The paper provides insight into a comparison of the parking practices and problems of freight-vehicle drivers in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Delhi, India. The purpose of this study is to understand how parking problems are related to relevant characteristics of the study zones, e.g., geographical location, transport mode used for last-mile deliveries, and type of industry sectors attracting freight traffic. The study also examines the possible impacts of imbalance between parking demand and supply. The methodology involves the estimation of freight-parking demand using establishment-based surveys and cordon counts; parking practices and problems are captured through freight-vehicle drivers' semi-structured interviews, and parking space supply is obtained from a parking inventory. Based on the analyses and findings from the study, the authors propose a set of recommendations to enhance parking management for freight vehicles in each area.
Megacities in emerging markets are a relatively new phenomenon. The size of these cities combined with the high growth rates provides substantial sustainability challenges. Urban freight transport (UFT) contributes to these challenges. Despite its relatively low share as part of total traffic, the negative impact of UFT is disproportionate. Improving the sustainability in this context is inevitable in the light of further prospected urbanization. To study this topic, a theoretical framework is developed which is subsequently applied on literature. This allows characterizing the UFT system in a city. Such a framework is currently lacking. The framework is developed around the components of a UFT system (demand, supply and context) and the factors influencing these components. Factors include the different supply chains (demand), vehicles used (supply) and traffic measures (context). It is applied to analyze the UFT system in megacities in emerging markets. Results show that demand in different supply chains is fragmented as well as the transport. Uncontrolled sprawl and the existence of an informal economy further contribute to the complexity to regulate UFT. Based hereupon, we discuss efforts to move to more sustainable UFT in this context.
In port cities, there are often severe transport and urban freight mobility issues associated with the port operations since ports and their surrounding urban areas are struggling with the ever-increasing flow of trucks, accommodating both through and intra-city cargo movement. This paper aims to present how urban freight distribution measures can support the goals of sustainable development even in cities with limited previous experience in energy efficiency and environmental friendly solutions. The successful case of the Piraeus port-city is presented and findings derived from a survey about urban delivery in the city center are provided. The study describes how efforts from different stakeholders should be coordinated to support urban freight distribution in the context of an action plan that promotes sustainable development in the city. Results from Piraeus case are useful for other comparable port-cities in Europe experiencing a rapid growth in passengers and freight volumes required to be handled, imposing significant negative externalities to the urban area.
The majority of research work carried out in the field of Operations Research have relied on optimization algorithms to improve the pick-up and delivery problem. Most studies aim to solve the vehicle routing problem, to accommodate optimum delivery orders, vehicles etc. This paper focuses on developing a system model, which uses existing Public Transport facility of a city for the transportation of small and medium sized packaged goods, to avoid further aggravating the situation of urban congestion and also help reduce green house gas emissions. The research carried out investigates the feasibility of the proposed multi-agent based simulation model, for efficiency of cost, time and energy consumption. The Dijkstra Shortest Path algorithm and Nested Monte Carlo Search have been implemented to build a time based cost matrix which is used to generate a tour plan for intermodal delivery of goods. The quality of the tour is dependent on the efficiency of the search algorithm implemented for plan generation and route planning. The results reveal a definite advantage of using Public Transportation over existing delivery approaches in terms of energy efficiency.
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Although urban freight transport (UFT) is vital for importing and exporting necessary goods and waste, a number of negative sustainability impacts characterise the process. The relatively recent attention for UFT spurred the emergence of a variety of policy measures. Nevertheless, local authorities experience difficulties in choosing a successful solution. Generally lacking are short and long-term assessments, a multi-stakeholder approach and a solid contextual understanding based on data. In order to tackle these pressing causes for policy failure, we developed a policy assessment framework. The framework includes four methodologies that are relevant for UFT policy assessment and introduces 45 indicators for the collection of UFT data that enable monitoring and benchmarking and provide input for the assessment methodologies. The paper covers the policy assessment framework and a case study application on the Belgian city of Mechelen. As the city struggles with selecting an appropriate and broadly supported policy measure to increase UFT sustainability, a multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) is applied. The results show that conflicting interests greatly impede policy measure selection, making further adaptations to the city's proposals necessary. The policy assessment framework represents a well-reasoned and solid process for UFT policy-making that is supported by the stakeholders involved.
