Rapid transit network design and line planning

El sector del transporte es un factor clave en una sociedad en evolución continua. El transporte proporciona movilidad de personas y bienes, acceso a empleos, desarrollo y mejora el bienestar de una sociedad. Un transporte eficiente hace accesible regiones aisladas y fácil la vida cotidiana. Inmersos en un mundo de constante evolución es difícil pensar en un futuro sin un transporte eficiente y ecológico. La investigación operativa es una herramienta fundamental en los procesos de planificación del transporte y su gestión. Los problemas que surgen en el contexto del transporte son generalmente descritos y analizados por medio de modelos de programación matemática. Estos problemas son de naturaleza compleja y difíciles de resolver. A través de modelos y métodos matemáticos adecuados, este tipo de problemas puede resolverse en un tiempo razonable. Esta tesis se centra en el desarrollo de modelos matemáticos en el contexto de sistemas de transporte rápido así como en técnicas eficientes para su resolución. Los sistemas de transportes rápidos comprenden sistemas de metro, autobuses con carril especial, metro ligero, monorail, etc. Tradicionalmente, el proceso de planificación de transporte rápido en el contexto de ferrocarriles, se ha descompuesto en una sucesión de etapas: diseño de redes, diseño de líneas, horarios, gestión del material rodante y planificación del personal. Sin embargo, en los últimos años puede observarse una fuerte tendencia a integrar etapas. La integración de varias etapas en los procesos de planificación lleva a sistemas más difíciles de resolver pero de mejores resultados. Así, una de las propuestas de esta tesis es desarrollar un modelo matemático general que integre las etapas de diseño de redes y planificación de líneas. Concretamente, estamos interesados en determinar, simultáneamente la red de infraestructura, la planificación de líneas, la capacidad del tren de cada línea y la inversión de la flota requerida y del personal. Asimismo, incorporamos el procedimiento de asignación de tráfico en el proceso de optimización y un modo de transporte compitiendo con la red que estamos diseñando. También proponemos un algoritmo para resolver este problema a escala real. Otra importante contribución de esta tesis es el tratamiento realista del problema hecho que, en ocasiones, la investigación olvida. Bajo esta perspectiva, presentamos un análisis riguroso para la calibración de todos los aspectos que aparecen como consecuencia de integración de etapas. Por otra parte, en una situación realista, varios datos de entrada como matrices origen-destino, tiempos de viajes y costes, pueden presentar incertidumbre o son desconocidos de antemano, llevando así a sistemas que no se adaptan a la realidad. Por lo tanto, es necesario desarrollar modelos matemáticos robustos y hacer uso de la optimización robusta. En esta tesis hemos estudiado este tipo de problemas teniendo en cuenta la presencia de incertidumbre en los datos de demanda. Otro aspecto innovador a destacar es la aplicación de la teoría de hipergrafos en el campo del transporte. En los últimos años, el estudio de redes complejas ha atraído a muchos investigadores. En particular, el fenómeno "small-world" fue introducido en 1998 por los matemáticos Duncan Watts y Steven Strogatz. Watts y Strogatz mostraron que las redes complejas podían clasificarse por medio de dos medidas conocidas como "coeficiente de agrupación" y "longitud del camino característico". Este tipo de redes son robustas ante ataques intencionados y vulnerables a fallos aleatorios. Sin embargo, más tarde se mostró que estas medidas no son aplicables a ciertas redes. Medidas tales como "eficiencia global y local" fueron introducidas y analizadas para describir este tipo de redes complejas. En esta tesis nos hemos interesado en todas estas medidas así como en medidas de robustez. Como consecuencia de la revisión y adaptación de estas medidas a redes de transportes se han estudiado propiedades de las mismas. Motivados por clasificar las redes de transportes como redes complejas, según la definición propuesta por Watts y Strogatz, hemos ido un paso más, representando, a través de la estructura de hipergrafos, redes de transporte colectivo. Esta estructura permite describir y analizar las redes de transporte desde diferentes niveles de abstracción

An analysis of the mobility hub concept in the Netherlands:Historical lessons for its implementation

