Measuring Fundamental Improvements in Sustainable Urban Mobility: The Mobility-Energy Productivity Metric: Preprint
Measuring Fundamental Improvements in Sustainable Urban Mobility: The Mobility-Energy Productivity Metric: Preprint

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Recent technological advancements in mobility are creating many options for connecting citizens with employment, goods, and services, particularly in urban areas where modes such as bike and car shares, electric scooters, ridesourcing, and ridesharing are proliferating at a rapid pace. Analysis and tools for overall transportation planning are dominated by urban regional travel demand models whose roots in highway operations poorly reflect the system dynamics in denser areas where parking costs, convenience, and availability - not to mention sustainability concerns and quality of life - are driving people to an ever-greater spectrum of mobility services. In this paper, we present a new paradigm for evaluating mobility options within an urban area. First developed for the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficient Mobility System research program, this metric is termed the Mobility-Energy Productivity (MEP) metric. At its heart, the MEP metric measures accessibility and appropriately weights it with travel time, cost, and energy of modes that provide access to opportunities in any given location. The proposed metric is versatile in that it can be computed from readily available data sources or derived from outputs of regional travel demand models. End times associated with parking, curb access, cost, and reliability and frequency of service need to be carefully considered to obtain an appropriate and accurate perspective when computing the metric. Ultimately, the MEP metric can be used to reflect the impacts of new mobility technologies (transportation network companies, electric scooters), business models (car shares and bike shares), and land-use practices (such as transit-oriented development) on sustainable urban mobility. This paper lays out the need, requirements, and framework for this new metric, and offers it, in collaboration with the American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE), as a foundational metric for Smart City assessment.

Exploring Energy-Efficient and Sustainable Urban Mobility Strategies: An Initial Framework to Curate Data/Models, Measure Performance, and Diffuse Innovation: Preprint
Exploring Energy-Efficient and Sustainable Urban Mobility Strategies: An Initial Framework to Curate Data/Models, Measure Performance, and Diffuse Innovation: Preprint

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Many cities across the United States seek to understand the maturity of data and models that are available to help manage challenges, opportunities, and uncertainties associated with the shifts in technologies, human behaviors and sustainable urban mobility strategies. One key question identified for smart city action planning includes how to best shape continuous improvements for urban populations at the intersection of mobility, energy, and quality of life? With the emerging megatrends of urbanization (more than 70% of world population in cities by 2050), on-demand shared mobility, vehicle electrification, and automated vehicles, initial 'urban science' studies to date have demonstrated the potential and need for maturing the related data and model ecosystems and on-going performance measurement across multiple urban system goals: e.g., from more mobility, clean and efficient energy use, accessibility and safety to less air pollution, traffic, and resource-intensive urban sprawl. To build on emerging literature and understand city responses to disruptive change, this initial study engages researchers and practitioners across four smart city finalists (Columbus, Denver, Austin and Portland) that competed in the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Smart City Challenge. The initial results emphasize the need for a suite of datasets and diverse analytical approaches that support U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) relevant research with cities. Considering desirable energy and mobility outcomes as a first step to advancing smart city solutions strategies, we systematically review approaches of and shortcomings in four U.S. cities, and suggest improvements in three areas: measurement, modeling effectiveness of new mobility technologies, and data-driven governance.

Measuring Mobility Potential: NREL Researchers Develop New Metric that Quantifies Mobility Energy Productivity
Measuring Mobility Potential: NREL Researchers Develop New Metric that Quantifies Mobility Energy Productivity

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Mobility is one of the fundamental aspects of human behavior, governed by factors such as time, cost, convenience, and availability of travel options. A new measurement developed by NREL researchers, called the Mobility Energy Productivity metric, provides an avenue to not only measure the quality of mobility at a specific location in its current configuration, but also to test how various technological advancements (e.g. connected and automated vehicles (CAVs), plug-in electric vehicles, shared mobility) and infrastructure investments (e.g. building an additional highway lane; constructing a new shopping mall) may impact the mobility of that location over time. A location with high quality mobility offers multiple transportation options to a diverse number of opportunities while minimizing time, cost, and energy consumption - all factors which define a high quality of life. Development of the MEP metric is a cornerstone of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SMART Mobility Laboratory Consortium. The metric will aid in developing new knowledge, insights, tools, and technology solutions about the evolving connected mobility system, thereby informing decision makers about how emerging mobility choices could impact people's lives.

