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- The potential impact of cycling on urban transport energy and modal share: a GIS-based methodologyPublication . Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Sousa, Nuno; Jesus, Eduardo Natividade; Rodrigues, João CoutinhoThis article presents a methodology to estimate the maximum potential impact of a well- built and conserved cycling infrastructure, measured as modal share for accessibility trips, as well as the associated transport energy that can be saved in those trips. The methodology uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to estimate active trip probabilities, from which the output variables can be obtained. It was applied to a case study of a mid-sized city in Southern Europe, and results show that an adequate cycling infrastructure can achieve cycling mode share in that city on par with the world’s most cycling-friendly cities. Concerning transport energy, a full-cycling scenario is estimated to reduce fossil energy intensity by approximately 20%, mainly by inducing a mode change for residents on the closest outskirts. It is also argued that cycling investment in commuting routes will have the most impact on reducing fossil transport energy.
- Benchmarking city layouts: a methodological approach and an accessibility comparison between a real city and the garden cityPublication . Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Sousa, Nuno; Jesus, Eduardo Natividade; Rodrigues, João CoutinhoThis article presents a comparative accessibility study between a real city and its redraft as a Garden City. The benchmarking methodology involves defining and evaluating a location-based accessibility indicator in a GIS environment for the city of Coimbra, Portugal, and for the same city laid out as a Garden City, with the same number of inhabitants, jobs, and similar number of urban facilities. The results are derived as maps and weighted average distances per inhabitant to the facilities and jobs, and show that, for the Garden City, average distances drop to around 500 m for urban facilities and 1500 m for the combination of facilities and jobs, making much of the city accessible by walking and practically the whole of it accessible by cycling, with positive impact on transport sustainability and accessibility equity. The methodology can be extended to other benchmarking indicators and city layouts, and the quantitative results it yields make a valuable contribution to the debate on the ideal layout of cities. Moreover, it gives directions on how to improve real cities to address current and future sustainability concerns.
- Do we live where it is pleasant?: correlates of perceived pleasantness with socioeconomic variablesPublication . Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Carrilho, Ana Clara; Sousa, Nuno; Oliveira, Leise Kelli; Jesus, Eduardo Natividade; Rodrigues, João CoutinhoLiving in urban areas is the wish of many people. However, with population growth in those areas, quality of life has become a concerning element for achieving sustainable cities. Because quality of life is influenced by the built environment, the state of the latter is a fundamental issue for public policies. This research expands on previous research on the perceived pleasantness of built environments by presenting a large-scale case study of the urban layout pleasantness in the central area of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, a typical global south city, and correlating pleasantness scores with socioeconomic factors to understand whether people do in fact live where the urban layout is more pleasant and how pleasantness and socioeconomic factors relate and contribute to one’s choice of living location. A comparison with the city of Coimbra, Portugal, representative of the global north, was also carried out. The findings showed that pleasantness tended to correlate negatively with urban density and positively with income. Possible explanations for these results and their generality are advanced.
- Filling in the spaces: compactifying cities towards accessibility and active transportPublication . Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Para, Marvin; Sousa, Nuno; Jesus, Eduardo Natividade; Ostorero, Carlo; Rodrigues, João CoutinhoCompactification of cities, i.e., the opposite of urban sprawl, has been increasingly presented in the literature as a possible solution to reduce the carbon footprint and promote the sustainability of current urban environments. Compact environments have higher concentrations of interaction opportunities, smaller distances to them, and the potential for increased active mode shares, leading to less transport-related energy consumption and associated emissions. This article presents a GIS- based quantitative methodology to estimate on how much can be gained in that respect if vacant spaces within a city were urbanized, according to the municipal master plan, using four indicators: accessibility, active modal share, transport energy consumption, and a 15-minute city analysis. The methodology is applied to a case study, in which the city of Coimbra, Portugal, and a compact version of itself are compared. Results show the compact layout improves all indicators, with averages per inhabitant improving by 20% to 92%, depending on the scenario assumed for cycling, and is more equitable.
- Planning cities for pandemics: review of urban and transport planning lessons from COVID-19Publication . Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Sousa, Nuno; Pais, Filipe; Rodrigues, João Coutinho; Jesus, Eduardo NatividadeFor the past few years, the world has been facing one of the worst pandemics of modern times. The COVID-19 outbreak joined a long list of infectious diseases that turned pandemic, and it will most likely leave scars and change how humans live, plan and manage urban space and its infrastructures. Many fields of science were called into action to mitigate the impacts of this pandemic, including spatial and transport planning. Given the large number of papers recently published in these research areas, it is time to carry out an overview of the knowledge produced, and synthesising, systematising and critically analysing it. This paper aims to review how the urban layout, accessibility and mobility influence the spread of a virus in an urban environment and what solutions exist or have been proposed to create a more effective and less intrusive response to pandemics. This review is split into two avenues of research: spatial planning and transport planning, including the direct and indirect impact on the environment and sustainability.