The mobility hub concept has become increasingly popular within international research and policies, including in The Netherlands. However, judging by the (still) limited share of multimodality in the Netherlands, similar historical concepts seemed insufficient to prompting a fundamental shift from individual car use to multimodal transport. To enable planners to be better positioned to implement the mobility hub concept, we compared its value with that of related concepts that were previously implemented. Specifically, we examined historical Dutch policy documents and conducted expert and frontrunner interviews to evaluate the mobility hub as a policy concept. We first traced the evolution of the mobility hub, focusing on node and place-based concepts that have been implemented since the second half of the 20th century. We found that related concepts, such as Park and Ride (P + R) or transit-oriented development (TOD), have typically focused on improving transfers between collective and feeder transport, while interactions with land use have gained increased attention. We derived policy lessons from the implementation of these historical policy concepts. Our findings suggest that strategically chosen locations, integrated mobility systems, flanking policies, multi-level policy coherence and public–private cooperation are important considerations when implementing mobility hubs. Moreover, shared mobility, mobility as a service, vehicle electrification, and demand-responsive transit could advance the implementation of TOD, P + R, neighbourhood and rural hubs. In conclusion, the design of different types of mobility hubs should ideally be based on underlying policy objectives and adapted according to context

Evaluating network criticality of interdependent infrastructure systems: applications for electrical power distribution and rail transport

Critical infrastructure provides essential services of economic and social value. However, the pressures of demand growth, congestion, capacity constraints and hazards such as extreme weather increase the need for infrastructure resilience. The increasingly interdependent nature of infrastructure also heightens the risk of cascading failure between connected systems. Infrastructure companies must meet the twin-challenge of day-to-day operations and long-term planning with increasingly constrained budgets and resources. With a need for an effective process of resource allocation, this thesis presents a network criticality assessment methodology for prioritising locations across interdependent infrastructure systems, using metrics of the expected consequence of an asset failure for operational service performance. Existing literature is focused mainly upon simulating the vulnerability of national-scale infrastructure, with assumptions of both system dynamics and dependencies for simplicity. This thesis takes a data-driven and evidence-based approach, using historical performance databases to inherently capture system behaviour, whilst network diagrams are used to directly identify asset dependencies. Network criticality assessments are produced for three applications of increasing complexity from (i) electricity distribution, to (ii) railway transport, to (iii) electrified railway dependencies on external power supplies, using case studies of contrasting infrastructure management regions. This thesis demonstrates how network criticality assessments can add value to subjective tacit knowledge and high-level priorities both within and between infrastructure systems. The spatial distribution of criticality is highlighted, whilst the key contribution of the research is the identification of high-resolution single points of failure and their spatial correlation across systems, particularly within urban areas. Service-level metrics also have a broad applicability for a range of functions, including incident response, maintenance and long-term investment. The role of network criticality within a holistic and systemic decision-making process is explored, for risk assessment and resilience interventions. The limitations of the research, regarding sample-size caveats and the definition of system boundaries within performance databases, lead to recommendations on cross-system fault reporting and the improvement of information systems

The Digital Transformation of Automotive Businesses: THREE ARTEFACTS TO SUPPORT DIGITAL SERVICE PROVISION AND INNOVATION

