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Reshaping the Urban Environment Through Mobility Projects and Practices: Lessons from the Case of Palermo
Abstract
Transport and mobility are crucial factors in the process of adaptation of contemporary urban areas to the challenge of sustainable development. In this perspective, however, cities need to perform a more effective integration between a wide range of different policies and planning practices. Together with a more effective integration between transport policy and land-use planning, for instance, cities could take growing advantage by organisational factors, as well as the spreading of new technologies and the related processes of social innovation. Through the description of several project and planning initiatives taking place in Palermo, the fifth Italian city, this paper attempts to explore the potential sinergies between the “hard factors” of mobility—in this case given by the huge programme of infrastructure redevelopment under realisation in the city—with some other dimensions, such as urban regeneration processes, governance and community-led processes of innovation.
... While the municipality was committed to starting the ITP implementation, local government launched the largest infrastructure scheme ever planned since the post-war reconstruction: the 'Integrated Plan for Mass Public Transport' (PMPT). This programme, approved in 2002 to reshape the urban rail network, can be seen a response to the city's modernization process claimed by the new center-right coalition and, on the other hand, an attempt to provide citizens with an alternative to the car-dependent development pattern characterizing the city's modern history (Vinci and Di Dio 2016). ...
... According to some works (i.e Azzolina 2009), a clear element of continuity in policymaking since the mid of the nineties can be found in the focus on physical regeneration and the support for a culture-led development process. In other works (i.e Vinci and Di Dio 2016), it is argued that another common thread across the years (and the political coalitions) can be found in the attention towards sustainable mobility, despite the fact that the creation of massive transport infrastructures has been gradually added to by smaller and less costly interventions, such as, for instance, car-free areas, pedestrianization projects, and the application of 'smart' solutions to the existing mobility systems. ...
The article provides an interpretation of the role played by the EU regional policy in the process of urban change experienced in Palermo, the fifth Italian city by population and capital of one of the largest Europe’s less developed regions (Sicily). Through an analysis of various EU-funded planning initiatives implemented over the last two decades – from the Urban Community Initiative in the late nineties to the current Integrated Territorial Investments under the 2014–2020 urban agenda –, the work explores their effects from three main perspectives: urban regeneration, local governance, and planning innovation.
... Being the city still ranked as one of the most congested medium-sized cities in Europe (see: TomTom Traffic Index, 2016), a growing debate is taking place among citizens and policy makers around the ways to tackle the weaknesses in the transport and mobility systems. Alongside with the implementation of large infrastructure projects, different local stakeholders advocate for the relevance of the 'soft' factors for urban mobility (Vinci & Di Dio, 2016), including the initiatives to stimulate the civic engagement in the promotion of more responsible and sustainable transport behaviors. more sustainable the mobility of people in urban contexts. ...
Usually, mobility policies assessed by local institutions tend to intervene on the side of the urban transport networks, by designing new and expensive infrastructures, whereas only a few attention is paid to the possible positive effects induced by proper mobility behaviors of people. On purpose, Smartphone technologies and platforms are rapidly becoming effective tools for involving citizens in environmental conscious mobility habits. By means of an empirical application to a group of university students, that daily commute for reaching their departments, the effectiveness of a mobile app game in pursuing commuters to modify their mobility behaviors is here checked. The game rewards with tangible prizes the most environmentally sustainable mobility habits, connecting commuters with sponsors and companies operating in the urban context. The field application of the app in the city of Palermo challenges the involved commuters against two benchmarks of mobility behaviors characterized by the use of higher sweet mobility means. The first scenario (apart its applicability as alone) can be seen as a first less challenging step towards the second one. The interesting outcomes of this experimental application encourage paying further attention to such behavioral tools for achieving the smartness of cities.
... One of the scopes of the Traffic02 project was to shift the debate on changing cities by switching from the urban structure (the hardware) to the changes that can be induced by citizens through a change of their behavior and the urban communities' habits (the software). TrafficO2 was thought as an info mobility decision supporting system that tried to foster a modal split through gaming policies and tangible incentives for each individual citizen when making (more) sustainable mobility choice [19] with the help of smartphone applications. Local businesses jointed through an ICT platform (as sponsors) became the stations of a new kind of transport system in which only moving by foot, by bicycle, by local public transport and by car-pooling were rewarded. ...
