Urban Mobility Model Research Articles

Empirical Insights into Centroid Optimization in Transportation Planning: A Novel Approach

In complex urban environments, sophisticated analytical techniques are essential to improve the accuracy of transportation modeling and the precision of travel time predictions. This research endeavors to critically examine various multi-zone centroid positioning strategies, with the goal of unveiling the method that most authentically represents the dynamics of urban travel. Anchored by a comprehensive case study of the city of Istanbul in Turkey, the investigation utilizes various analytical tools meticulously tailored to account for the intricate interplay of demographic and geographic variables. This methodical approach enables the identification of optimal centroid locations by evaluating various methods, including a novel approach called kernel density estimation (KDE), as well as five other established other methods. The results are then aligned with real-world travel time data through rigorous statistical analysis to ensure accurate predictions of travel times. The KDE method demonstrated its more acceptable correlation coefficient and lower mean absolute error, root mean square error, and mean absolute percentage error metrics, establishing its superiority in model performance. By highlighting the paramount importance of accurately placed centroids within urban transportation models, this research’s findings contribute significantly to the evolution of transportation planning methodologies and the advancement of urban mobility models through a comparative analysis of optimal methods.

Method for Defining VD-Functions for Transport Network Elements in an Urban Mobility Model

Abstract. Problem. One of the critical factors influencing the assignment of private transport demand in urban mobility models is the Volume-Delay Function (VDF) applied to transport network elements such as links, nodes, and turns. Decades of research have provided substantial insights into transportation modeling, including the identification of parameters essential for constructing VD-functions. Nevertheless, the accurate definition and calibration of VD-functions for all significant transportation network objects in urban models continue to demand innovative approaches. Goal. The objective of this study is to formulate a method for determining VD-functions for objects of the transport network within the urban mobility model developed using PTV Visum software, leveraging the analysis of historical traffic data. Methodology. The study establishes the relationships between the current speed of private transport and links congestion levels, as well as between travel time and congestion at nodes and turns when applying different VD-functions. Using Kryvyi Rih's urban mobility model, developed in PTV Visum software, the VD-functions were tested in various combinations, with a focus on selecting appropriate calibration parameters. The average vehicle flow rate in the loaded network served as the criterion for assessing the alignment of the model's results with real-world conditions. For the city's street and road network, average daily traffic speeds were analyzed using data from the TomTom Traffic Stats portal, which utilizes FCD technology. The analysis concluded that Scenario 2 is the most suitable for Kryvyi Rih's mobility model, applying the Lohse function for links and TModel Nodes for nodes and turns. Originality. A scientifically interesting aspect is the approach of utilizing average daily vehicle speed data, obtained through FCD technology, to determine and calibrate VD-functions for various types of transport network objects within the urban mobility model. Practical value. This work holds practical significance for transportation modeling engineers, as the developed VD-functions can be applied during the calibration of private transport demand in mobility models for other cities. Additionally, it is valuable for decisionmakers in the transport sector, aiding in more informed planning and management.

Cluster analysis of travel behaviour threats in chosen European functional urban areas during the economic crisis

Motives: Urban mobility models are constantly changing due to economic, social, infrastructural, and geographical factors. Preferences for transport modes vary by country, region, and city, and transport infrastructure and policy have a significant impact on residents’ choices. Additionally, economic factors such as economic crises, public policy decisions, and events such as armed conflicts have a significant impact on the dynamics of mobility in functional urban areas (FUAs).Aim: The main goal of the research was to create groups of countries (clusters) that have similar priorities regarding travel behaviour threats revealed as a result of the economic crisis resulting from the conflict in Ukraine.Results: The study shows that the main threats during the economic crisis (resulting from the war in Ukraine) are economic factors (e.g., ticket prices, an increase in fuel costs), legal factors (e.g., loss of a driving license or passenger transport license), and infrastructural factors (e.g., poor condition of infrastructure). The analysed countries were grouped based on the hierarchical prioritization of threats, using Ward’s hierarchical clustering method. Interestingly, the distance from the conflict epicentre did not significantly influence the prioritization of threat factors influencing transportation behaviour in FUAs. Instead, factors such as membership in international organizations, energy dependence on Russia, the level of economic growth, and transport infrastructure played a more key role in the priority-setting process.

