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

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

An innovative game-based approach for teaching urban sustainability

This paper is based on SUSTAIN, an ERASMUS+ project with an innovative perspective on urban transportation, and its target is to promote the importance of sustainability on the everyday problem of urban transportation among the students of higher education (and not only), who are the policy makers of tomorrow. In order to achieve its goals, the research team is currently developing a course that will be based on an interactive serious board game with an analytical style of education. SUSTAIN's purpose is to create a game that will allow students to learn about transportation sustainability and societal metabolism through playing. The project partners develop small and illustrative simulation models, which will make the definitions more concrete and allow students to experiment largely in a consequence-free environment. The simulation models can be used to identify scenario exemplars on how we can achieve sustainable urban transportation and consequently a balanced societal metabolism, while on the same time taking into account formal decision making processes. In this paper, we are going to explain a Stocks & Flows Diagram for the above mentioned model, with a system dynamics approac

Methodological framework for urban road traffic system identification

The ultimate objective of the current thesis is the identification and understanding of the underlying spatiotemporal dynamics within an urban road traffic system through deepening in the potentials unlocked by correlation and causality analysis. Case study for the undertaken analysis is the city of Thessaloniki, a modern Greek urban area of medium size, while floating taxi (GPS data) and Bluetooth detections based travel time timeseries constitute the basic data input. Complementary travel time data coming from a field measurement campaign with 3 floating experimental vehicles were used (covering the assumption of general traffic). All data used originated from efforts of CERTH/HIT (Centre for Research and Technology Hellas / Hellenic Institute of Transport) to develop and maintain the ‘Thessaloniki Smart Mobility Living Lab’ serving research and innovation objectives. The basic research questions posed refer to i) the reliability of traffic data collected via the various sources regarding the general traffic and the potential complementarity among them, ii) the spatiotemporal relations among road paths and iii) the exploitation of knowledge derived from the timeseries based prediction models. In line with the above research questions, an integrated methodological framework was developed making use of the following tools respectively: i) classical statistical descriptive analysis, linear, logarithmic and generalized linear models, ii) univariate (descriptive features, sequence plots, linear and non linear measures calculation as autocorrelation and mutual information) & multivariate timeseries analysis (clustering, correlation, cross-correlation, Granger causality) and iii) timeseries based models development (SARIMAX, multiple linear regression, temporal causal modelling). The analysis validates a good reliability level of the provided information from both floating taxi data and Bluetooth detections in the examined road paths while it concludes on a proposal for their complementarity. The analysis provides also useful insight for the complex causal relations among the different road paths of the network validating the existing traffic intuition. Furthermore, the visualizations deriving from the advanced time series analysis presented (Temporal Causal Models) facilitate the understanding of the relations. The flexibility of the proposed methods in including additional time series / new ‘predictors’ (e.g. delay related time series) and the potential combination of time series analysis with machine learning techniques can probably help unlocking potentials for identifying tailored equations describing traffic characteristics at urban areas (i.e. tailored volume - delay functions).