✕
✕

research selected projects 2

  • Innovative solutions to cope with transport poverty
    HiReach, a project funded by the Horizon 2020 EU research program, addressed the specific mobility needs of segments of the population who are vulnerable to transport poverty and social exclusion   Context and overall objectives of the project HiReach addressed the specific mobility needs of those segments of the population vulnerable to transport poverty and social exclusion such as people with temporarily or permanent reduced mobility, children, young and elderly people, women, migrants, ethnic minorities, low income, unemployed and people living in isolated and deprived areas. The project also analysed geographical and spatial elements affecting transport poverty to figure out inclusive mobility options that can properly work in urban-peripheral, peri-urban, rural, and remote or deprived territories. By combining different attributes of available transport concepts and bottom-up initiatives with smart operational schemes and IT applications, HiReach was aimed at the creation of viable business models for small scale, modular and easily replicable mobility services that can be provided at affordable prices or with minimum subsidies, targeting low-density and transport poor segments of the population. The HiReach mechanism for exploring, generating and testing inclusive mobility solutions was based on the creative work of startups and innovative entrepreneurs, but also on social innovation through the direct involvement of different social groups as co-owners of the proposed solutions. The overall ambition was to generate project results in strict linkage with developers and final users. Fieldwork activities have been conducted in 6 European study regions: Counties of Esslingen and Göppingen (Baden-Württemberg, DE), Naxos and Small Cyclades (GR), Inner Area Southern Salento (Puglia Region, IT), Guarda (PT), Buzau (RO), North and South-East Luxembourg. TRT was the project coordinator, leading a 9-partner international consortium.   Summary of the project work The first analytical phase of the project explored travel behaviour and social habits of targeted vulnerable groups while assessing their travel demand and mobility needs. An extensive desk research across the EU Member States condensed available data, recent trends and scientific literature associated with transport poverty by targeting spatial specificities, mobility socio-economic landscape(s) as well as visible and hidden mobility needs and attitudes. This step required also the (re)-elaboration of the concept of transport poverty including a complex assessment of inequality and disadvantage, distinguishing between transportation-related disadvantage, social disadvantage and social exclusion. A cornerstone of the HiReach approach was the micro-analysis conducted on the field in six different countries. A set of 47 interviews with experts and stakeholders and the direct involvement of 166 vulnerable users through different focus group sessions served as validation of desk research activities and mobilization of local communities as co-owners of the solutions. In particular, TRT conducted fielwork activities in the Southern Salento area, focusing on the transport challenges of women and people with reduced mobility. A visual and descriptive representation of the identified needs and attitudes, featuring also mixed vulnerability characteristics and traits, was transposed into the elaboration of 6 Personas (see HiReach Insight Package). The following exploratory phase critically assessed the limits and drawbacks of the current supply of public […]
  • Spatial & Transport Planning Tools in the New Mobility Era
    HARMONY, a project funded by the Horizon 2020 EU research program, applies an holistic approach for providing innovative spatial & transport planning tools to metropolitan and regional authorities, in order to support decision-making and lead a sustainable transition to a new mobility era The main objective of the HARMONY project was to develop a new generation of harmonised spatial and multimodal transport planning tools, modeling comprehensively the dynamics of the changing transport sector and spatial organisation, and enabling metropolitan area authorities to lead the transition to a low carbon new mobility era in a sustainable manner. The main activities of the project were related to: Designing and develop a model suite (the HARMONY MS), integrating land-use models (strategic/long-term), people and freight activity-based models (tactical/mid-term), and multimodal network models (operational/short-term) allowing for vertical planning. Identify new mobility services, concepts and technologies for people and freight for urban, suburban, and regional transport and their business models. Implementing demonstrations with electric AVs, robots, and drones for freight delivery to understand in real-life their requirements. Recommending updates for spatial and transport strategies and SUMPs to deal with mobility transition to decarbonise the transport sector. Applying and validating the model suite on six EU metropolitan areas: Rotterdam(NL), Oxfordshire(UK), Turin(IT), Athens(GR), Trikala(GR), Upper Silesian-Zaglebie Metropolis(PL). The consortium, coordinated by the University College of London, consisted of 21 partners. TRT led the activities related to spatial and transport strategies and SUMPs, and it was involved in the technical activities to design and develop the modelling suite. Furthermore, TRT experts supported the application in the metropolitan area of Turin (IT). HARMONY Model Suite The HARMONY Model Suite has been designed and implemented to enable end-users such as planners, decision makers, researchers and transport operators/providers to couple/link independent models and analyse a portfolio of regional and urban interventions for both passenger and freight mobility, including policies and capital investments, land-use configurations, economic and sociodemographic assumptions, travel demand management strategies and new mobility service concepts. The conceptual architecture of the HARMONY model suite allows to integrate new and existing sub-models with a multi-scale approach, consisting in