Georgia Liouta’s research while affiliated with Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and other places

The COVID-19 pandemic poses an unprecedented challenge for public transport systems. The capacity of transport systems has been significantly reduced because of the social distancing measures. Therefore, new avenues to increase the resilience of public urban mobility need to be explored. In this work, we investigate the integration of bike sharing and public transport systems to compensate for limited public transport capacity under the disruptive impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a first step, we develop a data analysis model to integrate the demand of the two underlying systems. Next, we build an optimization model for the design and operation of hybrid mixed-fleet bike sharing systems. We analyze the case of the subway and public bike sharing systems in Milan to assess this approach. We find that the bike sharing system (in its current state) can only compensate for a minor share of the public transport capacity, as the needs in fleet and station capacity are very high. However, the resilience of public urban mobility further increases when new design concepts for the bike sharing system are considered. An extension to a hybrid free-floating bike and docked e-bike system doubled the covered demand of the system. An extension of the station capacity of about 37% yields an additional increase of the covered demand by 6.5%–7.5%. On the other hand, such a hybrid mixed-fleet bike sharing system requires many stations and a relatively large fleet to provide the required mobility capacity, even at low demand requirements.

This paper examines the feasibility of inserting a new exclusive bus lane in the public transport network of an urban area. It gives data and a case study example that demonstrate how a bus lane can be evaluated especially how a bus lane of a relatively limited length and of a relatively low bus frequency is worth being implemented – normally - in the case of a one-way street connecting the city center with the suburbs. The approach followed, analyses the findings from a case study in the eastern part of Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece with a population of approximately one million inhabitants. The bus lane used as the case study is focused on an outbound direction along a one-way street that connects the city center with the eastern suburbs of the city. This bus lane operates during part of the day according to the traffic conditions and the demand needs along the road corridor where it is located. The analysis includes field measurements of traffic data along the bus lane as well as a questionnaire-based survey that was mainly focused to investigate the quality of the service as perceived by the passengers. The paper shows that such bus lane can be fully justified (though with a reduced number of buses per hour), in terms of the travel time savings that it provides, the uninterrupted bus flow operation that it provides (that minimises the time they spend on the bus) and other characteristics. Parking restrictions and other traffic regulations enforcement is, however, necessary to prevent violations by drivers of private cars and minimise any adverse effects on the bus lane’s operation.

This paper concerns the evaluation of the bus lane on G. Papandreou street in the Municipality of Thessaloniki. In order to achieve this objective, field counts were made in the near area of the bus lane. In addition, a questionnaire-based survey concerning the passengers was also carried out at a bus stop which is located along the specific bus lane. The collection of the above data was followed by statistical analysis (descriptive and inferential statistics). The aim of this research has to do with identification of the impact of the bus lane to the quality of service offered to the passengers. In addition, problems which impose difficulties in the efficient operation of the bus lane are also recorded, with the aim of promoting the public transport system (sustainable urban mobility). Finally, the most important results of this research are presented. The most important result of this survey is that while the field measurements do not show a significant time-saving in the bus lane, the users consider that this time was satisfying.