Digitalisation and increasing competitive pressure drive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to switch their focus towards the provision of digital services and open-up towards increased collaboration and customer integration. This shift implies a significant transformational change from product to product-service providers, where OEMs realign themselves within strategic, business and procedural dimensions. Thus, OEMs must manage digital transformation (DT) processes in order to stay competitive and remain adaptable to changing customer demands. However, OEMs aspiring to become participants or leaders in their domain, struggle to initiate activities as there is a lack of applicable instruments that can guide and support them during this process. Compared to the practical importance of DT, empirical studies are not comprehensive. This study proposes three artefacts, validated within case companies that intend to support automotive OEMs in digital service provisioning. Artefact one, a layered conceptual model for a digital automotive ecosystem, was developed by means of 26 expert interviews. It can serve as a useful instrument for decision makers to strategically plan and outline digital ecosystems. Artefact two is a conceptual reference framework for automotive service systems. The artefact was developed based on an extensive literature review, and the mapping of the business model canvas to the service system domain. The artefact intends to assist OEMs in the efficient conception of digital services under consideration of relevant stakeholders and the necessary infrastructures. Finally, artefact three proposes a methodology by which to transform software readiness assessment processes to fit into the agile software development approach with consideration of the existing operational infrastructure. Overall, the findings contribute to the empirical body of knowledge about the digital transformation of manufacturing industries. The results suggest value creation for digital automotive services occurs in networks among interdependent stakeholders in which customers play an integral role during the services’ life-cycle. The findings further indicate the artefacts as being useful instruments, however, success is dependent on the integration and collaboration of all contributing departments.:Table of Contents Bibliographic Description II Acknowledgment III Table of Contents IV List of Figures VI List of Tables VII List of Abbreviations VIII 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Motivation and Problem Statement 1 1.2 Objective and Research Questions 6 1.3 Research Methodology 7 1.4 Contributions 10 1.5 Outline 12 2 Background 13 2.1 From Interdependent Value Creation to Digital Ecosystems 13 2.1.1 Digitalisation Drives Collaboration 13 2.1.2 Pursuing an Ecosystem Strategy 13 2.1.3 Research Gaps and Strategy Formulation Obstacles 20 2.2 From Products to Product-Service Solutions 22 2.2.1 Digital Service Fulfilment Requires Co-Creational Networks 22 2.2.2 Enhancing Business Models with Digital Services 28 2.2.3 Research Gaps and Service Conception Obstacles 30 2.3 From Linear Development to Continuous Innovation 32 2.3.1 Digital Innovation Demands Digital Transformation 32 2.3.2 Assessing Digital Products 36 2.3.3 Research Gaps and Implementation Obstacles 38 3 Artefact 1: Digital Automotive Ecosystems 41 3.1 Meta Data 41 3.2 Summary 42 3.3 Designing a Layered Conceptual Model of a Digital Ecosystem 45 4 Artefact 2: Conceptual Reference Framework 79 4.1 Meta Data 79 4.2 Summary 80 4.3 On the Move Towards Customer-Centric Automotive Business Models 83 5 Artefact 3: Agile Software Readiness Assessment Procedures 121 5.1 Meta Data 121 5.2 Meta Data 122 5.3 Summary 123 5.4 Adding Agility to Software Readiness Assessment Procedures 126 5.5 Continuous Software Readiness Assessments for Agile Development 147 6 Conclusion and Future Work 158 6.1 Contributions 158 6.1.1 Strategic Dimension: Artefact 1 158 6.1.2 Business Dimension: Artefact 2 159 6.1.3 Process Dimension: Artefact 3 161 6.1.4 Synthesis of Contributions 163 6.2 Implications 167 6.2.1 Scientific Implications 167 6.2.2 Managerial Implications 168 6.2.3 Intelligent Parking Service Example (ParkSpotHelp) 171 6.3 Concluding Remarks 174 6.3.1 Threats to Validity 174 6.3.2 Outlook and Future Research Recommendations 174 Appendix VII Bibliography XX Wissenschaftlicher Werdegang XXXVII Selbständigkeitserklärung XXXVII

Mobilizing city-regional urbanization: The political economy of transportation and the Production of the metropolis in Chicago and Toronto

Studies of cities and urbanization are confronted with significant theoretical and methodological challenges as the urban question is reposed at the city-regional scale. Normative understandings of city-regions as sites of economic innovation and distinct political actors on the world stage belie the complex processes underlying their production. This has significant implications for social justice and political practice. This dissertation engages the challenges of city-regional urbanization through a critical comparative analysis of urban transportation institutions and infrastructure in the Chicago and Toronto city-regions. Focusing on long-term historical and spatial structures, the study demonstrates how multiscalar political, economic and social processes crystallize in specific urban formations and in tum, how processes of urbanization shape urban governance and practices of everyday life. The dissertation develops three central theoretical innovations. First, it introduces a geographical historical-materialist comparative framework to examine the contingent evolution of city-regional formations in space and across time using a cross-national perspective. Second, it reframes urban transportation as a key realm of political economy inquiry, redressing the limitations of traditional transportation geography and the poststructural approaches which dominate urban infrastructures literature. Third, it incorporates diverse urban, suburban and post-suburban spaces within an overarching theorization of city-regional urbanization as an expression of centripetal and centrifugal forces. Qualitative methods are used to uncover and analyze socially-entangled and geographically-disparate urban relations. The empirical analysis reveals that the prioritization of particular scales of mobility spurs the emergence of new city-regional topologies which do not neatly align with territorially-defined forms of state space. Strategies of regionalization are as likely to open new fissures in city-regional space as they are to fuse collective regional agency. The convergences and divergences witnessed between the Chicago and Toronto city-regions illustrate the place-specific path dependent properties of institutional and infrastructure fixes that highlight the importance of historically and geographically sensitive comparative research. The dissertation's dialectical and comparative contributions open the city-region as a multifaceted, multiscalar and multilayered object of analysis. It concludes by outlining how the study's dialectical approach to city-regional urbanization can inform debates on urban transformation and social change

