Estimation of Satisfied Customers in Public Transport Systems: A New Methodological Approach

This paper addresses quality considerations in public transportation systems and, in particular, the relation between quality of public transport service and customer satisfaction. Its aim is to provide insights into the factors that affect transit-rider satisfaction and to present a model to calculate the probability of customer satisfaction. The proposed model identifies the most important attributes of public transport service quality that can be used for service planning

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

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

A Land-Use Approach for Capturing Future Trip Generating Poles

Changes in the usage of a particular urban or regional area have immediate effects on transportation, such as the development of a new multimodal terminal within a city, or the creation of a business park in its outskirts. Thus far, this correlation has been underresearched at a national level in Greece. As a result, its effects on trip generation and passenger flows has been underestimated at the planning level, leading to the implementation of projects that are neither viable nor sustainable. This paper proposes that land use changes ought to be considered in tandem with transport-related changes at the planning stage. To this effect, we present a three-step methodology for an integrated approach to capturing future trip generation: the identification of future trip-generating poles within the study area; the development of scenarios related to the probability of these changes occurring and their potential magnitude; an estimation of future trends in passenger flows. The methodology is applied to the Metropolitan area of Thessaloniki, Greece. Using data obtained from development plans, national statistical services and research projects’ and studies’ findings, we estimate future trip-generation subsequent to land use change. Data is processed and evaluated by a local experts’ group, representing various key-disciplines of the area’s planning stakeholders

Exploiting Marketing Methods for Increasing Participation and Engagement in Sustainable Mobility Planning

Experience has shown that when a target group that benefits from or is affected by an intervention is included in the planning procedure from the beginning, underlying success factors are revealed and respected. Coming to sustainable mobility planning, an ideal participatory scheme (optimal synthesis of different perspectives) accompanying the sustainable mobility planning cycle would add to the interventions’ success. The current paper, based on the knowledge acquired within the e-smartec Interreg EUROPE project, is inspired by the wide spectrum of marketing techniques from the business sector and proposes the effective transfer of them to mobility co-planning and citizens’ engagement. The approach for developing this capacity-building guide (MOBENGAGE-RADAR) on engagement in mobility planning includes (i) review of existing appealing marketing techniques (1st level), (ii) extraction of the affiliated engagement methods (2nd level), (iii) identification of real-world examples of successful citizens’ engagement practices (3rd level), and (iv) correlation of methods and examples with SUMP steps. MOBENGAGE-RADAR visualizes the applicability of the different engagement and awareness raising methods for each step of mobility planning and can be used as the base for creative thinking while developing an engagement strategy