Product Service System Innovation in the Smart City

Product service systems (PSS) may usefully form part of the mix of innovations necessary to move society toward more sustainable futures. However, despite such potential, PSS implementation is highly uneven and limited. Drawing on an alternate socio-technical perspective of innovation, this paper provides fresh insights, on among other things the role of context in PSS innovation, to address this issue. Case study research is presented focusing on a use orientated PSS in an urban environment: the Copenhagen city bike scheme. The paper shows that PSS innovation is a situated complex process, shaped by actors and knowledge from other locales. It argues that further research is needed to investigate how actors interests shape PSS innovation. It recommends that institutional spaces should be provided in governance landscapes associated with urban environments to enable legitimate PSS concepts to co-evolve in light of locally articulated sustainability principles and priorities

Urban bicycles renting systems: Modelling and optimization using nature-inspired search methods

Urban Bicycles Renting Systems (UBRS) are becoming a common and useful component in growing modern cities. For an efficient management and support, the UBRS infrastructure requires the optimation of vehicle routes connecting several bicycle base stations and storage centers. In this study, we model this real-world optimization problem as a capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) with multiple depots and the simultaneous need for pickup and delivery at each base station location. Based on the VRP model specification, two nature-inspired computational techniques, evolutionary algorithms and ant colony systems, are presented and their performance in tackling the UBRS problem is investigated. In the evolutionary approach, individuals are encoded as permutations of base stations and then translated to a set of routes subject to the constraints related to vehicle capacity and node demands. In the ant-based approach, ants build complete solutions formed of several subtours servicing a subset of base stations using a single vehicle based on both apriori (the attractiveness of a move based on the known distance or other factors) and aposteriori (pheromone levels accumulated on visited edges) knowledge. Both algorithms are engaged for the UBRS problem using real data from the cities of Barcelona and Valencia. Computational experiments for several scenarios support a good performance of both population-based search methods. Comparative results indicate that better solutions are obtained on the average by the ant colony system approach for both considered cities

Urban bicycles renting systems: Modelling and optimization using nature-inspired search methods

Urban Bicycles Renting Systems (UBRS) are becoming a common and useful component in growing modern cities. For an efficient management and support, the UBRS infrastructure requires the optimation of vehicle routes connecting several bicycle base stations and storage centers. In this study, we model this real-world optimization problem as a capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) with multiple depots and the simultaneous need for pickup and delivery at each base station location. Based on the VRP model specification, two nature-inspired computational techniques, evolutionary algorithms and ant colony systems, are presented and their performance in tackling the UBRS problem is investigated. In the evolutionary approach, individuals are encoded as permutations of base stations and then translated to a set of routes subject to the constraints related to vehicle capacity and node demands. In the ant-based approach, ants build complete solutions formed of several subtours servicing a subset of base stations using a single vehicle based on both apriori (the attractiveness of a move based on the known distance or other factors) and aposteriori (pheromone levels accumulated on visited edges) knowledge. Both algorithms are engaged for the UBRS problem using real data from the cities of Barcelona and Valencia. Computational experiments for several scenarios support a good performance of both population-based search methods. Comparative results indicate that better solutions are obtained on the average by the ant colony system approach for both considered cities

Policy, users and discourses: examples from bikeshare programs in (Kolkata) India and (Manila) Philippines

This paper examines two bikeshare programs implemented in two Global South cities, examining the role of users in promoting sustainable transport. To explore the sustainability of smart cycling, we argue that it is important to understand the prevailing administrative and socio-institutional practices within a given context. For the effective stabilisation of smart regimes, harmony between the administrative and socio-institutional practices must be established. In this context, we introduce a complementary approach to understanding transitions. Maintenance of political commitments and institutional support are crucial for cycling success, not incidental footloose initiatives. We explore two case studies in the context of the Global South, in the first one top-down policies and planning initiatives dictate the directions of transitions by enabling or constraining user routines. In the second one, citizens take control to resolve a transport deficit by initiating and driving a very bottom-up user-led transition narrative. We propose a framework to cater to the unique political, cultural and smart discourses of the Global South and the role of users in conjunction with the administrative and socio-institutional practices around them. Investigating both the bikeshare cases through the lens of this framework provides unique insights extending our knowledge beyond the built environment features of sustainable planning initiatives. Our findings reveal the complex narratives that are in play in developing nations and conclude that understanding and realising cycling transitions in southern megacities require a different approach compared to the Global North

