Analysis of Ro-La Transport Systems, Possibilities of Implementation in Romania

The paper brings to the fore the need for state support by making investments in railway infrastructure, in order to maintain and ensure the success of railway transport of trucks by introducing RO-LA transport in rail traffic. Using this mode of transport reduces the cost of maintaining road infrastructure, protects the environment, reduces fuel consumption, and reduces road traffic congestionRO-LA transport is an alternative solution to auto transport and contributes to the streamlining of traffic of goods and people.

V2G Pilot Projects

Electric vehicles (EVs) are not only a viable energy efficient mode of transport, but they have considerable capacity of providing flexible and quick responding storage alternative based on vehicle-to-grid (V2G) scheme. V2G technology facilitates bidirectional flow of energy to and from the vehicle by a power converter. However, there is skepticism regarding the economic profitability of the V2G scheme. Despite the aforementioned challenges, the V2G technology is explored in matured markets. A number of V2G pilot projects across the world have investigated different aspects of V2G integration such as technological readiness, economic feasibility, social benefits, and challenges of V2G. This work aims to review the existing pilot projects on V2G functionality.

Use of Traffic Simulation to Analyze the Changes in City Mobility During the COVID-19 Pandemic

It seems that the COVID-19 pandemic, which started in December 2019, will have longer and more profound consequences on our lives than initially foreseen. Among the most obvious are everyday decisions about the mode of transport. From related research, it can be seen that the most affected transport mode is public transport, which had the greatest decline. The reason for lesser use of public transport is in complete closure of public transport in some parts of the world. However, where this measure has not been applied, the reason for the reduction is people's fear of infection when using public transport or any shared modes of transportation. The fear stems from the fact that the COVID-19 virus is spreading extremely fast in densely populated rooms. All these changes are affecting the changes in city mobility. Related research shows a decrease of mobility in general and an increase in the use of individual modes of transportation. Distinct changes can be observed in different environments as compared to previous travel behaviour.

Goods Delivery with Electric Vehicles: Electric Vehicle Routing Optimization with Time Windows and Partial or Full Recharge

With the rise of the electric vehicle market share, many logistic companies have started to use electric vehicles for goods delivery. Compared to the vehicles with an internal combustion engine, electric vehicles are considered as a cleaner mode of transport that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As electric vehicles have a shorter driving range and have to visit charging stations to replenish their energy, the efficient routing plan is harder to achieve. In this paper, the Electric Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (EVRPTW), which deals with the routing of electric vehicles for the purpose of goods delivery, is observed. Two recharge policies are considered: full recharge and partial recharge. To solve the problem, an Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search (ALNS) metaheuristic based on the ruin-recreate strategy is coupled with a new initial solution heuristic, local search, route removal, and exact procedure for optimal charging station placement. The procedure for the O(1) evaluation in EVRPTW with partial and full recharge strategies is presented. The ALNS was able to find 38 new best solutions on benchmark EVRPTW instances. The results also indicate the benefits and drawbacks of using a partial recharge strategy compared to the full recharge strategy.

Virtual reality as a new tool for transport data collection

Transport studies that adopt complex analyses present methodological challenges that lead to the use of innovative techniques to address the limitations of traditional methods. In the Latin American context, people consider security as a relevant variable in their daily lives. Thus, when people travel around the city and choose a mode of transport, secu-rity becomes an important factor and should therefore be included in transport studies. However, the definition of security in terms of transport in the Colombian context remains unclear. Therefore, we examined the security percep-tion effect on transport mode choice by addressing security as a latent variable consisting of three elements: environ-ment, subject and transport mode. We proposed the use of virtual reality (VR) to recreate travel routes and offer partic-ipants a scenario of choice closer to the natural conditions of a trip. The participants were provided routes in the form of immersive 3D videos recreating natural trip conditions to identify their choices and travel behaviour. Recordings were made of daily scenarios and existing urban environments portraying real and active modes of transport, giving respondents an almost-natural experience. The use of 360-degree immersive videos offers a multisensory experience allowing both the capture of socioeconomic and travel information and the collection of journey perception. The experiment evaluated two environments in Medellín, Colombia (secure (E1) and insecure (E2)) and studied the effects of lighting conditions (day (D) and night (N)). A total of four videos (E1D, E1N, E2D and E2N) depicting six transport modes in tandem were assessed by 92 participants from Medellín and Bogotá, Colombia. We found that environment-associated security perception varies depending on the time of the journey (day/night) and one’s familiarity with the environment. The research results position VR as a tool that offers high potential to support transport studies. We found that people’s movements, gestures and expressions while participating in the VR experiments resembled what was expected from journeys in reality. VR constitutes a relevant tool for transport studies, as it allows for an assessment of active transport mode perceptions. It prevents participants from being exposed to the risk associated with travel to specific places and carries out several routes in different transport modes even when participants cannot or have never undertaken journeys in the modes under assessment.

