Search results

This chapter provides an overview of the policies that taxi and ridesourcing regulators in the USA and around the world have adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the recovery from it, including regulatory actions and measures to protect driver and passenger safety and health, as well as various efforts intended to provide economic relief and assistance. This chapter raises the issue of guidance versus regulatory mandates by transportation officials, and what issues need to be further researched and evaluated for permanent implementation and/or to prepare for any resurgence of this or other pandemics.

Using materials drawn from San Francisco and Stockholm, this chapter assesses the extent to which recent efforts to upgrade transport services through smart mobility technologies have advanced short- or long-term urban policy aims in the arena of transport governance for sustainability. We argue that positive governance impacts depend largely on degrees of coordination and oversight. Our findings suggest that these aims are not going to be easily met by a network of competing private firms or individuals using smart technology to achieve their own singular trip priorities. Stated in the lingo of social science, the smart mobility transition will produce a ‘collective action problem’ if it remains in the hands of individual firms without some larger territorial and service coordination by governing authorities. To counter this possibility, we argue that transparent implementation processes involving multiple stakeholders will offer the best opportunity for ensuring that smart technology innovations will become a means for expanding governance capacity.

Unplanned urban mobility causes negative effects on the population and the environment. This study aims to understand how higher education institutions (HEIs) are managing the transportation issues related to their activities and how they are implementing actions towards more sustainable practices in this regard.

A systematic review and bibliometric analysis were performed using the Proknow-C method, and the bibliographic portfolio was evaluated to answer guiding questions about distribution of articles over the years and around the world, the most relevant and frequent topics, the travel behavior of university life and the main methodologies used. The meta-analysis was modeled using a programming language in R to execute Bibliometrix package.

Sharing systems, active transport, public transport, urban planning, car parking management and travel behavior are the most relevant topics related to sustainable mobility in HEIs. Different strategies to reduce car use are adopted, and the geographic location of the university and the availability of housing and shopping services in close proximity directly influence travel patterns. As a result, seven guidelines and strategic actions associated were proposed to promote the engagement of institutions in the development of sustainable transport and guide future studies about new solutions to promote sustainable university commutes.

This paper presents a new perspective by performing a critical literature review based on the experiences reported by several isolated studies on the subject. Initiatives of sustainable transport guidelines can be used by academics, urban planners, higher education administrators and other stakeholders to make universities more environmentally friendly, inclusive and accessible.

Transport and pandemics are interlinked given the ubiquitous nature of modern transport systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided much evidence for both virus contagion but also containment and how transport plays a role in both. As the world and its cities experienced lockdowns, there were travel restrictions, physical social distancing rules, transport systems shut down, changed operations, a re-opening with lower demands in some sectors (e.g., air transport and urban public transport services) and an increased demand in others (e.g., freight and home deliveries). These changes brought about a series of reactions at all levels, from governments and local authorities, operators of all transport modes but also personal and individual behaviour. This volume provides evidence on an array of transport and pandemic experiences through a collection of works from around the world, each chapter discussing a mode, a region and possible future outcomes. This introductory chapter provides the context for this volume with an overview of literature that looks at transport and pandemics, a timeline of events that marked the COVID-19 pandemic developments across different parts of the world, and finally an overview of the chapters in the volume. It concludes with some insights from the editors on the future of transport in a post-COVID world.

As with previous transport innovations, the transition to ‘smart mobility’ will occur in different ways and at different speeds in different places. Innovations such as Uber and trials of autonomous vehicles are already being welcomed in some places but resisted in others or left to the market. While the technologies may have the potential to be deployed globally, how this happens is, in part, down to the institutional settings and approach to governance amongst all of the actors (public and private) involved. Deciding who should act, how, when and at what spatial scale is, we argue, critical in setting the conditions in which new mobility systems can flourish but in a way which promotes the goals of local, state and federal governments and meets the needs of citizens as well as the industries that promote them.

This chapter reports on an international scenarios exercise conducted in 2017 across nine countries. Key dimensions of uncertainty were the degree of governmental involvement in steering policy and the degree of social desirability for smart mobility innovation. Reflecting on the period up to 2035, the scenarios considered the implications for smart mobility transitions by asking which innovations are more likely to flourish and which falter. Strong state involvement is reported as a necessary condition for the most integrated and sustainable visions of smart mobility. Other pathways were suggested to favour some innovations over others but typically offer a smaller market and more atomized and less sustainable set of mobility options.

Modelling has been a mainstay of conventional planning support tools (PSTs) since the 1960s and is instrumental in transport and land use planning decision-making. Numerous studies have been conducted to model the potential impacts of emerging vehicle automation and sharing technologies. A systematic review of recent modelling studies of autonomous and shared vehicles in the research literature examines the extent of their contribution to ‘smart’ mobility knowledge. The findings suggest a limited knowledge base from which to support future planning. PSTs that can offer more pluralistic, discursive, and transparent methods in order to understand and proactively shape a transition to a planned urban future are also needed.

Shared, dockless micromobility is causing concern across the globe. The phenomenon started with shared bikes and e-bikes. More recently, e-scooters (or electric kickbikes), the focus of this chapter, have flooded cities in unprecedented speed and volume – and have caught virtually every city and competent authority off guard. The failure of current regulatory frameworks to address new challenges posed by e-scooters is explored. This chapter first briefly describes major developments of the shared e-scooter market. It then presents rationales for, and to some extent against, e-scooter regulation as well as policy tools available for e-scooter regulation. E-scooters open the door for new and innovative – and potentially efficient – ways to regulate, including geofencing, zoning, mandatory data sharing and mandatory cooperation. Against this backdrop, the chapter discusses regulatory dilemmas, challenges, opportunities and possibilities.

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.