The role of passenger modal shift nodes in the interaction between land use and transport system

Abstract

In the last years, we have observed a sub-urbanization process or “sprawl” process (low density of inhabitants), caused by new economic and production conditions, a new pattern of social relationships and the widespread use of private car for travelling. Commuters need to reach quickly their own destinations and the traffic-related problems in central areas require multimodal platforms as nodes of an integrated transport system to foster car-public transport interchange. The optimal location and design of modal shift nodes, for potential users involved in multimodal transfers within an urban or metropolitan context, is one of the most important issues in transport system planning. Several methods have been developed to deal with this topic. The basic idea is to locate such nodes in areas of adequate size, well connected to the road network and public transit in order to minimise the time required for the transfer, taking into account the variation of transport demand under the various steps of decision-making process (generation, distribution, mode and route choice). The aim of the proposed research is to tackle the aforesaid planning issue through a methodological approach focusing on a land use-related aspect: the attractiveness of such 2 modal shift nodes in relation to their potential territorial role as providers of several services other than mobility-related utilities. In particular, the metropolitan area of Palermo and its outskirts, which is taking the connotation of an expanded city, will be an interesting case study to test for the goodness of the proposed methodology. The results showed in this paper define the criteria for the optimal location of intermodal nodes within a context characterized by a dispersed urban area composed of many municipalities, based on also the role that can be played by each node as multi-service centre affecting passenger travel behaviour. Furthermore, the paper describes the modelling framework we are going to apply.