Calculating the Impacts of Alternative Parking Pricing and Enforcement Policies in Urban Areas with Traffic Problems

Called to seek fresh thinking in mobility management, European cities present strong interest in parking management. In contrast with traditional approaches where parking problem was treated as a problem of inadequate supply whose solution lies on abundant, free and on a first-come basis parking provision, the rational of parking management is conscripted so as to combat traffic and environmental problems. At the new parking approach, parking policy should respect particular needs of each area and should apply in a flexible way so as to serve an integrated development plan. At this framework, the current paper examines Thessaloniki’s case, Greece, that presents severe traffic problems. The paper tries to evaluate the impacts on traffic and environmental indicators of the implementation of a controlled parking system. The results verify that when a parking system becomes controlled and a strong enforcement mechanism applies, the modal split changes in favor of public transport

Exploring the Factors Influencing Parental Choices on School Trips

Within the last decades, the examination and definition of factors affecting the mode choice decision on school trips has gained much of attention, as the completion of such trips represent a vast percentage of total travel demand. Key players of the decision process are students' parents, deciding how their children will complete everyday trips from their residence to the school unit and vice versa. The current study examines the factors affecting parents' travel mode choice for school trips of both primary and high school students in Thessaloniki city, Greece. Data collected is based on a questionnaire survey in which, 512 parents participated, stating their perception regarding the use of several transport modes for school trips and the motives behind specific adopted travel behavioural aspects. Three main topics are examined and analysed related to the parents' attitudes and their travel habits in the choice of motorized and non-motorized transport modes, the parents' perception regarding the built environment safety, and the parents' perception regarding specific parameters which appear to motivate them in the mode choice decision process. For the research analysis, a number of statistical methods and techniques are deployed, starting with descriptive statistical and Pearson's correlation analysis and proceeding with the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The results verify initial thoughts for critical factors which appear to affect parents' choices regarding their children’s school trips while they also gives an initial picture of parents' experiences regarding the school travel mode choice, in an urban environment of a typical Greek city

Evaluation of Specific Policy Measures to Promote Sustainable Urban Logistics in Small-medium Sized Cities: The Case of Serres, Greece

AbstractUrban logistics is an integral part of the proper functioning of a city. It generates employment, serves and supports industrial and commercial activities that are daily taking place in modern urban centres, considered to be important levers of development and prosperity for a region. In recent years, interest in sustainable freight distribution procedures has been increasing among Local Authorities. Sustainable mobility, planning and development of relative management systems involves multiple stakeholders who -through collective effort- need to design, organize and implement actions and measures to support them. This paper presents specific policy measures regarding the enhancement of urban logistics procedures in small-medium sized cities, evaluated through a multi-criteria analysis in the framework of the elaboration of a Sustainable Urban Logistics Plan (SULP) for the city of Serres in Greece

Travelers-led Innovation in Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans

Putting citizens in the position of city planners while giving them a sense of purpose and plans' ownership is a difficult task since the win-win effect of participating in mobility planning is, in the majority of cases, not properly communicated. Aiming to display to travelers the value of their contribution with ultimate scope to increase the participatory approach in Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) concept, the current paper presents the e-platform of MOTIVATE project (MED programme, 2014-2020) developed to cover low citizens' engagement levels. MOTIVATE e-platform is estimated to become a useful tool on the hands of city planners and transport engineers via which, the daunting task of data collection and idea/views/opinions capturing will be facilitated. Furthermore, the exploitation of MOTIVATE e-platform is estimated to support travel behavior change towards environmental friendly ways of transport and increase the acceptability, and thus the efficiency, of sustainable mobility plans

Exploring the Effects of University Campus Decentralization to Students’ Mode Choice

