Mobility Managers Research Articles

Local government's contribution to low carbon mobility transitions

An important area of urban sustainability planning refers to the reduction of environmental impacts. Transport sector is one of the main contributors of these impacts due to its role in air pollution, greenhouse gases and CO2 emissions. Effective actions are needed to limit the environmental impacts of transport activities. Transition studies focus on these types of actions and plans. The role of local authorities as the closest level of government to the citizens in managing transition process is highlighted because they can better understand, inform, and guide local inhabitants, businesses and industries for achieving sustainability targets.The paper aims at assessing the efforts of local public authorities in transition toward low carbon mobility in Italy. To achieve this aim a mixed method analysis was applied. First, the analysis of qualitative data obtained from interviews with urban mobility stakeholders; used to design a framework for evaluating the role of local government in transition process. Then a quantitative analysis conducted on the data gathered through a questionnaire distributed to a sample of mobility managers (or transport responsible) in municipalities. The analyses provided a final framework showing how municipalities influence low carbon mobility transition process in Italy. In conclusion, municipalities’ strategies and plans have a direct effect on the final goals. These strategies are influenced by financial support and cooperative activities, while the level of cooperation is dependent on the attitudes of deciding authorities. The paper also discusses the need to identify challenges and impediments for sustainable urban mobility transitions which was highlighted by stakeholders but less valued by local authorities.

Employee voice mechanisms for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender expatriation: the role of Employee-Resource Groups (ERGs) and allies

Recent literature on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) expatriates has largely taken an employee perspective. Less attention has been devoted to organizational mechanisms supporting LGBT voice opportunities for global mobility. In this study, we use respondent data from 15 LGBT employees in combination with data from five global mobility managers to examine the role of Employee Resource Groups. Using the depth, scope and level of voice to frame the study in relation to stereotype threat theory, the findings show that discrimination and stigmatization are prevalent features affecting voice. The findings advance three distinct contributions concerning marginalized (LGBT) employee voices about expatriation: the importance of ‘informal’ social dialogue, the shallow ‘depth’ to voice decision-making roles about LGBT expatriation, and a consideration of ‘silence’ in voice literatures.

Linking global mobility and global talent management: the role of ROI

Purpose – Little is known about the attraction, development, and attrition factors that impact on expatriates’ decision making in relation to international assignment opportunities, nor is there clear understanding as to how global mobility outcomes impact on global talent management (GTM). The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the attraction, development, and attrition of expatriates as a process that is focussed on two core elements of expatriate ROI (eROI) – corporate ROI (cROI) and individual ROI (iROI). Further, the authors adopt an innovative approach by conceptualizing how global mobility is linked to GTM. Design/methodology/approach – Applying psychological contract theory, the authors draw on empirical data from two large studies to compare the perspectives of mobility managers (the cROI inputs) with those of long-term assignees (expatriates; the iROI inputs) to identify how global mobility outcomes can impact on GTM. Findings – By comparing and contrasting corporate and individual perspe...

Cloud Computing in Sustainable Mobility

Sustainable mobility takes into account a broader approach than sustainable transport as it is a concept integrating realization of the needs of stakeholders by using remote access to the properties of desired goods and services. It realizes the need to minimize the negative impact on the environment. Sustainable mobility remains one of the most important subject and challenge influencing European competitiveness. Transport activities apply to micro and macroeconomic issues, moving between and across various sectors, is still the highest of global logistics costs. By using cloud computing model in mobility and transportation management systems managers can gain reduction of the total cost of provided services for residents; more agility, flexibility, and elasticity; quick and cost-efficient reaction to less-predictable events and changing customer (or other stakeholders) requirements; risk reduction, globally accessible services, easy and fast implementation and strong support for sustainable development. The use of cloud computing in sustainable mobility is than mobility of people and cargos with respect to energy, environment, safety and security as well as socio-economic issues by giving access to real-time data, elasticized, fast reaction to the events and their negative consequences in available, efficient and affordable manner to all interested stakeholders. Cloud computing has already been noticed by European Union and exists in different acts and regulations’ recommendations, but it is definitely insufficiently analyzed and, most important, implemented in the mobility and transportation aspects.

Review on the Infomobility Quality – a new framework

Infomobility systems are spreading across the world, attracting the attention of policy-makers and practitioners from a variety of industries. However, several studies have asserted that they not always are effective in improving transport systems, since they do not convey the required information to mobility managers and customers. On the basis of existing academic contributions in the transport information quality and information quality literature, this study addresses the concept of Infomobility Quality, proposing a comprehensive framework that encompasses the main quality dimensions to be considered in the design and assessment of the quality and potential effectiveness of the Infomobility system. This study aims to fill a literature gap and to provide transport system decision-makers with an instrument to develop and improve Infomobility systems.

