Urban Currents

Capacity assessment of small airport passenger terminals using agent-based simulation: A case study of Comiso Airport

This study evaluates the operational capacity of Comiso Airport in Southern Italy using an agent-based simulation model to analyze passenger flows, waiting times, queue lengths, and facility densities under different traffic demand scenarios. The simulation tests how variations in the number of open check-in counters and security checkpoints affect terminal performance and peak loads.

Why it matters — The model demonstrates how a small regional airport can be optimized to serve as a relief node for a congested international hub, specifically Catania Airport, by identifying the exact operational thresholds that trigger terminal bottlenecks.

Caveat: The simulation and its findings are calibrated for and restricted to a single regional airport case study.

Case Studies on Transport Policy · doi

Uncertainty and Value of Information analysis in the Integrated Transport and Health Impact Modelling Tool for Global Cities (ITHIM-Global)

This study demonstrates the uncertainty and Value of Information (VoI) analysis features of the ITHIM-Global model using Bogotá as a case study. The model simulates the health impacts of three hypothetical scenarios—each representing a 5% increase in cycling, public transport, or car journeys—across pathways of air pollution, physical activity, and traffic fatalities. The analysis shows that cycling and transit increases consistently yield positive health outcomes despite input uncertainties, while car increases consistently yield negative outcomes, and that perfect knowledge of individual input parameters could reduce output standard deviation by up to 7%.

Why it matters — It provides a method for urban health planners to quantify how input data uncertainties affect health impact projections, identifying which specific data points are most critical to measure accurately to improve decision-making confidence.

Caveat: The demonstration relies on hypothetical 5% modal shift scenarios in a single city to illustrate the model's uncertainty framework rather than evaluating empirical policy interventions.

Journal of Transport & Health · doi

Mobilities, social ties, and quality of life in the digital society: A configurational approach

This study uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) with a sample of 729 individuals to analyze how physical mobility, digital communication, social ties, and mobility norms interact to influence health-related quality of life, measured via the EQ-5D-5L instrument. The analysis identifies distinct set-theoretic causal pathways that lead to high quality of life across three age cohorts: younger, middle-aged, and senior populations.

Why it matters — It demonstrates that physical and digital mobilities do not act in isolation, but rather combine configurationally with social networks and social norms to shape individual wellbeing in a highly digitized society.

Caveat: The study relies on self-reported, subjective perceptions of mobility, norms, and social ties rather than direct behavioral tracking.

Journal of Transport & Health · doi

Correlates of changes in children's independent mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic: A Canadian national longitudinal study

This longitudinal study tracked changes in children's independent mobility by surveying 2,291 Canadian parents of 7- to 12-year-olds every six months between December 2020 and December 2021. While average independent mobility licenses increased by 0.65 during the pandemic, linear regression models revealed that boys experienced a smaller increase than girls (beta: -0.60). Parental risk tolerance was positively associated with mobility increases, whereas parental crime safety concerns and non-full-time parental employment were negatively associated.

Why it matters — It provides rare longitudinal evidence on how children's independent mobility shifts over time, demonstrating that gender, parental risk tolerance, and employment status interact to shape how children regain outdoor freedom during a public health crisis.

Caveat: The study relies on parent-reported mobility licenses as a proxy for actual independent mobility behaviors during the pandemic.

Journal of Transport Geography · doi

Cybersecurity in smart port systems: A systematic review and data-driven research agenda

This study maps the cybersecurity landscape of smart ports by combining a systematic literature review following the PRISMA protocol, a bibliometric visualization using CiteSpace, and an empirical analysis of real-world cyberattack data. It identifies how technologies like IoT, AI, and blockchain expand attack surfaces and details vulnerabilities across cyber-physical systems, governance frameworks, and human factors.

Why it matters — It connects fragmented research on port digitalization directly to empirical cyberattack patterns, establishing a systematic framework for researchers and port authorities to design resilient, socio-technical maritime governance strategies.

Transport Policy · doi

PASCAL: Pressure Adaptive Signal Control ALgorithm

The Pressure Adaptive Signal Control ALgorithm (PASCAL) is a group-based max-pressure traffic signal control method that dynamically prioritizes critical movements using a time-slot approach instead of fixed phase sequences. It calculates pressure by simultaneously accounting for growing queue lengths in candidate lanes, downstream link storage capacity, and candidate lane storage capacity. The algorithm was evaluated against four existing max-pressure models and a SIDRA-optimized fixed-time control across multiple simulated demand scenarios.

Why it matters — It introduces a way to balance traffic movement prioritization with fairness, preventing the starvation of minor movements while actively mitigating downstream spillover and upstream lane overflows during periods of heavy congestion.

Caveat: The performance benefits and comparison benchmarks are demonstrated through simulation scenarios rather than a physical, real-world deployment.

Transportation Research Part C Emerging Technologies · doi

Public transit and shared micromobility bundles: Contrasting stated preferences and actual sales

This study evaluated preferences for public transit and shared micromobility subscription bundles using a stated choice experiment with 1,422 Swiss residents, comparing the model-implied market shares against actual sales data from a 10-week pilot in Eastern Switzerland. The analysis revealed that prior experience with shared micromobility is the strongest predictor of bundle utility, and identified a massive gap between hypothetical interest and real-world adoption, with only 2.4% to 4.6% of stated preferences translating into actual purchases.

Why it matters — It quantifies a severe overestimation bias in survey-based projections for Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) uptake, providing a concrete calibration metric for planners and operators who previously relied on stated-preference data to design and fund integrated mobility schemes.