Mobility patterns and travel behavior aspects of students traveling to universities, are gaining attention, as the completion of such every day trips are rather complicated. University students form a social group, essentially autonomous in terms of mode choice decision making. Understanding the mode choice decision process, may reveal the most appropriate interventions for achieving sustainable transport goals. The current study aims to examine various aspects of university students’ travel bahaviour such as travel distance, travel time, comfort and safety in the city of Xanthi, Greece. Moving a step forward, the paper provides a better understanding of students’ travel patterns in two different environments due to the University relocation from an urban environment to a more isolated one. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey is conducted where students describe their travel habits before and after the relocation. In addition, students are given a choice set comprised of eight different factors hypothesized to internalize the effect of the relocation on mode choice for the trips to and from the University and they are asked to prioritize them ranking them from the most significant one to the least important. For the analysis two Multinomial Logit models are developed. The results verify initial considerations; distance and time are the most important factors for both cases while the use of public transport instead of walking increases the importance of economy and safety

Increasing the attractiveness of public transport by investing in soft ICT based measures: Going from words to actions under an austerity backdrop – Thessaloniki\u27s case, Greece

Thessaloniki undergoes radical changes; the city, although negatively affected by the recurrent effects of the economic crisis, is tentatively moving along the path to recovery. Taking advantage of lower rates in car use due to economic reasons, a Public Transport (PT) system reform, where the impact of adding value can thus be bigger, should be posed at the crux of the city\u27s agenda. This reform refers to a provision of services contributing to the development of “accessible – affordable – high-quality” PT, which should, however, be based on “smart-and-soft” interventions that respect the limited budget while upgrading the perceived PT quality. Based on a dedicated examination of Thessaloniki, this paper seeks to determine users\u27 needs and the impact on perceived time savings (and on modal shift) of key investments based on the exploitation of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for PT. The paper examines the soft interventions because the current economic system cannot afford extra pressure from the adoption of costly measures. The paper concludes by verifying that ICT can play a catalytic role in changing passengers\u27 perception concerning time savings and can encourage passengers to use PT more often

