Built environment and smart mobility

Wherever urban development takes place, people will want to come and go. And wherever people come, go, or pass through, opportunities for urban development arise. There is a continuous interaction between the built environment and mobility in general, and smart mobility specifically.

In this course we will discuss the current state of knowledge of how to plan and design our cities with the aim of keeping them liveable, clean and safe, offering opportunities to satisfy wants and needs, while simultaneously keeping them accessible for all.

The course addresses key concepts and state of the art methods concerning the relationship between (smart) mobility and the built environment. Examples of applications are discussed, while assignments allow you to master the methods and better understand the concepts.

The course involves some calculation exercises (that may require the use of an analysis software, e.g. SPSS/R/Python).
The following topics will be dealt with:

• Built Environment and Transportation: relations between transportation, land use, urban design and real estate; activity-based analysis as integrated framework.
• Urban mobility issues with a focus on the impacts of car-oriented mobilitty on the environment and quality of life: inefficient use of time and space, energy consumption, emissions and exposure;safety, health and well-being.
• Urban planning and design solutions to mitigate urban mobility issues: urban structures and mobility, suburbia and walkability, New Urbanism, TOD.
• Smart mobility: how technology and innovative transportation and ICT solutions may (or may not) help in dealing with urban mobility issues and keeping our cities accessible and sustainable.
• Mobility as a service (MaaS), challenges, progress and prospect.
• Real estate, accessibility and transportation: concepts of accessibility in land-use and transport planning strategies; measurement of accessibility; theories and methods of transport and land use interaction..
• Models of transport demand: the 4 step model; activity-based models (constrained based models, utility-maximizing models, computational process models).

After a successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Explain the relation between transportation, land use and urban development.
• Identify the major urban mobility issues in relation to its effects on the quality of life, environment, health and well-being.
• Discuss the potential of urban planning and design solutions, smart mobility solutions and their integration in mitigating urban mobility issues.
• Assess the implementation of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) in existing urban areas using available measurement tools.
• Propose (innovative) integrated approaches for the future of urban accessibility and mobility using scientific literature as a primary source.
• Given the principles underpinning the concept and ecosystem of Mobility as a Service (MaaS), critically examine the bottlenecks and success factors of MaaS implementation and its societal, behavioral and environmental effects using case studies.
• Analyze the relationship between accessibility and real estate using relevant theories and methods of transport and land use interaction.
• Explain the underlying principles and limitations of the four step model compared to an activity-based model and apply it for travel demand forecasting.

• A selection of readings will be included in the study guide.