Enhancement of the impacts 2050 model to enable a whole system sustainability assessment of rideshare

Emerging concepts, such as Mobility as a Service (MaaS), could evolve to provide sustainable mobility, especially in densely populated urban areas. However, recent studies highlight the challenge of evaluating how the complex interactions of user demographics, mode choice, vehicle automation, governance, and efficiency will impact the sustainability of future mobility. Given this challenge, this research identifies a whole system (STEEP - social, technical, economic, environmental, and political) framework as essential to assess the overall sustainability of emergent urban mobility systems such as rideshare. The need is a single tool that can rapidly explore the long-range sustainability impact of such alternative future mobility scenarios for a given city region. This paper documents enhancements made to Impacts 2050, a strategic-level model of urban mobility, to address this need, including updates to the statistical travel behavior model and the addition of rideshare including trip occupancy. Results obtained with the enhanced Impacts 2050 showed that, while rideshare use increased significantly for some scenarios, its overall mode share remained limited. In addition, though rideshare enabled users to shed car ownership, the overall percentage increase of “no car ownership” was low. An urban mobility sustainability scorecard based on STEEP and generated by output from the enhanced Impacts 2050 is presented.

Traffic resilience quantification based on macroscopic fundamental diagrams and analysis using topological attributes

Transportation system disruptions significantly impair transportation efficiency. This paper proposes new indicators derived from the Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) dynamics before and after a disruption to evaluate its impact on traffic resilience. Considering that MFD is an intrinsic property of a homogeneously congested transportation network, the resilience losses due to congestion and network disruption are measured separately. The resilience loss is defined as the reduction in trip completion rate, comparing congested cases to uncongested cases or disrupted cases to undisrupted cases. The resilience loss hence also exists for an undisrupted network and is measurable by the proposed method. A Simulation of Urban MObility (SUMO) model is calibrated by real origin–destination patterns, to allow for experiments in scenarios of different demand variations and supply disruptions. Case studies are conducted in Munich, Germany and Kyoto, Japan to test the usefulness of the newly proposed indicators. We furthermore explore the relationship between resilience loss and network topological attributes such as centrality and connectivity from a variety of synthetic disruption experiments in Munich and Kyoto. We find that the resilience loss in a grid-like network as in Kyoto is less dependent on the degradation of network connectivity than in a ring-like network as in Munich.

A demand forecasting model for urban air mobility in Chengdu, China

The successful application of new technologies such as remotely piloted aircraft systems, distributed electric propulsion systems, and automatic control systems on electric vertical take-off and landing(eVTOL) aircraft has prompted Urban Air Mobility (UAM) to be mentioned frequently. UAM is a newly raised transport mode of using eVTOL aircraft to transport people and cargo in urban areas, which is thought to share some of the traffic on the ground. One of the prerequisites for UAM to operate on a regular basis is that its demand can support the operating costs, so forecasting UAM demand is necessary. We conduct UAM demand forecasting based on the four-step method, focusing on improving the third-step modal split, and propose a demand forecasting model based on the logit model. The model combines a nested logit (NL) model with a multinomial logit (MNL) model to solve the problem of non-existent UAM sharing rates. We use Chengdu, China as an example, and focus on forecasting the UAM traffic demand in 2030 with the help of the four-step method. The results show that UAM is suitable for shared operation during the early stages. With a fully shared operation, the UAM share rate increases by 0.73% for every kilometer increase in distance. Moreover, UAM is more competitive than other modes for delivery distances exceeding 15 ​km. Finally, using the distributions of the share rate and traffic flow pattern from the simulation, we propose the routes that can be prioritized for UAM operations in Chengdu.

