Sustainable Mobility for Island Destinations

This open access book presents the findings of the CIVITAS DESTINATIONS project regarding the link between mobility and tourism in urban areas and the complications tourist destinations face in becoming more sustainable. It integrates the tourist mobility needs and the associated fluctuation impacts in the design of mobility solutions in order to enforce the accessibility, attractiveness, efficiency and sustainability of transport services and infrastructure for both residents and tourists in island cities such as Rethymno, Crete, and Valetta, Malta. Sustainable Mobility for Island Destinations contains contributions from highly experienced academics, engineers, and planners in the area of sustainable tourism, mobility services, and smart solutions design companies assisting: the change of the mind set in insular and tourism areas; the adoption of green mobility systems and services; and monitoring the environmental benefits to assist towards the Climate Change. It explores the challenges tourist islands face, such as the seasonal fluxes in transport usage, the pressures of tourism to provide aesthetic green spaces, and the space issues of being an island in relation to economic potential and infrastructure construction. The book suggests areas for future research, and implementation of innovative systems and policies. It will be of interest to academics, planners, decision makers, and environmentalists

Sustainable Mobility for Island Destinations

This open access book presents the findings of the CIVITAS DESTINATIONS project regarding the link between mobility and tourism in urban areas and the complications tourist destinations face in becoming more sustainable. It integrates the tourist mobility needs and the associated fluctuation impacts in the design of mobility solutions in order to enforce the accessibility, attractiveness, efficiency and sustainability of transport services and infrastructure for both residents and tourists in island cities such as Rethymno, Crete, and Valetta, Malta. Sustainable Mobility for Island Destinations contains contributions from highly experienced academics, engineers, and planners in the area of sustainable tourism, mobility services, and smart solutions design companies assisting: the change of the mind set in insular and tourism areas; the adoption of green mobility systems and services; and monitoring the environmental benefits to assist towards the Climate Change. It explores the challenges tourist islands face, such as the seasonal fluxes in transport usage, the pressures of tourism to provide aesthetic green spaces, and the space issues of being an island in relation to economic potential and infrastructure construction. The book suggests areas for future research, and implementation of innovative systems and policies. It will be of interest to academics, planners, decision makers, and environmentalists

Cycling risks communication using Web-GIS: different visualisation techniques and their effectiveness

Scottish Government has been committed for many years to encouraging cycling as main private means of transport, in 2008 1% of all Scottish travel were made by bicycle, the vision is to increase this rate to 10% by 2020. In 2012, 2% of travels between 3 and 5 km in Scotland were made by bicycle, the goal is actually far but in the meantime we are noticing that cycling has become more and more popular in daily commute, especially in urban environments where its rapid growth has usually been associated with safety problems. In Scotland and UK between 2011 and 2012 the number of people injured in accidents involving bicycles has raised. Reducing casualties is therefore a primary objective sought by public institutions at any levels. I will explore innovative visualisation techniques and I will elaborate a safe route planner able avoid critical areas where cycling accidents tend to cluster. Bicycles collisions data from 2005-2012 are provided by Department for Transport. A safe route choice model will make use of information derived from this dataset to optimise a least cost path algorithm for the route planner. Effectiveness of the route planner will be tested to assess the risk reduction and to evaluate how conceived risk communication techniques succeed at generating awareness in experienced and non-experienced cyclists. The first test will actually highlight the success of the model while users will responses will vary according to their cycling experience. The research will fill gaps regarding cyclist aimed web-GIS services and at the same time will point out how the communication and perception of risk might be taken into account for further research

Network-on-Chip -based Multi-Processor System-on-Chip: Towards Mixed-Criticality System Certification

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

A passenger security system for mass transit electric buses: a case study of the Kayoola EVS bus

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Embedded and Mobile Systems Engineering of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyKiira Motors Corporation (KMC), a state-owned enterprise was established in 2011 to champion the development of the Ugandan automotive value chain for job and wealth creation. Kiira Motors Corporation has developed several electric vehicles on the African continent since 2011, key among them is the company’s market entry product; the Kayoola EVS, a fully electric, low floor city bus with a passenger capacity of ninety-one. Through the passenger security system, KMC sees to attain its core value of customer satisfaction and solve issues like rampant insecurity of passengers and their property which are not alien occurrences on commuter taxis and buses in many African cities. The system further seeks to address, the spread of contagious diseases like COVID-19 and its risks to bus passengers. And easen difficult, time consuming tasks like passenger counting, measuring/recording temperatures, and collecting contact information. The system data and requirements elicitation was conducted using techniques like surveys, interviews, observation, literature review, webinars and desk research. These qualitative and quantitative approaches were adopted to offer insight on passenger security and mass public transport operations. A prototype of a comprehensive system comprising software and hardware components like cameras, web and mobile applications, was developed and its units’ functionality tested in an office environment. The developed system denotes potential to ensure security on the Kayoola EVS bus. It also implies averting spread of contagious diseases, timely capture of contact tracing records plus easier management and accountability for the numbers of passengers on buses

