In what follows is presented a series of abstracts for coming papers tackling the topic of transportation mobility and intermodality in contemporary cities.
Paper 1: Reshaping City using Theoretical and Practical Study of Transport Mobility or Intermodality
by Anamika Das
This paper is devoted to the understanding of transport mobility and its necessity for a sustainable community in a city. The fundamental need of the people to access social and economic places is fulfilled by an efficient transport system. The paper presents, beginning from the traditional transport system that aimed to improve mobility, especially for vehicles but failed to consider wider impacts on the environment, to improving this system to create more vibrant, liveable and sustainable cities. Mobility refers to the movement of people or goods. Transport system has the potential to reshape the city by encouraging greater density and walkability so that the basic needs of life are available with less travel. This increases the accessibility. Smooth passage of motor vehicles and unobstructed movement for pedestrians characterize an efficient mobility network. Finally, we arrive at a complex solution of intermodality. Multiple mode of transport operating at the same location is called intermodal system. Adopting this concept, the aim of a sustainable city is fulfilled. Intermodality integrates two or more transport modes on the same journey. For every traveller, a change of transport mode is unnecessary. Aim is to make this interchange as seamless as possible with common information, an integrated ticket and a multi modal station where passengers feel safe, secure and comfortable.
Keywords: accessibility, mobility, sustainability, pedestrian, safety.
Paper 2: Urban Mobility Development….Towards Intermodality
by Vito Zampini
The mobility of the people and goods is largely recognized as essential for the economic growth and the development of the society; it is a strategic element for the competitive development of our cities and fundamental need for the collectivity. In the European context, the vehicular moves are predominantly private. This so rooted tradition, brings the traffic inside urban centers producing increasing negative impacts in terms of congestion, pollution and consumption of ground and sources. The result is a strong reduction of the life quality, especially in the areas that are built more densely and characterized by strong functional fragmentation. Favourite from the numerous European directives; strategies, programs and interventions are being adopted, to implement a sustainable urban mobility. Together with mobility, The concept of accessibility has been object of attention and research. Intermodality consists in giving the possibility to the users of different transport mode and combining them in order to offer as continuous and door-to-door services as possible. The concept of intermodal transport has become more and more important over the last years. Projects such as integrated public transport systems have been implemented in several cities of the world. However, numerous difficulties are still present. How to spread the culture of the public transport, how to make it easy to use and safe ? How to make the net of transports more present in city of different scale but with attention to the environment ? how to make the intermodal system less vulnerable? The aim of this work is to provide an overview of the main factor that have to be investigated for a correct understanding of the reality of the different cities. No unique solution is suggested for different contexts, but rather investigating how to control the urban development in order to achieve a form of intermodal transportation in the medium-long term that could be sustainable.
Keywords : Culture ,life quality, intermodality, vulnerability, adaptive system.
Paper 3: Efficiency of Intermodality: Obstacles and Opportunities
by Ahmed Abdelwahed Mekhamar
The need of public transportation can be easily recognized due to the fact that growth of population is causing a high rate of mobility which may create many problems with environmental, economic and social consequences if not carefully considered in cities planning. Public transport is encouraged by urban authorities in most of large cities in both of developed and developing countries, however it presents insufficient attraction to switch from using individual vehicle towards the use of public transport. Intermodality as planning and policy principle can be activated effectively to provide the passengers who use different modes of transportation with smooth journey while assuring appropriate service level. Different obstacles confronting the integration of Intermodality principle into public transport networks are mainly caused by inadequate planning and poor infrastructure networks where different transport networks can be considered as transport links without the necessary facilities and polices required to act effectively. Such problems can be overcome through the integrated design which use Intermodality to act as interface between the different modes not only to increases the percentage of passengers who use urban public transport but also consolidates the overall public transport system of an urban area. This study aims to provide clear understanding of Intermodality principle as an integrated system where different factors interact all together to achieve the efficiency of the system, such as modal connectivity, safety requirements for pedestrians, Integrated terminals, integrated fare policy, integrated timetable, information dissemination. To accomplish the objectives of this paper, different design issues and factors to be examined by literature survey and analysis of previous experience of Intermodality networks and finally to define list of factors that would represent obstacles in case of applying in developing cities in addition to clarify some of opportunities that can be used to achieve the efficiency of the system.
