A Case Study of a 15-Minute City Concept in Singapore’s 2040 Land Transport Master Plan: 20-Minute Towns and a 45-Minute City

The 15-Minute city concept emerged as a response to the hyper-motorized city. First popularized by the Mayor of Paris in 2020, 15-Minute City is an evolving concept that derived from its predecessors such as neighborhood-unit planning and walkable city. This paper explores the implementation of the 15-Minute City concept in city planning by using Singapore as the case study. In 2018, Singapore released its Land Transport Master Plan 2040 and which includes an ambitious concept of 20-Minute Towns and a 45-Minute City (2MT45MC) and has similar ideas to the 15-Minute City concept. Through various journal articles and media coverage, Singapore’s policy and regulation regarding its transport planning were thoroughly reviewed to find Singapore’s strategy and challenges in realizing the objective of its 2MT45MC concept. Normalizing active mobility and enhancing connectivity nationwide are the main strategies to overcome the biggest challenges faced: lack of legal backing in personal mobility devices and the country’s rigid zoning. Even though it is too early to say whether 2MT45MC is achievable or not, projects such as the North-South Corridor show that for a long-term plan, it seems feasible.

Smooth Autonomous Navigation Considering Avoidance Behavior Characteristics of Pedestrians

To ensure the coexistence of autonomous personal mobility vehicles (PMVs) and pedestrians in a pedestrian zone, they should be able to smoothly pass across and avoid each other. Studies suggest that it is possible that PMVs and pedestrians can pass each other in a short period of time without compromising their comfort; this can be achieved through understanding how pedestrians react to the behavior of PMVs and by modifying the autonomous navigation of PMVs accordingly. Therefore, in this study, the avoidance behavior characteristics of pedestrians were investigated. Experiments were conducted to understand the influence of the selected avoiding behavior parameters and to understand the behavior characteristics of pedestrians in relation to the behavior of PMVs. Furthermore, a path planning strategy that enables smooth passing was developed based on these characteristics. The usefulness of this method was evaluated. The avoidance time and the avoiding angular velocity at the start and end of the avoidance behavior were the parameters that contributed to smooth autonomous navigation. The results show that pedestrian tolerance improves and the avoidance width decreases depending on these parameters. Furthermore, smooth autonomous navigation can be achieved using the characteristics of pedestrians’ cognition against PMVs.

Utilization rate of the fleet: a novel performance metric for a novel shared mobility

Car-sharing systems have irrupted in our cities following the shared mobility paradigm. They have evolved the personal mobility market from product-based into service-oriented, which ultimately provides a positive impact on the city’s sustainability. Car sharing systems are a complex interactive service, whose dynamics can dramatically affect its operational viability. In order to better asses this viability, we must rely on data to produce novel metrics that characterize both the user behavior and the service performance. Up to date, research has focused on modeling the demand on the basis of the number of rentals that start within a specific time slot. However, this approach seems unable to provide a representative metric of the performance of a car-sharing system. In this paper, we propose a novel metric, the utilization rate of the fleet, which considers the precise number of vehicles within a fleet that are in service every minute of the day. From this basic metric, we derive a key performance indicator (KPI) to reflect the viability of any car-sharing system in economic and sustainability terms. We have applied this new metric and KPI to a dataset with 449 days of car2go data, collected in 10 European cities.

Scenarios of Automated Mobility in Austria: Implications for Future Transport Policy

Developments in the field of automated mobility will greatly change our mobility and the possibilities to get from one place to another. This paper presents different scenarios for personal mobility in Austria, anticipating the possibilities and developments in the field of automated vehicles (AVs). The scenarios were developed using a systematically formalized scenario technique and expand the social and political discourse on automated mobility, which is currently characterized by a lack of experience and visibility as an established transport service. Using system dynamics modeling techniques, i.e., the Metropolitan Activity Relocation Simulator (MARS), impacts of the scenarios on the Austrian transportation system are estimated. The simulations show that, without suitable transport policy measures, automated mobility will lead to a significant increase in the volume of individual traffic and to modal shift effects with lower traffic volumes for public transport, walking and cycling. In addition, without a link between AVs and post-fossil propulsion systems, increases in pollutant emissions can also be expected. In contrast, the simulation results of an increased use of AVs in public transport show positive effects for the support of a more sustainable mobility. Hence, transport policy measures accompanying the introduction and development of automated vehicles will be needed in the future to reach a sustainable development.

APPROACHES TO THE LEGAL REGULATION OF THE USE OF CERTAIN VARIETIES OF PERSONAL MOBILITY EQUIPMENT

Статья посвящена рассмотрению подходов к правовому регулированию использования отдельных разновидностей средств индивидуальной мобильности. Проводится сравнительно-правовой и историко-правовой анализ определения отдельных разновидностей средств индивидуальной мобильности и транспортных средств, а равно установления правил их движения в российских, советских, международных и зарубежных нормативных правовых актах. По результатам анализа формулируются выводы и предложения, направленные на совершенствование соответствующего правового регулирования. The article is devoted to the consideration of approaches to the legal regulation of the use of certain varieties of personal mobility equipment. The comparative legal and historical-legal analysis of the definition of certain varieties of personal mobility equipment and vehicles and the establishment of rules of their movement in Russian, Soviet, international and foreign regulatory legal acts is carried out. Based on the results of the analysis, conclusions and proposals are formulated aimed at improving the relevant legal regulation.

Comparative Analysis of Spatial–Temporal Distribution between Traditional Taxi Service and Emerging Ride-Hailing

The paradigms of taxis and ride-hailing, the two major players in the personal mobility market, are compared systematically and empirically in a unified spatial–temporal context. Supported by real field data from Xiamen, China, this research proposes a three-fold analytical framework to compare their mobilities, including (1) the spatial distributions of departures and arrivals by rank–size and odds ratio analysis, (2) the statistical characteristics of trip distances by spatial statistics and considering distance-decay effect, and (3) the meta-patterns inherent in the mobility processes by nonnegative tensor factorization. Our findings suggest that taxis and ride-hailing services share similar spatial patterns in terms of travel demand, but taxi demand heterogenizes more quickly with changes in population density. Additionally, the relative balance between the taxi industry and ride-hailing services shows opposite trends inside and outside Xiamen Island. Although the trip distances have similar statistical properties, the spatial distribution of the median trip distances reflects different urban structures. The meta-patterns detected from the origin–destination-time system via tensor factorization suggest that taxi mobilities feature exclusive nighttime intensities, whereas ride-hailing exhibits more prominent morning peaks on weekdays. Although ride-hailing contributes significantly to cross–strait interactions during daytime, there is a lack of efficient services to maintain such interactions at night.