This paper aims to contribute to current research on learning through designing for urban innovation. It provides a framework methodology for a multidisciplinary ecosystem as a participatory method developed in the context of Mobility Urban Values (MUV), an EU Horizon 2020 project (2017–2020), that addresses the issue of behavioral change towards (more) sustainable mobility lifestyle in EU cities. The paper frames the MUV method through the combination of theories on collaborative urban planning and participatory design with a background rooted on governance of public participation, as the interplay between co-creation (thick participation) and co-design (thin participation). MUV participatory method is envisioned as a learning infrastructure that engages at different levels communities, citizens, and stakeholders. This paper addresses the question on how enabling urban innovation through sensitive phases of sociological and technical components to produce learning. The conceptual background of the MUV method and the first application phase of co-creation/co-design for the old city center neighborhood in Palermo, Italy, provide lessons on the results of this approach for a future research agenda and the loop learning. While the method is adopted specifically in relation to mobility urban values, MUV method can inspire a variety of other cases questioning urban innovation through socio-technical learning.
This book gathers contributions to the 3rd International Conference on Smart Learning Ecosystems and Regional Developments (SLERD 2018), held at Aalborg University, Denmark on 23–25 May 2018.
What characterizes smart learning ecosystems? What is their role in city and regional development and innovation? How can we promote citizen engagement in smart learning ecosystems? These are some of the questions addressed at SLERD 2018 and documented in these proceedings, which include a diverse range of papers intended to help understand, conceive, and promote innovative human-centric design and development methods, education/training practices, informal social learning, and citizen-driven policies.
The papers elaborate on the notion of smart learning ecosystems, assess the relation of smart learning ecosystems with their physical surroundings, and identify new resources for smart learning. SLERD 2018 contributes to foster the social innovation sectors, ICT and economic development and deployment strategies, as well as new policies for smarter, more proactive citizens. As such, these proceedings are relevant for researchers and policymakers alike.
Since the beginning of the century two thirds of the Portuguese territory is threatened by desertification and the decline of economic activities. To face such trends, regions need to implement innovative strategies that leverage on the endogenous resources of the territory to foster economic recovery and to promote entrepreneurship, creativity, smart learning, and innovation. This paper reports on the study of the Bons Sons music festival as an example of an initiative developed in a low-density population area that mobilized their endogenous territorial resources to promote growth and economic development. The case study, which was based on the descriptive and qualitative analysis of a semi structured interview with the artistic director of the festival, aims at understanding the role of digital technologies in the process of regional innovation. The article contributes with an analytical view of community networks mediation practices and offers a set of tips and recommendations for the effective creation and consolidation of mediation strategies, community networks, and learning ecosystems that foster regional innovation.
Transport stakeholders are increasingly recognizing the value of social media in connecting with their customers in many forms. This study explores two sides to engagement with social media - firstly the potential uses of social media by transport service suppliers and secondly the potential value to policy development of shared transport related information by the public. Samples of stakeholders of different sizes were selected for the study, reflecting alternative modes and providing a variety of services and functions in the transport sector. The findings give insights into the practices of organizations of different size, function and longevity of social media use. The early results of a study to harvest freely available transport information from the public and transport system users are also presented, demonstrating that transport policy relevant information can be harvested from online social media sources.
This study examined the factors that motivated parents to choose the mode of transportation for their children to travel to school besides investigated parents’ attitudes about their awareness towards sustainable transportation. The study found that the majority of parents used private vehicles to send their children to school were primarily influenced by the level of safety (crime and traffic). Security problems caused parents to be less interested in the campaign for sustainable transport. Despite the fact that the majority of parents were aware of the dangers of motor vehicles towards the environment and the positive effects of encouraging their children to walk and cycle to school, safety and security issues discouraged parents to support the use of sustainable transportation. The results of this study gave the true picture of urban lifestyles in terms of school transportation. In addition, parental views and concerns about safety showed the need for the improvement of public security, which was the main factor that encouraged parents to let their children walk or cycle to school.