Road Based Mobility with Network Information Services

Increasing traffic demand and mobility pose many challenges for wireless networks. Lack of sufficient wireless resources and attempts to fix the problem by equipping networks with more small cell base stations challenge mobility managers. Network information services have been widely cited to help mobile users and networks cope with increasingly dense heterogeneous network environment. In this paper, an information service enhanced with information about base station coverage areas and expected driving routes of end systems are used as basis to improve mobility. Especially, emergency and other high-priority vehicles with pre-known driving routes could benefit from the proactive selection of base stations and their configuration to guarantee quality of service throughout the traversed path. The results indicate that the demanded quality is likely not met when networks suffer from congestion. Moreover, cell selection based on the known route can decrease the number of handovers even almost by half compared to the traditional algorithm using signal strength measurements as basis for the handover target selection.

Exploring the profession of mobility manager in Belgium and their impact on commuting

This paper aims to explore the profession of mobility manager and to find out whether they achieve (or not) change in the commuting behaviours of employees. We firstly use data of a Belgian mobility survey that contains information about 4969 workplaces. Then, we use data of a face-to-face survey among 60 mobility managers. The results show that the mobility managers may have an important impact on both the Employer Transport Plan of her/his workplace and the commuting behaviour of employees. We also empirically show that her/his involvement in managing mobility is important. However, the face-to-face survey shows that the profession of mobility manager is still a part time function in Belgium and that they only have an advisory role in the decision taken by their workplaces. Therefore, one can conclude that the role of mobility managers is important, but not as important as other factors such as the support of the executive officers.

Application of Mobility Management: a Web structure for the optimisation of the mobility of working staff of big companies

This study deals with the application of a Web structure available to both Mobility Managers and employees. Its main functionalities enable the Mobility Manager to collect mobility data that can be used to design some optimal home-to-work mobility strategies and the employees to access a car pooling service. The realisation of this Web structure has been made possible by using, as support tools, Intelligent Transportation System Technologies such as Geographic Information System and Web services beside a communication network. The realisation of the application has been preceded by a pilot survey carried out within an industrial area in South Sardinia. The survey results have highlighted the need for an organised management of the home-to-work mobility, as well as the sample's willingness to use viable alternatives to private car use. In this article, the modules related to the on line questionnaires and the car pooling service are investigated. With reference to the car pooling service, the functioning of the matching algorithm has been tested by using the pilot survey results and is described in the appendix. The testing results show that the response times for the algorithm are acceptable for home-to-work trips, within the territorial context investigated in this research.

A Decision-Support System for the Car Pooling Problem

The continuous increase of human mobility combined with a relevant use of private vehicles contributes to increase the ill effects of vehicle externalities on the environment, e.g. high levels of air pollution, toxic emissions, noise pollution, and on the quality of life, e.g. parking problem, traffic congestion, and increase in the number of crashes and accidents. Transport demand management plays a very critical role in achieving greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. This study demonstrates that car pooling (CP) is an effective strategy to reduce transport volumes, transportation costs and related hill externalities in agreement with EU programs of emissions reduction targets. This paper presents an original approach to solve the CP problem. It is based on hierarchical clustering models, which have been adopted by an original decision support system (DSS). The DSS helps mobility managers to generate the pools and to design feasible paths for shared vehicles. A significant case studies and obtained results by the application of the proposed models are illustrated. They demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach and the supporting decisions tool.

PoliUniPool: a carpooling system for universities

Carpooling is a transport system based on a shared use of private cars. The mobility managers of the Università Statale and Politecnico di Milano universities are interested in promoting the use of such system among their students and employees. The paper presents an ongoing project to design, implement and test PoliUniPool, a car pooling service for such universities. The main characteristics of the PoliUniPool service are the following: (1) the use of the system is restricted to employees, faculty and students of the two universities; (2) besides suggesting a matching between the users, the system provides the expected schedule for their trips; (3) in addition to the campus premises, users can select – as destination of their car pooling trips – the main railway and subway stations, in order to encourage the most environmental friendly means; (4) users are informed immediately in case of delay or changes, to improve the reliability of the service; (5) the system estimates the costs for each user, in order to let the users know how to share them; (6) the system has some social network functionalities, e.g. drivers are able to set partial pre-arranged crews; and users may indicate other users they would prefer to car-pool with (“friends”) or they don’t want to (“I don’t like him/her”). A web-based software tool has been implemented to manage the matching of the users. In order to solve the carpooling problem, we use an heuristics, based on a guided Monte Carlo method. The algorithm minimizes an objective function, subject to user time windows and car capacity constraints. The objective function is a weighted sum of different terms in order to maximize the number of served users, minimizing the total route length, and maximizing the satisfied user preferences (e.g. friends). The result is a matching between drivers and passengers, their schedules and the routes to be driven by each driver. The trial of the proposed service will start on September 2011 and will take into account how to introduce and promote the service, identifying regulation, incentives, modalities, and marketing actions.