Investigating factors affecting the mode choice in school trips

The current Thesis, attempts to study and analyse in depth personal underlying characteris-tics influencing parents in the mode choice procedure, regarding the transport mode their children will use for travelling to and from their school unit. The research aims to identify aspects of human behaviour regarding the execution and completion of school trips, while at the same time attempts to reveal the importance and significance parents attribute to spe-cific parameters that positively or negatively affect the mode choice decision.School transportation as well as other pupils’ extracurricular activities is an integral and im-portant part of society including many aspects such as knowledge attainment, socialization, identity building etc. Several definitions have be given to the school transportation, depend-ing on the way it is executed. In general, it is defined as the transfer of students to and from school, school events and activities.Investigating further deeper the wider concept of school transportation, it can be claimed that for a society, it is one of the most crucial, costly and responsible services provided to public, as it substantially ensures the children’s access to school. For that reason, Govern-ments and Local Authorities try to develop strategies that lead to a well-structured and or-ganized system for the management and control of the services provided.Travelling to school and back, forms mobility habits and travel behaviour aspects of students from a very young age, also adopted in their later life. The key players of the whole decision process are students’ parents, as in most cases they are the ones to decide how their chil-dren will complete everyday trips from their residence to the school unit and vice versa. Thus, parents' perceptions regarding the use of transport modes greatly influence the mobil-ity attitude students adopt from a very young age.The above-mentioned issues combined to the fact that the use of private vehicles for school trips has increased in recent decades against alternative transport modes (bicycle, walking, use of Public Transport System), pose an imperative need of investigating the parameters playing a catalytic role in the decision – making process. A further analysis of the motives behind the parents’ mode choice decision on school trips, may lead to solutions’ and strate-gies’ proposals which may reverse this trend in the near future, while it will also provide use-ful information to policy-makers, transport and spatial planners on how to overcome possi-ble barriers and difficulties in order to satisfactory cover all students’ future mobility needs.The basic stages the current research followed are:The first stage included the review of the corresponding bibliographic sources related to the research scope. It covered areas related to the existing school transportation institutional framework in Greece and international, issues related to statistic data regarding provided safety levels of a school transportation system and issues related to parents’ decision-making process regarding the mode choice for school travel. The combined critical review of the above mentioned issues, demarcated the problem, identified the research questions and de-termined the subject and purpose of this dissertation.The second stage included the design of the research, thus the design of an appropriate questionnaire in order to investigate the research questions according to the findings of the first stage. The research was conducted on parents of public Primary and High schools locat-ed in the wider area of the city of Thessaloniki in Greece. The sampling was carried out in full compliance with the sampling directives.The third stage included the process of conducting the survey, the collection of relevant data and the recording of this data in a relational database. The total period of data collection amounted approximately three months.In the fourth stage, the statistical analysis of the collected data took place including the de-scriptive statistical analysis, the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and the Confirmatory Fac-tor Analysis (CFA) which were the two main steps for the Structural Equation Model(SEM) development. SEM was structured focused on the main purpose of the current research, thus the identification