A computation-enabled analytical construct for the assessment of alternative urban conditions towards sustainable transport system and to support sustainable travel activities: a space time constraint-based approach

The contribution of anthropological emissions to climate change has been a widely acknowledged topic of concern in recent decades towards environmental sustainability. Urban land-based transportation for the movement of people is one of the main contributors to emissions in the UK and other countries. Environmental sustainability is most directly achieved through the reduction of motorised transport activities, including passenger transport, but travel activities related to social and economic activities must be supported in cities. Chapter 1 problematises the goal to support social and economic activities whilst reducing environmental impact as a challenge in planning and city design. The challenge within city design processes is identifying the implications of alternative urban conditions towards urban sustainability before they are built. There is a lack of an adequate computational analytical framework that considers new urban developments and new transport services in the analysis of alternative urban conditions. Chapter 2 identifies known methodological approaches to analyse alternative urban conditions before the fact (ex-ante). Each supported by after the fact (ex-post) studies correspond to the theoretical perspective underlying each approach. A space-time approach has advantages over other probable outcome-based approaches in transportintegrated city design towards transport and travel-related sustainability. However, a space-time approach has been underdeveloped for before the fact (ex-ante) analysis. This study aims address this research gap by extend ingthe space-time approach as a computational analytical construct to facilitate computational scenario modelling and analysis for transport-integrated city design. Chapter 3 outlines the theoretical framework of a space-time approach for architecture in city design. A space-time approach includes the opportunities for activity participation related to the spatial and temporal organisation of building functions and programme, physical spatial transport infrastructure, travel modes, space and time-sensitive public transport services. Together, they facilitate and constrains the inhabitants' possibilities to conduct different combinations of everyday activities. Chapter 4 details the constructive research method employed in this study. This study results in the construction of a computational analytical construct in two parts. First, an operational model extends a space-time analytical approach by integrating new technologies and data sources, with the ability to manipulate the model reflecting alternative urban conditions. Second part consist of an analytical framework for travel mode comparison in alternative urban conditions to address questions in transport and travel-related sustainability within future built environments. Chapter 5 describes the construct implementation and the interpretation of results. The operational model is tested using two reconstructed cases from previous studies. First test with a similar construct set in Karlstad where the results are found to be similar. The second test with a study in Reading with a different construct found the difference 9 between the measures as expected. The operational model's utility is demonstrated through the analytical framework in two case study experiments set in Manchester. This study contextualises a space-time approach for architecture to analyse and think about the possibilities of travel activities facilitated and constrained by alternative urban conditions as part of a city design process. The analytical construct aligns with activitybased travel analysis in transport geography, social sequence analysis, and GPS activity data analysis in geography. Thus, the analytical construct enables a conceptual link between applied research and fundamental research in understanding cities' functioning and evolution. The analytical construct provides a foundation for further research related to system changes in the wider social context that substantially modifies everyday travel-related activity patterns and how city design of alternative urban conditions can respond to changing circumstances

Sustainable Freight Transport

This Special Issue of Sustainability reports on recent research aiming to make the freight transport sector more sustainable. The sector faces significant challenges in different domains of sustainability, including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the management of health and safety impacts. In particular, the intention to decarbonise the sector’s activities has led to a strong increase in research efforts—this is also the main focus of the Special Issue. Sustainable freight transport operations represent a significant challenge with multiple technical, operational, and political aspects. The design, testing, and implementation of interventions require multi-disciplinary, multi-country research. Promising interventions are not limited to introducing new transport technologies, but also include changes in framework conditions for transport, in terms of production and logistics processes. Due to the uncertainty of impacts, the number of stakeholders, and the difficulty of optimizing across actors, understanding the impacts of these measures is not a trivial problem. Therefore, research is not only needed on the design and evaluation of individual interventions, but also on the approach of their joint deployment through a concerted public/private programme. This Special Issue addresses both dimensions, in two distinct groups of papers—the programming of interventions and the individual sustainability measures themselves

