1,720,965 research outputs found
The Go2School project for promoting cycling to school: A case study in Palermo
Full text linkThe identification of transport policy measures able to reduce the use of private cars for home-to-school travel is very relevant to reduce congestion during peak hours and to ensure that the areas around schools have livable environments. An action that policymakers could apply is promoting cycling to school through the introduction of bikesharing programs and creating safe routes to school through the construction of new cycle infrastructure. The aim of the paper has been, therefore, to assess if these policies could lead the high-school students to cycle to school, considering the city of Palermo as a case study. The goal is reached through the calibration of a modal choice model based on Stated Preference interviews. The costs that the local authority have to support have been compared with the benefits that the realization of new cycle paths entails in terms of the modal shift, reduction of car mileage and reduction of the externalities. According to the model, the construction of the new cycle paths will lead to an impressive increase in the use of the bicycle for home-to-school travel and also to greater use of public transport, due to the multimodality guaranteed by the bikesharing stations near the railway stations and tram stops
I am mind, therefore I am map. Mapping as extended spatio-temporal process
Full text linkAbstract: The multifaceted nature of the map animates a wide range of debates that reveal its interdisciplinary nature. Our goal is to overcome classical cognitivism harmonizing the fields of neuroscience, geography, and enactivism to promote a holistic view not only of the map, but also of human beings and, more specifically, of the dynamic subject-world relationship. We have retraced the spatiality of the body and described the spatial dimension of implicit and explicit bodily skills and properties involved in the exploration of – and engagement with – the world. We believe that maps, which present space in isolation, cannot grasp the global quality of subjective experience: space and time are not separable concepts for a cognitive agent engaged in the world. Finally, going beyond the theory of the extended mind to extended consciousness, we argue that ecological mapping, mental mapping, and practical mapping are closely interrelated.Keywords: Mapping; Enactivism; Image; Perception; Extended Consciousness Sono una mente, quindi sono una mappa. La costruzione di mappe come processo spazio-temporale estesoRiassunto: La natura poliedrica della mappa anima una vasta gamma di dibattiti che rivelano la sua natura interdisciplinare. Nostro scopo è quello di superare il cognitivismo classico, armonizzando campi quali la neuroscienza, la geografia e l’enattivimo, per promuovere una visione olistica non solo della mappa, ma anche dell’essere umano e, più specificamente, del rapporto dinamico tra soggetto e mondo. Intendiamo ripercorrere la spazialità del corpo e descrivere la dimensione spaziale delle abilità e delle proprietà corporee implicite ed esplicite implicate nell’esplorazione del – e nel coinvolgimento con – il mondo. Crediamo che le mappe, che presentano lo spazio in maniera isolata, non possono cogliere la qualità globale dell’esperienza soggettiva: lo spazio e il tempo non sono concetti separabili per un agente cognitivo coinvolto nel mondo. Infine, passando dalla teoria della mente estesa a quella della coscienza estesa, intendiamo sostenere che la creazione di mappe ecologiche, mentali e pratiche sia un’attività profondamente interconnessa.Parole chiave: Mappatura; Enattivismo; Immagine; Percezione; Coscienza estes
Demand Responsive Transport Services for Improving the Public Transport in Suburban Areas
No full textSuburbs suffer from isolation from densely populated urban centers due to the poor performance of traditional public transport services such as buses. This isolation worsens the quality of life of the residents of these areas, with related problems of social exclusion. One of the possible solutions to meet the mobility needs of these people is a flexible service such as Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) systems. This article assessed the effectiveness of a DRT service as a feeder transit service, assuming a connection of three suburban districts of Palermo, Italy, with a Railway Line station. Thanks to a Revealed Preferences (RP) and Stated Preferences (SP) survey campaign, both the current modal split towards the local public transport service and towards the hypothesized innovative DRT service were determined. The results show that the percentages of choice for this new alternative far exceed those of the current bus service, with values even over 40%, thus showing the potential as a mobility solution alternative to poor quality public transport
A stated preference survey to forecast microtransit choice in suburban areas with low public transport ridership
