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An increasing literature focuses on how Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) may contribute to improve public transport. However, qualitative studies about whether such services contribute to social inclusion are lacking. The aim is therefore to understand how citizens experience DRT services.

For this purpose, we compare the different local public transport solutions in three rural municipalities in Norway. One case represents a conventional public transport service with a school bus that is open for all. The two other cases represent DRT solutions with different characteristics in terms of how extensive the services are. The data are qualitative, gathered via interviews and focus groups.

We find that who the users are and their patterns of use differ between the cases. The more extensive the service is, the more popular it is – even to the extent that leisure clubs adapt their start and end times to the public transport routes. Moreover, the evidence suggests that door-to-door transport is crucial for the ability of many people of older age to travel.

The need for door-to-door services means that flexibility has to be incorporated into DRT schemes with fixed bus stops, if the aim is to cover all citizens.

The insights about how not only the users themselves experience different transport services, but also their relations, provide added value. Finally, we argue that, given among others the dispersion of transport responsibilities on different political levels and sectors, the DRT services have not been successful in solving efficiency issues.

This chapter provides an overview of waste management across Europe. It offers an outlook of evolution of waste generation and how European Union (EU) countries treat waste, by providing historical and current data as well as by describing a few best practices of waste management companies and municipalities throughout Europe. The circular economy framework applied to urban waste management and the zero waste strategy are described.

This study aims to identify the determinants of transport mode choice and the constraints on shifting freight in New Zealand (NZ) from road to rail and/or coastal shipping, and to quantify the trade-off between factors affecting shippers’ perceptions, to assist in increasing the share of freight moved by non-road transport modes.

A revealed preference survey of 183 freight shippers, including small and medium enterprises and freight agents in NZ, is used to investigate whether freight shippers’ characteristics affect their ranked preference for attributes related to mode choice and modal shift. Additionally, a rank-ordered logistic (ROL) model is estimated using the ranking data.

The results reveal several distinct types of transport mode choice behaviour within the sample and show how the preferences for timeliness, cost, accessibility, damage and loss, customer service, and suitability vary between industry groups and business types. Also, the ROL method allows us to identify heterogeneity in preferences for mode choice and mode shift factors for freight within NZ.

The results imply that NZ shippers ranked transport time as the most significant constraint upon distributing goods by rail, while accessibility and load size were the most significant constraints upon using coastal shipping. The study also identifies how NZ shippers’ modal shift constraints vary according to the firm’s individual or logistical characteristics.

This study informs freight transport policy makers about the needs of NZ shippers by providing quantitative measures of the intensity of preference for the various mode choice factors.

Those involved in freight transport have a better basis for formulating transport policy.

To examine the EU ‘Short Sea Shipping’ (SSS), its ‘motorways of the sea (MoS)’ and green ports, within short sea maritime logistics.

To present past research and report recent developments speculating on future trends.

The dominance of SSS over road is questioned; as road transport has expanded, hubs are expected to become larger and fewer with feeders. Road transport is not certain to follow SSS and its four motorways. This result was responsible for the relocation of industry from West to East and North–East inter-port competition.

The SSS ship size and port are undefined; specific data on these concepts are unavailable.

‘Door-to-door’ services are highly sought after in this sector, but difficult to establish.

The green element introduced here, mainly for ports, will dominate future discussions because of the high importance given to climate change.

This chapter outlines for the first time the development of the policy on EU Eco-ports, the relocation of industry, the West–East port competition, the MoS and the long-term deterioration of SSS logistics which is likely to persist in the future.

Bus use in later life tends to increase, especially in countries where there is cheaper or free travel on buses for older people. That said, there are still many barriers to bus use. The most major barrier for older people is feeling unsafe on the bus, especially at night. Accessibility issues are also important, with concerns for step-free access and getting a seat. A bus driver driving off before the older person has sat down is another major concern for older people. The presence of a friendly helpful, understanding bus driver is seen as a huge benefit for older people. Training to support bus drivers in providing an age friendly service are therefore highly recommended. In many countries, public transport is supplemented by community transport offering a door-to-door on demand facility to help older people stay mobile where there is a lack of accessible public buses. There are real advantages for older people using such buses, especially creating a safe environment taking older people to important places, such as hospitals or shops. Such services can be supplemented by journeys for days out and these are very popular with users. Older people aren’t large users of railway services. Barriers include concerns over getting a seat, worry about what happens if connections are missed and services are disrupted. Older people are more likely to want staff to help them complete their journey and emphasise the need for seats, cleanliness and facilities over journey length and cost.

We introduce and analyze an innovative transportation system called flexible mobility on demand (FMOD). FMOD provides a menu of optimized travel options in real-time. Practical considerations related to the business model for FMOD are taken into account as a pre-study for the pilot that will be conducted in Japan.

A modeling framework of FMOD is developed that integrates scheduling, routing, assortment optimization, and choice modeling methodologies. An assortment optimization model is developed with an objective function to maximize operator profit and consumer surplus.

The FMOD system is analyzed through simulation experiments in a Japanese case study. Simulations are presented for Hino city in Tokyo with different numbers of vehicles in the fleet. This analysis provides insights about the fleet size necessary to maintain reasonable levels of operator profit and consumer surplus.

We consider a business model for FMOD that offers flexibility to the operator in terms of who provides resources. The resources are managed with dedicated and non-dedicated services. The experiment indicates that operators can determine the size of the dedicated fleet based on an objective function that maximizes operator profit and passenger satisfaction.

This chapter provides a reflective critique of Mobility as a Service (MaaS), an emerging development seeking a role within the Smart Mobility paradigm. We assess a range of its future implications for urban policymakers in terms of governance and sustainability (i.e., social and environmental impacts). We begin by describing the origins of the MaaS concept, along with the features of precursor technologies and current early examples. We then reflect on the marketing of MaaS and use it to consider how we might anticipate some potentially less desirable aspects of the promoted business models. Finally, we discuss the implications for governance.

This chapter identifies the reasons why widespread and large-scale development of DRT has not emerged in the past 10 years even though previous research and analysis had suggested that conditions existed to facilitate such development.

Drawing on personal experience of operating DRT networks, supplemented by an analysis of the operating environment, operational barriers to implementation are identified.

Research results into the identified inhibiting factors are presented and supplemented by personal experience and interviews with key individuals. A successful integrated approach that has allowed a large DRT network to develop is described.

Recent changes in financial and structural conditions affecting the suitability of DRT in the United Kingdom as a solution to unmet travel needs and as a cost-effective alternative to conventional passenger transport are described. It is suggested that these factors have the potential to overcome barriers to further development. However, remaining obstacles in the field of Telematics are identified which may need further attention.

Introduction of large-scale DRT networks will not only be more cost effective but also offset financially driven service reductions and allow unmet travel needs to be met.

The identification of financial, technical, legal and social obstacles to the widespread implementation of DRT allows barriers to be addressed and removed and the full benefits of DRT to be realised. At a time of financial constraint, this allows more economic and integrated passenger transport solutions to be introduced to benefit both end users and service commissioners.