Making Mobility-as-a-Service: Towards Governance Principles and Pathways

Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is a service concept that integrates public transport with other mobility services, such as car sharing, ride sourcing, and bicycle sharing. The core idea is that intermediary digital services make it easier for users to plan, book, and pay for complementary mobility services, thereby facilitating less car-centric lifestyles. However, although MaaS has gained much interest in recent years, the concept has proven difficult to realize. Accordingly, there is a prevalent demand for knowledge on how to enable and push MaaS developments.Conceptualizing MaaS developments as an innovation process that might contribute to a sustainability transition, this thesis sets out to improve the understanding of how public sector actors can facilitate action in the early phases and steer the innovation trajectory towards addressing long-term sustainability goals. The public transport authority in V\ue4stra G\uf6taland (Sweden), and its attempts to facilitate MaaS developments, is used as a starting point. Three of its MaaS-related activities between 2016 and 2019 are analyzed based on participatory observation and stakeholder interviews. Additionally, the thesis draws on two qualitative studies of MaaS developments situated in Finland and Australia.The thesis’ contribution to the research field of MaaS is threefold. Firstly, it explores expectations of MaaS. A majority of the actors involved in the studied MaaS developments reckoned that MaaS will support a modal shift away from private car use. Still, while some actors were confident that this will lower the negative externalities of personal mobility systems, others feared that it will reinforce social and environmental problems. Of note is that none of these views are yet backed by any extensive empirical evidence, the shortage of which is an ongoing challenge for MaaS developments. Secondly, the thesis identifies institutional factors that shape MaaS developments. The studied developments were enabled by novel information technologies and motivated by the need to lessen the negative impacts of private cars. Yet, the developments brought together actors that had not previously collaborated and challenged models of collaboration, business, and customer relations, which made them contingent on complex modifications within and beyond personal mobility systems. Thirdly, the thesis examines how the public sector governs MaaS developments. The governance approaches varied across Sweden, Finland, and Australia in terms of leading actors, methods of intervention, and underlying motivations, but were yet to deliver much tangible results for citizens in all three countries.Based on these findings, the thesis proposes principles and pathways for MaaS governance. The principles advocate a broad set of activities to address all the institutional factors that impede MaaS developments. In contrast to the observed governance approaches, this includes activities aimed at strengthening mobility services and active mobility, and at weakening the private car regime. The pathways describe four roles public sector actors can take in MaaS developments – MaaS Promoter, MaaS Partner, MaaS Enabler, and Laissez-Faire – and illustrate how the method(s) of intervention can be adjusted between innovation phases. The principles and pathways thereby provide a comprehensive tool for understanding and enhancing public-private dynamics in MaaS developments

Transit Benefit Index: A Comprehensive Index for Capturing Externalities in Transit Planning

Transportation externalities plague all members of society with delays during travel, as well as healthcare costs associated with crashes, unwanted noise, and air pollutants. While attempts have been made to correct these externalities, they have generally focused on charging travellers for the use of roads or vehicles to fully capture their costs. However, the costs associated through private vehicles can instead be mitigated with the proper funding and support of public transportation systems, which can mitigate the number of private vehicles on roads. Past literature has shown that when users are charged for the use of roads and vehicles, a region’s social welfare can decrease, but an increase in subsidies and funding towards public transportation can provide similar benefits and a competitive alternative to users who primarily make private automobile trips. This research provides a methodology and tool (Transit Benefit Index) for estimating the total societal benefit generated from the substitution of private vehicle trips with public transportation trips. The external costs of private and public transportation trips are calculated in a base case travel demand model and then a mode shift is simulated to calculate the effects of shifting one full transit unit of demand from private to public modes. This shift is performed for all Origin-Destination (OD) pairs in a city or region to find the OD pair which results in the greatest net benefit. These benefits are then normalized using the total vehicle kilometers travelled removed from the network to generate a “Transit Benefit Index”. This methodology is applied to a case study using a travel demand model provided by the City of Bogotá, Colombia. Bogotá was selected due to its impressive BRT system and overall transit connections as well as its prevailing problems with congestion. A total of 12 scenarios were simulated: a base case, and 5 sensitivity analyses, each including two different transit provision per case. The results indicate that the expected savings from shifting travellers from private to public modes provides a greater economic benefit than the cost of a transit ticket in Bogotá. The conclusions are further extrapolated to the cost of a new transit unit, and it is found that the benefits derived from increased transit ridership could recover the cost of a new bus within a year. These results suggest that the City of Bogotá should consider further subsidies to transit fares to generate more transit ridership