of factors’ interrelations affecting the mode choice decision process re-garding the completion of school trips. Finally, three different Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) were constructed in order to identify the behavioural patterns of parents that lead to the prediction of specific decisions regarding students’ mode choice for students. The con-struction of ANNs was deemed necessary during the last stage of the present dissertation due to the ability of ANNs to generalize, thus the ability to be used in studies beyond those for which they were trained for.Regarding the literature review, the main conclusions are:The school transportation system in Greece presents common protocols with other European and international countries The alternative transportation as an option (cycling, walking school bus) even though it is successfully implemented in other countries it is not yet widespread in GreeceDespite the fact that the issue of school road safety is crucial, gaps are identified in the recording and provision of quantified traffic accident data regarding school trips both on local and national level.Safest school transport modes are found to be the school bus and the use of public transport systems, while a large percentage of injuries and deaths are linked with the use of alternative transport modes (walking, bicycling)Within the last thirty years, very significant reductions have been achieved in the percentages of traffic accidents in general and also in those involving children, main-ly due to policies and laws enforcedCritical parameters influencing parents in the mode choice decision process, are stu-dents’ age and gender, parents’ professional status, family income, car ownership in-dex, distance of residence from the school unit, route’s safety and parents' percep-tions regarding the use of different transport modes as well as mobility habits adopt-ed for daily trips completion.Regarding the most significant findings of the questionnaire survey on parents of Primary and High School students in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece, these are summarized below: Parents are very sceptical of allowing students to travel by bicycle to and from the school unitParents are captive of private vehicles use as they:a)consider that the prevailing traffic conditions on the city's road network are quite dangerous for students’ safety (traffic congestion, unsafe crossings, etc.),b)the existing Public Transport System provides inadequate services to passengers (unreliable itineraries, time delays, lack of comfortable conditions within the vehi-cles, etc.),c)there is a lack of appropriate and safe infrastructure for bicycle use.Differences are identified between students’ age categories regarding the transport mode used for a school trip. More specifically, High school students’ parents are in favour of walking as an alternative option, strengthening therefore the perception that older students travel more autonomouslyDifferences in students’ school trips are observed between the morning and the even-ing shift. Percentages of walking and use of school bus provided by the school unit, are increasing in the afternoon shift while a corresponding decrease is observed in the private vehicle use choice.The most important parameters for selecting a transport mode are safety, student’s age and the distance of the residence from the school unit, while the family income and travel cost are the least important.Regarding the Structural Equation Μodel developed for the needs of the present study, the most important conclusions emerged are:Parents’ perception regarding the use of bus seems to be affected by the safety pro-vided by the route from the stop to the school unit or the residence and vice versa.Parents’ perception regarding the use of private vehicle seems to influence their choice in favour of the private vehicle.Parents’ perception regarding the use of non-motorized transport modes (walking and bicycling) seems to have a positive effect on parents’ choice regarding the school trip completion. However, the positive attitude seems to lose its validity when par-ents take into account parameters related to the students’ age and safety as well as the travel distance and the time required to for the trip’s completion.A route from the student's residence to the school unit that is not safe, motivates