Drastic mobility restrictions during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an opportunity to learn about constraints on the way to a pollution-free city.

Road traffic is one of the main sources of pollution in modern cities. If there is a desire to move towards healthier cities, it may be necessary to modify the current model of mobility. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, together with the measures applied by most governments in the world to control the mobility of citizens, offered a unique opportunity to assess the changes in pollution levels after a drastic reduction in road traffic. In this study, air and noise pollution levels and road traffic flow were analyzed in the city of Cáceres, Spain, before and during the state of emergency imposed by the Spanish government. The values obtained were compared with the quality limits established by both the Spanish government and the World Health Organization (WHO). A traffic noise prediction model has been employed to evaluate the acoustic impact resulting from the reduction in traffic flow. As a result of this study, it was found that air pollution was indeed reduced due to the mobility restrictions imposed to control the pandemic, but that the WHO's recommendations for the values of the day-evening-night noise indicator (Lden) and the night-time noise indicator (Ln) for road traffic noise, which should not be exceeded, were not met. These findings highlight the need to review current urban mobility models if the WHO's recommendations are to be reached with regard to reducing the effects of exposure of the population to urban noise.

Construction and application of urban mobility diagnosis model

The scientific diagnosis of urban mobility is beneficial to urban planning to solve urban problems appropriately, especially traffic problems. The existing models for urban accessibility or mobility are confined by data sources and operation conditions. They stay on the level of the static and local analysis but lack of quantitative description of the overall mobility of the city. A standard model of urban mobility covering the node-to-node accessibility relation among all nodes in a city is proposed based on the Internet data and algorithm programs. On this basis, a reference system model is established which is based on the city center, the nearest commercial center, the nearest park and the nodes of the external traffic facilities. In the end, the downtown area of Shanghai is taken as an example and the overall mobility and spatial layout of the city are analyzed and diagnosed by using the reference system model and the network map data. The structural characteristics of the overall accessibility of the downtown area of Shanghai are revealed, such as high inside and low outside, the east–west differences, the finger radiation and other structural features. Besides, the main nodes that require to be improved for the liquidity are indicated.

Low Emission Areas vs. Urban Congestion Taxes

In most European cities, urban transport is responsible for the majority of energy consumption, the emission of pollutants into the air, traffic congestion and noise, and in the last century we have faced an increase in urban mobility and a growing tendency to use private, as opposed to public transport, and an increase in the number of vehicles. The strictly private economic rationality of citizens explains this trend and the market will regulate it, albeit with largely avoidable social costs of congestion. Supply policies, that is, more and more extensive routes, are those that have been carried out almost exclusively traditionally, but these have been insufficient and, paradoxically, have even caused effects contrary to those intended, in the light of the state of empirical experiences, not to mention the waste of public resources that may be destined for more socially profitable alternative uses. As a consequence, where there is the greatest room for manoeuvre for urban transport policy is found in demand, that is, in the use of available means of urban transport. In recent decades, a good number of partial demand measures have been tried in European cities, such as subsidies for buses and subways, ecological fuels, car-sharing, smart cards, road-pricing, park-pricing, one day without a car, distribution of departure times at the end of the working day, etc. This paper focuses on Road Pricing, pointing out the experiences of the cities in which it has been put into practice but, mainly, examining its economic foundation and the design that should inspire collaboration in terms of achieving a more efficient and socially equitable urban mobility model. Keywords: Taxes; Automobiles; Highways; Payments; Urban congestion; Polluters.

