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Flexible public transport is defined as a future mobility solution that adapts to user needs and the fluctuating demand patterns that mainly appear in rural areas. However, the temporal variations in traveler preferences for flexible bus services remain largely unexplored in existing research. This constrains the realization of adaptive and customized solutions. Therefore, this study attempts to develop a distinct method for strategic planning of a flexible bus service. To this end, a combinatorial method is undertaken: quantitative social research (questionnaires) and spatial analysis. This combinatorial approach is applied at Korinth and Loutraki in Greece, two significant rural areas neighboring the Athens Metropolitan Area. The results signify that cost and time are the most crucial factors affecting the use of a flexible service. Furthermore, respondents preferred a door-to-door service in the morning and a stop-based service in the afternoon/evening. Concerning route planning, eight routes with different purposes are suggested (e.g., train feeder, touristic, etc.) covering adequately both urban and rural parts of the study area. Notably, the applied methodological approach can be a guideline for planners and policymakers, assisting them in finding effective strategies for introducing flexible public transport in rural areas, especially in contexts where collective transport culture is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The supply chain sector plays a crucial role in driving economic development and globalization. However, the environmental repercussions of logistics and freight transport have become more pronounced. Nowadays, there is an ever-increasing acceptance regarding the opinion that the use of more sustainable urban freight transport has the potential to offer great social, economic, and environmental benefits. This study examines and highlights, via a systematic literature review, the urban environment's factors that can essentially influence the promotion and usage of cargo bikes for last-mile deliveries in the urban environment. The aforementioned literature review revealed the importance of the quality of the urban environment's components for the perceived and objective safety of people who make use of cargo bikes. In particular, the most essential factors for the increased use of cargo bikes were found to be traffic load, speed limits, and heavy vehicle traffic. Bicycle infrastructure is also an important factor in bicycling acceptance, as it provides the backbone for a comfortable and safe bicycle ride. Two other factors that can seriously affect cyclists' sense of safety are street intersections and the width and number of road lanes, as the interaction between cargo bikes and motorized vehicles increases the possibility of traffic accidents. All the above factors need to be considered via various public policies that are not isolated countermeasures but form part of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans that are currently being implemented in many European cities to ensure continuity and create a sustainable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, there is a growing consensus that the use of more sustainable urban freight transportation has the potential to offer major energy and efficiency benefits which can be achieved through the appropriate combination of cargo bikes and the integration of drones into the urban logistics system. This study presents the results of a stepwise regression analysis that examines the role, benefits, and impact of electric vehicles such as e-bikes, cargo bikes, and drones for intermodal freight transportation in five Greek cities to support the green logistics paradigm. The results show that between routes of almost equal length, the most bicycle-friendly routes, such as routes along pedestrian areas or residential streets, should be avoided, as they reduce delivery speed and increase delivery costs in terms of energy and time expenditure. In addition, priority roads, which usually have higher traffic speeds and more trucks, are preferred by cyclists due to the quality of the road surface, even though the feeling of safety is lower on such roads. Finally, regarding drones, energy consumption is relatively low in the 0–5 mph and 6–10 mph wind speed ranges, indicating efficient energy use. In the 11–15 mph and 16–20 mph wind speed ranges, energy efficiency is significantly lower than the battery capacity, indicating that the cargo drone exhibits excessive energy consumption under these conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transportation sector contributes significantly to global warming, as well as to urban fabric problems such as traffic congestion, traffic accidents, noise pollution, and air pollution. A shift from fossil fuels to renewable sources and from motorized to non-motorized modes is now considered essential to create sustainable communities. Walking is a sustainable transport mode and several studies have focused on factors affecting it, including travel behavior and sociodemographics. In this study, we conduct a systematic literature review to identify and record walking benefits, the financial incentives that encourage travelers to walk, and applications that support it. Financial incentives are found to have short-term effects, and their success depends on the level and structure of the incentives as well as the characteristics of the participants. In addition, non-financial incentives, such as improving infrastructure and pedestrian safety, or