scholarly journals “Mobility as a Service” Platforms: A Critical Path towards Increasing the Sustainability of Transportation Systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 6368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Oliveira Cruz ◽  
Joaquim Miranda Sarmento

Urban mobility is experiencing a profound change. Mobility patterns are becoming more complex, and typical home–work–home travel is no longer the rule, as journeys tend to connect multiple points in a rather inconstant pattern. This has changed the approach to transport planning. Existing transportation planning and operation approaches have been focussed on the ability to identify and forecast typical home–work/school–home travel and subsequently plan the transport system accordingly. The traditional approach has been: Forecast - > plan - > deliver. New mobility patterns and mobility solutions are characterised by greater flexibility, taking advantage of the “sharing concept” and simultaneously providing solutions that have lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These dynamics and an evolving environment raise several new challenges at different levels, fostering the development of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). This system transforms the physical transportation system into a commodity and takes advantage of the internet of things (IoT). However, the onset of MaaS solutions is anything but linear. Several business models have emerged, with different partners originating from different industries (e.g., technological, transport operators, infrastructure managers, etc.) developing their own solutions, often in competition with others. It is not unusual to find different MaaS solutions in the same city, which integrate different solutions. This paper intends to provide an analysis on the main challenges affecting mobility in general, and MaaS in particular, as well as the main business models used for delivering MaaS solutions. The paper uses a case study in Lisbon to illustrate some of the challenges.

Author(s):  
Carlos Oliveira Cruz ◽  
Joaquim Miranda Sarmento

Urban mobility is experiencing a profound change. On the one hand, mobility patterns are becoming more complex, and typical home-work-home travel is no longer the rule, as journeys now tend to connect multiple points in a rather inconstant pattern. This has changed the approach to transport planning, in that the existing transportation planning and operation approaches have been focussed on the ability to identify typical home-work/school-home travel and subsequently plan the transport system accordingly. The traditional approach has been: forecast -> plan -> deliver, as new mobility solutions are emerging. These are characterised by greater flexibility, in that they take advantage of the “sharing concept” and simultaneously provide solutions that have lower GHG emissions. Urban mobility follows a fuzzier pattern, with even the urban transportation system behaving like an active organism, where solutions are often quickly replaced. This dynamic and evolving environment raises several new challenges at different levels. The best digital solution system is the Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) one. This system transforms the physical transportation system into a commodity and takes advantage of the internet of things (IoT). However, the onset of MaaS solutions is anything but linear. Several business models have emerged, with different partners originating from different industries (e.g., technological, transport operators, infrastructure managers, etc.) developing their own solutions, often in competition with others. It is not unusual to find different MaaS solutions in the same city, which integrate different solutions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 803 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Corazza ◽  
Nicola Favaretto

Walking and transit are the backbone of sustainable mobility. Bus stops not only represent the connection between the two, but are also central in dictating the attractiveness of the latter. Accessibility of bus stops becomes, then, pivotal in increasing both attractiveness and sustainability of public transport. The paper describes a multi-step methodology to evaluate bus stops’ accessibility starting from a cluster of seven indicators describing objective and subjective features influencing passengers’ choice toward a given bus stop. The indicators are weighed by a questionnaire submitted to experts. Finally, a multicriteria analysis is developed to obtain a final score describing univocally the accessibility of each stop. Outcomes are mapped and a case study in Rome is reported as an example, with 231 bus and tram stops assessed accordingly. Results shows the relevance of the urban network and environment in evaluating the accessibility and in promoting more sustainable mobility patterns. Research innovation relies on the possibility to merge data from different fields into a specific GIS map and easily highlight for each bus stop the relationships between built environment, passengers’ comfort, and accessibility, with the concluding goal to provide advanced knowledge for further applications.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Palmieri ◽  
Alessandro Suardi ◽  
Vincenzo Alfano ◽  
Luigi Pari

This study aims to analyze the economic and environmental sustainability of a case study of an energy power plant that produces electricity from pruning residues of olive groves from nine municipalities in southern Italy. To assess the economic sustainability of the agro-energetic chain, the profitability and efficiency ratios are calculated. Moreover, the GHG emissions of the agro-energetic pruning supply chain due to both the pruning collection at the field level, and their combustion for energy production at the power plant, are calculated. To put together the environmental and economic evaluations, the ecoefficiency ratio was calculated to measure the value added per 1Mg of GHG emitted into the atmosphere. The findings show the whole agro-energetic chain, namely the power plant and the collection company have both a good return on owner’s equity (ROE) ratio (15.89% and 31.48%, respectively) and ROI ratio (4.34% and 6.14% respectively). Moreover, the power plant’s ecoefficiency ratio (2.64€ per 1Mg of GHG) is slightly lower than harvest firm one (2.91€ per 1Mg of GHG). The findings could be useful to develop new business models based on the circular economy concept. In fact, the business model proposed could push entrepreneurs towards new income opportunities, at the same time, helping local farms and reducing the environmental impacts.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nádia P. Kozievitch ◽  
Tatiana M. C. Gadda ◽  
Keiko V. O. Fonseca ◽  
Marcelo O. Rosa ◽  
Luiz C. Gomes Jr. ◽  
...  

