Can Space–Time Shifting of Activities and Travels Mitigate Hyper-Congestion in an Emerging Megacity, Bangkok? Effects on Quality of Life and CO2 Emission

Witsarut Achariyaviriya,Hiroyuki Takeshita,Yoshitsugu Hayashi,Varameth Vichiensan,Thanaruk Theeramunkong,Masanobu Kii

doi:10.3390/su13126547

Abstract

Many megacities in the world, especially Bangkok, are facing severe congestion in road traffic and public transport, particularly during peak hours. This situation (a) worsens the quality of life, (b) releases emissions causing air pollution and climate change, and (c) subsequently creates requests for massive investment in transport infrastructure, which easily exceed the budget’s limit. Instead of solving the problem by supply-side strategies, applying ICT-based solutions to reform people’s daily activities, particularly commuting and working behaviors, on the demand-side is an alternative solution. As a promising solution, Mobility as a Service (MaaS) introduces ICT to persuade people to use public modes of transport. However, modal shift is a partial solution to mitigate traffic congestion. With technological advancements in communication, people become more flexible in their activities in terms of place and time aspects. MaaS should not only induce a transport mode shift but also a workplace shift and working time shift by extending the planning service in daily activity-travel level, exploiting people’s flexibilities for an activity’s place and time to manage travel demand. This paper proposes the QOL-MaaS as the extended MaaS to support space–time shift of activity-travel and reveals its potential impacts on traffic congestion, quality of life, and CO2 emission.

Highlights

The flexible working scenarios are tested at 100% flexible population (FP) and 500 locations of co-working spaces
This paper reveals that the space–time shifting of activities and travels can mitigate hyper-congestion in Bangkok, which Mobility as a Service (MaaS) concept should be extended to cover this space–time shifting strategy
We propose the quality of life (QOL)-MaaS concept as the extended MaaS to induce space–time shift of activity and travel, supporting the new-normal of flexible working

Summary

Introduction

Bangkok is the capital city of Thailand, forming along the Chao Phraya River. Bangkok was the so-called “Venice of East” because of boat travel’s charm. From absorbing the culture and obtaining technology from foreign countries, many roads were built, and cars became popular. At this point, it is the beginning of various problems consequence in the present. From the study of Hanaoka [1], rickshaws were brought to Bangkok about 1887, following motorcars in 1907. Bangkok was developed by adopting a western way to be accepted as a civilized country. Over time until 1953, rickshaws were considered as traffic obstruction and a symbol of undeveloped.

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