providing information and education about the benefits of walking, may also promote it as a main mode of transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taxi market modeling has long attracted researchers' and practitioners' attention, with a variety of models presented to investigate the effects of different market regulation regimes. Motivated by the increasing interest in and theoretical advantages of tradable credit systems for mobility management, this study investigates the use of a tradable credit scheme for taxi licensing. A mixed integer non-linear programming problem is formulated to determine the credit price, daily charge and number of vehicles in order to maximize social welfare. In the social benefit-maximizing solution, the supply of conventional taxis is exhausted, while about 50% of the available electric taxi drivers enter the market. Sensitivity analysis shows that increasing the validity period of the credits, reducing the daily system fee for electric taxis or subsidizing the purchase of electric taxis could lead to greater social benefits by increasing the profit margin of electric taxi drivers and incentivizing their wider adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, in Europe and the US, carsharing has become a mainstream transportation mode offering a sustainable solution to serious urban problems such as pollution, economic crisis, congestion, and parking. In Greece, carsharing is currently entering its commercial phase. Planners and providers strive to gain an insight into the factors influencing the use of carsharing to effectively implement carsharing systems (CSS). In this context, understanding the motives and usage conditions are considered necessary. Based on a qualitative analysis (semi-constructed interviews, n = 52), this paper identifies motivational patterns as well as personal characteristics of potential users that can be further explored through quantitative research methods. During the data analysis process, participants' responses were classified into categories that revealed not only the factors that motivated them but also unveiled the challenges they face when utilizing carsharing schemes. These factors were the following: familiarity, comfort, mindset, everyday life, usability, and economy. Next, these factors were analyzed further based on the personal characteristics of the respondents preparing the ground for quantitative research in future research initiatives. Notably, the present findings could be beneficial to operators, policymakers, and stakeholders endeavoring to appraise shared mobility schemes in Greece and Mediterranean countries in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-scooters aspire to provide flexibility to their users while covering the first/last mile of a multimodal trip. Yet, their dual travel behavior, i.e., utilizing both vehicles' roadways and pedestrians' sidewalks, creates new challenges to transport modelers. This study aims to model e-scooter riding behavior in comparison to traditional urban transport modes, namely car and walking. The new modeling approach is based on perceived safety that is influenced by the road environment and affects routing behavior. An ordinal logistic model of perceived safety is applied to classify road links in a 7-point Likert scale. The parametric utility function combines only three basic parameters: time, cost, and perceived safety. First/last mile routing choices are modeled in a test road network developed in Athens, Greece, utilizing the shortest-path algorithm. The proposed modeling approach proved to be useful, as the road environment of an urban area is heterogenous in terms of safety perceptions. Indeed, the model outputs show that the flexibility of e-scooters is limited in practice by their low-perceived safety. To avoid unsafe road environments where motorized traffic dominates, e-scooter riders tend to detour. This decision-making process tool can identify road network discontinuities. Nevertheless, their significance regarding routing behavior should be further discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-scooter sharing services been grown exponentially within the last five years. They are based on the flexibility of accessing dense urban areas without specialized infrastructure. In modern cities, there are diverse road environments that impact the comfort, and therefore the attractiveness, of micro-mobility services. This study aims to investigate the willingness to use e-scooter sharing services, while considering the road environment. To formulate area-specific pricing policies, a stated preferences experiment with 243 respondents, who can be considered as potential users, is conducted in Athens, Greece and a binary logistic regression model with random beta parameters is developed. The analysis of the model marginal effects indicates that the integration of bonus points into micro-mobility services, combined with the option of transferring these points to parking services, can compensate a non-friendly road environment, thus increasing the service demand. The existence of roads with good pavement conditions and wide sidewalks significantly increased the willingness of respondents to use e-scooter sharing services. Unexpectedly, pedestrianized zones in a buffer area of 2 km radius from the trip origin reinforce the attractiveness of shared e-scooters, while the contribution of bike lanes and traffic calming streets (or shared space) were proven to be insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected our cities in monumental ways with no