Full text linkPublic transport services with fixed schedules and fixed routes are often unreliable and economically unsustainable in suburban areas having a low transport demand that is spatially and temporally dispersed. Therefore, suburban areas become car-oriented and have transportation gaps, increasing the risk of social exclusion for the most vulnerable groups. Microtransit services aim to fill these gaps, offering greater flexibility in routes and schedules for non-commuting trips and operating more efficiently, with shorter walking distances to stops and waiting times. The paper aims to investigate the microtransit choice and the factors that influence it using a Stated Preference (SP) survey. Some suburban neighbourhoods with under utilized public transport services in Palermo, Italy, have been chosen as study areas. Conducting face-to-face interviews, Revealed Preference (RP) data was collected to assess residents’ mobility habits. SP experiments were proposed to respondents to calibrate a mode choice model. A hybrid microtransit has been proposed, operating as a conventional fixed-route and fixed-schedule public transport service in peak hours and as an on-demand service in off-peak hours. A scenario analysis was performed to understand which type of customers would be easier to attract, and how in-vehicle times, waiting and walking times affect the microtransit choice. The study found that the choice probability for microtransit is higher for young people than for older people, increasing with the increase in the level of education and the introduction of travel demand management policies that discourage the use of private cars, such as parking pricing or the introduction of restricted traffic areas
Understanding the Key Factors of Shared Mobility Services: Palermo as a Case Study
Full text linkThe potential success of shared mobility services in the urban area strongly depends on careful tariff planning, adequate sizing of the fleet and efficient integrated public transport system, as well as on the application of policies in favor of sustainable modes of transport. The balance between earnings and expenses is not always an easy target for the companies in those cities where these services are not well-rooted in the citizens’ mobility habits. Often only large operators in the sector can continue to offer a service generating profit. However, several factors can determine the success or the failure of shared mobility services. The objective of this study is to identify, thanks to the help of a case study, success and failure factors, developing an approach that is supportive for companies in managing the services and optimizing fares and fleet to increase the number of members and maximize profits. The city of Palermo has been chosen as a case study: the “Amigo” carsharing service - partly station-based, partly free-floating - is a service managed by the municipal company AMAT S.p.A., which operates also the public transport service
A GIS-based methodology for evaluating the increase in multimodal transport between bicycle and rail transport systems. A case study in Palermo
Full text linkBackground: In a world where every municipality is pursuing the goals of more sustainable mobility, bicycle plays a fundamental role in getting rid of private cars and travelling by an eco-friendly mode of transport. Also, private and shared bikes can be used as a feeder transit system, solving the problem of the first and last-mile trips. Thanks to GIS (Geographic Information System) software, it is possible to evaluate the effectiveness of such a sustainable mean of transport in the future users’ modal choice. Methods: Running an accessibility analysis of cycling and rail transport services, the potential mobility demand attracted by these services and the possible multimodality between bicycle and rail transport systems can be assessed. Moreover, thanks to a modal choice model calibrated for high school students, it could be verified if students will be really motivated to adopt this solution for their home-to-school trips. Results: The GIS-based analysis showed that almost half of the active population in the study area might potentially abandon the use of their private car in favour of bike and its combination with public transport systems; furthermore, the percentage of the students of one high school of Palermo, the Einstein High School, sharply increases from 1.5% up to 10.1%, thanks also to the combination with the rail transport service. Conclusions: The GIS-based methodology shows that multimodal transport can be an effective way to pursue a more sustainable mobility in cities and efficiently connect suburbs with low-frequent public transport services to the main public transport nodes
Designing microtransit services in suburban areas: A case study in Palermo, Italy
Full text linkPoor quality of Public Transport (PT) services is one of the main causes of social exclusion for people living in the suburbs. Public transport companies usually allocate few financial resources to these areas, providing transport services with low frequency, poor accessibility, poor reliability, and high waiting times at stops. Recently, microtransit has emerged as an effective solution to improve the travel experience in suburban areas, particularly for non-commuting trips during off-peak hours. This paper presents an integrated methodological approach for designing microtransit services to meet the mobility needs of people living in low-density suburbs. By conducting a Reveled Preference (RP) and Stated Preference (SP) survey and developing a travel demand model, the demand was estimated and used as input to simulate and size the service. Combining GIS and simulation models, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were assessed; fleet size to meet the trip requests was identified and the fare was selected using a sensitivity analysis. The method was applied to a real case study to design a new microtransit service with flexible routes and on-demand stops in a suburban area in Palermo, Italy. The results highlight how introducing a microtransit service with 30 nine-seater vans could change the mobility habits of people living in the suburban area, being attractive and financially sustainable if costing 2 €, or just a little more than the existing fixed-route bus service. It could improve the travel experience by reducing the average waiting time at stops to around 5 min and improve access to amenities and PT hubs by guaranteeing a walking time of maximum about 8 min
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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