Απώτερος στόχος της παρούσας διατριβής είναι η αναγνώριση και ταυτοποίηση της δυναμικής του συστήματος της οδικής αστικής κυκλοφορίας μέσω της μελέτης των συσχετίσεων και της αιτιότητας στη συσχέτιση των χρόνων διαδρομής των διαφόρων οδικών τμημάτων που συνθέτουν ένα οδικό αστικό δίκτυο. Η περιοχή αναφοράς πάνω στην οποία δομήθηκε η παρούσα ανάλυση είναι η ευρύτερη περιοχή της Θεσσαλονίκης, ενός σύγχρονου αστικού περιβάλλοντος. Τα κύρια δεδομένα εισόδου που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν για την ανάλυση αφορούν σε χρονοσειρές χρόνων διαδρομής από κινούμενα ταξί (GPS δεδομένα) και στις αντίστοιχες χρονοσειρές χρόνων διαδρομής που προκύπτουν από την ανάλυση καταγραφών σε διαδοχικούς σημειακούς ανιχνευτές Bluetooth. Συμπληρωματικά, χρόνοι διαδρομής πειραματικών οχημάτων (Ι.Χ.) συγκεντρώθηκαν από έρευνες πεδίου οι οποίοι αντιπροσωπεύουν τη γενική κυκλοφορία στην πόλη (υπόθεση). Τα βασικά ερευνητικά ερωτήματα που τέθηκαν αφορούν i) στη συμπληρωματικότητα των σύγχρονων πηγών συλλογής κυκλοφοριακών δεδομένων και στην αξιοπιστία αυτών σε σχέση με τη γενική κυκλοφορία (Ι.Χ.), ii) στη χωροχρονική ανάλυση του συστήματος (αστικό οδικό δίκτυο) και iii) στην αξιοποίηση της πληροφορίας που προκύπτει από την ανάπτυξη μοντέλων πρόβλεψης κυκλοφοριακών δεδομένων βάση χρονοσειρών. Στα βασικά εργαλεία που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν για την εύρεση απαντήσεων στα παραπάνω ερωτήματα συγκαταλέγονται κατ’ αντιστοιχία i) στατιστική ανάλυση δεδομένων και ανάπτυξη γραμμικών, λογαριθμικών και γενικευμένων γραμμικών μοντέλων, ii) μονομεταβλητή (περιγραφή, βασικά περιγραφικά μέτρα, υπολογισμός γραμμικών και μη γραμμικών μέτρων αυτοσυσχέτισης και αμοιβαίας πληροφορίας) και πολυμεταβλητή ανάλυση χρονοσειρών (ομαδοποίηση, συσχετίσεις, διασυσχετίσεις και αιτιότητα κατά Granger) και iii) ανάπτυξη μοντέλων πρόβλεψης με βάση την πληροφορία από τις χρονοσειρές (μοντέλα SARIMAX, πολλαπλή γραμμική παλινδρόμηση, χρονική αιτιώδης μοντελοποίηση). Τα συμπεράσματα από την υλοποίηση του προτεινόμενου μεθοδολογικού πλαισίου επικυρώνουν την αξιοπιστία της πληροφορίας από τις εξεταζόμενες πηγές καταγραφής κυκλοφοριακών δεδομένων στην περιοχή αναφοράς, οδηγούν σε προτάσεις για τη συμπληρωματικότητα των πηγών και παρέχουν σημαντική γνώση για την κατανόηση της δυναμικής του συστήματος της οδικής αστικής κυκλοφορίας (μηχανισμοί που παράγουν αλληλεπιδράσεις, χαρακτηριστικά δικτύου). Η εύρεση αιτιωδών συσχετίσεων φαίνεται αναγκαία και υπό συνθήκες ικανή συνθήκη και βάση για τη διαμόρφωση στρατηγικών διαχείρισης της κυκλοφορίας ιδιαίτερα με κριτήρια συνάφειας ανά περίπτωση (παρόμοιες καταστάσεις που καταγράφονται ιστορικά). Ιδιαιτέρως σημαντική κρίνεται επίσης η συνεισφορά της μετατροπής χαρακτηριστικών των χρονοσειρών σε δίκτυα τα οποία γεννώνται από τη διαδικασία εύρεσης αιτιωδών συσχετίσεων καθώς θεωρείται ότι παρουσιάζουν μεγάλη αξία ως προς την εύκολη κατανόηση των σχέσεων και της δυναμικής ανάμεσα στα διάφορα τμήματα του δικτύου

Intermodal Passenger Transport after COVID-19 Pandemic Breakout

The current paper is based on data collected within the framework of the Inter-Connect PLUS project, with a focus on incorporating new norms before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire was conducted in four countries of the Adriatic-Ionian (ADRION) Region: Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, and Albania. The collected data from the survey was analyzed to draw conclusions about the travel modes citizens used before, during, and are willing to use after the pandemic. The paper closes with recommendations, in the form of a Roadmap, highlighting the potential positive impact of the pandemic on the future of sustainable mobility

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

A project about Game Based Learning on Urban Sustainability

SUSTAIN is an ERASMUS+ project with an innovative perspective on urban transportation. Its target is to promote the importance of sustainability on the everyday problem of urban transportation among the students o f higher education, which are the policy makers o f tomorrow. In order to achieve its goals, the research team will develop a course that will b e based on an interactive game with an analytical style of education. This game will allow students to learn about transportation sustainability and societal metabolism through playing. In addition, the research team will develop small and illustrative simulation models, which will make the definitions more concrete and allow students to experiment in a consequence-free environmen