Keys to effective transit strategies for commuting

Commuting poses relevant challenges to cities\u2019 transport systems. Various studies have identified transit as a tool to enhance sustainability, efficiency and quality of the commute. The scope of this paper is to present strategies that increase public transport attractiveness and positively impact its modal share, looking at some case studies and underlining key success factors and possible elements of replica to be ultimately planned in some of the contexts of the Interreg project SMART-COMMUTING. The strategies analyzed in this paper concern prices and fares, service expansion, service improvements, usage of vehicle locators and other technology, changes to the built environment. Relevant gains in transit modal share are more easily achievable when considering integrations between various strategies, thus adapting and tailoring the planning process to the specific context

Crowdsensing-driven route optimisation algorithms for smart urban mobility

Urban rörlighet anses ofta vara en av de främsta möjliggörarna för en hållbar statsutveckling. Idag skulle det dock kräva ett betydande skifte mot renare och effektivare stadstransporter vilket skulle stödja ökad social och ekonomisk koncentration av resurser i städerna. En viktig prioritet för städer runt om i världen är att stödja medborgarnas rörlighet inom stadsmiljöer medan samtidigt minska trafikstockningar, olyckor och föroreningar. Att utveckla en effektivare och grönare (eller med ett ord; smartare) stadsrörlighet är en av de svåraste problemen att bemöta för stora metropoler. I denna avhandling närmar vi oss problemet från det snabba utvecklingsperspektivet av ITlandskapet i städer vilket möjliggör byggandet av rörlighetslösningar utan stora stora investeringar eller sofistikerad sensortenkik. I synnerhet föreslår vi utnyttjandet av den mobila rörlighetsavkännings, eng. Mobile Crowdsensing (MCS), paradigmen i vilken befolkningen exploaterar sin mobilkommunikation och/eller mobilasensorer med syftet att frivilligt samla, distribuera, lokalt processera och analysera geospecifik information. Rörlighetavkänningssdata (t.ex. händelser, trafikintensitet, buller och luftföroreningar etc.) inhämtad från frivilliga i befolkningen kan ge värdefull information om aktuella rörelsesförhållanden i stad vilka, med adekvata databehandlingsalgoriter, kan användas för att planera människors rörelseflöden inom stadsmiljön. Såtillvida kombineras i denna avhandling två mycket lovande smarta rörlighetsmöjliggörare, eng. Smart Mobility Enablers, nämligen MCS och rese/ruttplanering. Vi kan därmed till viss utsträckning sammanföra forskningsutmaningar från dessa två delar. Vi väljer att separera våra forskningsmål i två delar, dvs forskningssteg: (1) arkitektoniska utmaningar vid design av MCS-system och (2) algoritmiska utmaningar för tillämpningar av MCS-driven ruttplanering. Vi ämnar att visa en logisk forskningsprogression över tiden, med avstamp i mänskligt dirigerade rörelseavkänningssystem som MCS och ett avslut i automatiserade ruttoptimeringsalgoritmer skräddarsydda för specifika MCS-applikationer. Även om vi förlitar oss på heuristiska lösningar och algoritmer för NP-svåra ruttproblem förlitar vi oss på äkta applikationer med syftet att visa på fördelarna med algoritm- och infrastrukturförslagen.La movilidad urbana es considerada una de las principales desencadenantes de un desarrollo urbano sostenible. Sin embargo, hoy en día se requiere una transición hacia un transporte urbano más limpio y más eficiente que soporte una concentración de recursos sociales y económicos cada vez mayor en las ciudades. Una de las principales prioridades para las ciudades de todo el mundo es facilitar la movilidad de los ciudadanos dentro de los entornos urbanos, al mismo tiempo que se reduce la congestión, los accidentes y la contaminación. Sin embargo, desarrollar una movilidad urbana más eficiente y más verde (o en una palabra, más inteligente) es uno de los temas más difíciles de afrontar para las grandes áreas metropolitanas. En esta tesis, abordamos este problema desde la perspectiva de un panorama TIC en rápida evolución que nos permite construir movilidad sin la necesidad de grandes inversiones ni sofisticadas tecnologías de sensores. En particular, proponemos aprovechar el paradigma Mobile Crowdsensing (MCS) en el que los ciudadanos utilizan sus teléfonos móviles y dispositivos, para nosotros recopilar, procesar y analizar localmente información georreferenciada, distribuida voluntariamente. Los datos de movilidad recopilados de ciudadanos que voluntariamente quieren compartirlos (por ejemplo, eventos, intensidad del tráfico, ruido y contaminación del aire, etc.) pueden proporcionar información valiosa sobre las condiciones de movilidad actuales en la ciudad, que con el algoritmo de procesamiento de datos adecuado, pueden utilizarse para enrutar y gestionar el flujo de gente en entornos urbanos. Por lo tanto, en esta tesis combinamos dos prometedoras fuentes de movilidad inteligente: MCS y la planificación de viajes/rutas, uniendo en cierta medida los distintos desafíos de investigación. Hemos dividido nuestros objetivos de investigación en dos etapas: (1) Desafíos arquitectónicos en el diseño de sistemas MCS y (2) Desafíos algorítmicos en la planificación de rutas aprovechando la información del MCS. Nuestro objetivo es demostrar una progresión lógica de la investigación a lo largo del tiempo, comenzando desde los fundamentos de los sistemas de detección centrados en personas, como el MCS, hasta los algoritmos de optimización de rutas diseñados específicamente para la aplicación de estos. Si bien nos centramos en algoritmos y heurísticas para resolver problemas de enrutamiento de clase NP-hard, utilizamos ejemplos de aplicaciones en el mundo real para mostrar las ventajas de los algoritmos e infraestructuras propuestas

