Abstract

Historically, urban areas expanded proportionally to the maximum speed one could travel within natural travel time budgets. However, driven by the availability of private motorised transport, major urban areas are now expanding so fast that achievable increases in transport speed cannot compensate for the growth in size. More importantly, such issue highlights that these shortcomings are inherent to traditional engineering approaches. Therefore, radical innovation is critical to support the future structures of megalopoleis. We thus propose a new framework for engineering radical change that is based on projection rather than prediction, illustrated by a new concept of operations for metro systems. Our models show that this novel approach can increase door-to-door achievable distances within the natural time budgets by approximately 50% without further increases in maximum line speeds. Expanding the potential applications of this framework, we position this research as a starting point to a new perspective on developing systems to support the complex urban environments of the future.

Abstract

http://library.witpress.com/pages/listpapers.asp?q_bid=358&q_subject=Transport%20Engineering; The observable modifications in cities and on the individuals' way of life have impacts on the mobility practices, on the citizens' social conditions and on the capacity to reach activities. These evolutions can create, reduce or amplify chance inequalities to access activities between the different social groups. It leads to considering in the French decision-making processes, some aspects of the social dimension of sustainability, reduced to chances equalities and to the social implications of accessibility. The accessibility to urban amenities is based on the right to transport as a necessary condition for chance inequalities for all. In this context, we analyze whether an urban transportation system could reduce the population's chance inequalities in terms of social access to a basket of goods. We propose, on the Lyons conurbation, for the year 1999, to quantify the accessibility, by car or by public transport, of the rich or poor districts' inhabitants. Then, we explore the effects of an increase of public transport supply, based on the Urban Travel Plan for the Lyons conurbation. Does now provide improved accessibility and to reduce the inequalities between the richest and the poorest districts?