the Strategic Level (Long-term), the Tactical Level (Mid-Term) and the Operational Level (Short-term). The Strategic Level is mainly composed of regional economic, demographic forecasting, land-use, spatial freight interaction and long-term mobility choice models. The Tactical level is made of a fully agent-based passenger and freight demand model, representing passenger and freight agents’ choices. The Operational Level is representing the transport supply at network level, with demand interactions at high granularity. The Moby App   Within the HARMONY project, a new approach for travel demand data collection has been used: a free smartphone application, the MobyApp, was developed for Android and iOS. Downloading the application, the survey participants need only to start the tracking of their trips and activities, and the whole travel diary is tracked by the application. Moreover, a few complementary questionnaires are included in the application, to collect additional information on transport behaviours. The travel survey was performed in Turin and Oxfordshire: […]
  • CIVITAS ELEVATE, Coordination and support action for CIVITAS
    CIVITAS ELEVATE, Horizon 2020 project – Increasing the Europe-wide impact of the CIVITAS projects CIVITAS ELEVATE is part of the CIVITAS initiative, a network of cities dedicated to cleaner, better transport in Europe and beyond that has implemented over 800 measures and urban transport solutions in more than 80 living lab cities Europe-wide. The knowledge gathered through these practical experiences is supported by a number of research and innovation projects looking at ways of building more resource efficient and competitive transport. CIVITAS ELEVATE’s scope was to increase the Europe-wide impact of the CIVITAS 2020 and other ongoing projects on urban mobility policy making. The project aimed at advancing the CIVITAS community to a higher level of knowledge, exchange, impact, and sustainability while guaranteeing essential high-quality support. It aimed to enrich the current CIVITAS generation and to feed future EU initiatives while building a European mobility community able to navigate transition. The CIVITAS ELEVATE project, active from April 2019 until April 2023, was carried out by a 6-partner consortium that includes M21 (leader), DTV, ICLEI, INOVA+, Breda University of Applied Sciences, and TRT. TRT was responsible of the evaluation and advancing knowledge activities, providing guidance and support to the stakeholders from across CIVITAS 2020. This enhanced the knowledge that the CIVITAS initiative has been building year after year, to improve urban mobility policy making and planning.   TRT is also part of the new CIVITAS Coordination and support action MUSE  
  • Innovation for a paradigm shifts of railways
    Flex-Rail – Paradigm shifts for railway – Technology uptake strategies for a lean, integrated and flexible railway system Shift2Rail (S2R, shift2rail.org) develops the building blocks for the future rail system, as envisaged in the Multi‐Annual Action Plan (MAAP). However, S2R’s work programmes need to be continuously monitored and updated to ensure that they optimally make use of the potential of new technological innovations and developments rising in the society, other industries and specifically within the rail sector. The Flex‐Rail project has the objective of identifying and assessing technological possibilities and innovative concepts that can shape rail operating and business models, aiming to contribute to the formulation of required paradigm shifts for the rail sector. In this view, Flex-Rail has the vision to target a lean, integrated and flexible railway system to stimulate further innovation of the rail sector and ensure that rail the services can address the future user needs. In particular, the Flex-Rail project addresses the following aspects: forecast the evolution of key fundamental technologies and identification of technical risks and potential blocking points; analysis of possible achievement of future impacts, through the definition and implementation of an impact assessment framework and modelling tool for rail scenario and transition pathways; formulation of technological concepts for a future rail system scenario developed on a participatory process involving the users of the rail system. Also, the scenarios build on the analysis of trends and innovations happening in other transport sectors; assessment of business feasibility and analysis of the current safety requirements. The Flex-Rail project develops an in‐depth overview of the state of the art of ideas and technological trends related to innovations of the transport industry and non‐transport sector technologies. As such, it constitutes a knowledge basis for subsequent activities focussed on (i) the definition of key performance indicators, which are key assessment components, (ii) the identification of gaps and development of future (rail system) transition pathways and (iii) the impact assessment of these transition pathways and scenarios. A dedicate interactive website has been created to explore technological trends an innovations relevant for rail transport(*). On these basis, a dedicated assessment framework has been designed to determine the impact of innovation packages and transition pathways on a number of key performance indicators for rail transport and per System Platform Demonstrator (SPD), as defined in S2R’s MAAP. A gap analysis for each SPD has been developed, considering the fulfilment of user’s requirements of rail and modal competitors and for different market segments. This has allowed to identify potential market segments and rail modal share growth. By evaluating such possible paradigm solutions, with aligning or enabling trends and technologies, future scenarios have been developed and assessed on the basis of an open-innovation process for collecting additional future requirements. Among its activities, Flex-Rail mapped projects, studies, initiatives and experts’ groups outputs related to new technologies and trends within and outside the transport sectors that may directly and indirectly have an influence on the rail transport sector. Mapping such these activities ensured coherence with the worldwide […]