Measurement of Energy Consumption of ICT Solutions Applied for Improving Energy Efficiency in Transport Sector

In the recent times, energy efficiency is an important field in manufacturing and transport sector, mainly due to ecological concerns and ever rising energy prices. Rapid increase in population is causing an energy overload and rise in level of Green House Gases (GHG), which should be dealt in an energy efficient and smart way. We are liv-ing in the information age, where broadband, internet and data center saturates the world of information. Information is available through all possible mediums, wired as well as wireless. Data transmission and data storing capacities of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) infrastructures are growing very fast and continu-ously, which are helpful in developing effectual Intelligent Transport System (ITS) and will reduce various social and environmental problems caused by modern transportation. This thesis is based on evaluating the share of energy consumed by ICT in a smart city for the transportation domain. The use of ICT in the transport sector has been increased for the last few decades where ICT is helping on developing more energy efficient sys-tems. Due to extensive ICT equipment used, it is necessary to calculate the energy con-sumption of the ICT equipment itself to identify, how much energy has been reduced in the consumption. Consecutively, calculating the energy consumption and estimating how much energy efficiency is achieved with ICT equipment in the infrastructure. However, there is not a single widely approved methodology that can be implemented for appropriately estimating the energy consumption of the ICT infrastructure, which can yield correct and fruitful results. Apart from the methodologies followed for the work conducted, this thesis will also look into a number of other energy measurement methodologies. All the entities involved in power consumption for ICT solutions in transportation are calculated and justified with visualizing the data collected. These results will help in evaluating the energy expenditure of the implemented systems and it will be possible to compare these values with the energy savings that are obtained. Finally, a JAVA based energy calculator is developed to accompany the test results collected

A framework for guiding transportation improvements to support desired land use

There is a growing recognition that transportation and land use policies cannot succeed independently of one another. The interactions between them must be understood, analyzed, and accounted for in order for land use and transportation plans and policies to be effective and successful. A methodological framework is presented that can help urban planners determine what outcomes can be expected in terms of change in land use patterns within the targeted communities and within the county should a transportation project be undertaken. The framework is based on an interaction between travel demand model TRANSIMS and land use model TELUM that enables complete regional transportation and land use analysis. The framework is applied on a real world case study in New Jersey. The study evaluates the value and impact of the transportation improvement project and ascertains if it brings a desired impact on land use and transportation infrastructure. This integrated model provides an understanding of the future network conditions which will consequently lead to a better assessment of transportation improvement alternatives and land use planning. The framework provides answers to research questions in terms of what changes in land use patterns within the targeted communities and within the county can be expected if an improvement project of a transportation facility is undertaken. The framework also identifies changes in roadway network performance (travel time, speed, volume, delay) as well. The framework fully captures and incorporates induced travel demand into a regional transportation and land use analysis. This dissertation describes in detail how MPOs, state DOTs, and other planning agencies can create an integrated transportation-land use model from the ground up or create it as an extension to their existing analytical tools to bridge the gap between the two models. The dissertation identifies shortcomings of current methodology used by MPO in analyzing the impacts of a reconstruction project. It provides guidelines which enable MPOs to achieve compliance with federal mandates. It also provides step-by-step guidance of how to develop a framework which integrates transportation system and land use. The results show that the interactions between the transportation system and land use are complex and highlight the fact that the interrelationship between the two systems changes constantly and continues to evolve over time. The dissertation also explains how the integration between the two systems can be achieved through the use of multiple regression models which are built upon regional socioeconomic factors. The contributions of this dissertation to the field of transportation policy and planning are as follows: A framework allows planning agencies to utilize transportation improvement projects to guide future development patterns, densities and intensities of land use as well as encourage infill developments in an area of particular interest. A framework allows planning agencies to trace anomalies in land use patterns and identify crucial factors influencing such developments. It provides guidelines which enable planning agencies to achieve compliance with federal mandates. This dissertation discusses in detail how to create an integrated transportation-land use model from data that is readily available to planning agencies. It provides technical information in regards to TRANSIMS model development, the feedback process, and the convergence statistics. The developed model can assist urban planners to identify which transportation improvement projects should be undertaken, and at what location, in order to bring about desired outcomes. The dissertation concludes with a methodology used to calculate the economic viability of a transportation improvement project. The methodology compares the costs of construction to the estimated benefits (or savings) in various user cost categories, including travel time, fuel consumption, and vehicle emissions