scholarly journals Universal Design in the Metrobuss System of Trondheim, Norway – Challenges and Solutions

Author(s):  
Jacob Deichmann

The presentation describes challenges and possible solutions for achieving truly accessible high-class urban public transportation based on a case from Trondheim, where a new high-class bus system was implemented. The implemented solution did not reflect the wheelchair user’s needs – despite clearly stated ambitions for accessibility. Ramboll conducted a study comprising a screening of the international market for relevant solutions, combined with interviews with representatives of Public transport authorities. The results were presented to the local user’s representatives, and some solutions tested on location. Based on this process, recommendations for short-, medium- and long-term solutions were made. The project highlights the need for involvement of sufficient professional knowledge of universal design in the planning phase as well as in the implementation phase.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10733
Author(s):  
Sylwia Bęczkowska ◽  
Zuzanna Zysk

Safety is one of the most important needs of all people, but especially those with limited mobility, who face barriers of all kinds on a daily basis. The article includes a review of organizational and legal solutions for the safety of people with special needs in public transportation, as well as preliminary research aimed at identifying and classifying barriers in public transportation that limit the independent movement of people with special needs. The obtained results will be used in the development of the methodology for assessing the degree of accessibility of the studied objects and will form the basis of guidelines formulated in order to modify the existing and design the future elements of the transport system according to the principles of universal design. The problem of the lack of accessibility of public transport is the center of interest of many entities. Its solution requires a complex approach in the design process, taking into account both engineering knowledge and knowledge of the needs and constraints of different user groups. The results obtained from the study will allow the categorization of public transport modes in terms of their accessibility.


2020 ◽  
Vol 308 ◽  
pp. 02003
Author(s):  
Mohammed A. Mohammed ◽  
Omer Mohammed ◽  
Mohamed Ibrahim ◽  
Huda G. Osman

The experience of using public transportation in Khartoum is hectic due to over (1.5) Million seats in daily deficit. This research explores the daunting issues of public transport in developing countries like Sudan, taking Khartoum as a case study, and studies the possible alternatives to find an innovative solution that counters them. This paper reviewed the concept presented by MIT scholars in 2017 which was an innovative idea of elevated mini-trains that are intended to run over city streets called (Caterpillar Trains). The paper investigated the use of the C-Trains when integrated with LRT to form the Khartoum Sky Trains Network (STN). It was found that the STN is an optimum model for developing countries, as they were found able to meet the demands of public transport, in both short term and long term. The expected various environmental, social and economic impacts of such large infrastructure project were also studied. Finally, the research suggests that the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contracting module can be utilized to overcome the construction costs, the concession period of which was found through a FORTRAN95 program.


Author(s):  
Matteo Rizzo

The growth of cities and informal economies are two central manifestations of globalization in the developing world. Taken for a Ride addresses both, drawing on long-term fieldwork in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and charting its public transport system’s journey from public to private provision. The book investigates this shift alongside the increasing deregulation of the sector and the resulting chaotic modality of public transport. It reviews state attempts to regain control over public transport, the political motivations behind these, and their inability to address its problems. The analysis documents how informal wage relations prevailed in the sector, and how their salience explains many of the inefficiencies of public transport. The changing political attitude of workers towards employers and the state is investigated: from an initial incapacity to respond to exploitation, to political organization and unionization, which won workers concessions on labour rights. A longitudinal study of workers throws light on patterns of occupational mobility in the sector. The book ends with an analysis of the political and economic interests that shaped the introduction of Bus Rapid Transit in Dar es Salaam and local resistance to it. Taken for a Ride is an interdisciplinary political economy of public transport, exposing the limitations of market fundamentalist and postcolonial scholarship on economic informality and the urban experience in developing countries, and its failure to locate the agency of the urban poor within their economic and political structures. It is both a contribution to and a call for the contextualized study of ‘actually existing neoliberalism’.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Eppenberger ◽  
Maximilian Alexander Richter

Abstract Background This paper provides insight into the opportunity offered by shared autonomous vehicles (SAVs) to improve urban populations’ spatial equity in accessibility. It provides a concrete implementation model for SAVs set to improve equity in accessibility and highlights the need of regulation in order for SAVs to help overcome identified spatial mismatches. Methodology Through the formulation of linear regression models, the relationship between land-use and transportation accessibility (by car and public transport) and socio-economic well-being indicators is tested on district-level in four European cities: Paris, Berlin, London and Vienna. Accessibility data is used to analyse access to points of interest within given timespans by both car and public transport. To measure equity in socio-economic well-being, three district-level proxies are introduced: yearly income, unemployment rate and educational attainment. Results In the cities of Paris, London and Vienna, as well as partially in Berlin, positive effects of educational attainment on accessibility are evidenced. Further, positive effects on accessibility by yearly income are found in Paris and London. Additionally, negative effects of an increased unemployment rate on accessibility are observed in Paris and Vienna. Through the comparison between accessibility by car and public transportation in the districts of the four cities, the potential for SAVs is evidenced. Lastly, on the basis of the findings a ‘SAV identification matrix’ is created, visualizing the underserved districts in each of the four cities and the need of equity enhancing policy for the introduction of SAVs is emphasized.