Fiber Optic Acoustic Sensing to Understand and Affect the Rhythm of the Cities: Proof-of-Concept to Create Data-Driven Urban Mobility Models

In the framework of massive sensing and smart sustainable cities, this work presents an urban distributed acoustic sensing testbed in the vicinity of the School of Technology and Telecommunication Engineering of the University of Granada, Spain. After positioning the sensing technology and the state of the art of similar existing approaches, the results of the monitoring experiment are described. Details of the sensing scenario, basic types of events automatically distinguishable, initial noise removal actions and frequency and signal complexity analysis are provided. The experiment, used as a proof-of-concept, shows the enormous potential of the sensing technology to generate data-driven urban mobility models. In order to support this fact, examples of preliminary density of traffic analysis and average speed calculation for buses, cars and pedestrians in the testbed’s neighborhood are exposed, together with the accidental presence of a local earthquake. Challenges, benefits and future research directions of this sensing technology are pointed out.

Design for new perspectives in urban mobility

Urban mobility is an important property of the people that promotes access to the city. However, the current model of urban mobility generates social and environmental issues, reducing inclusivity, accessibility and health, delaying humane development of cities, resulting in urban crisis. Considering design as a tool to improve people's interaction with the environment, as it can initiate and materialise social innovations. How can design provide new urban mobility perspectives? From the empirical analysis of urban mobility issues in the Brazilian cities of São Paulo and Campinas, between 2017 and 2022, accessing definitions of mobility and questions from sustainable development and revision of literature, the work presented summarises five main aspects for the appliance of design at new urban mobility perspectives improving life quality to people, and enlist five case studies from design-mobility projects, addressing the way designers contribute in such projects.

Taking Play Seriously in Urban Design: The Evolution of Barcelona’s Superblocks

The original Cerdà plan (Pla Cerdà) of 1855 for the extension of Barcelona is famous for its grid array of large blocks and wide streets to promote circulation. Each block was originally intended to have an area of open space in the center to provide for the needs of residents. Already by the 1920s, however, the center of the blocks had been filled with buildings. Barcelona currently suffers from a chronic lack of open space, excess noise, and air pollution that exceeds European Union law. This article aims to trace the agency of play as a dynamic process in urban planning to provide new sources of open space through Superblocks (aka Superillas and Supermanzanas). We begin with a brief history of their implementation in the city of Barcelona and the evolution of their justification from the 1990s onward. We then explain the capacity for urban transformation that Superblocks have and how they can modify the urban mobility model and the public space model. We then analyze the role of different forms of play that are used in the area of Poblenou to suggest how play can be used to increase the legitimacy of public participation. Finally, we observe the contingent role of play within urban socialization and in motivating and shaping the urban planning processes of implementing Superblocks.

15 MINUTES CITY CONCEPT AND ITS APPLICATION

Today’s world is growing with technological evaluation. In present era, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, the life has become health and family oriented which was money and work oriented. People started redefining the term “Wealth”. Considering the current and future lifestyle of the people a new concept i.e., the 15- minute city has been thoroughly studied, in this paper. This concept introduces new city planning which contributes to the betterment of health and lifestyle of people and functioning efficiency of a city. It tries to set a balance between need of fast- growing world and need of a common man. Along with the study, a model is proposed which can be taken as a reference for planning a new city. The 15-minute city model The model prepared by Prof. Carlos Moreno at the Sorbonne in Paris, is a model for urban development and urban mobility. The 15-minute city is the contemporary synthesis of the renaissance “ideal city”, where the classical “human measure” has now been interpreted, far away from a geometrical perspective, in the framework of current health and environmental risks. [1]

GSS-VF: A Game-Theoretic Approach for Service Discovery in Fog Network of Vehicles

