© 2021 IIETA. This article is published by IIETA and is licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
OPEN ACCESS
In Europe, urban areas represent the “engine” of economic growth and employment in a territory: about 85% of the EU’s GDP (gross domestic product) is generated in european cities. Several European cities, due to the extensive economic activities in urban areas, have to deal with and manage issues related to or caused by transport and mobility such as congestion, air pollution, safety and noise pollution. In 2010, for example, about 73% of European citizens lived in urban areas; this percentage is estimated to increase to more than 80% by 2050. In addition to the direct impact generated by traffic, urban mobility can also influence social development, social exclusion, and accessibility for people with reduced mobility. Consequently, the need to adopt sustainable transport systems is now a global goal that can no longer be postponed. To promote sustainable mobility models, current planning strategies have used smart growth interventions to move from mono-centric city structures to poly-centric, more localized configurations. For example, the idea of the 15-minute city is gradually growing in importance from both a policy and social perspective. The basis of the idea is the promotion of interventions to increase the supply of local services, such as schools, public transportation systems, health care facilities, dining facilities, jobs, recreation areas, and retail stores. In this way, local areas are created that are sustainable, inclusive, and walkable within a small radius on foot or by bicycle. Starting from these considerations, the aim of this work is to apply the idea of the city in 15 min to railway stations: in this perspective, the railway station becomes the starting point of the analysis as it represents the “door of the house”, from where users start their last mile trips after getting off the train. For some railway stations located in Northern Italy, an analytical index has been defined that summarizes the characteristics of the station in relation to the territory in which it is located. In this way, it is possible to classify the stations on the one hand and, on the other, to identify and propose improvements aimed at relaunching the role of a railway station in a territory.
15-minute city, 15-minute stations, environmental sustainability, GIS, mobility, railway station, smart mobility, transportation planning, transportation, urban mobility
[1] European Commission, Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, Sustainable Urban Mobility: European Policy, Practice and Solutions, European Union, Catalogue Number MI-02-16-275-EN-N, ISBN 978-92-79-66651-3, 2017. DOI 10.2832/51274.
[2] Batty, M., Besussi, E., Chin, N., Traffic, urban growth and suburban sprawl. CASA. 2003.
[3] Brueckner, J.K., Urban sprawl: diagnosis and remedies. International regional science review, 23 (2):160–171, 2000. https://doi.org/10.1177/016001700761012710.
[4] Glaeser, E.L., Kahn, M.E., Sprawl and urban growth. In: Handbook of regional and urban economics. vol. 4. Elsevier; p. 2481–2527, 2004.
[5] Bento A.M., Cropper, M.L., Mobarak, A.M., Vinha, K., The effects of urban spatial structure on travel demand in the United States. Review of Economics and Statistics, 87(3), 466–478, 2005. https://doi.org/10. 1162/0034653054638292.
[6] Anderson, W.P., Kanaroglou, P.S., Miller, E.J., Urban form, energy and the environment:a review of issues, evidence and policy. Urban studies, 33(1), 7–35, 1996. https://doi.org/10.1080/00420989650012095.
[7] Gordon, P., Kumar, A., Richardson, H.W., The influence of metropolitan spatial structure on commuting time. Journal of urban economics, 26(2), 138–151, 1989. https://doi.org/10.1016/0094-1190(89) 90013-2.
[8] Muniz, I., Galindo, A., Urban form and the ecological footprint of commuting. The case of Barcelona. Ecological Economics, 55(4), 499–514, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2004.12.008.
[9] Ewing, R., Hamidi, S., Compactness versus sprawl: a review of recent evidence from the United States. Journal of Planning Literature, 30(4), 413–432, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1177/0885412215595439.
[10] Kirkley, A, Barbosa, H, Barthelem, Y.M, Ghoshal, G., From the betweenness centrality in street networks to structural invariants in random planar graphs. Nature communications, 9(1), 1–12, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04978-z.
[11] Brezzi, M., Veneri, P., Assessing polycentric urban systems in the OECD: country, regional and metropolitan perspectives. European Planning Studies, 23(6), 1128–1145, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2014.905005.
[12] Veneri, P., Urban spatial structure in OECD cities: is urban population decentralising or clustering? Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris; 2015.
[13] Artmann, M, Kohler, M, Meinel, G, Gan, J, Ioja, IC., How smart growth and green infrastructure can mutually support each other: a conceptual framework for compact and green cities. Ecological Indicators, 96, 10–22, 2019.
[14] Krizek, KJ., Residential relocation and changes in urban travel: does neighborhoodscale urban form matter? Journal of the American Planning Association. 69(3), 265–281, 2003. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944360308978019.
[15] Zhang, W., Zhao, Y., (Jason) Cao, X., Lu, D., Chai, Y., Nonlinear effect of accessibility on car ownership in Beijing: pedestrian-scale neighborhood planning. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 86(December 2019), 102445, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2020.102445.
[16] Moreno, C., Allam, Z., Chabaud, D., Gall, C., Pratlong, F., Introducing the “15-minute city”: sustainability, resilience and place identity in future post-pandemic cities. Smart Cities, 4(1) 93–111, 2021. https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4010006.
[17] Pozoukidou, G., Chatziyiannaki, Z., 15-minute city: decomposing the new urban planning eutopia. Sustainability, 13, 928, 2021. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020928.
[18] Balletto, G., Ladu, M., Milesi, A., Borruso, G., A methodological approach on disused public properties in the 15-minute city perspective. Sustainability, 13, 593, 2021. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020593.
[19] Graells-Garrido, E., Serra-Burriel, F., Rowe, F., Cucchietti, F.M., Reyes, P., A city of cities: measuring how 15-minutes urban accessibility shapes human mobility in Barcelona. PLoS ONE, 16(5), e0250080, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250080
[20] Nitti, M., Pinna, F., Pintor, L., Pilloni, V., Barabino, B., Iabacus: a wi-fi-based automatic bus passenger counting system. Energies, 13(6), 2020. doi:10.3390/en13061446
[21] Coppola, P., Dell’Olio, L., Ibeas Portilla, A., Rediscovery the social role of transport infrastructures. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 125, 169–170, 2019. doi:10.1016/j.tra.2018.10.007.
[22] Borghetti, F., Bozza, I., Maja, R., Malavasi, G., Ricci, S., Rizzetto, L., Unplanned rail service disruptions: recovery index for the station analysis where to set up a bus bridging. Ingegneria Ferroviaria, 75(11), 813–839, 2020.
[23] Gonzalez-Urango, H., Inturri, G., Le Pira, M., García-Melón, M., Planning for pedestrians with a participatory multicriteria approach. Journal of Urban Planning and Development, 146(3), (2020). doi:10.1061/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000585.