José Manuel Sánchez, Emilio Ortega, María Eugenia López-Lambas, Belén Martín. 2021
Evaluation of emissions in traffic reduction and pedestrianization scenarios in Madrid
Cities have implemented a range of strategies to reduce traffic volumes and hence pollution; including low emission zones (LEZ) and pedestrianization. This paper aims to evaluate the degree of reduction in CO, NO × and PM emissions in Madrid’s ‘Centro’ LEZ after the adoption of traffic reduction and pedestrianization actions. We propose a current scenario of traffic volume and pedestrianized streets, and another set of exploratory scenarios. The methodology uses a traffic simulation model, followed by the estimation of the emissions at street level and their dispersion. These results are crossed with pedestrian routes to estimate the reduction in pedestrian exposure to these pollutants. The results show that improvements are generalized in scenarios where traffic is reduced. The results serve to analyse the rate of the decrease in pedestrian exposure to these pollutants and can provide evidence-based geographically-dimensioned information to identify priority actions.

 

Emilio Ortega; Belén Martín; María Eugenia López-Lambas; Julio A. Soria-Lara. 2021
Evaluating the impact of urban design scenarios on walking accessibility: the case of Madrid 'Centro' district.
Walking accessibility planning is seen a powerful approach for moving towards sustainable mobility paradigms; however little attention is paid to determining which factors influence this accessibility and why. This paper addresses this gap between the theory and the practice, and evaluates how far variations in walking accessibility are related to four specific walking needs: attractiveness, comfort, safety, and ease-to-walk. Taking the ‘Centro’ district in Madrid (Spain) as a case study, exploratory scenarios are simulated by altering certain urban design factors for each walking need. Walking accessibility levels are calculated and compared across the exploratory scenarios to gain an insight into how each urban design factor affects walking accessibility. The results show a similar spatial pattern of accessibility for the four walking needs, with higher accessibility values in the north than in the south due to the greater density of destinations. Urban factors related to attractiveness and comfort are found to produce the most significant variations in walking accessibility. The paper concludes with a discussion on the practical usefulness of the findings, particularly in terms of prioritising urban design policies that increase walking accessibility levels.

 
  

M. Eugenia López-Lambas; J. Manuel Sánchez, Andrea Alonso. 2021
The walking health: A route choice model to analyze the street factors enhancing active mobility.
The promotion of walking for transportation is a promising strategy to address not only the traffic bottlenecks or environmental pollution but also to provide health benefits to the patrons. Nevertheless, as enhancing active modes of transportation, including trips to and from shops-is easier in small or medium cities, it is quite a complex task in big urban areas.

Ortega, E.; Martín, B.; De Isidro, Á.; & Cuevas, R. 2020.
Street walking quality of the ‘Centro’ district, Madrid.
Walking provides a number of health, social and environmental benefits for urban sustainability, which is why it has become attractive from the perspective of sustainable transport planning. The concept of walkability is related with the built environment and land use to facilitate walking to activities in an area. The aim of this work is to provide a set of street walking quality maps for the ‘Centro’ district in Madrid (Spain), covering four categories of walking needs: attractiveness, comfort, safety and accessibility. They classify the streets from least to most walkable in relation to each other. The maps are built using 21 urban environmental factors selected from the literature. The values for each factor are computed in each street from open access databases and combined following the PROMETHEE II method function in order to assign a street value for each of the four classes of walking needs.

 

Martín, B.; Páez, A. 2019.
Integrating pedestrian-habitat models and network kernel density estimations to measure street pedestrian suitability.
Pedestrian-oriented urban designs are sustainable from a mobility perspective, and could therefore be used to improve urban environments. This study proposes an analogy between the ecological idea of habitat and the pedestrian urban environment and introduces the concept of “pedestrian habitat quality”. We present a methodology based on this concept to measure pedestrian habitat suitability in an urban street network, combining network kernel density estimations with a habitat suitability model. The dimensions of proximity and walkability connectivity are first incorporated in the methodology through network kernel density estimations, and the micro physical environmental factors relevant for pedestrians are considered using a pedestrian habitat quality model. The final outcome of the methodology is an identification of priority streets for action in order to improve pedestrian mobility. The methodology was applied to Vitoria-Gasteiz, a medium-sized city in northern Spain. Our results for Vitoria-Gasteiz show that the streets with a greater potential for improvement are situated in the surroundings of the city centre and in industrial edges that serve as a link to residential zones. It has been demonstrated that the methodology could be a useful tool for urban and transport planners to identify priority streets on which to focus efforts for improving urban environments.

 
 

Delso, J.; Martín, B.; Ortega, E.; Van de Weghe, N. 2019.
Individual and geographic variations in the propensity to travel by active modes in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.
The transportation impacts of an increasingly urban population have led planners and policy makers to consider ways to encourage the use of active travel in urban areas. Active travel is attractive from a planning perspective because its environmental impact is considerably lower than the alternatives, and in addition is known to have a number of population health and social benefits. Not surprisingly, there has been a growth in interest in the factors associated with the use of active modes of transportation. The objective of this study is to investigate the individual (demographic and socio-economic) and contextual (geography and land use type) factors that correlate with the propensity to travel by active modes in Vitoria-Gasteiz. This is a medium sized city in the north of Spain, and a case study that has hitherto not been reported. Data obtained from a household travel survey (HTS) conducted in 2014 allow us to estimate a multinomial logit model of the propensity to travel by different modes of transportation. Furthermore, since the data are geocoded, we can estimate a model with spatially-varying coefficients to assess the geographical variations in the probability to use active modes. The results of the study provide valuable information concerning differences in active travel by gender and age, including significant and quite substantial variations by location. In addition, the effect of different urban fabrics indicates the relevance of density and mix of uses for active travel. In this way, the present research helps to increase our global knowledge-base regarding active travel in a medium-sized city.

 

Delso, J.; Martín, B.; & Ortega, E. 2018.
Potentially Replaceable Car Trips: Assessment of Potential Modal Change towards Active Transport Modes in Vitoria-Gasteiz.
Road traffic is the most important contributor to noise and air pollutant emissions in cities. Its substitution by non-motorized modes therefore has great potential to improve the urban environment while increasing levels of physical activity among the population. This paper identifies car trips that could potentially be transferred to active modes such as walking and cycling, and analyses the barriers perceived by people who travel by car. We detect potentially replaceable car trips based on a mobility survey, distance calculation, and a distance threshold approach. The answers to a set of questions in the mobility survey allow us to identify the perceived barriers for use of the bicycle, applied to Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain). The results show that between 30% and 40% of car trips could be replaced by active modes. Personal safety and distance results are the most limiting barriers perceived by car users, while physical condition and technique are the most limiting ones for bicycle users. These results provide valuable information for implementing measures to promote the replacement of motorized trips with walking and cycling.