Andraz Hudoklin

Project Title: Effective measures to bring about significant shift to public transport: experience from European cities

Keywords: Public transport, bus, tram, modal shift, road space transformation, road space reallocation, European cities.

World cities have experienced a process of motorization, with a significantly increasing share of trips by car in recent decades. The negative impacts of motorization on health, social, financial, safety, and spatial aspects of living in the city are being recognised. Public transport is more widely accessible, has fewer negative impacts, and is more efficient than car use. A shift from cars to public transport (and active mobility) is therefore needed, but it is difficult to achieve.

Cities that have recognised the negative impacts of motorization and want to make a shift in the transport paradigm are trying to shift people from car use to sustainable modes by implementing various approaches and measures. Some measures are proving to be more successful (effective) than others in reaching a lower share of trips by car and a higher share by public transport or active mobility. The focus of this PhD is to find out which measures are most effective in bringing about a modal shift from cars to public transport. As this PhD researches the shift from cars to public transport, the focus is on modes of public transport that share (or compete for) road space with cars.

Road space transformation is an approach that changes how and/or by which mode road space is used and how it is accessed. It appears to be effective in prioritising certain modes of transport and decreasing car use. Some cities have experienced that implementing road space transformation is followed by a modal shift from cars to public transport. Their experience could be valuable for other cities that are trying to achieve a modal shift.

The objective of this research is to identify approaches and measures that cities can implement to decrease the share of trips by cars and increase the share of trips by public transport, and to confirm or disprove whether road space transformation is one of the most important mechanisms for solving that problem.

Supervisors: Dr. Brian Caulfield, Prof. Tom Rye (Molde University College)