parents to use private vehicle for the school trip.In addition, when a route is considered as safe, parameters such as time and travel distance, student’s age and parents’ working hours seem to lose their power as they are largely ignored by the parent.Regarding the development of Artificial Neural Networks, 3 different architectures were examined, including 38 inputs (answers to the questions of the research questionnaire) and one output, the mode choice. The architectures examined are:• Architecture A: 38 inputs, 50 nodes (neurons) in a hidden layer, and 1 output (38-50-1). The output consists of either three categories-classes (private vehicle, bus and non-motorized modes (walking/ bicycle), or two (motorized modes (private vehicle and bus, non-motorized modes (walking/ bicycle).• Architecture B: 38 inputs, 55 + 10 nodes (neurons) in two hidden layers and 1 output (38-55-10-1). The output consists of either three categories-classes (private vehicle, bus, non-motorized modes(walking / bicycle), or two (motorized modes (private vehicle and bus, non-motorized modes( walking / bicycle)).• Architecture C: 38 inputs, 65 + 15 nodes (neurons) in two hidden layers and 1 output (38-65-15-1). In this case, also the output consists of either three categories-(private ve-hicle, bus, non-motorized modes(walking / bicycle), or two (motorized modes (private vehicle and bus, non-motorized modes( walking / bicycle)).For each of the above architectures, the three options of the school trip included in the re-search questionnaire were examined:Current transport mode used for the morning school trip completion (residence-school unit) Current transport mode used for the morning school trip completion (school-residence)Preferred transport modeEach ANN was trained 10 times. For each of three parent choices (preferred transport mode, current transport mode used for the morning school trip completion and current transport mode used for the morning school trip completion) 10 experimental tests (simulations) were preformed to confirm the stability of the classifier. The total number of finally trained ANNs was 180.The three categories ANN analysis (ANN 38-50-1, ANN 38-55-10-1, ANN 38-65-15-1) under three options of school travel-(private vehicle, bus, non-motorized modes(walking / bicy-cle),led to the following conclusions:A hidden layers increase from the one hidden level architecture (ANN 38-50-1), to the two hidden layers (ANN 38-55-10-1 and ANN 38-65-15-1) architectures does not seem to have any particular significant effect on the optimization of the ANNs predictive capacity as the percentages of successful forecasts show minor differ-ences between them.ANNs systematically overestimate the non-motorized mode choice (walk-ing/bicycle), compared to private vehicle or bus choices.Trained ANNs systematically underestimate the use of bus, as forecast rates are clearly lower than the percentages provided by the questionnaire survey in both the preferable and the current transport mode used for the morning and the af-ternoon school trip completion.Regarding the transport mode used, a difference is found in the predictive capac-ity of the ANNs refer to the use private vehicle between the morning and the af-ternoon school trip. While in the morning trip (residence– school unit) the ANN predicted higher rates of private vehicle use than the actual rates (as they emerged from the questionnaire survey), in the afternoon trip (school unit-residence) the exact opposite result has been noticed, therefore the ANNs under-estimate the selection and use of private vehicle.Finally, the three categories ANN analysis (ANN 38-50-1, ANN 38-55-10-1, ANN 38-65-15-1) under two options of school travel-(motorized modes (private vehicle and bus), non-motorized modes(walking / bicycle), led to the following conclusions:A hidden layers increase from the one hidden level architecture (ANN 38-50-1), to the two hidden layers (ANN 38-55-10-1 and ANN 38-65-15-1) architectures does not seem to have any particular significant effect on the optimization of the ANNs predictive capacity as the percentages of successful forecasts show minor differ-ences between them.The vast majority of ANNs overestimate the non-motorized travel choices (walk-ing/bicycle) over the motorized choices (private vehicle and bus).The same finding applies in the case of the afternoon transport mode choice (school unit - residence), while in the morning case differences have been no-ticed.In conclusion, the results of this Thesis provide a methodology of predicting parents’ mode choice on school trips through the recognition of behaviour patterns leading to specific deci-sions. The Artificial Neural Networks training based on input data extracted from reliable and documented questionnaire surveys, produce satisfactory predictions regarding the use of specific transport mode for the school trip completion providing therefore an important and easy-to-use tool in the scientific community toolbox as well as in the planning and im-plementation of sustainable urban mobility policies.Η παρούσα Διδακτορική Διατριβή επιχειρεί να διερευνήσει και να αναλύσει σε βάθος υπο-κρυπτόμενα συμπεριφοριστικά χαρακτηριστικά που επηρεάζουν τους γονείς στην επιλογή μέσου μετακίνησης των μαθητών από και προς τη σχολική τους μονάδα. Η έρευνα που πραγματοποιείται καλείται να αναγνωρίσει πτυχές της ανθρώπινης συμπεριφοράς όσον αφορά στην εκτέλεση και ολοκλήρωση σχολικών μετακινήσεων, ενώ παράλληλα αποκαλύ-πτει τη σπουδαιότητα των αναγκών που οι γονείς αποδίδουν σε συγκεκριμένες παραμέ-τρους που επηρεάζουν θετικά ή αρνητικά την επιλογή του μέσου μετακίνησης των μαθη-τών από και προς τη σχολική τους μονάδα.Η σχολική μετακίνηση, ως γενικότερος ορισμός, αφορά τη μεταφορά των μαθητών όλων των βαθμίδων εκπαίδευσης από και προς τη σχολική μονάδα στην οποία φοιτούν, καθώς επίσης και προς άλλες σχολικές δραστηριότητες και εκδηλώσεις. Αποτελεί αναπόσπαστο και πολύ σημαντικό κομμάτι μιας κοινωνίας καθώς διασφαλίζει στους μαθητές το δικαίωμά τους στη μάθηση. Με τον τρόπο αυτό συνδράμει σε πολύ μεγάλο βαθμό στην επίτευξη γνώσης, την ομαλή κοινωνικοποίηση των μαθητών και την ανάπτυξη της προσωπικότητάς τους εν γένει.Για μια κοινωνία, το αντικείμενο της σχολικής μετακίνησης αποτελεί μία από τις πλέον υ-πεύθυνες και κοστοβόρες υπηρεσίες που η πολιτεία καλείται να παρέχει δημόσια, για να εξασφαλίσει ουσιαστικά την πρόσβαση των μαθητών στα σχολεία. Για τον λόγο αυτό, η πο-λιτεία επιδιώκει να υιοθετεί και να εφαρμόζει στρατηγικές οι οποίες να καταλήγουν στη λει-τουργία ενός καλά δομημένου και οργανωμένου συστήματος διαχείρισης και ελέγχου των παρεχόμενων σχολικών μεταφορικών υπηρεσιών.Η μετακίνηση και η επιλογή του μέσου μετακίνησης από και προς τη σχολική μονάδα δια-μορφώνει από μικρή ηλικία τη συνολική συμπεριφορά που υιοθετούν οι μαθητές ως προς τον τρόπο που θα πραγματοποιήσουν τις κάθε είδους μετακινήσεις τους στο μέλλον. Επι-προσθέτως, οι συνήθειες κινητικότητας που αποκτούν οι μαθητές κατά την περίοδο της σχολικής εκπαίδευσης πολύ συχνά εξακολουθούν να τις διατηρούν και στη μετέπειτα ζωή τους. Τον σημαντικότερο ρόλο στη διαδικασία επιλογής μέσου κατέχουν οι γονείς. Αυτοί εί-ναι που στην πλειονότητα των περιπτώσεων αποφασίζουν με ποιον τρόπο και με ποιο με-ταφορικό μέσο θα πραγματοποιηθεί η σχολική μετακίνηση. Εντούτοις, οι αντιλήψεις που έχουν διαμορφώσει οι γονείς σχετικά με τους τρόπους καθώς και η συμπεριφορά που έχουν αναπτύξει ως προς τη χρήση των διαφόρων μέσων μετακίνησης επηρεάζουν σε πολύ μεγά-λο βαθμό τη στάση που υιοθετούν τα παιδιά από πολύ μικρή ηλικία.Τα παραπάνω σε συνδυασμό και με το γεγονός ότι τις τελευταίες δεκαετίες έχει αυξηθεί η χρήση του ΙΧ οχήματος σε βάρος της εναλλακτικής μετακίνησης (πεζή μετακίνηση, μετακί-νηση με ποδήλατο,) καθιστούν επιτακτική την ανάγκη της σε βάθος διερεύνησης της συ-μπεριφοράς των μετακινούμενων μαθητών ως προς την επιλογή μέσου, ώστε μέσα από την κατανόηση να προσδιορισθούν οι λύσεις και οι στρατηγικές που θα πρέπει να ακολουθη-θούν στο άμεσο μέλλον με σκοπό την αντιστροφή αυτής της τάσης.Η Διδακτορική Διατριβή αναπτύσσεται σε τέσσερα βασικά στάδια: Το πρώτο στάδιο αφορούσε στην ανάγνωση και αναζήτηση των αντίστοιχων βιβλιογραφι-κών πηγών που άπτονται του αντικειμένου της διατριβής.To αντικείμενο αυτό κάλυψε το-μείς που αφορούν το νομοθετικό και θεσμικό πλαίσιο που διέπει τη σχολική μετακίνηση στην ελληνική και διεθνή κοινότητα, ζητήματα που αφορούν τα παρεχόμενα επίπεδα ασφά-λειας ενός οργανωμένου συστήματος σχολικής μετακίνησης και ζητήματα που αφορούν τη διαδικασία λήψης αποφάσεων ως προς την επιλογή μέσου μετακίνησης μαθητών. Η συν-δυασμένη θεώρηση των παραπάνω προσδιόρισε το πρόβλημα, συγκεκριμενοποίησε τα ε-ρωτήματα της έρευνας και καθόρισε το αντικείμενο και τον στόχο της διδακτορικής διατρι-βής.