SUM-Net: Sustainable Urban Mobility Network

The research explores the prospect of a digital solution that supports the analysis of urban mobility and route planning with a particular focus on people who use sustainable modes of transportation subject to a variety of social and physical conditions.

Its specific objectives are:Design a spatial database—called “Sustainable Urban Mobility Network” (SUM-Net)—that integrates multiple spatial data models to represent urban infrastructures and conditions on which walking, cycling, and mass transit depend.Identify key network analytic functions conceivable in the SUM-Net, translate them into computational problems, and design algorithms for their solution.Design a network analysis module for the SUM-Net to support accessibility analysis, route planning, and other functions relating to urban mobility.Implement the SUM-Net with the network analysis module and test its utility and performance with local planning agencies and individual users.Its results are expected 1) to give public agencies a means to measure and analyze their citizens’ true accessibility to various services and opportunities through environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable modes of urban mobility, and 2) to give a wide range of travelers—including those who are physically and/or socially disadvantaged—a means to customize routes that meet their specific goals and requirements.