The Mobile City

Abstract

Cities have changed. People have changed. The 21st century, western citizens of the world travel more often, with more comfort, and longer distances than ever. History shows that a growing economy leads to a growing human need for communication and mobility. The daily action space of people exceeds by far the borders of their own city or village. The Network City is a reality. The essence of the (practical) field of urban design and planning concerns the making of plans in behalf of the vitality of urban areas. The vitality of todayââ¬â¢s city is endangered most (reasoned from the perspective of mobility) by: 1 the (direct, but especially indirect) space consumption of infrastructures and vehicles; 2 the decrease of accessibility of urban areas; 3 the absence of coherence between the hierarchical levels in the urban network. It is widely agreed among urban experts that the new urban technologies, among others transport technologies, play a major role in (the development and transformation of) todayââ¬â¢s socio-spatial environment. But it is still quite unclear how these new technologies should be interpreted in terms of the planning and design of the Network City. The main objective of this research is to generate those kinds of guidelines and recommendations for the planning and design of the Network City, all from a mobility point of view. In general terms, this thesis focuses on the mutual relation between city functioning and transport systems. More specifically, it focuses on the case studies of collective demand-responsive transport, and the location choice (process) of transfer points.