Vehicular Fog Computing exploits the computing, caching and communication resources at vehicles to facilitate different location-based applications in a smart urban environment. Today, consumer vehicles can discover and consume available services from nearby vehicles, acting as provider vehicles in a fog network. However, it is challenging for the consumers to first identify, and then select the most appropriate service provider, given, high mobility, intermittent connectivity, and heterogeneous costs associated with provider vehicles, that dedicate their resources in facilitating the respective service to consumers. In this paper, we deal with the issue of selecting the best provider vehicles in an urban environment, considering both costs and Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for both the provider vehicles in the fog as well as the consumer vehicles. Hence, we design a new game theory-based distributed scheme, namely GSS-VF, to manage the service provisioning in a vehicular fog. It allows the consumers to select the most suitable Fog nodes based on their probability of interactions. GSS-VF addresses two questions: (i) What are the optimal conditions under which the consumers may request the Fog nodes for services? and (ii) How to select the most suitable service with respect to the consumers’ preferences? To evaluate GSS-VF, extensive simulations are performed using urban mobility model on 1,500 vehicles, results show that the designed scheme efficiently identifies and selects the most adequate service providers for consumers in the fog.

Prospects for the urban transportation systems development based on the concept of “Mobility as a service”

Background: For several decades now, the problem of the "auto-centric" model of megacity transport systems development has been a burning issue, which is characterized by serious negative consequences in the long run, despite certain conveniences for individual users. Urban mobility provides the population with access to economic resources, so a reliable transport system is a key condition for the sustainable development of modern agglomerations. The usage of digital technologies together with innovative products can ensure the efficient operation and competitiveness of public transport. "Mobility as a service" is an end-user-oriented model of urban mobility, which can promote the gradual abandonment of personal car use.
 Aim: Consider organizational models for implementing the concept of innovative mobility, identify the potential benefits of digital transformation of the urban transportation system, based on the model of efficient mobility "mobility as a service".
 Methods: General scientific research methods such as the systematic approach, analogy, generalization and synthesis were used.
 Results: The article explores the innovative urban mobility model based on mobility-as-a-service technology, examines the organizational models of MaaS, identifying the main barriers to implementing this concept along with potential advantages and disadvantages.

Trip-pair based clustering model for urban mobility of bus passengers in Macao

ABSTRACT Public transit is a major mode of urban mobility in Macao, a compact and populous city in China. Public transit ridership is related to round-the-clock shift-based work arrangements in the gaming industry. Smartcards that are used in transit fare collection are a vital data source for understanding the travel patterns and characteristics of transit passengers. However, transactional information from single data sources is fragmented, hindering the extraction of mobility patterns. We proposed a trip-pair-based clustering model that extracts the within-day mobility patterns of bus riders. DBSCAN is employed to filter scattered trips and hierarchical agglomerative clustering to identify clusters. Using a six-month smartcard dataset from Macao, categories of bus passengers were identified. Travel patterns exist with irregular, one-way, and round-trip passengers, and shift workers. The unique shift-based work-life and mixed travel modes in Macao can serve as an example of dense and compact city travel for smart cities.

Life cycle assessment and economic analysis of the electric motorcycle in the city of Barcelona and the impact on air pollution

In this work, the evaluation of the life cycle of the service provided by a medium-power motorcycle in a Spanish urban environment was carried out, comparing two motorcycles, a battery electric vehicle (BEV) is compared with an internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV). The economic study of the total costs of ownership is also carried out considering the environmental costs associated with each type of vehicle. A comprehensive inventory is compiled for both vehicles (motorcycles) that describes the most relevant components and includes two types of batteries for the BEV. A sensitivity analysis of the most impactful parameters is also considered.The results indicate that the ICEV contributes approximately 5 times more in the global warming potential impact category mainly due to the consumption of fossil fuels. The BEV also impacts some categories in the manufacturing stage, a fact that is strongly related to the battery. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the total distance travelled plays an important role, but the electricity mix is probably the most relevant factor in terms of climate change impact category. The economic analysis reported lower environmental externality costs for the BEV, making it more affordable than the ICEV and highlighting the benefit in terms of air pollution. The BEV is presented as a suitable option vehicle from environmental and economic point of view and one of the actors to accelerate the transition towards a more sustainable urban mobility model.