Exploring the Key Determinants of Bicycle Share Program Use in a Leisure Context

Over the past two decades, bicycle share programs (BSPs) have developed rapidly around the world, with studies finding that people use such service not only for commuting but also for leisure. However, compared to utilitarian BSP users, limited research has focused on the factors influencing BSP use for leisure experiences. To begin this limitation in the current cycling literature, this dissertation explores the key determinants of leisure BSP use. The extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology proposed by Venkatesh, Thong, and Xu (2012) and the dual-attitudes model conceptualized by Wilson, Lindsey, and Schooler (2000) provided the theoretical framework guiding this research. First, this dissertation developed the Unified Measurement of Bicycle Share Program Use (UMBSPU), an encompassing scale for further investigation of factors influencing an individual\u27s leisure BSP use. The results of the measurement invariance testing and method effect examination indicated that this scale, which includes eight constructs and thirty-three measurement items, is a reliable, valid measurement. Second, this dissertation applied the UMBSPU to examine the influences of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, social influence, price value, hedonic motivation, and habit on Taipei citizens\u27 intentions to use BSP and their actual use in leisure time. Among all factors examined, habit demonstrated the strongest predict validity of use intention. Furthermore, behavioral intention outperformed habit and facilitating conditions in explaining the variance of actual use. Finally, this dissertation used two Single Target Implicit Association Tests (ST-IATs) to explore BSP users\u27 implicit attitudes toward leisure cycling and leisure cyclists. Explicit attitudes toward leisure cycling and social identity with leisure cyclists were also measured and compared with implicit attitudes, the results indicating that implicit attitudes did not significantly predict leisure BSP use. However, social identity exhibited a strong predictability of an individual\u27s public bicycle riding frequency. Future research is needed to cross-validate the UMBSPU in different contexts and to compare the results from the leisure cycling and cyclists ST-IAT across different types of cyclist groups

Social Innovation in Sustainable Urban Development

How can a city advance from social invention to social innovation, to attain sustainable urban development (SUD)? Many new ideas, initiatives, and showcases for social innovation have been introduced; however, project-based forms of experimentation are often just part of the ongoing urban politics (or governmentality), and consequently somewhat ephemeral, with traditional siloed city administrations remaining a central obstacle to SUD. Our Special Issue presents twelve papers that address the question of social innovation in sustainable urban development from very different angles. The contributions span issues concerning smart cities, innovation in the adaptive reuse of urban heritage, as well as policy options for regions in transition. In terms of social innovation for SUD purposes, the presented solutions range from transferable legal formalizations to the creation of urban ecosystems whose institutional structures ensure the inclusion of the civil society. Instead of a comprehensive, integrative SUD, robust sectoral solutions, or even phased solutions, are more likely to be sought

Toward Sustainability: Bike-Sharing Systems Design, Simulation and Management

The goal of this Special Issue is to discuss new challenges in the simulation and management problems of both traditional and innovative bike-sharing systems, to ultimately encourage the competitiveness and attractiveness of BSSs, and contribute to the further promotion of sustainable mobility. We have selected thirteen papers for publication in this Special Issue

Contested Niche Innovations in Transport: Experiences from the Inter-comunal Bicycle Sharing System in Santiago de Chile, 2011-2017

Significant new technological developments in transport are already part of our urban landscape, helped by trends in the globalisation of economic activities. Acknowledging that technology is a facilitator of key changes in urban mobility, this thesis examines the institutional context in which a new transport technology is deployed, highlighting concerns not only about possible failures of an ‘enabling state’, but also about the ‘enabling environment’ as a central policy issue. This perspective provides a suitable space to further discuss the increasing governance hybridity in deploying new technologies in transport, acknowledging that the balance of power appears to be shifting. This research seeks to analyse the role of decision-making processes in triggering transformative adaptations that account for a mobility justice transition towards more equitable and inclusive mobility landscapes. Empirically, the thesis presents a case study promoting utility cycling via the deployment of an inter-comunal Bicycle Sharing Scheme, comprising 14 comunas in Santiago, Chile’s capital city, a fragmented metropolitan area with high socio-spatial inequalities. This research approach combines quantitative and qualitative methods of data gathering and analysis. A survey of 343 current bike-hire users at the busiest stations in order to gauge the perceived benefits of such deployment was complemented by interviews with key decision-makers and direct observations of operational logistics in the field. Business model innovation and public tendering processes provided valuable insights into the decision-making process as a subject of analysis. Findings suggest that a mobility justice transition is a relational matter. Indeed, inter-governmental agreements and collaborative actions were crucial in challenging patterns of socio-spatial inequality and proved to be a transformative strategy for change. However, prospects for a radical transition towards greater mobility justice are mixed. In conclusion, partnerships supporting niche-innovations operate within norms, values and practices, which are socially and culturally conditioned, and systematically shaped by the actions of society. Unfolding this rationale and ‘working through’ tensions and synergies towards the search for a common interest on the basis of transparency, collaboration, trust and deliberation, there is potential for setting out a mobility justice transition pathway

Adopting Mobility-as-a-Service: An empirical analysis of end-users\u27 experiences

Despite widespread interest, empirical research on how end-users perceive and use Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is scarce. To address this knowledge gap, this paper analyzes the end-user process of adopting a MaaS service entitled EC2B, which was launched in Gothenburg (Sweden) in the spring of 2019. The contribution to the MaaS literature is three-fold. Firstly, the paper provides insight into potential user segments by describing the characteristics and motives of the studied pool of adopters. Secondly, it improves the understanding of the potential effects of MaaS by outlining how the EC2B service was used and how it influenced travel behavior. Thirdly, the paper informs strategies for facilitating MaaS adoption by outlining what types of drivers and barriers the end-users faced during different stages of the adoption process. The reported findings underscore previous assertions that MaaS is much more than just an app and a subscription plan and highlight the mutually reinforcing relationship between the introduction of MaaS and the implementation of policies aimed at reducing car use