Keywords: Intermodality, Integrated terminals, Connectivity, Transportation efficiency.
Paper 4: The Effect of Transportation Hubs on Urban Dynamics
by Ghada ELBalal
For a long time now, there is a growing need for automobile dependency, due to a lot of factors: urban sprawl, increasing urban densities, lack or poor services of transportation …etc. Automobile dependency is the main reason for a lot of problems that are experienced in cities, such as traffic congestion, noise pollution, air pollution, consumption of non renewable resources, and consequently increase of CO2 emissions and climate change. Improving the quality and efficiency of transportation services in general is considered a growing demand nowadays in many countries. Governments should develop transportation plans and policies to reach creative approaches for transportation services. The European Commission White Paper states that the idea of connecting modes, particularly through rail and transport hubs, is seen as increasingly important in the achievement of seamless travel, says Michèle Dix, Managing Director of Planning, Transport for London. A transportation hub acts as a good moderator for a lot of transportation means in which its design and location starts from a well planned mobility strategy and a convenient and inexpensive transportation mode. This paper aims to discuss the role of transportation hubs in cities defining the different types of transportation means that can exist in the hub in regard to the city size and complexity, investigating their role in the urban dynamics and highlighting the importance of improving the energy and economic efficiency of these hubs as a step forward towards a sustainable city.
Keywords: Cities, transportation hub, transportation means, energy efficiency, sustainability.
Paper 5: Maglev Urban Project for a Modern and Ecological City
by Andrea Fogliani
Transportation Mobility or …. Intermodality? Starting from this fundamental question this paper wants to analyse and discuss about the road that the actual urban society should follow in order to obtain a better and liveable future. Enrique Penalosa said “an advanced city is not a place where the poor move about in cars, rather it’s where even the rich use public transportation”, and maybe one of the most important points and obstacles to a concrete change is the attractiveness of the actual mass public transportation system. A renewal of urban transportation means that we should discuss again from the beginning the dominant urbanization model that made our world unordered and based on soil consumption. From the agricultural tradition that made the urban centre developing in courts first, and then along main roads connecting different settlements, our cities grew becoming industrial centers intensively based on wheel transportation systems: transportation and social costs became high due to new necessities, losing the relationship between private and public space and life. Through this paper the author intended to examine how small and medium towns, applying a new balance between public transportation, green spaces, public services and politics, can really change their aspect going towards a green and sustainable future, promoting social aspects of life and creating a more liveable environment.
Keywords: Intermodality; sustainable urban design, passenger, eco-district, transportation.
Paper 6: Re-organisation of Traffic Flows in the Smart City
by Matthias Wechsler
In a more and more urbanized world, people, traffic and trade accumulate in cities more than ever. The way in which these flows challenge the city are of different nature: not only do they need to get handled in their quantity most efficiently, but they also need to get organized in a sustainable manner. At last solutions have to contribute to a spatially fair, participatory and satisfying city. Today, the principals of how to create a sustainable city are commonly accepted: high density, balanced mix of residential & commercial and integrated public transportation are among the most important ones. However, details of the organization of soft mobility and public transport are still subject of debate and research. Supply chains of industries are getting more complex due to specifications and this results in increased traffic necessary to keep the economy alive. This paper investigates the problem of how to reconcile the increased demand for transport on the one hand and the need to reduce its impact on the environment on the other hand. The research looks for solutions and approaches on the legislative, technical, and spatial level of a city. Furthermore it analyses unused potentials in cities that can be activated to support a more sustainable and economic flow of people and goods. The streets of a city are often congested on peak hours but mostly free over night. With a set of incentives, this potential to process traffic can be activated. Eventually, the paper provides an overview over best practices worldwide and the limits and chances of re-organized traffic flows in a city.
