scholarly journals Use of the Sustainable Mobility Efficiency Index (SMEI) for Enhancing the Sustainable Urban Mobility in Greek Cities

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1709
Author(s):  
Maria Morfoulaki ◽  
Jason Papathanasiou

Since 2013, the European cities have been encouraged to develop local Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) according to the specific procedure that was launched by the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) and updated in 2019. One of the most critical steps in this 12-step procedure is the assessment—with specific criteria—of all the alternative measures and infrastructure, which will be optimally combined, in order to better satisfy the problems and the achieve the vision of each area. The aim of the current work is to present the development and implementation of a methodological framework based on the use of multicriteria analysis. The framework targets the capturing of opinions of the relevant local experts in order to evaluate alternative sustainable mobility measures, and also prioritize them using the Sustainable Mobility Efficiency Index (SMEI).

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 602
Author(s):  
Maria Morfoulaki ◽  
Jason Papathanasiou

One of the most crucial steps during the implementation of a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) as well the relevant transportation projects is the final measures and policies’ selection that will be realized in order for the plan to achieve the study area targets. There are many methodologies that have been used for a specific purpose, with cost-effective and cost–benefit analysis being the most popular. According to the new specifications of SUMPs, the co-creation and co-planning of the future measures taking into account the opinions of all the relevant stakeholders and groups of citizens is the main parameter that will ensure the success of the planning. For this reason, MCA is the methodology proposed to be used for collecting and analyzing the different opinions. The aim of the current work is to prove, through a targeted Greek survey, the effectiveness of the MCA, not only to merge the different opinions and priorities of the stakeholders but also to highlight and rank realistically the most important sustainable mobility measures that should be implemented in an urban area. The work proposes and tests a specific methodological framework based on the use of the preference ranking organization method for enrichment of evaluations (PROMETHEE) method.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-69
Author(s):  
Klára Macsinka

Abstract The article introduces a method to evaluate and develop quality of sustainable mobility planning in European cities. This tool has been worked out by a European Consortium of experts representing 14 countries in Europe. The author - as the Hungarian member and auditor of the Consortium - participated in the project working as an auditor in four Hungarian cities, leading them through the process of the QUEST-method and helping the cities to develop a systematic way of planning sustainable mobility. In the article the process will be shown, advantages, lessons learned, drawbacks and possible future development of the method will be explained.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4403
Author(s):  
Ilenia Spadaro ◽  
Francesca Pirlone

The topic of sustainable mobility is now a priority at the urban level. Today’s cities are often very busy, polluted, and dangerous. Therefore, to encourage sustainable mobility is important; it brings territorial development, environment, health, society, and economy benefits. The corona virus disease-19 (COVID) emergency, which occurred at the beginning of 2020, highlighted the already critical situation in many cities and how our mobility habits were not, even before, so sustainable. Within sustainable mobility, the concept of safety and security is important to consider. In the literature, safe mobility is often associated with the theme of accidents. The pandemic has highlighted the need to consider safety also from a health point of view. Municipalities, as known, also according to European guidelines, have a specific tool at their disposal to promote sustainable mobility: the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP). This paper intends to propose a methodological approach aimed at integrating the health security aspect in the SUMP. In this research, in order to promote safe mobility, different aspects were considered: accidents, risk perception, and health emergencies. For each aspect, specific indicators and good practices were proposed for the achievement and monitoring of the expected results. The paper refers to the European context with particular attention to Italy; La Spezia was chosen as a case study.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5591
Author(s):  
Mark Muller ◽  
Seri Park ◽  
Ross Lee ◽  
Brett Fusco ◽  
Gonçalo Homem de Almeida Correia

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is an emerging concept that is being advanced as an effective approach to improve the sustainability of mobility, especially in densely populated urban areas. MaaS can be defined as the integration of various transport modes into a single service, accessible on demand, via a seamless digital planning and payment application. Recent studies have shown the potential reduction in the size of automobile fleets, with corresponding predicted improvements in congestion and environmental impact, that might be realized by the advent of automated vehicles as part of future MaaS systems. However, the limiting assumptions made by these studies point to the difficult challenge of predicting how the complex interactions of user demographics and mode choice, vehicle automation, and governance models will impact sustainable mobility. The work documented in this paper focused on identifying available methodologies for assessing the sustainability impact of potential MaaS implementations from a whole system (STEEP—social, technical, economic, environmental, and political) perspective. In this research, a review was conducted of current simulation tools and models, relative to their ability to support transportation planners, to assess the MaaS concept, holistically, at a city level. The results presented include: a summary of the literature review, a weighted ranking of relevant transportation simulation tools per the assessment criteria, and identification of key gaps in the current state of the art. The gaps include capturing the interaction of demographic changes, mode choice, induced demand, and land use in a single framework that can rapidly explore the impact of alternative MaaS scenarios, on sustainable mobility, for a given city region. These gaps will guide future assessment methodologies for urban mobility systems, and ultimately assist informed decision-making.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 117-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Godeiro de Oliveira Maranhão ◽  
Romulo Dante Orrico Filho ◽  
Enilson Medeiros dos Santos

