Strategies and Measures for Sustainable Urban Transport Systems

Increasing sustainability of urban transport systems is a crucial objective of all strategic plans both at national and European level. Different strategies and measures can be adopted to improve the efficiency of transport systems, according to a large set of factors that can affect the results of the implemented actions. A comprehensive study has been carried out in order to define a methodology able to define effective and efficient strategies and measures, allowing to increase the sustainability level of different kinds of cities, from small-medium sized to large metropolitan areas. The methodology has been tested on a group of 50 Italian cities, whose characteristics have been analysed through an initial set of more than 200 indicators. Three main groups of indicators have been taken into account: State indicators, Sustainability indicators, Policy indicators. The main aim has been to identify existing relationships between Sustainability and Policy indicators for cities showing commonalities in terms of State indicators. A correlation analysis allowed to identify 53 relevant indicators from the initial set of 200, while a cluster analysis, based on a hierarchical model, allowed to group the cities into five different groups, according to their population size and density. Correlations between relevant indicators have also been analysed within each group, while linear regression models have allowed to describe some functional relations between Policy and Sustainability indicators. A benchmarking exercise has allowed to identify strategies and measures adopted by the best performers within each group, hence defining possible paths to a better sustainability level for the remaining cities. Finally, recommendations for a correct urban mobility planning procedures have been produce

An analysis on health care costs due to accidents involving powered two wheelers to increase road safety

Powered Two Wheelers (PTWs) provide a convenient mode for a large portion of population in many cities. At the same time PTWs present serious system problems, the most important being poorer safety if compared to other motorized modes. But even when lower safety levels are acknowledged, problems behind are far from being solved. Rome is an example: although PTWs accidents rates are not negligible, the need for a specific safety policy is still unmet. Therefore the local Mobility Agency appointed the authors of this paper for a study of PTWs accidents occurring in the urban area. An assessment of the associated health care costs was also required. The objective of the paper is to report the main outcomes of this study highlighting recurring features of PTWs accidents, the high health care costs and how to quantify the economic resources to improve safety. The methodology was based on three steps: i) an analysis of the causes of PTWs accidents, which resulted into the location of black spots and assessment of the severity of the events; ii) the estimation of health care costs after a scientific literature review; iii) the association of health care costs to black spots and accidents severity to rank interventions to improve PTWs safety. This led to a final list of roads where PTWs accidents of the highest severity occurred and the required economic resources to improve their safety level. This stressed, for the first time, the unaffordable expenditures due to PTWs accidents. In conclusion, the issue whether the awareness of such costs can be used as leverage for more mindful behaviors among the riders is addressed

An application of ITS devices for powered two-wheelers safety analysis: The Rome case study

Researchers, practitioners and local administrators tend to pay poor attention to Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs), thus affecting safety levels. The poor availability of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) to increase PTWs safety is evidence of the underestimation of this mode's role, although ITS applications in this field are largely beneficial to increasing road safety. A specific ITS tool to collect PTWs accidents data, tested on 23 sites in Rome, is described. The objective was to have the tested sites ranked according to a series of safety indicators, which describe the road characteristics in the most comprehensive way. Such safety indicators were selected after a review of the scientific literature in this field, focusing on those which resulted the most consistent with the Rome urban environment. The methodology began with a survey of useful ITS to collect data and "feed" the indicators, the selection of the most appropriate ITS tool for the Rome case study, and the process to apply the PTWs' safety indicators within the selected ITS tool's environment, before the test phase. After the test, results stressed that the use of the ITS tool applied could largely improve accuracy in the safety analysis, as it allowed the merging of GIS and GPS-based data in one single processing environment and improvement in the quality of indicators by integrating the accident dynamic parameters, features of road geometry, and vehicle behaviour during the accident