Transport Systems represent a central topic of debate for both academia and policymakers due to their implications on society and their managerial complexity. The transport sector generates negative social externalities (i.e., incidents) for around 6.6% of Europe's GDP and, at the same time, is responsible for 24.4% of the continent's GHG emissions. The recent policies on transport decarbonisation and vehicles reduction combined with those to improve the quality of life in urban contexts have further emphasised the pivotal role of Public Transport to achieve these goals. In contrast, less attention is given to City Logistics, which faces an increase in the demand side (B2C eCommerce is expected to have a CAGR of 9.32% from 2024 to 2029), while dealing with the context evolution previously mentioned. In addition, policymakers posed less attention towards this transport system, creating more challenges for the Logistics Service Providers and uncertainty in the service for the end consumers. Trasport System were impacted by the pandemic during the 2020, changing significantly users' travel and purchasing habits. Its long-term effects on transports still need to be comprehensively investigated, thus making past knowledge less relevant in the management and planning of Transport Systems. This raises the attention on how the decision-makers manage Transport Systems and how models and data can support them in understanding the system and its possible evolutions. Moreover, the pandemic highlighted the relevance of both Public Transport Service and Freight Transport Service, opening the discussion on how these can be managed and integrated to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of both services. With these premises, the following work aims to “Investigate how the post-pandemic context has transformed the Public Transport and Freight Transport Systems in the urban context, also exploring existing synergies between them”. To achieve this objective, the research first analyses the context in detail, highlighting the changes in Public Transport and Freight Transport Services. Subsequently, four main research questions are defined to guide the work more clearly. Specifically, RQ1 and RQ2 aim to understand how to continuously collect data to understand the mobility habits of users (temporal, spatial and means of transport) and how a policymaker can use this information to define transport policies. On the other hand, RQ3 analyses how the pandemic affected Logistics Services in the urban context to better understand the long-term effects and potential policies. Finally, RQ4, supported by the evidence of RQ1, RQ2 and RQ3, intends to contribute to the discussion on the integration between Public Transport and Freight Transport services, analysing a potential solution that meet both systems' needs. To answer the research questions, the work adopts different methodologies, both qualitative and quantitative, supporting and validating the results, where possible, with empirical data collected from the experts in the field. The results of the individual RQs, in particular of RQ1 and RQ2, contributed not only to the development of knowledge on Transport Systems but were also instrumental in supporting a Policymaker, i.e., Regione Lombardia, in the development of a modal split model for the rail services, serving to understand and develop different transport policies. The following thesis is structured as a collection of 6 articles, contributing to answering the RQ and the objective of the work. This thesis contributes to the study of mobility habits, highlighting how the data are functional for developing consistent transport policies and investigating the integration of passenger and logistics transport services, highlighting the synergies and benefits for all the actors involved.
I sistemi di trasporto persone e merci sono sempre più al centro del dibattito, sia accademico che dei policymaker, per le loro implicazioni sulla società e sulla loro complessità di gestione. I dati più recenti evidenziano come il settore dei trasporti genera esternalità negative sulla società quantificabili in circa il 6,6% del GDP Europeo ed è allo stesso tempo responsabile per circa il 24,4% delle emissioni GHG del continente. Le recenti policy sulla decarbonizzazione dei trasporti, unite a quelle per migliorare la qualità della vita nei contesti urbani riducendo la necessità di usare i veicoli privati, hanno posto ulteriore attenzione sul trasporto pubblico come soluzione cardine per raggiungere tali obiettivi. Invece, minore attenzione è stata posta alla logistica, che ad oggi, con l’aumento delle transazioni B2C eCommerce (CAGR of 9,32% dal 2024 al 2029), si trova ad affrontare le stesse evoluzioni delle policy con minore attenzione da parte dei policymaker, con possibili conseguenze negative sulla vivibilità del contesto urbano e sui consumatori finali. L’evento pandemico del 2020 ha avuto un impatto rilevante sulle abitudini degli utenti, sia in quelle di spostamento che in quelle di acquisto, che non sono state ancora completamente comprese nel lungo periodo, rendendo la conoscenza passata meno rilevante nella gestione e pianificazione dei sistemi di trasporto. Questo pone maggiore attenzione su come i decisori pubblici gestiscono i sistemi di trasporto e in particolare su come i dati sono raccolti, fondamentali per rappresentare la domanda di mobilità in un territorio, e i modelli, rilevanti per comprendere le possibili evoluzioni della stessa. Inoltre, la pandemia ha anche evidenziato le criticità dei servizi di trasporto, sia del Trasporto Pubblico che del Trasporto Merci, riaprendo la discussione su come questi possano essere gestiti in maniera sinergica per migliorare l’efficienza e l’efficacia di entrambi i sistemi. Con queste premesse, il seguente lavoro si è posto l’obiettivo di “Indagare come il contesto post-pandemico abbia trasformato i sistemi di trasporto pubblico e di trasporto merci nel contesto urbano, esplorando anche le sinergie esistenti tra di essi”. Per raggiungere tale obiettivo la ricerca