Coatings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 207
Author(s):  
Pavel Koštial ◽  
Zora Koštialová Jančíková ◽  
Robert Frischer

These days there are undeniably unique materials that, however, must also meet demanding safety requirements. In the case of vehicles, these are undoubtedly excellent fire protection characteristics. The aim of the work is to experimentally verify the proposed material compositions for long-term heat loads and the effect of thickness, the number of laminating layers (prepregs) as well as structures with different types of cores (primarily honeycomb made of Nomex paper type T722 of different densities, aluminum honeycomb and PET foam) and composite coating based on a glass-reinforced phenolic matrix. The selected materials are suitable candidates for intelligent sandwich structures, usable especially for interior cladding applications in the industry for the production of means of public transport (e.g., train units, trams, buses, hybrid vehicles).


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 4703
Author(s):  
Renato Andara ◽  
Jesús Ortego-Osa ◽  
Melva Inés Gómez-Caicedo ◽  
Rodrigo Ramírez-Pisco ◽  
Luis Manuel Navas-Gracia ◽  
...  

This comparative study analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on motorized mobility in eight large cities of five Latin American countries. Public institutions and private organizations have made public data available for a better understanding of the contagion process of the pandemic, its impact, and the effectiveness of the implemented health control measures. In this research, data from the IDB Invest Dashboard were used for traffic congestion as well as data from the Moovit© public transport platform. For the daily cases of COVID-19 contagion, those published by Johns Hopkins Hospital University were used. The analysis period corresponds from 9 March to 30 September 2020, approximately seven months. For each city, a descriptive statistical analysis of the loss and subsequent recovery of motorized mobility was carried out, evaluated in terms of traffic congestion and urban transport through the corresponding regression models. The recovery of traffic congestion occurs earlier and faster than that of urban transport since the latter depends on the control measures imposed in each city. Public transportation does not appear to have been a determining factor in the spread of the pandemic in Latin American cities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6949
Author(s):  
Gang Lin ◽  
Shaoli Wang ◽  
Conghua Lin ◽  
Linshan Bu ◽  
Honglei Xu

To mitigate car traffic problems, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) issued a document that provides guidelines for sustainable development and the promotion of public transport. The efficiency of the policies and strategies needs to be evaluated to improve the performance of public transportation networks. To assess the performance of a public transport network, it is first necessary to select evaluation criteria. Based on existing indicators, this research proposes a public transport criteria matrix that includes the basic public transport infrastructure level, public transport service level, economic benefit level, and sustainable development level. A public transport criteria matrix AHP model is established to assess the performance of public transport networks. The established model selects appropriate evaluation criteria based on existing performance standards. It is applied to study the Stonnington, Bayswater, and Cockburn public transport network, representing a series of land use and transport policy backgrounds. The local public transport authorities can apply the established transport criteria matrix AHP model to monitor the performance of a public transport network and provide guidance for its improvement.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 234-244
Author(s):  
Mohd Sahrul Syukri BIN Yahya ◽  
Edie Ezwan Mohd Safian ◽  
Burhaida Burhan

Currently, the trends in urban public transport have been changing over the years in developing countries for mobilization and accessibility development. Urban public transportation systems are the most popular in Selangor State, including big cities such as the Klang Valley Region. Objective measures of spatial pattern and hotspots have been used to understand how urban public transport development relate to open access. This method relies on specific spatial information and available web-based tool that shows the pattern primarily based on given vicinity and statistics connectivity. To date, several studies have finished tested in developed countries. In this study, we use Geographic Information Systems to analyse and consider hotspots identification precisely and efficaciously. Therefore, in this paper, we focus on two types of point sample evaluations – Gi* hot spot and point density analysis evaluation as statistical operations. Public rail transport was evaluated as a validation to describe the percentage of distribution of open access. The final result, GIS mapping capabilities to show that GIS's technology offers to the variation of urban public transport relate to public services, is to create maps and spatial interpretations.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merete Ellingjord-Dale ◽  
Karl Trygve Kalleberg ◽  
Mette Istre ◽  
Anders B. Nygaard ◽  
Sonja H. Brunvoll ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: For many people public transport is the only mode of travel, and it can be challenging to keep the necessary distances in such a restricted space. The exact role of public transportation and risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission is not known. Methods: Participants (n=121 374) were untested adult Norwegian residents recruited through social media who in the spring of 2020 completed a baseline questionnaire on demographics and use of public transport. Incident cases (n=1069) had a positive SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction test registered at the Norwegian Messaging System for Infectious Diseases by January 27, 2021. We investigated the association between use of public transport and SARS-CoV-2 using logistic regression. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) adjusted for age, calendar time, gender, municipality, smoking, income level, fitness and underlying medical conditions were estimated. Frequency of use of public transport was reported for 2 week-periods. Results: Before lockdown, those who tested positive on SARS-CoV-2 were more likely to have used public transport 1-3 times (OR =1.28, CI 1.09-1.51), 4-10 times (OR=1.49, CI 1.26-1.77) and ≥11 times (OR=1.50, CI 1.27-1.78, p for trend<0.0001) than those who had not tested positive. Conclusion: Use of public transport was positively associated with contracting SARS-CoV-2 both before and after lockdown.


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