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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2019) | Viewed by 37259

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Jorge Freire De Sousa

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Guest Editor

INESC TEC, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Interests: public transport; transport planning; urban mobility; transport policy; business strategy, morphological analysis

Dr. Yuval Hadas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Management, Bar-Ilan University, Max ve-Anna Webb, Ramat-Gan 5290002, Israel
Interests: public transportation; evacuation and emergencies; logistic distribution systems; routing; network planning; spatial analysis; supply chain management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Public transport is a key component for building sustainable transport systems, with a particular emphasis in urban spaces. The basis of researching public transport sustainability relies on the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development as established by the Brundtland Commission’s report, “Our Common Future”, in 1987.

The mobility patterns in urban areas have changed intensely during the last decades, mainly fostered by the socioeconomic growth, by the increased demand for personalized mobility and by the urban sprawl. Public transport enhances the mobility of citizens, reduces traffic congestion and air pollution, and contributes to social equity, as well as to a healthier society. However, the increasing ownership of private vehicles pressures a decrease on the share of public transport in daily commuting. Several efforts have been made to boost the use of public transport, by improving the quality of the transportation service, the capacity of lines and its service frequency, coverage, reliability and comfort, enhancing traffic safety, environmental sustainability and energy efficiency.

Urban operators are investing in technology to monitor and control operations and store operational data. These new sources of data bring forward an enormous potential for the development of innovative optimization techniques, the continuous improvement of urban transport systems, in addition to uphold the enhanced understanding of impacts arriving from decision-making processes. The planning of the transport systems has become an increasingly complex task, due to the interactions between the multiple agents involved. Daily operations of urban transport systems are highly exposed to uncertainty arriving from unforeseen events. Managing uncertainty is one the key issues in order to avoid consequent dissatisfaction of users (loss of service) and operators (corrective costs).

At the same time, technology usage change citizens’ habits and activities, creating new opportunities to intervene in mobility needs. On the other hand, fear from technology imposes new challenges. In the last decades, it became clear that car ownership could not increase forever. It was necessary to find solutions that improved mobility with low negative impacts in the city. One of the main objectives was to increase accessibility by improving urban mobility. The emergence of online apps fosters “mobility as a service” solutions by promoting the share of sustainable modes of displacement, often integrated in the public transport network.

Solutions including electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are also essential components in decarbonizing road transportation and play an important role in the cities’ mobility process.

This Special Issue will focus on all the fields of research contributing to the sustainability of public transport systems. We welcome authors to present the state-of-the-art research and applications, and to discuss the latest progress, new techniques, methodologies and potential research topics, particularly new research directions of unsolved issues.

Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to:

Planning (network design, timetabling, vehicle and driver scheduling)
Policy (governance, economics, funding, citizen involvement)
Operations (monitoring, control, robustness, flexibility, efficiency)
Mobility and accessibility needs, social equity, behaviour models
Environmental impacts (emissions, noise control, energy)
Traffic congestion and safety
Modal shift, multimodality, integration of modes (including logistics)
Urban development (land use, infrastructures, facilities and vehicles)
Modelling, optimization, visualization and simulation techniques
Big data, ITS (decision-making and management support)
New technologies (IoT, vehicles, energy)
Sustainability performance metrics, indicators
Case studies
Future challenges and opportunities

Note: We will publish the articles as/once they are reviewed and finished. This project is expected to be finished by October 2019.

Prof. Jorge Freire de Sousa
Dr. Yuval Hadas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Public Transportation
Transit
Sustainability
Sustainable Transport

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 2050 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Intra-Urban Spatial Disparities in User Satisfaction with Public Transport Services

by Rubén Cordera, Soledad Nogués, Esther González-González and Luigi dell’Olio

Sustainability 2019, 11(20), 5829; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205829 - 21 Oct 2019

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3003

Abstract

Knowing public transport service’s user satisfaction is essential to maintaining and increasing its quality and demand. Several studies have analysed the factors influencing users’ satisfaction, considering their perceptions of specific attributes of the service. However, other aspects, such as the spatial distribution of users, i.e., their origin neighbourhoods, could significantly affect their satisfaction with the service, showing social inequity patterns. This paper proposes a new methodology to evaluate whether these spatial differences in satisfaction exist. Using the city of Santander (Spain) as an example, ordered probit models have been estimated, linking the bus users’ overall satisfaction with variables that include their perceptions of the service and socio-demographic characteristics, and with dummy variables which classify each trip according to its neighbourhood origin. Our results confirm the existence of variations in satisfaction depending on the area of the city under study. In addition, user characterization variables, such as age, which were not significant when considering the city as a whole, proved to be influential in some areas. The estimated model, considering spatial differences, had a higher goodness of fit than that of models not taking zoning into account, and reproduced the overall satisfaction pattern presented in the study area with less error. The consideration of spatial differences in the modelling process enabled the detection of priority areas in which to implement measures to improve service quality and equity, thus increasing the use of public transport and supporting the promotion of a more sustainable mobility. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Issues in Public Transport)