Το δεύτερο στάδιο αφορούσε τον σχεδιασμό της έρευνας και περιέλαβε τον σχεδιασμό και τη σύνταξη κατάλληλου ερωτηματολογίου με σκοπό τη διερεύνηση των ερευνητικών ερω-τημάτων σύμφωνα με τα ευρήματα του πρώτου σταδίου. Η έρευνα διεξήχθη σε γονείς δη-μόσιων σχολείων πρωτοβάθμιας και δευτεροβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης του πολεοδομικού συ-γκροτήματος Θεσσαλονίκης (επτά δήμοι) και σε επιπλέον δύο δήμους της μητροπολιτικής ενότητας Θεσσαλονίκης (Δήμος Θέρμης και Δήμος Θερμαϊκού). Ο προσδιορισμός του δείγ-ματος πραγματοποιήθηκε σε πλήρη συμφωνία με τις αρχές δειγματοληψίας αλλά και τους κανόνες που επιτάσσει η μέθοδος κατασκευής Μοντέλων Δομικών Εξισώσεων που χρησι-μοποιήθηκε στην παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή. Το τρίτο στάδιο περιέλαβε τη διαδικασία διεξαγωγής της έρευνας, η οποία πραγματοποιή-θηκε συνδυάζοντας την εκ του σύνεγγυς συνέντευξη με γονείς μαθητών δημοσίων σχολι-κών μονάδων Πρωτοβάθμιας και Δευτεροβάθμιας Εκπαίδευσης στο Πολεοδομικό Συγκρό-τημα της Θεσσαλονίκης και σε δύο επιπλέον Δήμους της Μητροπολιτικής Ενότητας Θεσσα-λονίκης καθώς και διαδικτυακή έρευνα έπειτα από συνεννόηση με συλλόγους γονέων συ-γκεκριμένων σχολικών μονάδων και επικοινωνία ηλεκτρονικού ερωτηματολογίου. Το αρχικό ερωτηματολόγιο κοινοποιήθηκε σε δώδεκα άτομα, τα οποία κατέγραψαν με λεπτομέρεια τις απόψεις και τις δυσκολίες που αντιμετώπισαν κατά τη συμπλήρωσή του. Έτσι διαπιστώθη-καν τα προβλήματα και οι δυσκολίες που προέκυψαν κατά τη συμπλήρωσή του και απο-φεύχθηκαν στη συνέχεια πιθανές αστοχίες που θα οδηγούσαν σε στατιστικά σφάλματα. Με βάση τις παρατηρήσεις κατά την πιλοτική διανομή του ερωτηματολογίου διαμορφώθη-κε το τελικό ερωτηματολόγιο της έρευνας, το οποίο ήταν μικρότερης έκτασης από το πιλοτι-κό καθώς η πλειοψηφία των συμμετεχόντων συμφώνησε πως θα έπρεπε να είναι μικρότε-ρης διάρκειας για να μην είναι αποθαρρυντικό και για να εξασφαλιστεί πως οι ερωτώμενοι θα το ολοκλήρωναν. Ο μέσος χρόνος συμπλήρωσης της αναθεωρημένης – τελικής μορφής του ερωτηματολογίου της έρευνας ήταν 14 λεπτά. Η διαδικασία συλλογής των ερωτηματο-λογίων, διήρκησε περίπου τρεις μήνες, (Μάιος-Ιούνιος 2019 και Σεπτέμβριος-Οκτώβριος 2019). Οι απαντήσεις καταχωρήθηκαν στη συνέχεια σε σχεσιακή βάση δεδομένων.Στο τέταρτο στάδιο, έλαβε χώρα η στατιστική ανάλυση των συλλεχθέντων δεδομένων η ο-ποία περιέλαβε την περιγραφική στατιστική ανάλυση, τη διερευνητική και την επιβεβαιωτι-κή παραγοντική ανάλυση που αποτέλεσαν τα δύο βασικά βήματα της δόμησης του Μοντέ-λου Δομικών Εξισώσεων, ΜΔΕ (Structural Equation Model-SEM). Στην περιγραφική στατιστι-κή ανάλυση και τις παραγοντικές αναλύσεις χρησιμοποιήθηκε το στατιστικό πακέτο SPSS v.21.0©ενώ η δόμηση του ΜΔΕ πραγματοποιήθηκε με τη χρήση του λογισμικού AMOS© που περιλαμβάνεται στο SPSSv.21.0©. Το ΜΔΕ δομήθηκε με κύριο σκοπό την ανάδειξη των παραγόντων που μέσω των ανεξάρτητων μεταβλητών που εμπεριέχουν (στοιχεία ερωτημα-τολογίου) επιδρούν στην επιλογή του μέσου μετακίνησης των μαθητών από και προς τη σχολική τους μονάδα. Στη συνέχεια δομήθηκαν και εκπαιδεύτηκαν 180 μοντέλα Τεχνητών Νευρωνικών Δικτύων (ΤΝΔ) με σκοπό την πρόβλεψη του μέσου μετακίνησης μαθητών, σύμφωνα με τις απαντήσεις που έδωσαν οι γονείς στην έρευνα ερωτηματολογίου του τρί-του σταδίου της διδακτορικής διατριβής. Για την εκπαίδευση των μοντέλων ΤΝΔ χρησιμο-ποιήθηκε το λογισμικό Mathworks MATLAB© καθώς επίσης και το λογισμικό Forecasting Software – Beta version το οποίο αναπτύχθηκε στο Εργαστήριο Συγκοινωνιακής Τεχνικής και Σχεδιασμού-Οργάνωσης του Χώρου του Τμήματος Πολιτικών Μηχανικών ΔΠΘ. Η επιλογή της αρχιτεκτονικής και ο έλεγχος της προβλεπτικής ικανότητας των μοντέλων ΤΝΔ πραγμα-τοποιήθηκε με χρήση συγκεκριμένων κριτηρίων σύμφωνα με τη διεθνή βιβλιογραφία.Το τελικό στάδιο περιέλαβε τη διατύπωση των συμπερασμάτων της Διδακτορικής Διατρι-βής, προτάσεις διαμόρφωσης πολιτικών που ενθαρρύνουν τις βιώσιμες αστικές και προτά-σεις διεξαγωγής περαιτέρω έρευνας. Τα βασικότερα συμπεράσματα όπως αυτά προέκυψαν από τη βιβλιογραφική ανασκόπηση είναι:Το σύστημα της σχολικής μετακίνησης στην Ελλάδα χρησιμοποιεί κοινά πρότυπα και πρωτόκολλα με άλλες χώρες της Διεθνούς Κοινότητας. Η βιώσιμη εναλλακτική μετακίνηση ως επιλογή (μετακίνηση με ποδήλατο, , σχολικό λεωφορείο με τα πόδια) που έχει υιοθετηθεί και εφαρμόζεται με επιτυχία από άλλα κράτη, δεν είναι ακόμα ευρέως διαδεδομένη στη χώρα. Παρά την κρισιμότητα του ζητήματος της σχολικής οδική