Motion Hub, the implementation of an integrated end-to-end journey planner

© AET 2018 and contributorsThe term “eMobility” and been brought into use partly to encourage use of electric vehicles but more especially to focus on the transformation from electric vehicles as products to electrified personal transport as a service. Under the wider umbrella of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) this has accompanied the growth of car clubs in general. The Motion Hub project has taken this concept a step further to include not just the car journey but the end-to-end journey. The booking of multifaceted journeys is well established in the leisure and business travel industries, where flights, car hire and hotels are regularly booked with a single transaction on a website. To complete an end-to-end scenario Motion Hub provides integration of public transport with electric vehicle and electric bike use. Building on a previous InnovateUK funded project that reviewed the feasibility of an integrated journey management system, the Motion Hub project has brought together a Car Club, a University, and EV infrastructure company, a bicycle hire company with electric bicycle capabilities and a municipality to implement a scheme and test it on the ground. At the heart of the project has been the development of a website that integrates the public transport booking with the hire of electric vehicles or bicycles. Taking the implementation to a fully working system accessible to members of the public presents a number of significant challenges. This paper identifies those challenges, details the progress and success of the Motion Hub and sets out the lessons learnt about end-to-end travel. The project was fortunate to have as its municipal partner the Council of a sizeable South East England town, Southend-on-Sea. With a population of 174,800 residents with good road, rail and air links there is considerable traffic in and out of the town. The Council has already shown its commitment to sustainable transport. In the previous six years it had installed a number of electric vehicle charging points for use by the public and latterly had trialled car club activity. An early challenge in the project was the location of physical infrastructure in an already crowded municipal space in order to provide the local ‘spokes’ of the system. In addition to its existing charging points, Southend now has four locations where electric cars can be hired, five where electric bikes are available and the local resources to maintain these assets. Combining a number of web-based services and amalgamating their financial transactions is relatively straightforward. However, introducing the potential for public transport ticketing as well raises additional security, scale and financial constraints. The project has engaged with major players and regulators across the public transport industry.Peer reviewe

Assessment of the potential of Varna city as a smart tourist destination

In recent years digitalization became a mainstream factor for socio-economic development and improvement of quality of life. The concepts of "smart cities" and "smart tourist destinations" are real consequences of the global urbanization process. Nowadays, digitalization is a privilege for every destination oriented towards young people and innovation initiatives. Intelligent destinations require development of optimal urban management models bound by considerable investments. The current study examines the potential of the Sea capital of Bulgaria – Varna to become a smart tourism destination. The used methodology is based on the selection of three scientific tools – PESTEL analysis, SWOT analysis and Delphi method. The major findings showed that the need of digitalization will become an important feature of the tourist supply in Varna. The city is a fast-growing academic destination and an attractive center for many young people. The tendency to use innovative technologies before and during the stay in a destination, typical for every young person, creates numerous opportunities for Varna. The introduction of ICT in the modern life of the residents and the guests of the city should be done through a precise assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of the digitalization process

Advances on Smart Cities and Smart Buildings

Modern cities are facing the challenge of combining competitiveness at the global city scale and sustainable urban development to become smart cities. A smart city is a high-tech, intensive and advanced city that connects people, information, and city elements using new technologies in order to create a sustainable, greener city; competitive and innovative commerce; and an increased quality of life. This Special Issue collects the recent advancements in smart cities and covers different topics and aspects

Smart cities and smart tourism: what future do they bring?

We have sought to understand the current state of the art on smart tourism and on smart cities. Furthermore, we have sought to understand community awareness and the will to embrace innovation, as they are decisive factors to acquire base knowledge and overcome barriers in (soon to be) overpopulated cities and for those who are looking for a limited time culture experience - known as tourists. We live in an age where technology is increasingly present in our lives and provides us solutions to societal problems. Problems such as traffic, infrastructure and natural resources management, or even increasing citizens’ participation in governance, bringing them closer to decision-making. The objective is to understand the current level of people’s knowledge about the impact that technologies have on the society in which we live and their perception of the usefulness in solving these same problems. Therefore, an anonymous questionnaire was carried out (176 valid answers were received), as well as a focus group with two experts on the Smart Cities subject. What future is brought by those who live and breathe technology? Are people willing to accept a paradigm shift?This work is financed by the ERDF – European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation - COMPETE 2020 Programme and by National Funds through the Portuguese funding agency, FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031309 entitled “PromoTourVR - Promoting Tourism Destinations with Multisensory Immersive Media”.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Harnessing Intelligence in Implementing Smart Parking Systems Integrated with Interactive Guidance System in Distinctive Shindagha Historical Neighborhood to Enhance and Regulate Mass Experiences