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26 pages, 4473 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring the Topological Characteristics of Complex Public Transportation Networks: Focus on Variations in Both Single and Integrated Systems in the Seoul Metropolitan Area

by Jungyeol Hong, Reuben Tamakloe, Soobeom Lee and Dongjoo Park

Sustainability 2019, 11(19), 5404; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195404 - 29 Sep 2019

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 4618

Abstract

Many cities have integrated their public transportation modes to provide increased accessibility and reduced commute times. However, current transport network topology studies have focused on unimodal networks. Therefore, it is of significant interest for policymakers to examine the topology of integrated public transportation networks and to assess strategies for improving them. The objective of this study was to discuss a comprehensive analysis of an integrated public transportation network using graph theory, compare its characteristics to unimodal networks, and draw insights for improving their performance. Results demonstrate pertinent information concerning the structural composition of the Seoul Metropolitan Area’s (SMA) public transportation network. Despite the integration, the spatial configuration of the network was found to have low fault tolerance. However, the highly agglomerated community structure validated the robustness of integrated networks. Network centrality measures confirmed that integration improves connectivity and spatial accessibility to suburbs within the city. The study found that the SMA’s current public transportation network possesses structural defects that need to be addressed to improve its resilience and performance. Based on the outcomes of this study, the strategic creation or relocation of stations, and the construction of more links, is imperative for the enhancement of mobility. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Issues in Public Transport)

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14 pages, 2965 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimal Alignments for Designing Urban Transport Systems: Application to Seville

by Guido Marseglia, Carlo Maria Medaglia, Francisco A. Ortega and Juan A. Mesa

Sustainability 2019, 11(18), 5058; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11185058 - 16 Sep 2019

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2902

Abstract

The achievement of some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the recent 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has drawn the attention of many countries towards urban transport networks. Mathematical modeling constitutes an analytical tool for the formal description of a transportation system whereby it facilitates the introduction of variables and the definition of objectives to be optimized. One of the stages of the methodology followed in the design of urban transit systems starts with the determination of corridors to optimize the population covered by the system whilst taking into account the mobility patterns of potential users and the time saved when the public network is used instead of private means of transport. Since the capture of users occurs at stations, it seems reasonable to consider an extensive and homogeneous set of candidate sites evaluated according to the parameters considered (such as pedestrian population captured and destination preferences) and to select subsets of stations so that alignments can take place. The application of optimization procedures that decide the sequence of nodes composing the alignment can produce zigzagging corridors, which are less appropriate for the design of a single line. The main aim of this work is to include a new criterion to avoid the zigzag effect when the alignment is about to be determined. For this purpose, a curvature concept for polygonal lines is introduced, and its performance is analyzed when criteria of maximizing coverage and minimizing curvature are combined in the same design algorithm. The results show the application of the mathematical model presented for a real case in the city of Seville in Spain. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Issues in Public Transport)

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16 pages, 3519 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Threshold Determination for Sharing Bus Rapid Transit–Exclusive Lanes with Conventional Buses

by Yifan Yue, Jun Chen, Qi Yang and Jiao Ye

Sustainability 2019, 11(17), 4592; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11174592 - 23 Aug 2019

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2600

Abstract

Sharing bus rapid transit (BRT) exclusive lanes with conventional buses is being considered to solve the problem of low utilization rate of BRT-exclusive lanes. However, the quantitative conditions and threshold that determine when to share need to be study. This paper took the common section of BRT and conventional bus lines as its research object. Practical investigation was conducted to analyze shared characteristics from multiple perspectives and explore influencing factors and mechanisms for sharing implementation. Based on the survey results, analytical models were established to quantify the influencing factors from three perspectives of road section, intersection, and bus stop. We selected departure volume of conventional buses as a threshold index and then summarized the constraints and the calculation process of sharing threshold. Finally, numerical examples of different scenarios were used to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the method. The operation efficiency of the road section on exclusive lanes was the constraint on the lower limit of the shared threshold, while the upper limit was constrained by queuing probability or bus operation time under different intersections and stop spacing, which can provide reference for the shared setting of exclusive bus lanes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Issues in Public Transport)

