Managing Urban Mobility Systems

Abstract

Careful analysis of Urban Mobility reveals that consistent and effective policies can only be well defined and implemented if the various components of the system and their interrelations are considered. The definition of the Urban Mobility System (UMS) goes far beyond the provision of public transport and should entail all services, infrastructure, and traffic management that in its whole enable citizens to satisfy their mobility requirements. The complexity and diversity of dimensions of the conurbationandagents involved in anUMSimply focusing the analysis of its performance on the symbiotic relationship between its main components. Quality factors and processes should be set up in a coherent organizational framework, providing adequate interaction mechanisms for policies, and intervening institutions. The research work that is now presented used the observation of several cities around the world to confirm that quality improvements done at company and service levels are insufficient to ensure significant improvement of performance of theUMS.This objective was pursued by decoupling, observing and understanding interactions among the different elements of the system and between these and the surrounding environment. The research concludes by stating the need for an holistic quality approach to urban mobility management and presents a model along those lines.