Urban public transport based around on-demand shared mobility rather than traditional fixed routes and timetables could eliminate city congestion, a new study has found.

 

The report by the International Transport Forum indicates that introducing fleets of shared taxis and taxi-buses could significantly improve access to jobs and key services using just 3% of the current number of vehicles. 

 

The study was based on a simulation exercise using detailed data on mobility behaviour from the Portuguese capital city of Lisbon.

 

Researchers aimed to gauge the impact of two different public transport systems on social inclusion, in terms of how easily citizens could access workplaces, health services and educational institutions.

 

The systems tested were, firstly, existing metro, rail and bus services; and secondly a system where metro/rail services are complemented by fleets of on-demand eight or 16 seater taxi-buses.

 

For each system a ratio of accessibility was calculated between the 10% best served element of the population and the 10% worst served, with on-demand shared mobility shown to provide vastly superior access to a wider range of people.

 

The study also concluded that more efficient use of vehicles would make it possible to cut current prices of public transport journeys in the city by 50% or more without any subsidies. It adds that on-demand shared mobility could cut traffic emissions by one third and make on street parking places superfluous.

 

“Using transport capacity more efficiently helps the environment. But it also has potential to build fairer, more inclusive societies by providing broad access to the opportunities for everyone”, said International Transport Forum secretary general José Viegas.

 

“As a next step, we will test our model with data from five more cities. This will help to better understand how to adapt shared mobility solutions so they provide maximum benefit in specific conditions.”

 

(Photo: Laszlo Daroczy and licensed for reuse under this Creative Common Licence)