- Metodologia multicritério para avaliação da adequabilidade da infraestrutura viária urbana à bicicletaPublication . Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Sousa, Nuno; Rodrigues, João Coutinho; Jesus, Eduardo NatividadeA bicicleta é um modo de transporte promissor para a mobilidade em contexto urbano devido aos seus múltiplos benefícios, por comparação com os transportes motorizados. Para além de ser um modo de transporte competitivo para distâncias até 5 km e livre de emissões, tem também benefícios para a saúde do utilizador e custos sócioeconómicos e infraestruturais reduzidos. Apresenta-se neste trabalho uma metodologia de análise multicritério para avaliar a adequação da rede viária pré-existente à circulação de bicicletas, focada essencialmente em aspetos de conforto e segurança, e tendo em vista o subsequente melhoramento das condições de ciclabilidade. A metodologia é aplicada a um caso de estudo, a zona central da cidade de Coimbra, Portugal, e os resultados mostram uma baixa adequabilidade geral da rede viária e consequente necessidade de intervenções de fundo para se conseguir um maior recurso a este modo ativo.
- The impact of geometric and land use elements on the perceived pleasantness of urban layoutsPublication . Sousa, Nuno; Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Jesus, Eduardo Natividade; Coutinho, JoãoThis article presents a model to estimate the impact of geometric and land use elements on citizens’ perception of urban layout pleasantness. An ordinal regression cumulative link mixed model with those elements as regressors is proposed and calibrated using data from an online survey. Results show that landscape building height and density of green areas are the factors that most impact the perception of pleasantness. Based on the model, a methodology to derive pleasantness mean scores for a city is also proposed and applied to a case study. The methodology allows for benchmarking the pleasantness of different cities or comparing neighborhoods within a city. It can be used both as an urban evaluation tool and a decision-aid for city expansion programs.
- Benchmarking real and ideal cities: a multicriteria analysis of city performance based on urban formPublication . Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Sousa, Nuno; Rodrigues, João Coutinho; Jesus, Eduardo NatividadeThe debate on the ideal urban layout, or form has long been an active topic of research. As cities expand and population demands rise, the quest for efficient and sustainable urban designs gains greater significance, necessitating objective and quantitative evaluation of their performance. This article adds to the debate by presenting a multicriteria analysis of city performance, based on quantitative indicators obtainable from geographic information systems calculations, which focus on sustainability and physical pleasantness issues. Indicator values were derived for a real city, its infill version, and five redrafts as classic city models existing in the literature. The city layouts were then compared using the TOPSIS multicriteria ranking method, results showing a preference for the more compact urban layouts due to the multiple advantages of having shorter distances between supply and demand points. The methodology provides quantitative insights on city performance and efficiency and can be used to compare options for city expansions or major urban regeneration projects.
- The impact of city form and active modes of transport on urban mobility energy consumptionPublication . Rodrigues, João Coutinho; Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Sousa, Nuno; Jesus, Eduardo NatividadeThe transport sector is vital in any modern economy, but, during the past century, dependence on vehicles burning petroleum- based fuels has become a defining component of modern societies. Transport share of final global energy consumption is very important - for example, in the EU it accounts for about 32%. On the other hand, sustainable mobility issues, particularly urban mobility, are on the agenda, and it is even predicted that by 2050 there will be no cars running on conventional fuels in cities. The layout, or form of the city has a decisive impact on energy consumption in urban mobility and the modes of transport used. Active modes of transport, in particular, contribute to reduce transport energy requirements, making it important and timely to consider them in city planning. Estimations using computer models of cities implemented in a GIS environment allow the calculation and comparison of transport energy needs associated with different city forms and allow important conclusions to be drawn about the positive impact of adopting active modes of transport. This research presents test energy calculations carried out both for the current configuration of the city of Coimbra, Portugal, using real georeferenced data of buildings, facilities, jobs, transport infrastructure network, etc., and its redraft as other city forms (e.g., garden city, transit-oriented development city, compact city, 15-minutes city, etc.). Results allow conclusions to be drawn about the associated transport energy needs and modal share, and can provide valuable information to decision makers, infrastructure managers, and planners of more sustainable cities. In practice, the study reveals that in cities with planned urbanism, mobility requires significantly less energy.
- A multicriteria methodology for maintenance planning of cycling infrastructurePublication . Pais, Filipe; Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Sousa, Nuno; Coutinho, João; Jesus, Eduardo NatividadeThe importance of cycling as a sustainable mode has been widely recognized and, recently, its effectiveness in mitigating the spread of infectious diseases has also been under the spotlight. Fostering its use requires developing and deploying decision tools to help authorities assess the performance of their cycle infrastructure for maintenance and improvements. This article presents a multicriteria methodology based on engineering best practices and uses the ELECTRE TRI method to assign segments of the cycling network to predefined performance classes, with an aim at maintenance planning. The approach is demonstrated with a case study, which also proves scalability of the method’s data collection procedure. Case study results show that lack of safety and inadequate intersections are the main problems. These stem mostly from non-existent segregation between motorized traffic and cyclists, both along the segments and at intersections. This is typical of cities which, over the years, have prioritized motorized transportation.