This paper discusses a methodology to increase the consistency with which urban good innovations and projects are evaluated. The methodology has been developed in France and is based on a detailed examination of 15 projects comparing the wide range of criteria used in their evaluation. Following the discussion of the methodology and a summary of how it was devised the paper goes on to show its application to two projects, one in France involving mail and small package deliveries and the other in the UK involving an urban consolidation centre for retailers. Using the two case studies demonstrates the application of the methodology and also shows some of the challenges in terms of data acquisition. The paper concludes by considering the value of the approach and outlining further research needs.
Advanced travel information systems (ATIS) are designed to provide real time information enabling drivers to choose efficiently
among routes and save travel time. Psychological research suggests that route-choice models can be improved by adding realistic
behavioral assumptions. However, different generalizations imply deviations in different directions. Specifically, different
choices arise when decisions are taken on the basis of information compared to those taken on the basis of personal experience.
An experimental study of route choices investigates the combined effects of information and experience on route choice decisions
in a simulated environment whereby the participants can rely on a description of travel time variability and at the same time
can rely also on personal experience through feedback. The experiment consisted of a simple two route network, one route on
average faster than the other with three traffic scenarios representing different travel time ranges. Respondents were divided
to two groups: with real-time information and without. Both groups received feedback information of their actual travel time.
During the experiment, participants chose repeatedly between the routes and across scenarios. The results show that effect
of information is positive and more evident when participants lack long-term experience on the distributions of travel times.
Furthermore, information seems to increase initial risk seeking behavior, reduce initial exploration and contribute to between
subject differences. These findings have implications for cost-effective ATIS design especially in the conditions characterized
by non-recurrent congestion.
Bringing together the leading authors currently working at the intersection of social science and transport science, this volume provides a companion to the well-established and extensive international Transport and Society series. Each chapter, and the volume as a whole, offers closer and richer consideration of the issues, practices and structures of multiple mobilities which shape the current world but which have typically been overlooked or minimised. What this approach seeks to do is not only draw attention to many new areas of research and investigation relating to mobile lives, but also to point to new theories and methods by which such lives have to be researched and examined. Such new theories and methods are relevant both to rethinking 'transport' studies as such but are also recasting 'societal' studies as 'transport' so that it comes out of the ghetto and enters mainstream social science. © Margaret Grieco, John Urry and the contributors 2011. All rights reserved.
A discussion of the opportunities and challenges involved mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from passenger travel.
In the nineteenth century, horse transportation consumed vast amounts of land for hay production, and the intense traffic and ankle-deep manure created miserable living conditions in urban centers. The introduction of the horseless carriage solved many of these problems but has created others. Today another revolution in transportation seems overdue. Transportation consumes two-thirds of the world's petroleum and has become the largest contributor to global environmental change. Most of this increase in scale can be attributed to the strong desire for personal mobility that comes with economic growth. InTransportation in a Climate-Constrained World, the authors present the first integrated assessment of the factors affecting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from passenger transportation. They examine such topics as past and future travel demand; the influence of personal and business choices on passenger travel's climate impact; technologies and alternative fuels that may become available to mitigate GHG emissions from passenger transport; and policies that would promote a more sustainable transportation system. And most important, taking into account all of these options are taken together, they consider how to achieve a sustainable transportation system in the next thirty to fifty years.
Contemporary urban lifestyles and business practices are increasingly dependent on mobility. At the same time, the negative impacts of mobility on natural and social environments are growing dramatically, as is the public outcry for their reversal. Urban planners are faced with a difficult dilemma: how to rejoin the essential role of mobility in enhancing cities' welfare and well-being with the lack of sustainability of present urban mobility practices? The paper argues that coping with this dilemma requires understanding and managing the deep intertwining of urban mobility, spatial developments, and broader socio-economic and cultural processes, but also coming to terms with the many, irreducible uncertainties of the challenge. It concludes that only a more intensive and critical interaction between different disciplines – at the very least fully integrating transport and spatial planningand between planning science and planning practice can achieve this.