ha in un primo momento analizzato nel dettaglio il contesto, evidenziando i cambiamenti nel Servizi di Trasporto Pubblico e di quelli Logistici. Successivamente, sono state definite quattro domande principali di ricerca per meglio articolare il lavoro. Nello specifico, RQ1 e RQ2 si pongono come obiettivo quello di comprendere come raccogliere in maniera continuativa i dati per conoscere le abitudini di mobilità (temporali, spaziali e di mezzo di trasporto) degli utenti e come un policymaker può utilizzare queste informazioni per definire policy di trasporto. RQ3, invece, analizza come il contesto pandemico ha modificato i sistemi logistici nel contesto urbano per meglio comprendere gli effetti sul lungo periodo. Infine, RQ4, supportata dalle evidenze di RQ1, RQ2 e RQ3, vuole contribuire alla discussione sull’integrazione tra servizi di Trasporto Pubblico e Trasporto Merci, analizzando una possibile soluzione in grado di rispondere alle esigenze di entrambi i sistemi. Per meglio rispondere alle precedenti domande di ricerca sono state impiegate diverse metodologie, sia qualitative che quantitative, supportando e validando i risultati, dove possibile, con dati empirici raccolti da esperti del settore. I risultati delle singole RQ, in particolare di RQ1 e di RQ2, oltre a contribuire allo sviluppo della conoscenza sui sistemi di trasporto, sono stati funzionali per supportare un policymaker, Regione Lombardia, nello sviluppo di un modello di stima di ripartizione modale per il servizio ferroviario, funzionale per comprendere e sviluppare differenti policy di trasporto. La seguente tesi è strutturata come una collezione di 6 articoli, che assieme contribuiscono a rispondere alle RQ e all’obiettivo del lavoro. Questa tesi contribuisce allo studio delle abitudini di mobilità, evidenziando come i dati sono funzionali allo sviluppo di policy di trasporto consistenti, e allo studio dell’integrazione dei servizi di trasporto persone e merci, evidenziando le sinergie e i benefici per tutti gli attori coinvolti.
Transport systems in urban area: investigating the dual perspective of mobility service provider and logistics service provider
Garola, Giovanni
2024/2025
Abstract
Transport Systems represent a central topic of debate for both academia and policymakers due to their implications on society and their managerial complexity. The transport sector generates negative social externalities (i.e., incidents) for around 6.6% of Europe's GDP and, at the same time, is responsible for 24.4% of the continent's GHG emissions. The recent policies on transport decarbonisation and vehicles reduction combined with those to improve the quality of life in urban contexts have further emphasised the pivotal role of Public Transport to achieve these goals. In contrast, less attention is given to City Logistics, which faces an increase in the demand side (B2C eCommerce is expected to have a CAGR of 9.32% from 2024 to 2029), while dealing with the context evolution previously mentioned. In addition, policymakers posed less attention towards this transport system, creating more challenges for the Logistics Service Providers and uncertainty in the service for the end consumers. Trasport System were impacted by the pandemic during the 2020, changing significantly users' travel and purchasing habits. Its long-term effects on transports still need to be comprehensively investigated, thus making past knowledge less relevant in the management and planning of Transport Systems. This raises the attention on how the decision-makers manage Transport Systems and how models and data can support them in understanding the system and its possible evolutions. Moreover, the pandemic highlighted the relevance of both Public Transport Service and Freight Transport Service, opening the discussion on how these can be managed and integrated to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of both services. With these premises, the following work aims to “Investigate how the post-pandemic context has transformed the Public Transport and Freight Transport Systems in the urban context, also exploring existing synergies between them”. To achieve this objective, the research first analyses the context in detail, highlighting the changes in Public Transport and Freight Transport Services. Subsequently, four main research questions are defined to guide the work more clearly. Specifically, RQ1 and RQ2 aim to understand how to continuously collect data to understand the mobility habits of users (temporal, spatial and means of transport) and how a policymaker can use this information to define transport policies. On the other hand, RQ3 analyses how the pandemic affected Logistics Services in the urban context to better understand the long-term effects and potential policies. Finally, RQ4, supported by the evidence of RQ1, RQ2 and RQ3, intends to contribute to the discussion on the integration between Public Transport and Freight Transport services, analysing a potential solution that meet both systems' needs. To answer the research questions, the work adopts different methodologies, both qualitative and quantitative, supporting and validating the results, where possible, with empirical data collected from the experts in the field. The results of the individual RQs, in particular of RQ1 and RQ2, contributed not only to the development of knowledge on Transport Systems but were also instrumental in supporting a Policymaker, i.e., Regione Lombardia, in the development of a modal split model for the rail services, serving to understand and develop different transport policies. The following thesis is structured as a collection of 6 articles, contributing to answering the RQ and the objective of the work. This thesis contributes to the study of mobility habits, highlighting how the data are functional for developing consistent transport policies and investigating the integration of passenger and logistics transport services, highlighting the synergies and benefits for all the actors involved.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/237499