Evaluating crisis perturbations on urban mobility using adaptive reinforcement learning

• An adaptive reinforcement learning model is developed to learn human travel behaviors in regular situations. • The model is capable of simulating the traffic conditions and evaluate the perturbations of disasters on urban mobility. • A case study of the 2017 Hurricane Harvey in Houston is conducted to examine the application of the model. • The model and outcomes of applications can inform the public and decision-makers about the response strategies and resilience planning to reduce the impacts of crises on urban mobility. The objective of this study is to propose and test an adaptive reinforcement learning model that can learn the patterns of human mobility in a normal context and simulate the mobility during perturbations caused by crises, such as flooding, wildfire, and hurricanes. Understanding and evaluating human mobility patterns, such as destination and trajectory selection, can inform emerging congestion and road closures raised by disruptions in emergencies. Data related to human movement trajectories are scarce, especially in the context of emergencies, which places a limitation on applications of existing urban mobility models learned from empirical data. Models with the capability of learning the mobility patterns from data generated in normal situations and which can adapt to emergency situations are needed to inform emergency response and urban resilience assessments. To address this gap, this study creates and tests an adaptive reinforcement learning model that can predict the destinations of movements, estimate the trajectory for each origin and destination pair, and examine the impact of perturbations on humans’ decisions related to destinations and movement trajectories. Employing millions of trajectory data from INRIX, the application of the proposed model is shown in the context of Houston and the flooding scenario caused by Hurricane Harvey in August 2017. The results show that the model can achieve more than 76% precision and recall at the model learning stage. The mean percentage error of the travel distance in predicted trajectories is 4.29%, compared to the travel distances in empirical data. In addition, predicted density of vehicles in grid cells are negatively associated with the traffic speed on road segments and inundation intensity in grid cells during the flooding. The results from the simulation further show that the model could predict traffic patterns and congestion resulting from urban flooding. The outcomes of the analysis demonstrate the capabilities of the model for analyzing urban mobility during crises, which can inform the public and decision-makers about the response strategies and resilience planning to reduce the impacts of crises on urban mobility.

Gamifying the city: E-scooters and the critical tensions of playful urban mobility

ABSTRACT This article builds on previous scholarship on urban play, playable cities, and gamification by focusing on the contemporary relationship between play and mobility in cities. The article applies Floch’s semiotic square of valorisations to urban mobility by examining the values that are employed to make sense of movement through the city. The model is developed through Caillois’ forms of play: chance, competition, simulation, and vertigo. The model of playful urban mobility is contextualized in relation to historic and contemporary forms of playful urban activity to illustrate the multiple ways in which play is valorised within mundane, everyday practices of urban mobility. The tensions between playful and practical consequences of these different valorisations of play are located and expanded through a case study of the uptake of the e-scooter drawing on news coverage and promotional materials. The case of the e-scooter illustrates how playful urban mobility marks new connections between civic concerns of data security, physical safety, inclusivity, and urban sustainability, in the field of mobility. The key contribution of this article is an applied model of playful urban mobility which uses the e-scooter to illustrate the potential critical tensions that characterise playful and gamified forms of mobility and transportation.

Bicycle Traffic Model for Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning

Modelling tools and transport models are required to assess the impact of measures for the effective planning of cycling routes in cities. This paper presents the methodology for developing a four-stage macroscopic model of bicycle traffic for the city of Gdynia, and its use in planning new bicycle routes, considering a modal shift. The model presented in this paper allows for the evaluation of the influence of the characteristics of the cycling infrastructure, along with the development of the cycling network based on the choice of cycling as an alternative to other modes of transport, by taking into account the modal shift. The model takes into account the influence of the longitudinal gradient, link, and surface type of cycling routes on the distribution and demand for bicycle traffic. The results of our research allow us to assess the impact of planned cycling routes on the reduction in the volume of car traffic, which is crucial for reducing energy consumption and negative environmental impacts. Experiences from the application of the model in Gdynia suggest that the model provides a strong basis to support mobility planning and monitoring processes in cities worldwide. Cities should take into account the methods proposed in this paper when planning the development of their transport systems.