Designing Mobility and Transport Services

Developing traveller experience tools

Mike Tovey, Andree Woodcock, Jane Osmond

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781472478467
• eBook ISBN: 9781317120452
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

European cities increasingly face problems caused by transport and traffic. For many people transport provision is unsatisfactory and current arrangements are leading to a deteriorating environment. A fundamental problem is that our currently fragmented approach makes it difficult to understand fully the circumstances and needs of transport users. In any overall approach public transport is a crucial component. Designing Mobility and Transport Services shows how these issues can be addressed and resolved.

The development of an inclusive, validated passenger experience measurement instrument is the first step in understanding the situation and thus tackling it. It is needed if we are to create high quality, user centred, integrated, accessible public transport services, which are capable of attracting and retaining public transport users whilst meeting sustainability targets. The METPEX research project was devised to tackle these issues. Coordinated by Coventry University, the METPEX consortium brought together 16 European partners from 12 countries. The project's underlying rationale was the proposition that if transport operators and authorities were provided with a robust, reliable and tailorable means of measuring the whole multimodal passenger journey, they could improve service provision.

The book describes how such an improvement can be achieved, to attract travellers out of their private vehicles, thereby reducing congestion and pollution and increasing health and well-being. It provides a template for a creative approach and a meta-design narrative in designing for transport systems to enhance mobility choices by improving the door to door journey and thus underpin sustainable transport initiatives.

Part 1

The context for the project

1 Sustainable transport

Dan Caraman and Isolda Constantin

Introduction

In Europe the transport sector is of crucial importance not only to realising the single market, but also to meeting economic, social and environmental needs. Transport allows people to move from one place to another, in order to reach their work place or take part in the social life, as well as facilitating goods movement. Transport is also necessary for the free movement of EU citizens and freight within all the countries of the EU and supports a key economic sector (with a gross added value of 4.8% or €548 billion for all the 28 EU countries in 2011) that ensures over 11 million jobs in Europe (EU, 2011).

Following the development of the European Commission sector transport policy, the transport sector has undergone a significant evolution, particularly in the recent years. In 2012, the total passenger transport activities in the EU-28 by any motorised means of transport are estimated to have amounted to 6391 billion pkm or on average around 12652 km per person. Passenger cars accounted for 72.2% of this total. Also, in 2012, total goods transport activities in the EU-28 are estimated to have amounted to 3768 billion pkm. Road transport accounted for 44.9% of this total (EU, 2014a).

Thanks to its policies regarding passenger rights definition and protection, the EU is the only region in the world where passengers enjoy basic and integrated rights for all means of transport (non-discrimination, accuracy, information promptness and accessibility, immediate and proportional assistance).

However, in spite of its benefits, the transport sector is among the areas of human activity with the biggest negative impact on the environment, namely:

• chemical pollution;

• sound pollution;

• substantial energy consumption, almost exclusively out of non-renewable sources (96% of the sector energy demand depends of oil), thus contributing to climate change;

• destination changes mean that significant numbers of green areas are being built on;

• natural ecosystems are fragmenting and becoming unhealthy;

• cities are being stifled.

Road transport, the main transport modality, is also the main pollution source, accounting for approximately 71% of the total CO₂ emissions related to transport activities (two-thirds being generated by motorcars). If these trends continue then by 2050, unless efficient measures are taken, transport CO₂ emissions would rise by 33% over the level registered in 1990, the increase in traffic would lead to a roughly €20 billion increase of noise-related external costs and external cost of accidents would be about €60 billion higher (the costs are expressed in year 2005 euros). The external cost of accidents in urban areas would increase by some 40% (SEC, 2011).

Within contemporary society there is an emphasis on autonomy and emancipation, and this is characterised by mobility, interaction and communication. The transport system needs to adapt both to these requirements and to those related to environmental protection, with a view to enhancing the compatibility with the environment.

The EU Council of Ministers of Transport has offered the following definition for a sustainable transportation system (EU, 2001):

• Allows the basic access and development needs of individuals, companies and society to be met safely and in a manner consistent with human and ecosystem health, and promotes equity within and between successive generations.

• Is affordable, operates fairly and efficiently, offers a choice of transport mode, and supports a competitive economy, as well as balanced regional development.

• Limits emissions and waste within the planet’s ability to absorb them, uses renewable resources at, or below, their rates of generation, and uses non-renewable resources at, or below, the rates of development of renewable substitutes, while minimising the impact on the use of land and the generation of noise.

Sustainable transport can enhance economic growth, promote trade opportunities and improve accessibility. It represents an essential element for the development of the EU and its regions and it has a direct impact over the regions’ social cohesion.

Brief history

In Europe after the Second World War, buses and bicycles used to be the main means of travel over short distances, while trains were used for longer ones. The following period of economic growth also meant an enhanced requirement for the mobility of goods and people. The exponential increase in the number of vehicles has led to a race of investments for better and more numerous roads, investments deemed essential for development and prosperity. The reality has evidenced that more roads attract more traffic and more congestion. Starting in the sixties, relevant studies have appeared (Gehl, 1971; Jacobs, 1961) that draw the attention to the fact that such urban development patterns, although excessively costly, do not solve the traffic problems, but do lead to the reduced quality of both the urban environment and life generally.