Under the light of the importance of finding smart solutions for cities strategic issues and in conjunction with the broad race for urban development in order to provide the best living environment and the most appropriate tourist destination, Mobility Management occupies the first place among these issues. Due to the variation in the urban fabric of cities, especially the old historical neighborhoods that are unique in their nature, composition, and conditions for their preservation, challenges related to mobility management raised in these critical areas. Therefore, in this study, we present a smart suggestion to solve the problem of providing smart parking system in Shindagha Historical District in Dubai, that has recently been revived to be the largest open museum in world. This project includes the provision of a smart parking system, studied thoughtfully across the urban and logistical conditions, determinants of urban fabric with respecting the identity of this region, which is linked to a smart tourism guidance system based on a live data platform derived from the museums and facilities that exist in this neighborhood. Moreover, this project contains a smart proposal of current public parking, in order to provide smooth and fast parking in areas with reducing the needed time to find a parking. The proposed solution will be a source of income for the city in the parking management sector. The objectives of the proposed study revolve around shortening the time spent to find a parking in the crowded areas, limiting traffic congestion, planning dynamic path of vehicle movement, reducing unnecessary energy consumption, reducing environmental pollution and gases emissions, maximizing the exploitation of the resources and facilities available in it, and organizing the movement of masses under conditions maintaining security and safety, as proposed models have been suggested for the studied area, with consideration of suitability of the design to the main purpose of the solution, best methods of construction, logistical elements and special conditions. Data have been drawn from the relevant official authorities in Dubai and according to a work methodology based on algorithms of possible occurrences, estimated queue lengths in transport impact analysis and SWOT analysis, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of those proposed smart solutions to lead to the best, smartest and most sustainable model for managing parking lots and masses congestions in such distinctive neighborhoods

Smart cities, smart tourism? The case of the city of Porto

The so-called Smart Cities have been playing an important role in the academic literature as well as in the agenda of public policies. With the forward thinking of “creating” new urban development models, the cities intend to strategically positioning themselves and at the same time develop cooperation networks. Frequently using the Information and Communication Technologies (while as a means to an end and not as an end itself), the cities try to assure a greater economic competitiveness, the environmental sustainability and the reinforcement of citizenship (calling out to people to participate, in the scope of an inclusive logic and in an appeal to creativity and social responsibility).Even the 2020 European strategy promotes this development.The geographic scope of the study is limited to the city of Porto. This is justified by the fact that, in 2015, Porto was one the five European cities selected to participate in the GrowSmarter (model of organization of cities of the future), an ambitious project with the objective of making Europe more sustainable and environmentally intelligent. Besides that, the Portuguese Smart Cities Index, 2016, points out the city of Oporto as the Portuguese city with better results in what concerns the main vectors of intelligence (policy, strategies and projects implemented, edification, mobility, energy and smart services).At the same time, in the international press, the city of Porto appears as a reference for its architectural wealth and as one of the more indicated European destinations for one who would like to enjoy quality holidays at a reasonable price.That is perhaps why Shermans Travel presents Porto as one of the top 10 destinations for intelligent tourists. The purpose of the present study is to understand if the emergence of smart cities can be in some way connected to the appearance of smart tourism. For such a purpose, we will study the city of Porto and a survey will be conducted among the tourists of the city.This article compiles some of the first results of the study, referring to the data collected during the months of August and September of 2017, and intends mainly to set out some hypotheses about the motivation for the choice of a tourist destination, that will be developed in future works.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

SUMP for Cities’ Sustainable Development

In a rapidly changing world, it is necessary to increase the engagement of local authorities and stakeholders to make urban mobility cleaner and more sustainable. The best way is to combine great ideas and innovative measures with political support. This Special Issue consists of six articles analyzing the impact of SUMPs. Innovative measures have been proposed to change urban transport systems towards sustainability: Chinese research has analyzed the tourist flow of Tibet using innovative technologies: mobile phone data, visualizations using GIS, and social networks. Lithuanian authors proposed three autonomous car travel development concepts that should become a conceptual tool in the development of ITS and C-ITS. An English scientific paper is based on a review of local transport policy documents from 13 cities in four countries. Most cities seek to reduce car travel as a proportion of trips. Experience from Slovenia shows that the comprehensive traffic calming approach has positive effects and contributes to achieving sustainable mobility. Korean researchers used the GINI coefficient to evaluate the bus system to identify bus nodes in order of importance. The last article described that multicriteria decision-making methods have been successfully used for assessing the effectiveness of sustainable transport systems, and a universal evaluation model was proposed