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Although urban freight transport (UFT) is vital for importing and exporting necessary goods and waste, a number of negative sustainability impacts characterise the process. The relatively recent attention for UFT spurred the emergence of a variety of policy measures. Nevertheless, local authorities experience difficulties in choosing a successful solution. Generally lacking are short and long-term assessments, a multi-stakeholder approach and a solid contextual understanding based on data. In order to tackle these pressing causes for policy failure, we developed a policy assessment framework. The framework includes four methodologies that are relevant for UFT policy assessment and introduces 45 indicators for the collection of UFT data that enable monitoring and benchmarking and provide input for the assessment methodologies. The paper covers the policy assessment framework and a case study application on the Belgian city of Mechelen. As the city struggles with selecting an appropriate and broadly supported policy measure to increase UFT sustainability, a multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) is applied. The results show that conflicting interests greatly impede policy measure selection, making further adaptations to the city's proposals necessary. The policy assessment framework represents a well-reasoned and solid process for UFT policy-making that is supported by the stakeholders involved.
Although urban freight transport (UFT) is vital for importing and exporting necessary goods and waste, a number of negative sustainability impacts characterise the process. The relatively recent attention for UFT spurred the emergence of a variety of policy measures. Nevertheless, local authorities experience difficulties in choosing a successful solution. Generally lacking are short and long-term assessments, a multi-stakeholder approach and a solid contextual understanding based on data. In order to tackle these pressing causes for policy failure, we developed a policy assessment framework. The framework includes four methodologies that are relevant for UFT policy assessment and introduces 45 indicators for the collection of UFT data that enable monitoring and benchmarking and provide input for the assessment methodologies. The paper covers the policy assessment framework and a case study application on the Belgian city of Mechelen. As the city struggles with selecting an appropriate and broadly supported policy measure to increase UFT sustainability, a multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) is applied. The results show that conflicting interests greatly impede policy measure selection, making further adaptations to the city's proposals necessary. The policy assessment framework represents a well-reasoned and solid process for UFT policy-making that is supported by the stakeholders involved.
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Urban planning as majorly practiced in India is mainly concerned with the development of land in cities. Urban traffic congestion being a major problem in large cities which has a negative impact on mobility, environment, local economy and quality of life. The aim of this thesis is to develop an efficient transport with good and better facility for the Salem city. The roads and public transportation areas should be developed and maintained clean. Salem was a municipal town till 2007 and is developed to city in 2008 with heavy area expansion to more than ten times. A detail including all the elements like sustainable urban transport strategies for Salem city is not carried out in the past. To achieve this, development of Salem should meet all the three strategies i.e. social, economic and environmental sustainability goals. Hence sustainable development for Salem city is necessary
Passenger car occupancy has been falling for years. Partly empty vehicles on our road networks decrease passenger transport sustainability but also contain an opportunity for freight transport. Within Crowd logistics (CL), delivery operations are carried out by using passengers’ excess capacity on journeys that are already taking place, resulting in economic, social and environmental benefits. Existing CL initiatives show, however, that there are important differences between concepts in terms of sustainability. The research aims to develop a suitable and comprehensive definition for CL and identify which factors determine the sustainability potential of CL.
The paper presents a case study of applying crowdsourcing to library deliveries. The trial was conducted in the city of Jyvaskyla in Finland as part of the Resource Wise Communities program funded by The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. The city has a population of 120 000 inhabitants and is facing the shut-down of half of the public libraries in order to adapt its economy to lowered revenues and compulsory cost savings. The assumption was that the level of service for customers not able to settle for e-books would be lowered and/or customers would have to travel longer distances. However, a research pilot was carried out where –instead of lowering the level of service in the area– books and other library media were delivered to customers' homes by utilizing a novel crowdsourced delivery service called PiggyBaggy. Crowdsourced delivery means that citizens deliver goods to each other along their way. Ideally, the deliveries would be made with minimal detour, along the way, thus maximizing the reduction in natural resource use and related environmental impacts from the transport. However, the transport fuel forms only one part of the overall footprint and in practice rebound effects such as drivers traveling longer distances motivated by monetary compensation, can reduce the targeted environmental improvement. The objective of our study was to investigate whether an existing consumer service, in this case the library public service, can adopt crowdsourced deliveries quickly from scratch, and to whether consumers participate in the deliveries in a way that has real sustainability benefits. Despite prevailing regulative challenges, the study found that existing library deliveries can be successfully crowdsourced. Each crowdsourced delivery reduced an average of 1.6 km driven by car, despite 80 per cent of the deliveries being made within less than a 5-km distance. Mobility related footprint reduction potential for Finland is also estimated.
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