The Contribution of MCDM to SUMP: The Case of Spanish Cities during 2006–2021

Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) are increasingly popular planning tools in cities with environmental issues where numerous actions are usually proposed to reduce pollution from urban transport. However, the diagnosis and implementation of these processes requires broad consensus from all stakeholders and the ability to fit them into urban planning in such a way that it allows the proposals to become realistic actions. In this study, a review of the sustainable urban mobility plans of 47 cities in Spain during the last 15 years has been carried out, analyzing both the diagnosis and proposal of solutions and their subsequent implementation. From the results obtained, a new framework based on a structured hybrid methodology is proposed to aid decision-making for the evaluation of alternatives in the implementation of proposals in SUMP. This hybrid methodology considers experts’ and stakeholders’ opinion and applies two different multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods in different phases to present two rankings of best alternatives. From that experience, an analysis based on the MCDM methods called ‘Sequential Interactive Modelling for Urban Systems (SIMUS)’ and weighted sum method (WSM) was applied to a case study of the city of Cartagena, a southeastern middle-size city in Spain. This analytic proposal has been transferred to the practical field in the SUMP of Cartagena, the first instrument of this nature developed after COVID-19 in Spain for a relevant city. The results show how this framework, based on a hybrid methodology, allows the development of complex decision mapping processes using these instruments without obviating the need to generate planning tools that can be transferred from the theoretical framework of urban reality.

Traffic Congestion and Efficient Ways to Deal with It in Tbilisi, Georgia

Traffic Congestion has become a new version of plague for urbanized areas. Massive breakthroughs in technology, increasing in production of motorized cars, global reduction in prices for automobiles and the rapid population growth in Tbilisi, Georgia has led to the urgence of complete rearrangement of transportation system in the city. As a post-Soviet Union country, Georgia has had rudiments like “Marshrutkas” (privately owned minibuses) as a primary mode of transportation. Serious research and actions started in 2019 when sustainable urban mobility plan was introduced in Tbilisi; which favors public transport and pedestrians. In the course of this project one of the main avenues was converted into complete street model and hourly parking was introduced in the city centers. However, the problem regarding traffic jams still stands. This paper contributes to analyzing current situation in Tbilisi and suggesting suitable solutions. It will cover how reversible lanes, road pricing, signalized Intersections, reserved bus lanes and parking can be adapted to Tbilisi in order to reduce traffic jams.

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.

Experiences on the application of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Index (IMUS) in Brazilian and foreign cities

The lack of effective instruments to control and monitor urban mobility has had a direct impact on the management of municipalities. The Sustainable Urban Mobility Index (IMUS, in Portugese) is an instrument that aims to support urban mobility planning, based on a list of indicators that allow the assessment of different aspects of sustainable urban mobility. However, some indicators are still not easily accessible in the municipalities, either due to the lack of data or the absence of information made available in an aggregated form, a numerical value for example. Given this context, this article presents a comparative analysis of studies that applied the IMUS in different cities in Brazil and abroad, in order to identify which indicators of urban mobility are still difficult to access in the municipalities where the IMUS was applied. Theses and dissertations or other academic works that used the IMUS, developed between 2008 and 2019, with the theme adhering to the title “Index of Sustainable Urban Mobility (IMUS)” were selected. The analysis of the works allowed to identify: (i) which indicators are still difficult to access to assess urban mobility, by municipality size, and (ii) a comparative analysis of the index result for the Domains, Themes and Indicators, in the evaluated cities.

Effective measures in Sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMPs): Analysis of 10 (successful) European cities

The paper presents results of an analysis of measures implemented in various European cities that have been effective in reducing the share of trips by car and increasing the shares of active mobility and public transportation. Ten cities with a significant modal shift from cars to public transportation and/or active mobility in a period of several years were analysed. For each city, an interview was conducted with a local expert. The questions focused on the reasons for successful changes in travel habits and the existence and relevance of the SUMP in bringing about these changes. The results show that all cities analysed have some form of SUMP, and many have additional, more specific documents. Most cities have been developing these documents and implementing the measures in them for many years. Furthermore, the modal shift was always the result of a combination of several push and pull measures. Cities implemented restrictive measures for cars as well as improved conditions for alternative modes of mobility and often focused on road space transformation.

Effective measures in Sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMPs): Analysis of 10 (successful) European cities

The paper presents results of an analysis of measures implemented in various European cities that have been effective in reducing the share of trips by car and increasing the shares of active mobility and public transportation. Ten cities with a significant modal shift from cars to public transportation and/or active mobility in a period of several years were analysed. For each city, an interview was conducted with a local expert. The questions focused on the reasons for successful changes in travel habits and the existence and relevance of the SUMP in bringing about these changes. The results show that all cities analysed have some form of SUMP, and many have additional, more specific documents. Most cities have been developing these documents and implementing the measures in them for many years. Furthermore, the modal shift was always the result of a combination of several push and pull measures. Cities implemented restrictive measures for cars as well as improved conditions for alternative modes of mobility and often focused on road space transformation.

Mobility Analysis of Persons with Disabilities

This study presents the results of the research on travel behaviour for persons with different types of disabilities. Persons with disabilities are a group of participants with specific traffic requirements often not included in traffic research and consequently adequate planning of urban transport. To obtain the data, a home interview was conducted on a representative sample. The paper presents the main results of the research and indicates the specificity of the requirements of this group of users. The results are compared with the results of the same research conducted for the development of the Smart Plan of Novi Sad and the results of similar research abroad. The main goal is to obtain a qualitative and quantitative database of the requirements of this group of users as a basis for creating sustainable urban mobility plans.

Land Use as a Criterion for the Selection of the Trip Starting Locations of Park and Ride Mode Travelers

In the attempt to study Light Rail Transit (LRT) systems, and their necessary underlying components, such as Park and Ride (P&R) sub-systems, this article aims to showcase the importance of land-use as a criterion in the selection of trip starting locations (i.e., points), that can potentially be used as the basis for quantitative studies on LRT and P&R systems. In order to achieve this goal, a method is introduced for the selection of locations that produce P&R mode trips based on the land-use attributes of sub-zones or neighborhoods, as they are included in Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs). Those land-use attributes are utilized as sub-criteria for the classification and valid selection of trip starting locations out of a broader dataset of available locations. As a second supportive technique that needs to be utilized for this study, an algorithm is introduced, which allows us to test the effectiveness of the method and the importance of land use as a criterion. The algorithm enables the calculation and comparison of the attributes of the trips to be followed by P&R mode users starting from selected trip starting locations for each zone in a city and having as destinations the several available P&R facilities. Results for the methods introduced in this article are showcased based on a case study on the mid-sized city of Cuenca, Ecuador, in which, several metrics, such as traveling times considering different traffic scenarios, are examined for the potential P&R mode trips as they emerge from real-world data.