Smart transportation systems have been providing more data over time (such as bus routes, users, smartphones, etc.). Such data provides a number of opportunities to identify various facets of user behavior and traffic trends. In this paper we address some of the urban mobility challenges (already discussed by the Brazilian Computer Society), from a number of different perspectives, including (i) pattern discovery, (ii) statistical analysis, (iii) data integration, and (iv) open and connected data. In particular, we present an exploratory data analysis with GIS for public transportation toward a case study in Curitiba, Brazil.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 56-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Manca ◽  
Ludovico Boratto ◽  
Victor Morell Roman ◽  
Oriol Martori i Gallissà ◽  
Andreas Kaltenbrunner

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 541-558
Author(s):  
Henna Sundqvist-Andberg ◽  
Anu Tuominen ◽  
Heidi Auvinen ◽  
Petri Tapio

There has been a rapid uptake of electric scooter (e-scooter) sharing services in cities in recent years. However, the academic literature is still scarce on how e-scooter operators contribute to sustainable urban mobility through their business models. In this qualitative case study, we analyse the sustainability of these rapidly evolving sharing services through a frame of sustainable business model archetypes, and study value transfer, its obstacles, and its controversies within the Finnish urban transport system. While e-scooter services mainly target delivering functionality over ownership, according to the operators, combinations of approaches are applied that contribute positively to sustainability. These include, for example, increasing the lifecycle of scooters, recycling of scooters and their parts, using renewable energy, commi ing to climate compensation, and promoting road safety and the responsible use of scooters. The findings indicate that in Finland, e-scooter services are seen to have potential in serving the first and last miles of public transport journeys. Due to a lack of binding regulation, co- and self-regulation is emphasized and is supported by active information and data sharing with public authorities. While sustainability is embedded in many ways into the business models of e-scooter operators, there are still potential sources of unsustainability aff ecting the urban transport system. For example, current business models favour convenience over physical activity, which can reduce the amount of active travel and use of city bikes.


Author(s):  
Vittal S. Anantatmula ◽  
James B. Webb

Critical Path (CP) method has been under scrutiny in recent years as the next evolution of project schedule development, the Critical Chain (CC) project management is gaining attention. Advocates of the Critical Chain method cite the Critical Path method's failure to address uncertainty properly. The purpose of this paper is to apply some of the features of the Critical Chain concepts to traditional approach of Critical Path for projects. More importantly, this research effort aims to demonstrate the applicability of CCPM to managing a portfolio of projects. The analysis, based on a critical review of past studies, experiments in both Critical Path and Critical Chain techniques, and a case study, presents recommendations to gain benefits of Critical Chain in a traditional Critical Path scheduling environment and to manage portfolio of projects or programs using some of the concepts of the Critical Chain Method.


Data ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Gariazzo ◽  
Armando Pelliccioni ◽  
Maria Paola Bogliolo

Urban mobility is known to have a relevant impact on work related car accidents especially during commuting. It is characterized by highly dynamic spatial–temporal variability. There are open questions about the size of this phenomenon; its spatial, temporal, and demographic characteristics; and driving mechanisms. A case study is here presented for the city of Rome, Italy. High-resolution population presence and demographic data, derived from mobile phone traffic, were used. Hourly profiles of a defined mobility factor (NPM) were calculated for a gridded domain during working days and cluster analyzed to obtain mean diurnal NPM mobility patterns. Age distributions of the population were calculated from demographic data to get insight in the type of population involved in mobility, and spatially linked with the mobility patterns. Census data about production units and their employees were related with the classified NPM mobility patterns. Seven different NPM mobility patterns were identified and mapped over the study area. The mobility slightly deviates from the census-based demography (0.15 on average, in a range of 0 to 1). The number of employees per 100 inhabitants was found to be the main driving mechanism of mobility. Finally, contributions of people employed in different economic macrocategories were assigned to each mobility time-pattern. Results provide a deeper knowledge of urban dynamics and their driving mechanisms in Rome.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (10) ◽  
pp. 1142-1152
Author(s):  
Afif Faiq Muhamad ◽  
Kazuei Ishii ◽  
Masahiro Sato ◽  
Satoru Ochiai

Slow progress in municipal waste reduction and landfill space scarcity lead to numerous environmental problems in Indonesia and developing countries. Surabaya, the role model of an environmental management city in Indonesia and other countries, is no exception. Despite the situation, Surabaya’s initiative of deploying a distributed materials recovery facility (MRF) and its performance in recovering recyclables show a potential to be developed for addressing the landfill waste reduction issues. This study proposes a new strategy with small-sized distributed MRFs to achieve 30% landfilled waste reduction and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, focusing on Surabaya as the case study. Scenario 1 merged three pairs of transfer stations which shows some indistinguishable optimizations and failed to meet the target. Both Scenario 2 and Scenario 3 added six years of landfill lifetime for reaching the target. However, the distributed MRF system and different transportation systems in Scenario 3 accomplished the goal with only 24 new MRFs, whereas Scenario 2 needs to upgrade 48 transfer stations into MRFs. Scenario 3 decreased the GHG emissions generation by 29%, possibly contributing to Indonesia’s GHG emissions target of 0.2%.


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