Caveat: The real-world sales data is derived from a relatively short 10-week pilot program in a single region of Switzerland, which may not fully capture long-term adoption dynamics.

Transportation Research Part D Transport and Environment · doi

Pedestrian and cyclist safety in the context of micromobility on the shared-use paths

The study analyzed 40 hours of aerial video footage across 10 shared-use paths in the Czech Republic using the YOLO and BoT-SORT algorithms to track user trajectories, speeds, and interactions. Machine learning models were trained on 15-minute interval data to predict traffic conflicts based on path width, user volumes, and transport modes.

Why it matters — It establishes a quantitative link between physical path design and user safety, demonstrating that wider paths directly mitigate conflict risks while congestion—characterized by high volumes, low speeds, and a high share of cyclists—increases them.

Caveat: The predictive model relies on video data collected from a relatively small sample of 10 specific locations within a single country.

Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives · doi

MaaS bundle uptake among university students: A cross-European survey

This study analyzes university students' preferences for Mobility as a Service (MaaS) bundles using stated preference surveys from four European universities in Budapest, Delft, Catania, and Katowice. A mixed logit model was applied to the survey data to identify how existing travel habits and income levels influence the desired composition of transit, cycling, and car-sharing bundles.

Why it matters — The findings demonstrate that MaaS adoption is highly context-dependent, showing that students in cycling-heavy cities reject bike-sharing bundles while those in car-dominated cities require car-sharing options. This provides a framework for customizing MaaS bundles to specific local travel cultures rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all regional strategy.

Caveat: The study relies on stated preference surveys from a specific demographic of university students, which may not reflect the actual purchasing behavior or preferences of the broader urban population.

Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives · doi

Urban forest canopy structural complexity is associated with carbon sequestration and optimization potential in Beijing

This study combined GEDI spaceborne LiDAR, terrestrial laser scanning, and machine learning models to analyze the relationship between canopy structural complexity (CSC) and net primary productivity in Beijing's urban forests. The researchers found that higher CSC correlates with increased productivity, with natural forests showing stronger CSC-carbon sequestration associations than managed ones. Scenario-based simulations demonstrated that optimizing canopy structure could boost overall forest productivity by up to 21.2%, and by up to 47.8% in specific managed forest areas.

Why it matters — It establishes three-dimensional canopy structure as a measurable, actionable indicator for urban forest management, demonstrating that structural optimization can significantly increase carbon sequestration without expanding forest area.

Caveat: The findings and predictive simulations are based on the specific environmental and urban conditions of Beijing, meaning the identified relationships and optimization potentials may differ in other geographic regions.

npj Urban Sustainability · pdf · doi

Evaluating the Safety Performance of Delineator-Based Temporary Restricted Crossing U-Turns as a Cost-Effective Treatment

This study evaluated the safety performance of six unsignalized, delineator-based temporary Restricted Crossing U-turn (RCUT) intersections installed in Mississippi between 2015 and 2022, split equally between urban six-lane and rural four-lane highways. Using an Empirical Bayes before-after analysis supported by newly developed local safety performance functions, the researchers measured a 28% reduction in total crashes and an 18% drop in fatal and injury crashes at urban sites, alongside a 74% reduction in total crashes and a 71% drop in fatal and injury crashes at rural sites.

Why it matters — It demonstrates that temporary, delineator-based RCUTs can achieve safety benefits comparable to permanent concrete installations at a fraction of the cost ($111,000 compared to $3.8 million), offering transportation agencies a highly cost-effective interim solution for immediate crash reduction at high-risk intersections.

Caveat: The findings are based on a small sample size of only six intersection locations within a single state.

Journal of Transportation Engineering Part A Systems · doi

Transportation demand management as a strategy to decongest cities and improve mobility: the case of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

This study identifies viable transportation demand management strategies for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by conducting a qualitative thematic analysis of interviews with purposefully selected local experts from planning, transport, traffic management, and academia, alongside a literature review of international case studies. The research identifies congestion pricing, vehicle restrictions, parking management, school transport, car sharing, alternative work schedules, teleworking, and institutional reform as the most applicable interventions for the city.

Why it matters — It provides a tailored framework of demand-side mobility strategies for a rapidly growing developing metropolis, offering a concrete alternative to conventional, capital-intensive supply-side infrastructure expansions.

Caveat: The findings rely entirely on qualitative expert interviews and literature reviews without quantitative modeling or empirical simulation of the proposed strategies' impacts on Addis Ababa's traffic network.

Urban Planning and Transport Research · pdf · doi

When Stopping Fails: Rethinking Minimal Risk Conditions through Human-Interactive Autonomous Driving for Safe Transportation Systems

This study analyzes publicly documented incidents of autonomous vehicle (AV) fallback behaviors, specifically focusing on cases where stopping or slowing down created secondary hazards. The researchers categorized these failures into limitations of perception, planning, and control, identifying systemic gaps in how AVs handle human authority, multimodal instructions, and socially regulated traffic environments.

Why it matters — It demonstrates that standard minimal risk conditions, like stopping, can actively disrupt urban systems by blocking emergency responders and obstructing traffic, shifting the safety paradigm from passive collision avoidance to active, human-interactive autonomy.

Caveat: The analysis relies on qualitative categorization of publicly reported incidents and municipal records rather than a quantitative risk or rate-of-occurrence model.

arXiv · pdf