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22 pages, 5011 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Social Cost Benefit Analysis of Operating Compressed Biomethane (CBM) Transit Buses in Cities of Developing Nations: A Case Study

by Kavitha Shanmugam, Anju Baroth, Sachin Nande, Dalia M. M. Yacout, Mats Tysklind and Venkata K. K. Upadhyayula

Sustainability 2019, 11(15), 4190; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11154190 - 02 Aug 2019

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4544

Abstract

Cities in developing nations have to deal with two significant sustainability challenges amidst rampant urbanization. First, consumer-generated food waste is increasing monumentally since open dumping is still followed as a predominant practice, the negative environmental externalities associated with food waste disposal are growing beyond manageable proportions. Second, the dependency on conventional fuels like diesel to operate transit buses, which is one of the major causes for deteriorating urban air quality. A nexus established between food waste management and operation of transit buses can improve the sustainable performance of cities in developing nations. In this study, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) supported Social Cost-Benefit Analysis (SCBA) is performed by considering a hypothetical scenario of establishing a large food waste treating biomethanation plant in Mumbai, India. The food waste from the city is transported to a biomethanation plant where it is subjected to an anaerobic digestion (AD) process. The biogas produced as a byproduct is upgraded to compressed biomethane (CBM) and used as a vehicle fuel to operate transit buses within the city. The LCA results suggest that CBM buses can reduce greenhouse gas and particulate matter emissions by 60% compared to diesel or compressed natural gas (CNG) buses. Fossil depletion potential of CBM buses is 98% lower than diesel, suggesting CBM’s importance in decoupling developing nations dependency on imported crude oil. The SCBA considers: (a) costs to stakeholders, i.e., fees for open dumping of food waste and cost of fuel for operating transit buses; and (b) social costs incurred by negative environmental externalities (obtained by monetizing LCA results) resulting from both, open dumping as well as fuel combustion. SCBA results indicate that the food waste-based CBM model can save 6.86 billion Indian rupees (USD 99.4 million) annually for Mumbai. The savings are made due to a reduction in stakeholder’s costs (fuel) coupled with societal, i.e., environmental externality costs if entire transit bus fleet operates on CBM fuel instead of conventional fuel mix (33:67 diesel to CNG) currently used. Although the study is performed for Mumbai, the results will be replicable to any city of developing nations facing similar issues. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Issues in Public Transport)

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21 pages, 2264 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluating the Performance of Public Transit Systems: A Case Study of Eleven Cities in China

by Di Yao, Liqun Xu and Jinpei Li

Sustainability 2019, 11(13), 3555; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11133555 - 28 Jun 2019

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4095

Abstract

This paper presents a super-efficiency network data envelopment analysis (SE-NDEA) model for 11 cities in China. The model focuses on measuring the performance of public transit system by integrating multiple stakeholders involved in the public transit system with the exogenous environment in which they operated. Thus, local authority, bus operators, passengers, uncontrollable environmental factors, and the externality of the public transit are all taken into account in the measurement framework and are both interrelated inputs and outputs. The measurement framework can simultaneously capture each public transit system’s production efficiency, service effectiveness, and operational effectiveness. Meanwhile, undesirable outputs, uncontrollable factors, and boundary-valued variables are considered. The paper evaluates the performance of public transit system of 11 Chinese cities from 2009 to 2016. The results reveal that the exogenous environment has a marked impact on the performance measurement of the public transit system. Super cities tended to perform better than mega cities, and mega cities tended to perform better than large cities. Furthermore, service effectiveness has a significantly positive correlation with production efficiency, and transit rail tends to perform better than the conventional bus. These findings have an important implication for China’s bus priority implementation and more general managerial insights for public transit development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Issues in Public Transport)

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16 pages, 2737 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Transit Route Network Design Problem Considering Equity

by Myeonghyeon Kim, Seung-Young Kho and Dong-Kyu Kim

Sustainability 2019, 11(13), 3527; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11133527 - 27 Jun 2019