Measuring Mobility Potential: A Novel Metric to Quantify Mobility Energy Productivity (MEP) of Transportation Systems
Measuring Mobility Potential: A Novel Metric to Quantify Mobility Energy Productivity (MEP) of Transportation Systems

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For nearly a century, the automobile has been the primary mode of personal transportation in American life. This remains true today as millions of people rely heavily on cars to connect suburbs with cities or to travel long distances - often out of routine or convenience. However, advances in technology are fueling an era of transportation transformation, with the potential to transform a system that has remained virtually unchanged for decades. The challenges of interconnecting our cities and creating a cross-continental transportation system for military purposes spawned the interstate highway system, generating the age of the automobile. In this century, congestion and mobility challenges of rising urban populations are spawning ever-evolving mobility and communications technologies to connect people to goods, services, and employment within a metropolitan and national context - all of which define a high quality of life. Aspiring smart cities are wrestling with questions such as: How does mobility impact a person's quality of life? Would people make different travel choices if they were presented with better information about their mobility options? Would businesses make different location decisions if they could assess the quality of mobility in that area? The ability to quantify the quality of mobility at a given location is the first step toward answering these questions. In response, an interdisciplinary team at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has developed the Mobility-Energy Productivity (MEP) metric. The MEP metric provides an avenue to not only measure the quality of mobility at a specific location in its current configuration, but also to test how various technological advances (e.g., connected and automated vehicles, plug-in electric vehicles, shared mobility) and infrastructure investments (e.g., building an additional highway lane, constructing a new shopping mall, implementing a transit-oriented development) impact the mobility of that location over time.

Urban Transport in the Developing World
Urban Transport in the Developing World

Author: Harry T. Dimitriou

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2011-01-01

Total Pages: 661

ISBN-13: 1849808392

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Policy-making for urban transport and planning of economies in the developing world present major challenges for countries facing rapid urbanisation and rampant motorisation, alongside growing commitments to sustainability. These challenges include: coping with financial deficits, providing for the poor, dealing meaningfully with global warming and energy shortages, addressing traffic congestion and related land use issues, adopting green technologies and adjusting equitably to the impacts of globalisation. This book presents a contemporary analysis of these challenges and new workable responses to the urban transport problems they spawn.

Resilient Urban Futures
Resilient Urban Futures

Author: Zoé A. Hamstead

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-04-06

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 3030631311

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This open access book addresses the way in which urban and urbanizing regions profoundly impact and are impacted by climate change. The editors and authors show why cities must wage simultaneous battles to curb global climate change trends while adapting and transforming to address local climate impacts. This book addresses how cities develop anticipatory and long-range planning capacities for more resilient futures, earnest collaboration across disciplines, and radical reconfigurations of the power regimes that have institutionalized the disenfranchisement of minority groups. Although planning processes consider visions for the future, the editors highlight a more ambitious long-term positive visioning approach that accounts for unpredictability, system dynamics and equity in decision-making. This volume brings the science of urban transformation together with practices of professionals who govern and manage our social, ecological and technological systems to design processes by which cities may achieve resilient urban futures in the face of climate change.

Planning, Development and Management of Sustainable Cities
Planning, Development and Management of Sustainable Cities

Author: Tan Yigitcanlar

Publisher: MDPI

Published: 2019-04-30

Total Pages: 440

ISBN-13: 3038979066

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The concept of ‘sustainable urban development’ has been pushed to the forefront of policymaking and politics as the world wakes up to the impacts of climate change and the destructive effects of the Anthropocene. Climate change has emerged to be one of the biggest challenges faced by our planet today, threatening both built and natural systems with long-term consequences, which may be irreversible. While there is a vast body of literature on sustainability and sustainable urban development, there is currently limited focus on how to cohesively bring together the vital issues of the planning, development, and management of sustainable cities. Moreover, it has been widely stated that current practices and lifestyles cannot continue if we are to leave a healthy living planet to not only the next generation, but also to the generations beyond. The current global school strikes for climate action (known as Fridays for Future) evidences this. The book advocates the view that the focus needs to rest on ways in which our cities and industries can become green enough to avoid urban ecocide. This book fills a gap in the literature by bringing together issues related to the planning, development, and management of cities and focusing on a triple-bottom-line approach to sustainability.