioritises the greening of ports, its Blue Economy workforce, which represents about 5.4 million jobs, lacks knowledge, skills and competences required to promote green pathways and to employ efficiently recent technologies towards the European Green Deal. Against this background, the BLUE PORTS project enhances the capacity of the European ports’ human capital in small and medium ports by introducing a tailored training and certification scheme that covers green technology solutions, integration of green products/services and business models, that help minimize the environmental footprint of ports’ activities and drive their green transition. This new operational certification scheme, in accordance with ISO/IEC 17024, will be tested and validated in selected Mediterranean and Black Sea ports. The mutual recognition across Europe of the BLUE PORTS scheme, based on the European Accreditation Mutual Agreement will offer professional advantage, enhanced career and mobility opportunities, ultimately creating and sustaining new, greener jobs in the port industry.

Improving road safety prediction tools requires assessing established traffic simulation tools and safety assessment methods. Enhancing these tools with innovative data sources and methods can significantly reduce urban crashes and their impact. To achieve this, it is imperative to identify the requirements and gaps of relevant stakeholders in terms of professional road safety analysis tools. The present study aims to utilize association rule mining to determine underlying profiles of local stakeholders who are identified as hands-on practitioners. To accomplish this objective, a dedicated survey was conducted, and the data were analyzed to discover meaningful links among stakeholder characteristics through the characteristics mined using the Apriori algorithm. The results provide a quantification of the frequency and relationships between stakeholder responses, indicating connections between education levels, work regions, experience levels, and stakeholder needs related to road safety prediction tools. The study insights offer a quantitative perspective on the interconnections and dependencies among different stakeholder attributes, shedding light on potential patterns and preferences that can guide decision-making in the context of road safety improvements.

The MUNER Association is finalized to carry out innovative teaching-by-learning methodologies in a multidisciplinary approach. Based on this framework, it offers three inter-universities Master's Degree programs on the Automotive theme, with the aim of attracting international talent and training them on extremely specialized topics. These programs were pioneers in the adoption of teaching methods characterized by a strong contamination of the academic world with the industry realities, by a strong interdisciplinary approach, especially on the themes that characterized the technological innovation in the automotive sector. The present contribution discusses how innovative educational programs can be designed and implemented in collaboration between universities and industry.