The Home Energy Conservation Support Program in this study was developed by authors, available on the internet. This program was designed to promote residential energy conservation by encouraging family communication and rivalry against other families, and to get their energy consumption data sustainably for analysis. This paper describes the results of the program's performance evaluation through its implementation. The program members can obtain evaluation results about their energy consumption by inputting their monthly energy consumption data and also utilize the information obtained to save energy in the future. The estimated reduction rates in energy consumption of members suggest that the program has prompted energy-saving behavior among them, and that energy-saving for "lighting and electric appliances" is harder than for "heating". Additionally, this program demonstrated the possibility of sustained investigation on energy consumption characteristics.
Building on top of an experiment in tracking the movement of trash, we tested whether viewing this sensor data would change peoples' sustainability attitudes and behaviors. We showed subjects real-time maps of trash tagged with networked GPS sensors, and surveyed them before and after seeing this information. Our results show that subjects did not significantly change their behavior in the long run, but they reported better understanding of where their trash went and how tracking technologies worked. Those who participated in deploying sensors reacted differently on some questions from those who had not volunteered. This study illustrates both limits and new opportunities for the Internet of Things to improve sustainability outreach and action at the grassroots level.
The concept of smart city is getting more and more relevant for both academics and policy makers. Despite this, there is still confusion about what a smart city is, as several similar terms are often used interchangeably. This paper aims at clarifying the meaning of the word “smart” in the context of cities through an approach based on an in-depth literature review of relevant studies as well as official documents of international institutions. It also identifies the main dimensions and elements characterizing a smart city. The different metrics of urban smartness are reviewed to show the need for a shared definition of what constitutes a smart city, which are its features, and how it performs in comparison to traditional cities. Furthermore, performance measures and initiatives in a few smart cities are identified.
A common finding in behavioural economics is that people often procrastinate, i.e., keep postponing planned tasks or decisions that require effort to execute. The effect of procrastination on inter-temporal energy choice behaviours could be even more serious because energy is an abstract, invisible and intangible commodity. This paper uses a web survey to investigate how people's procrastination propensity and environmental awareness affect their heating-energy-saving behaviours. The results indicate that people who state that they have a higher tendency to procrastinate are significantly less likely to have engaged in most of the heating energy-saving activities, especially regarding larger purchases or investments in equipment and the insulation of doors and windows. I also found a positive relationship between environmental awareness and engaging in everyday energy-saving activities such as reducing the indoor temperature. The findings suggest that measures aimed at reducing procrastination are needed to realise energy-saving potential. It is important to find ways to either bring future benefits closer to the present or to magnify the costs of delayed action. For example, one can employ certain feedback systems and commitment devices to make current gains and future costs more visible or tangible.
When travelling through a new environment people can and do make very quick judgements about the local conditions. This paper explores the idea that such judgements are affected by the travel mode they use. We hypothesise that drivers generate a more superficial impression of the things they observe than those who walk because they are exposed to less information. This prediction is based on social psychological research that demonstrates that information that becomes available in “thin slices” affects superficial judgements. A survey study (n = 644) demonstrated that perceptions of a less affluent area are indeed negatively related to more driving and positively related to more walking, but only for those who do not live there. Perceptions of a neighbouring affluent area are positively related to more driving. Two experimental studies (n = 245 and n = 91) demonstrated that explicit (but not implicit) attitudes towards a group of young people in an ambiguous social situation are more negative when they are viewed from the perspective of a car user in particular in relation to a pedestrian perspective. These findings suggest that mode use may affect communities by influencing social judgements.