Developing an Information Management System for Public and Specialized Transportation Providers of Illinois: A Web-Based, Interactive System

Transportation coordination involves service coordination, planning coordination, and financial coordination. A scan of the literature indicates that transportation coordination efforts are hampered by a lack of understanding about existing services, turf issues, and inadequate funding. One solution to address this problem is by providing comprehensive information management systems (IMS) to all stakeholder groups that are part of the regional and state transportation arena. Various federal programs acknowledge the importance of coordination and make it a mandatory precursor to applying for funding. The level of coordination required for successful application for funding from these programs makes the need for such information systems extremely important. The Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago is developing a web-based interactive IMS (TRANPRO) for the public and specialized transportation services in Illinois; the IMS features a provider inventory and other service-related information along with the requisite demographic information. The TRANPRO IMS includes public and specialized transportation data in the form of projects funded by Sections 5307, 5311, and 5310; the Downstate Operating Assistance Program; Job Access and Reverse Commute; New Freedom grants; and Title IIIB and Title XX programs for seniors as well as other known human-service transportation providers operating within the state. This paper explains the development of the IMS, the data assimilated, and the various uses of the system to facilitate coordinated planning, mobility management, and help with the grant application process. TRANPRO will benefit different stakeholder groups, including the administrators of funding programs (for example, the department of transportation), human-service transportation coordinators, mobility managers, and other stakeholders in coordination of services.

Performance Metrics for IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover (MIH) Signaling

The IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover (MIH) working group is developing a set of mechanisms to facilitate migration of mobile users between access networks that use different link-layer technologies. Among these are mobility managers that create and process signaling messages to facilitate handovers. The MIH signaling architecture being developed in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) allows any transport layer protocol to carry MIH messages. The IETF has considered using the unreliable but lightweight transport available with the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) as well as the reliable stream-oriented transport with congestion control offered by the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). In this paper we develop mathematical models that result in expressions for the characteristic function of the time required to complete exchanges of an arbitrary number of MIH signaling messages between a mobile node (MN) and a remote mobility manager (MM). Our models also provide expressions for the average amount of overhead associated with MIH message exchanges due to retransmissions either by the MIH signaling entities or by the transport-layer protocol. In addition, we provide simulation results that confirm the results from the mathematical model and illustrate the effect of varying transport parameters such as the TCP maximum retransmission timeout.

International opportunities : searching for the meaning of student migration

Abstract. This paper explores aspects of the geography of international Student migration. By listening to the voices of British students we make a methodological contribution in terms of extending understanding of the intentions and values of Student migrants as developed over their life course. On the one hand, students stressed the social and cultural embeddedness of their actions, while on the other hand interviews with university staff and mobility managers pointed to the existence of other social structures that shape the networks of mobility that are available to students. Policy makers seeking to re-shape the geography of international Student mobility need to address the deeper socio-cultural forces that selectively inhibit movement although European integration processes have long paved the way for international living and work experience.

Making urban road pricing acceptable and effective: searching for quality and equity in urban mobility

Urban Road Pricing has been proposed many times as a powerful instrument to fight congestion in urban traffic, but has systematically faced a hostile political envirionment, due to lack of confidence on its promised (traffic) results and fear of its political consequences. Lack of action in this front is contributing to stable or even growing congestion problems in most large cities. This paper tries to address the problem with a fresh look at the objectives of road pricing and at the reasons for that political hostility. For managing and developing the urban mobility system, efficiency and equity are normally taken as the basic economic objectives. Sustainability objectives may be integrated in the efficiency objective if we are able to represent adequately the costs of the resources consumed in the process. Political hostility is normally based on having to pay for what was freely available, and on the risk of exclusion for those with little revenue available for the extra cost of driving into the city. Pursuit of efficency leads to suggestion of marginal social cost pricing but this is hard to explain to the public and application of this principle is fraught with pitfalls since some components of that cost get smaller as traffic grows (noise related costs for example). Pricing is still a good option but the objective has to be something easier to understand and to serve as a target for mobility managers. That “new” objective is quality of the mobility system, with a meaning similar to that of “level of service” in traffic engineering, and prices should be managed to across space, time and transport modes in such a way that provision of service is made with good quality in all components. Pursuit of equity leads to some form of rationing, which has often been associated with high transaction costs and abuse by the administrators. But the use of electronic road pricing should allow easy ways to address the rationing process without such high costs. The basic proposition is that all local taxpayers receive as a direct restitution of their tax contribution a certain amount of “mobility rights”, which can be used both for private car driving in the tolled areas and for riding public transport. These principles are easily applicable with a variety of technical solutions for road pricing, from the simplest cordon pricing to the more sophisticated “pay-as-you-go” schemes. The paper addresses this question of implementation and argues for increasingly sophisticated schemes, as people get accustomed to the principles and finer targeting of demand segments may be needed.