Keywords: Smart city, traffic, urban planning, sustainability.
Paper 7: Plan a Sustainable Transport Geography in Tianjin
by Xuan Zhang
As the number of smoggy weather days rising up in mega cities which doesn’t have huge industry factories nearby in China, people started to realized the vital role of the use of vehicles in air pollution. Except for the policies about control the traffic volume by limit the vehicle use according to its last number of license plate, there are also other strategies coming up to develop a more sustainable way of movement. Tianjin, a municipality very close to Beijing, has a few bike sharing companies gradually rising recently. This article studies about how to make Tianjin a city less polluted by smog in the way of encourage and promote more use of bicycles instead of vehicles. The result and data of researches on the development path of bicycling system in Copenhagen is listed in the text, together with the analysis on the current situation of public transportation in Tianjin, including the main choice of movement by different ages and states of identities, the current use of the new bike sharing system, the problems came with it and the influence it has brought to the citizens. A proposal plan about the development needed on public facilities, educations to call up the conscious to care more about environment and policies to speed up the transform process are brought up in the last part of this work.
Keywords: Transport, environment, cycling.
Paper 8: Sustainability, Smart Transport and Mobility
by Stefani Kostova
Road transport is one of the biggest CO2 emissions producers nowadays, it is also the major contributor to the global warming and the major consumer of energy because of the combustion engines which burn petroleum. Based on scientific reports “In the United States, about 20% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions come from motor vehicles”. The will of reaching long distances, the urban sprawl and urbanization, global market and climate change are demanding us for improving and reshaping our transport system. The growing cities and population increase also the use of private and public vehicles, which has a very big impact of the air pollution. Sustainability in transport is the future goal for many developed countries, organizations etc. European Union has created a policy for transport sector for decreasing the negative impact, improving the quality, accessibility and effectiveness of public transport and mobility. To make the transportation more sustainable we need to involve the use of low-carbon energy, clean and energy- efficient vehicle, make an intelligent transport service and solutions. It is very important that we support the necessity socio-technical changes. The general, country, union or organization policies, are working on the sustainable and adequate transport. Although it is a challenge to develop and apply one and the same policy in different cities, conditions and areas. Each case is different and needs own methods and measurements to be taken. Climate, culture and the needs of the certain populated urban areas play an important role of the way how the mobility polices supposed to be improved. In a country like Finland with very rough climate conditions, has been made policy for sustainable transport, which is based on the cold climate conditions and constrains. On another hand city Masdar, Abu Dhabi is a project of whole new sustainable city and the mobility is solved with different methods which are suitable for the hot climate. Using different solutions, both studies represent one and the same main goal- sustainable, smart transport and mobility.
Keywords: Transport, sustainable, polices, conditions, mobility.
Paper 9: Vertical Parking
by Mihran Jaghlassian
Congestion is one of the biggest problems that suffer the big cities around the world, and unfortunately this problem is increasing year by year and especially after the emergence of the problem of population inflation that crush the world in the last decades. People, Developers, urban planners, investors, are well aware that continuing using traditional ways are short term solutions that will not solve the main problem, they started to think about new solutions to avoid increasing this huge crisis, trying to achieve an efficient transport system is not new. Many kind of solutions appeared in last years, one of them is reduction of parking space, because when the drivers are looking for a parking space and especially in downtowns account for over 40 percent of all inner-city traffic, and that on perfectly ordinary days, imagine how much will be in Christmas weekend the proportion may even rise to up to 90 percent. the future of parking is to take advantage of vertical space in much the same way we do with sky rise buildings, here there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place. It is essentially a stacked car park. Using multi-storey car parking will help the people to find the parking area faster because of the tall buildings and arrive there easily will avoid the traffic in the cities that they have big amount of cars, this kind of projects became useful especially in big cities like United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and especially in West United State by Applying multiple access and exit system to avoid traffic congestion in and out. Following this Step, using another systems, and developing new ways and strategies which would evaluate and assess traffic management policies, and achieve our plans in the future.
Keywords: Traffic, cars, parking, easy-Access, city.