Out-of-vehicle times were shown to be perceived as being more onerous than in-vehicle time by transit users when making transfers. The present study has two main objectives. The first objective is to determine the effects of uncertainty, in out-of-vehicle times during transfers, on transit users’ willingness to use transfer routes. The second objective is to determine the influence of out-of-vehicle facilities, offered by public-transport (PT) operators, on transit users’ perception of trip attributes related to transfers. A user preference survey was conducted at two major PT terminals in Auckland, New Zealand. The survey data was modelled using cumulative prospect theory and fuzzy logic. The results showed that for all trip attributes, except for comfort, transit users’ exhibited risk averse behaviour; users’ revealed greater preference for the transfer route with less uncertainty in the out-of-vehicle times. For comfort, transit users’ displayed risk-taking characteristics when the waiting time for a seat was less than 5 min. Such findings suggest that increasing the consistency in out-of-vehicle times will increase attractiveness of transfer routes thus enabling a more efficient and integrated network of PT routes to result in enlargement of ridership. Policy makers and PT planners must focus on methods of reducing uncertainty in out-of-vehicle times during transfers. Analysis of transit users’ perception of trip attributes, given their current station, revealed statistical evidence of differences for two trip attributes, transfer waiting time and vehicle delay. Such findings indicate that transit users who are accustomed to better out-of-vehicle facilities have a lower tolerance for uncertainty in transfer waiting times and delay times. To the authors’ knowledge, this study provides for the first time in literature a comparison between the two cognitive models. The comparison revealed that CPT and fuzzy logic models are both capable of representing transit users’ decision making process. However, while CPT provides an indication of transit users’ preference for a transfer route, fuzzy logic is capable of providing a closer approximation of the proportion of transit users preferring a transfer route.
Highlights
► Review of many approaches to low carbon transport. ► Interesting assessment of these. ► Detailed account of the importance of oil for transportation futures.
The integrated study of energy and urban systems has recently become a critical component of sustainability research and policy. Increasing urbanization of human societies combined with intense energy demands of modern economies have driven a recognition that sustainable practices require a systems approach to both the study and application of sustainability principles. Urban metabolism has emerged as a leading methodology for quantifying energy consumption and use patterns in urban environments. Though typically applied as a method of accounting for total energy and materials inputs and outputs into cities, its interdisciplinary history and methods allow urban metabolism to be expanded in ways that will allow more comprehensive and integrated assessment of the patterns and processes of urban energy systems. In this article, we review the concept of urban metabolism—including its two typical approaches: mass balance and “emergy” methods—and offer a means to expand urban metabolism into a platform that incorporates socioeconomic analysis, policy analysis, and additional quantitative methodologies (such as life cycle assessment). This expanded urban metabolism framework is more comprehensive analytically and builds upon the documented capacity of traditional urban metabolism to account for total energy and materials flows of cities to provide an integrated platform for analysis of both energy patterns and the causal processes that govern energy in contemporary cities.
Transit Oriented Development: Making it Happen brings together the different stakeholders and disciplines that are involved in the conception and implementation of TOD to provide a comprehensive overview of the realization of this concept in Australia, North America, Asia and Europe. The book identifies the challenges facing TOD and through a series of key international case studies demonstrates ways to overcome and avoid them. The insights gleaned from these encompass policy and regulation, urban design solutions, issues for local governance, the need to work with community and the commercial realities of TOD. http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&title_id=8710&edition_id=11109&calcTitle=1
This paper has two main parts. The first questions two of the underlying principles of conventional transport planning on travel as a derived demand and on travel cost minimisation. It suggests that the existing paradigm ought to be more flexible, particularly if the sustainable mobility agenda is to become a reality. The second part argues that policy measures are available to improve urban sustainability in transport terms but that the main challenges relate to the necessary conditions for change. These conditions are dependent upon high-quality implementation of innovative schemes, and the need to gain public confidence and acceptability to support these measures through active involvement and action. Seven key elements of sustainable mobility are outlined, so that public acceptability can be more effectively promoted.
This article explores anti-social behaviour on public transport, regarded as a major problem by most transport authorities in Britain. It has been estimated that a passenger increase of more than 11.5% in Britain could be achieved if public concerns over anti-social behaviour could be allayed. The article starts by noting that combating anti-social behaviour has generally been seen as the remit of police and enforcement officers. However, research carried out for Transport for London indicates that for the majority of the travelling public, the forms of anti-social behaviour, which concerns them is more likely to be low-level behaviour, ranging from groups of young people behaving boisterously to people eating food or talking loudly on mobile phones.
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