Davide Tessarollo

Despite the acceleration of new mobility solutions and the increasing relevance of models in urban transport planning, particularly in the context of decarbonisation and climate neutrality, a clear, concise and up-to-date guidance document on modelling tools for the urban mobility planner’s community was missing. TRT, as part of the WP8 (Process assessment, SUMPs recommendations and roadmaps) activities within the HARMONY project, drafted the document “Guidelines on Modelling tools for Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) in the new mobility era” whose aim is to provide local planning authorities with guidance on transport modelling applications in their SUMP implementation process, building on the concept of SUMP, as outlined by the European Commission’s Urban Mobility Package and described in detail in the European SUMP Guidelines 2.0 (second edition). The project highlighted the importance of a bottom-up approach in urban planning, through the implementation of co-creation labs in six metropolitan areas (Athens, Oxfordshire, Rotterdam, Trikala, Turin, and Upper Silesian-Zaglebie Metropolis). Within this context, HARMONY Guidelines on Modelling tools are useful to assess new mobility technologies impacts in the urban environment, answering to questions related to transport models.

TRT is happy to announce the publication of a broad study on new mobility patterns, describing the mobility choices of European citizens and how the urban logistics sector is developing in 16 EU cities. The study, conducted for the European Commission – DG MOVE, was commissioned to collect reliable and extensive data on passenger mobility, urban logistics, fleet composition, transport activity and traffic flows in Member States. The passenger mobility survey showed that, on average, EU citizens travelled 27 km per day for an average duration of 80 minutes. The predominant means of transport in 2021 was the car, which was used for almost half of all trips. Excluding trips made by car, walking is the most popular way of moving around in most of the EU, with the Netherlands as a notable exception, where cycling is more popular. New mobility forms are gaining traction: ride-hailing (23%) and ride-sharing (12%) are attracting the most users; however, they are generally used on an occasional basis. The results of the survey were influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected travel behaviour and restricted travel options. Indeed, 64% of respondents found that the pandemic affected their mobility.

The article “Mobility-as-a-Service: regulations and recommendations” has been published in the MMYY edition of Smart City and Mobility Lab. Based on the extensive research activity and the experiences from three pilot projects (Manchester, Budapest, Luxembourg) developed within the research project MaaS4EU, the article discusses the regulatory, technological and policy elements that are key for the growth and development of the MaaS market. Read here (only in italian).

The future energy system in Europe needs to be decarbonized and thus be based almost exclusively on renewable energy sources. Therefore it is challenged by the intermittent nature of renewables and requires several flexibility options. The interaction between different options and the impact on environment and society are in the focus of this contribution. It has been the core objective of the Reflex research project funded by the H2020 EU research programme and is reflected in the book “The Future European Energy System – Renewable Energy, Flexibility Options and Technological Progress” appjust published by SpringerNature. The book analyzes the transition toward a low-carbon energy system in Europe under the aspects of flexibility and technological progress. By covering the main energy sectors – including the industry, residential, tertiary and transport sector as well as the heating and electricity sector – the analysis assesses flexibility requirements in a cross-sectoral energy system with high shares of renewable energies. The authors apply models and tools from various research fields, including techno-economic learning, fundamental energy system modeling, and environmental and social life cycle as well as health impact assessment, to develop an innovative and comprehensive energy models system (EMS). Moreover, the contributions examine renewable penetrations and their contributions to climate change mitigation, and the impacts of available technologies on the energy system.