Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Planning for Sustainable Mobility with Personal
Rapid Transit in Small European Cities
Alexandra Lichtenberg, Patrícia Guimarães, and Heleen Podsedkowska
Introduction
The objective of this research is to introduce a new perspective to sustainable
mobility strategic planning for small European municipalities - a framework for
Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) - where back casting from a sustainable
vision in the long-term future is central to the process. This vision portrays mobility
in an efficient, safe and economic manner, where the use of private cars has been
substituted by attractive and reliable integrated sustainable transportation modes.
It is a holistic approach based on systems thinking, which provides a structure for
organizing analysis and strategic planning in complex systems from the perspective
of the mobility issue and the global socio-ecological system.
Continuing economic development and the consequent increase in atmospheric
pollution from motorized transport emissions (particularly in urbanized areas) have
transformed cities into one of the big contributors to the climate change issue
around the planet.
Renewable energy for fuels and advanced technology mobility systems are
already in place to mitigate undesirable effects of existent transportation systems.
However, it has been proved that only mitigating the impact will not solve the problem,
and the need for a long-term solution is urgent.
Besides its downstream impacts on the environment due to greenhouse gas emis-
sions, car dependency has been causing several other problems to human society in
the biosphere. The most impacting are time wasted in congestions, accidents, noise
pollution, the need of raw materials to produce vehicles that do not have a suitable
end of life destination, and the enormous infrastructure needed to support all of this.
In order to reach the vision of sustainable mobility in the future, offering excellent
public transport capable to compete with cars was the primary target. Moreover, beha-
vior change, integrated urban development and energy planning, and economics are also