This paper analyzes the main challenges of the design and implementation of sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMP) after the law 12,587 in 2012, called the National Urban Mobility Policy (PNMU, in Portuguese). With the new law, municipalities within a population of more than 20,000 inhabitants, as well as those required by law to draw up master plans, are now compelled to elaborate mobility plans. However, only 171 of almost 3,400 municipalities required to prepare the plans were ready by 2015, the first deadline, later extended to 2018. This paper examines a set of municipalities in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area and tries to understand what are the main challenges to achieving the goal of sustainable mobility and the main differences between the European and the Brazilian governmental perspectives in the subject. A survey on the main barriers was applied in five local entities, and in the state and national levels entities. Four methods of hierarchization were applied. Among the factors that stand out most are the lack of resources to elaborate the plan, lack of integration between levels of government and problems with training and lack of personal in the responsible agencies of the municipalities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8436
Author(s):  
Stefan Werland

This paper explores how the European Commission promotes the concept of Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP) among European cities. Despite the strong uptake of the SUMP concept, mobility-related problems persist in European municipalities. Linking theoretical approaches to understand the diffusion of policies with empirical findings from working with cities in the SUMP context, this article explores channels of policy diffusion and investigates shortcomings related to the respective approaches. Studies on the diffusion, the transfer and the convergence of policies identify formal hierarchy, coercion, competition, learning and networking, and the diffusion of international norms as channels for policy transfer. The findings which are presented in this paper are twofold: First, the paper finds evidence that the Commission takes different roles and uses all mechanisms in parallel, albeit with different intensity. It concludes that the approaches to explain policy diffusion are not competing or mutually exclusive but are applied by the same actor to address different aspects of a policy field, or to reach out to different actors. Second, the article provides first evidence of factors that limit the mechanisms’ abilities to directly influence urban mobility systems and mobility behaviour.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 871-886
Author(s):  
Ana Paula Scheffer ◽  
Viviane Pagnussat Cechetti ◽  
Lisandra Paola Lauermann ◽  
Eliara Riasyk Porto ◽  
Francisco Dalla Rosa

Purpose The United Nations (2030 Agenda) recognize the need to work with sustainable urban mobility problems such as traffic jams, pollution, inadequate infrastructure are becoming recurring issues in urban centers, directly affecting the quality of life. Such an unsustainable system is frequently observed at universities, as these houses a large concentration of people and vehicles, without proper planning. To promote sustainable strategies at universities, this research aims to focus on the sustainable mobility plan (SMP) applied at the University of Passo Fundo (UPF). Design/methodology/approach Bibliographic research about the current mobility of the campus has been carried out. A questionnaire was distributed to understand opinions about the subject of key people. Findings The priority treatment given to vehicles, mostly, is an alert factor, which must be solved immediately, considering the need of planning and restructuring it. The suggestions of possible solutions were also relevant, and are being considered for the plan’s implementation. Originality/value This study stands out for using the 2030 Agenda, specifically Goal 11 (Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable), using the university campus as a study object. The mobility plan elaboration was constituted by several actions to fill all parts of the mentioned goal. This study stands out because its methodology can be used in other universities besides UPF and also, to a larger scale, in cities, with similar technical features.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glykeria Myrovali ◽  
Maria Morfoulaki ◽  
Bartholomew-Michael Vassilantonakis ◽  
Antonios Mpoutovinas ◽  
Kornilia Maria Kotoula

Putting citizens in the position of city planners while giving them a sense of purpose and plans' ownership is a difficult task since the win-win effect of participating in mobility planning is, in the majority of cases, not properly communicated. Aiming to display to travelers the value of their contribution with ultimate scope to increase the participatory approach in Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) concept, the current paper presents the e-platform of MOTIVATE project (MED programme, 2014-2020) developed to cover low citizens' engagement levels. MOTIVATE e-platform is estimated to become a useful tool on the hands of city planners and transport engineers via which, the daunting task of data collection and idea/views/opinions capturing will be facilitated. Furthermore, the exploitation of MOTIVATE e-platform is estimated to support travel behavior change towards environmental friendly ways of transport and increase the acceptability, and thus the efficiency, of sustainable mobility plans.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 310-312
Author(s):  
Florinda Boschetti

Abstract A sedentary lifestyle is a primary risk factor of non–communicable diseases in Western Countries causing major health problems for individuals and great economic costs for the society as a whole. Getting more active can be easily achieved by introducing active travel into everyday life. Unattractive built environments, poor connections and car-dominated spaces are too often discouraging people from being more active. However, we are witnessing the rise of a new urban mobility culture in cities.


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.


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