These studies were the predecessors to the sustainable development concept: the WECD (1986) report asserted that ‘sustainable development is the one that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. With this in mind, the sustainable transport development concept has been included as a central element of sustainable development. The urban context provides the biggest challenge to transport sustainability in Europe.

Most European citizens live in cities with a population of at least 10,000 inhabitants and are confronted with a common set of problems: urban congestion, road accidents, air pollution, environmental noise, greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, disregard for the built environment – improper land use, lack of open space, soil contamination, as well as at the generation of high quantities of waste and wastewater. All these have a negative impact over the life quality of citizens.

Mobility and the challenges cities are facing:

• Mobility is vital to the life quality of citizens. The liberty to travel and the quality of transport services exercise a major impact over life quality.

• The migration of inhabitants from city centres to suburbs determines the emergence of some residential patterns that involve travelling over high distances. This urban sprawling phenomenon is developing in parallel with the increase in the number of vehicle owners and increasing commuter traffic.

• Private vehicles are occupying bigger surface area of roads, parking lots, feature higher fuel consumption, and cause more negative externalities (air and earth pollution, noise, accidents, deaths, serious injuries etc.) as compared to any other transport mode.

• Energy consumption: domination of oil as a transport fuel.

• Traffic congestion: in Europe, the congestion costs are as high as 1% of GDP and almost a quarter (23%) of all CO₂ emissions from transport comes from urban areas.

• Health problems: local air pollution and noise.

• The European population’s ageing tendency calls for special attention to be paid to everybody’s mobility and accessibility, to quality, comfort, intermodal integration, door-to-door mobility and transport services viability.

• Climate change: about 40% of the CO₂ emissions and 70% of all other emissions coming from road transportation are due to urban traffic.

• Safety and security: one out of three fatal road accidents are produced in urban environments.

In the EU road accidents account for 93% of the total number of transport accidents, and rail accidents about 0.6%. (Eurostat, 2014). In 2011 there were over 30,000 fatalities in road accidents; for every death, there are an estimated four permanently disabling injuries, eight serious injuries and 50 minor injuries, all of which amounting to a total cost to society of about €130 billion/year (EC, 2010). According to the European Road Safety Programme, the target is to decrease the number of serious accidents by 50% by 2020.

As Gehl (2010) has commented, people are no longer pleased with the modern type planning – Cities for cars concept – and this system is currently rejected. People want to live in safe, sustainable and healthy cities. The car-focused way of living predisposes to sedentary lifestyles, obesity and affects people’s quality of life. City citizens need a more modern, balanced transport system to provide them with various choices, so as to be able to enjoy the freedom of travelling, without the current level of dependence on private cars.

Currently, the main alternative to car driving is public transport, physically and economically accessible, with a high degree of geographical coverage, at the scale of the daily mobility pools – the spine of a sustainable urban transport system. Viability, information, safety and easy access are essential elements to make both urban public transport and rail transport services attractive.

Public transport is essential to people’ life and welfare, particularly to vulnerable groups (for instance, low-mobility, the elderly and people with disabilities). Fostering public transport utilisation is essential to reaching sustainability-related objectives.

In 2009 UITP¹ (the international organisation for public transport authorities and operators, policy decision-makers, scientific institutes and the public transport supply) launched a vision and strategy for the sector that sets out to double the market share of public transport worldwide by 2025. Doubling public transport’s market share worldwide would save around 170m tonnes of oil and 550m tonnes of CO₂ equivalent; reduce urban traffic fatalities by 15%; double the number of jobs in public transport operators as well as reducing the risk of obesity and heart disease by 50%, thanks to the greater role of walking, cycling and public transport (WC, 2009).

Each city and its context are unique and call for customised development solutions. Sustainable mobility patterns require the distinct political will of local decision makers to bring about a change.

The European Commission fosters the use of public transport accessible for all users, including low mobility people. The public transport system must reach comfort, quality and speed standards in keeping with its users’ expectations (Jakubauskas, 2008: 9)

European strategies, policies, initiatives and approaches landmarks

Transport is one of the first domains of EU joint policy foreseen in the 1957 Treaty of Rome, considered an important lever to the harmonious development of community space. The main purpose of this policy has been services liberalisation and transport market opening up in order to make it easier to achieve an Internal Market.

Since the inclusion into the Single European Act (1986),² transport policy has been boosted and become one of the most prominent EU policies.

In 1992, the Maastricht Treaty introduced community policies referring to six new domains and set up the trans-European transport networks. Additionally, environmental protection-related requirements have been included in transport policy.

Consequently, the European Commission adopted th...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Designing Mobility and Transport Services
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Overview of the METPEX Project
• PART I The Context for the Project
• PART II The METPEX Tools
• PART III Practical Applications
• PART IV Impact and Conclusion
• Author details
• Index