Calculating Optimal School Bus Routing and Its Impact on Safety and the Environment

Traveling to school is a complex undertaking that refers to students’ daily trips from their residences to their schools and vice versa. The school bus routing problem differs from a conventional vehicle routing problem because it involves a procedure of receiving and delivering transported vulnerable objects (students). In the Greek school transportation system, this procedure is executed in complex transport networks, following a series of routes formulated with an empirical approach; not a mathematical model. Many schools design these routes by using a manual process, taking into account primarily the parents’ requirements. However, the complexities of school bus routing problems, such as local conditions, operating costs, and customer needs, make the whole procedure extremely challenging and render the adoption of a software solution a necessity. Considering this framework, this paper presents a seven-step method developed for optimizing the school bus routes of a private school in Thessaloniki, Greece. The method is based on cluster analysis and genetic algorithms while taking into account the geographic characteristics of the road network as well as the distribution of the student’s travel behavior and requirements. The results derived from the pilot testing verify initial considerations: reducing the distance and travel time by optimizing school bus routing lessens the possibility for students to be involved in road accidents and enhances the air quality through a reduction in fuel emissions

Calculating Optimal School Bus Routing and Its Impact on Safety and the Environment

Traveling to school is a complex undertaking that refers to students’ daily trips from their residences to their schools and vice versa. The school bus routing problem differs from a conventional vehicle routing problem because it involves a procedure of receiving and delivering transported vulnerable objects (students). In the Greek school transportation system, this procedure is executed in complex transport networks, following a series of routes formulated with an empirical approach; not a mathematical model. Many schools design these routes by using a manual process, taking into account primarily the parents’ requirements. However, the complexities of school bus routing problems, such as local conditions, operating costs, and customer needs, make the whole procedure extremely challenging and render the adoption of a software solution a necessity. Considering this framework, this paper presents a seven-step method developed for optimizing the school bus routes of a private school in Thessaloniki, Greece. The method is based on cluster analysis and genetic algorithms while taking into account the geographic characteristics of the road network as well as the distribution of the student’s travel behavior and requirements. The results derived from the pilot testing verify initial considerations: reducing the distance and travel time by optimizing school bus routing lessens the possibility for students to be involved in road accidents and enhances the air quality through a reduction in fuel emissions

Sport Tourism as Driving Force for Destinations’ Sustainability

Sport tourism is a fast-growing segment of tourism offering new perspectives and supporting travelers’ behavior shift towards active living that is a boost for sustainable destinations. These interrelations between active living, active travelling, and sport tourism have a powerful environmental, economic, and social impact. Based on the recognized contribution of sport tourism in sustaining destinations, the current paper aims to (a) explore the state of sport tourism in the Adriatic–Ionian Region by identifying existing sport tourism initiatives, (b) analyze the current and future potentials of sport tourism in the area’s sustainable growth, and (c) draw policy recommendations for sport tourism development in the region with a view to support the wider vision of sustainability. The review of existing sport tourism cases, revealing an existing investment towards this tourism form, was followed by a qualitative survey of the area’s tourism stakeholders (Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia). Results reveal that sport tourism is estimated to help in building a unique identity closely linked to sustainability goals—the area represents a great natural and cultural beauty that can be emphasized by sport initiatives, while, once such efforts are incorporated in wider sustainability plans, the destinations’ profiles can be significantly upgraded