Sustainable and safe management of passenger flows in the suburban corridor Aveiro – Porto

• Autor(a) principal: Gomes, Pedro David Tomás
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/36432
• topic: Passenger transport; Intercity corridors; Modal split; Logit model; Emissions; Utility function; COVID-19

In 2019 the transport sector was responsible for 25.8% of EU-27 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While urban transport has received much attention from policy makers and the scientific community, intercity passenger transport has not received as much attention. In 2019, intercity trips accounted for 65% of the total kilometres travelled in Portugal and contributed to more than 55% of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and nitrogen oxide (NOᵪ) emissions. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected mobility due to people’s fear of infection and government restrictions and recommendations. The main objectives of this dissertation are to model the supply and demand of passenger transport in the suburban corridor between Aveiro and Porto, determination of the COVID-19 pandemic impact on travelling behaviour and mode choice for different socio-economic levels and travel purposes and estimate the emissions and the impact per passenger before and during the pandemic. An online survey was designed to understand travelling behaviour and preferences and how these factors changed towards the pandemic. Transport was modelled recurring to a logit model based on the utilities of each transport mode, which were calculated considering the mode choice, travel time, and travel cost of each alternative. The output of the transport modelling was the modal split. The impacts considered were CO₂, NOᵪ, PM₂﮳5, PM₁₀, VOC, NMVOC and CO emissions. The emission values were estimated using the fleet characteristics and average speed as input. Results from the survey show a 70% reduction in travel frequency during the pandemic, with teleworking and online classes being the main reasons for this decrease. Before the pandemic, 65% of trips were made by train and 31% by car. During the pandemic, these shares shifted to 37% and 60%, respectively, and 27% of participants stopped travelling. The logit model was revealed to be a helpful tool for transport modelling. However, the network characteristics, availability of transport modes and sample size limited the statistical significance and accuracy of the model. Air pollution costs decreased by about 53% during the pandemic, primarily due to a decrease in travel frequency.