Drivers to Obesity—A Study of the Association between Time Spent Commuting Daily and Obesity in the Nepean Blue Mountains Area

Obesity has become a public health challenge in every country on this planet, with a substantial contribution to global mortality and morbidity. Studies of the built environment have shown some promise in understanding the drivers of this obesity pandemic. This paper contributes to this knowledge, by focusing on one aspect of the urban environment and asking whether there is an association between commuting and obesity in residents of the Nepean Blue Mountains area on the fringes of Sydney. This is a cross-sectional study with obesity being the dependent variable, and commuting the independent variable, where 45 min or less was defined as local and distant commute was more than 45 min. In the sample of 158 respondents, the risk of obesity was twice as likely in the distant commuters than in the local commuters (OR 2.04, 95% CI 1.051 to 3.962, p = 0.034). Investigation of possible mediators of this association was limited by sample size; however, mode of transport was found to be a significant mediator. The results support the design of cities to provide health supporting environments for all residents, including equitable access to employment at a reasonable distance and effective public transport.

Evaluating the Geographical Accessibility and Equity of COVID-19 Vaccination Sites in England

We assess the geographical accessibility of COVID-19 vaccination sites—including mass vaccination centers and community-level provision—in England utilizing open data from NHS England and detailed routing data from HERE Technologies. We aim to uncover inequity in vaccination site accessibility, highlighting small-area inequality hidden by coverage figures released by the NHS. Vaccination site accessibility measures are constructed at a neighborhood level using indicators of journey time by private and public transport. We identify inequity in vaccination-site accessibility at the neighborhood level, driven by region of residence, mode of transport (specifically availability of private transport), rural-urban geography and the availability of GP-led services. We find little evidence that accessibility to COVID-19 vaccination sites is related to underlying area-based deprivation. We highlight the importance of GP-led provision in maintaining access to vaccination services at a local level and reflect on this in the context of phase 3 of the COVID-19 vaccination programme (booster jabs) and other mass vaccination programmes.

Analysis of the New Demand-Responsive Transport in Goiânia, Goiás

The demand-responsive public transport Citybus 2.0 was an innovation not only for Goiânia, but for all of Latin America. Created in 2019, this new way of getting around the city is intended to be a substitute for individual motorized transport, encouraging sustainable urban mobility. In order to analyze this new means of transport in the capital of Goiás, an online questionnaire was applied, which had 217 responses, of which 130 are users and 87 are non-users. The questionnaire had ten questions, two of which were general and eight with the purpose of collecting information on user satisfaction regarding the service provided by the new mode of transport. As for the perception of satisfaction, the items related to the cost and service range had the worst ratings.

Sustainable Urban Transport—Why a Fast Investment in a Complete Cycling Network Is Most Profitable for a City

The development of safe cycling as a mode of transport is an important objective of the transformation towards sustainable mobility in European cities. A significant number of European cities are faced with the need to implement the assumptions of the European Green Deal, of which the promotion of sustainable urban transport is a part. The article presented a simulation of the Perfect Cycling City Model in real conditions that inspired the design of two scenarios for the fast development of bicycle routes in a key transport network area in Warsaw. Scenario 1 assumes building subsidiary bicycle routes and links between the main routes. In Scenario 2, the development of all optimal cycling links at the local level is assumed. An increase in cycling participation is expected in both scenarios. The comparison of projected costs of each scenario indicated that building a complete network of connections is more profitable in terms of increased cycling participation and could counter the dominance of private car use. For this to happen, measures encouraging individuals combined with improved safety and convenience of cycling around the city must be undertaken.