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3202

Abstract

As concerns about environmental quality, social equity, and economic efficiency are increasing, efforts on improving the sustainability of public transportation are being made all over the world. This study aims to propose a transit route network design problem that considers modal and spatial equities. The equities are accommodated by using two indexes that can simultaneously reflect mobility and accessibility. A decision-making process for designing a transit route network consists of the selection of the target line, selection of the target node, the determination of an alternative line, and the implementation of a procedure for setting frequency. The model is configured through bi-level modeling based on an iterative process to calculate the modal split and the traffic and transit assignments with changes in the transit route network. While the frequency of each line is determined by a genetic algorithm in the upper model, the modal split and traffic and transit assignments are implemented in the lower model. This transit route network design model and the associated algorithms are applied to a sample network. As a result, an improved solution with equity and the lower total cost is identified based on a comparison with the existing transit route network. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Issues in Public Transport)

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13 pages, 580 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on the Choice Behavior of Taxis and Express Services Based on the SEM-Logit Model

by Yang Si, Hongzhi Guan and Yuchao Cui

Sustainability 2019, 11(10), 2974; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11102974 - 24 May 2019

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3439

Abstract

With the development of Internet technology, online car-hailing is booming in China, which has profoundly affected people’s travel structures. In order to seek the sustainable development of taxi and online car-hailing services from the perspective of passenger mode choice behavior, the mechanism of passengers’ decision-making procedures and their travel mode choice behaviors were analyzed. To study the influence of latent variable factors on passenger choice behavior, this paper firstly designed a questionnaire, and a structural equation model (SEM) was established for the preliminary study of the relationship between the latent variables and the behavioral intentions using the online survey data. Then, the latent variables were introduced into the Logit model, setting up the SEM-Logit model to explore the mode choice patterns between taxis and online car services. The results showed that the SEM-Logit model with the latent variables is better than a general Logit model in terms of the model precision and hit ratio. Meanwhile, after introducing the latent variables, it was found that convenience, comfort, and economy factors have a significant influence on the model, and the explanatory power of the model increases accordingly. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Issues in Public Transport)

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18 pages, 2550 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Travel Behavior-Based Skip-Stop Strategy Considering Train Choice Behaviors Based on Smartcard Data

by Eun Hak Lee, Inmook Lee, Shin-Hyung Cho, Seung-Young Kho and Dong-Kyu Kim

Sustainability 2019, 11(10), 2791; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11102791 - 16 May 2019

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 2627

Abstract

This study analyzes a skip-stop strategy considering four types of train choice behavior with smartcard data. The proposed model aims to minimize total travel time with realistic constraints such as facility condition, operational condition, and travel behavior. The travel time from smartcard data is decomposed by two distributions of the express trains and the local trains using a Gaussian mixture model. The utility parameters of the train choice model are estimated with the decomposed distribution using the multinomial logit model. The optimal solution is derived by a genetic algorithm to designate the express stations of the Bundang line in the Seoul metropolitan area. The results indicate the travel times of the transfer-based strategy and the high ridership-based strategy are estimated to be 21.2 and 19.7 min/person, respectively. Compared to the travel time of the current system, the transfer-based strategy has a 5.8% reduction and the high ridership-based strategy has a 12.2% reduction. For the travel behavior-based strategy, the travel time was estimated to be 18.7 minutes, the ratio of the saved travel time is 17.9%, and the energy consumption shows that the travel behavior-based strategy consumes 305,437 (kWh) of electricity, which is about 12.7% lower compared to the current system. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Issues in Public Transport)

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13 pages, 1099 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mechanism Design for an Incentive Subsidy Scheme for Bus Transport

by Wenqian Zou, Meichen Yu and Shoshi MIZOKAMI

Sustainability 2019, 11(6), 1740; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11061740 - 22 Mar 2019

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3776

Abstract

Large public transport subsidies necessitated by operating deficits have become a heavy financial burden on some local governments. However, the present subsidy scheme lacks incentives to encourage bus operators to reduce deficits to lessen subsidies. In order to motivate bus operators to exert their roles in reducing these subsidies to ensure sustainable finance, this paper designs an incentive subsidy scheme based on the Laffont–Tirole model. This scheme is designed to motivate bus operators to endeavor to reduce deficits so as to obtain a premium, thus minimizing the total amount of subsidies and maximizing social benefit. The case of the bus network in Kumamoto, Japan, shows how, with this subsidy scheme, bus operators can play roles in lessening subsidies, allowing a win-win situation for both bus operators and the local government, and maximizing social benefit to realize the sustainability of the city. Finally, findings of our sensitivity analysis with imperfect information suggest that the length of bus lines in a network should be shortened in order to avoid cost waste to lessen subsidies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Issues in Public Transport)

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