sector likely being more severely impacted than transport. Lockdowns, physical spacing, transport restrictions and stay-at-home guidelines have transformed personal mobility and highlighted the mistakes of an unbalanced pro-car culture that defined a century of urban planning. One immediate effect of the virus in relation to travel demand and supply was the emergence of active travel modes because of their unique ability to provide a socially distanced way of transport. Cycling is one of the modes that has enjoyed significant attention. Numerous cities have reallocated street and public space to cyclists and introduced pro-bike interventions like pop-up cycle lanes, e-bike subsidies, free bike-share use and traffic calming measures. This newly found outbreak-induced momentum creates an opportunity to establish a new ethos that allows the promotion of potentially permanent strategies that may help cycling to be (re-)established as a robust, mainstream and resilient travel mode for inner city trips and not as a second-class alternative operating under the automobile's giant shadow. This paper provides a state-of-the-art description of the anti-COVID cycling-friendly initiatives that have been introduced globally, the successes and failures of these initiatives, the lessons learnt that can help us redefine the bicycle's role in local societies today and a best cycling practice policy guide for planning a more bike-centric future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shifting from a fossil-fueled to an eco-friendly vehicle fleet in cities could pave the way towards a more sustainable future. Electric Vehicles (EVs) should thus be prioritized, so that they could replace conventional vehicles gradually. In this context, an EV-accommodating infrastructure, which ensures the functionality of the entire system, is essential. This study aims to develop a methodological framework to identify suitable locations for the deployment of EV charging points in urban environments. To meet this objective, we acquired a mixed method approach including a systematic literature review, 12 semistructured stakeholder interviews which were thematically analyzed, and an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The outcome is a spatial model function, which consists of parameters and weights for estimating the suitability of each urban road link that will allow the establishment of EV charging points. Results show that the key location selection factors are: transport hubs, marked or controlled parking spaces, and points of interest. The less significant factor is public services. Therefore, there is a preference, in stakeholder level, for transport features over the land use ones (69% over 31%). Although this research is conducted in Greece, we intend to suggest methods and generate valuable findings that may be valid and generalizable for a more global context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cycle-tourism seems to be an emerging touristic model in many countries, including Greece. Although the infrastructure is limited, entrepreneurship can support the development of such tourism sector, as cycle-tourists have specific needs to be met during an excursion. Thus, it would be helpful if stores that meet specific prerequisites could be certificated as cycle-friendly companies. In order for such certification to be developed, it is necessary for those parameters to be defined. This paper focuses on that topic and such criteria were identified through in-depth interviews with cycle-tourists and cycle-tour operators. Through this research, conclusions were derived about the criteria according to which cycle-tourists in Greece select stores and accommodation during an excursion. Those selection parameters were transcribed to indicators that will be used in order to develop the certification at the next phase of the research. Moreover, conclusions were compared with outcomes of similar international studies. It was found that cycle-tourists are interested in specific services, regardless of the country in which they live or travel. Besides conventional touristic activities, the importance of small retail stores in remote villages acting as meeting points with local people and culture was highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cycling tourism is an environmentally friendly way to explore a destination. Nowadays, it is becoming more and more popular worldwide, since it permits an in-depth communication both with nature and people. In this context, the aim of this paper is to explore, in detail, mainly the environmental motivators of cycling tourists, and their significance, in Greece, by using qualitative social research (in-depth interviews and focus groups) and participative analytical hierarchical process. The results show that regarding physical environment, the element which attracts cycle tourists the most is the variety of scenic views along their route. Existence of lakes, rivers and beaches were also valued. On the contrary, "Biodiversity" and "Untouched natural landscapes" were ranked low as a description of the quality of the natural environment. However, the rise of cycling tourism depends considerably on the appropriate infrastructure, namely roads with low slopes, appropriate quality of surfaces and cycling infrastructure. Planners, policy-makers, and competent authorities should give emphasis on the critical factors in order to enhance cycling tourism, thus resulting in positive multiplying effects such as environmental protection and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]