Brunner et al.

Energy, Sustainability and Society (2018) 8:9

DOI 10.1186/s13705-018-0149-0
Energy, Sustainability
and Society

ORIGINAL ARTICLE Open Access

Evaluation of various means of transport

for urban areas
Helmut Brunner1*, Mario Hirz1, Wolfgang Hirschberg1 and Kurt Fallast2

Abstract
Background: Personal transportation in urban areas is characterised by different transportation technologies with
significantly varying properties regarding usability, infrastructural requirements and environmental impacts. This
characterisation motivates the objective evaluation of mobility solutions, based on different criteria. State of the
art evaluations in the scientific literature mainly focus on one specific criterion at a time. The most common
criteria investigated are found in energy demand or equivalent fuel consumption. Other parameters include the
traffic space demand or mean velocity as a reference for the user-related criterion “travel time”. Since different
modes of transport show various potentials in different criteria, an interesting point for scientific research is
consideration of the different criteria in a more comprehensive evaluation approach. To address this issue, the
aim of this study is to present a new approach for an objective evaluation and comparison of different transport
technologies under consideration of pre-defined range of criteria and defined boundary conditions and requirements for
personal mobility in cities. Besides technical-oriented aspects like driving range, transport capability and life cycle-related
consumption of resources, additional factors influencing user-behaviour and traffic density are reflected. The evaluation
method is presented, based on a generated exemplary data collection regarding technical and in-use characteristics of
different modes of transport, mainly investigated in the city of Graz, Austria.
Methods: The study focuses on different means of transport, in particular walking, bicycling, the use of powered
two-wheelers, passenger cars with different propulsion systems and public transport systems. It is based on the
determination of selected criteria, considering ecologic, infrastructural and user-related aspects. With respect to
ecologic criteria, the study considers resources and energy consumption as also the resulting CO2 equivalent
emissions. The mean velocity and transport capacity are considered in the context of user-related criteria. Traffic
space demand is an important and limited resource, especially in urban areas. The present study thus includes
the determination and comparison of the relative traffic and parking space demands for the different modes of
transport. The evaluation is based on a specifically developed evaluation methodology, considering weighted
traffic performance indices, which are also proposed and discussed.
Results: Within the present study, a database providing specific mobility-related criteria and parameters has been
generated, representing technical characteristics and the effects of the use of different vehicles and means of
transportation in urban areas. The illustrated results allow an objective evaluation of a broad range of different
means of transportation and vehicles, based on introduced “weighted traffic performance indices” (WTPI).
(Continued on next page)

* Correspondence: [email protected]; http://www.ftg.tugraz.at

1
Institute of Automotive Engineering, Graz University of Technology,
Inffeldgasse 11/2, 8010 Graz, Austria
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article

© The Author(s). 2018 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to
the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Brunner et al. Energy, Sustainability and Society (2018) 8:9 Page 2 of 11

(Continued from previous page)

Conclusions: The study contributes to a discussion of transportation technologies and allows a derivation of measures
for further research topics to face future intra-urban mobility demands. This represents a basis for decision making on the
priorisation of the most suitable transport systems for urban areas. It is shown that the motorised individual passenger
transport as dominated by the use of private passenger cars in particular represents today the most inefficient form of
inner-urban mobility.
Keywords: Urban transport, Urban traffic, Urban mobility, Environmental impacts evaluation, Energy demand, Equivalent
fuel consumption, Traffic space requirement

Background e.g. the traffic space demand or mean velocity as a reference

Personal transportation in urban areas is characterised by for the user-related criterion “travel time”. A special chal-
different transportation technologies with significantly vary- lenge lies in the combination of different criteria to enable
ing properties regarding usability, infrastructural require- comprehensive evaluation and in-depth discussion of differ-
ments and environmental impacts. Today, the private ent transportation modes. A detailed evaluation based on a
passenger car is still the most important mode of transport wide range of different criteria provides the incentive and
across the world. About 70% of so-called motorised individ- the challenge to combine the various, partially conflicting
ual passenger transport (MIT, passenger car and powered criteria in a smart, objective and representative way.
two-wheelers) is in cities and congested areas, [1, 2]. In gen-
eral, the global energy demand for individual mobility is Aim of this study
mainly supplied by crude oil-based fuels. Improvements in The present study aims at a comprehensive evaluation of
powertrain efficiency and energy consumption reduction different means of transport for urban traffic. On this basis,
strategies are partly compensated by increasing motorisa- it introduces a new approach for the assessment of different
tion, traffic performance and vehicle masses. In the modes of transport, including walking, bicycling, the use of
European Union, the annual energy consumption growth powered two-wheelers (PTW), passenger cars with different
rate of 1.3% is mainly caused by the rising number of pas- propulsion systems and public transport systems. It is based
senger cars and increasing traffic performance, [1]. In auto- on the determination of an election of different criteria, con-
motive engineering, energy consumption and exhaust sidering ecological, infrastructural and user-related aspects.
emission reduction are still the main drivers for research The main objectives of the present study include the
and development. Electrification, innovative drive systems, following items:
alternative energy storage and lightweight construction play
important roles as innovations. 1) The collection of data concerning the use of
Apart from energy consumption and resulting exhaust different modes of transport in urban areas in an
emissions of technologies for individual mobility, it is also exemplary urban region. The study was conducted
important to take further influencing factors into consid- in the city of Graz, Austria.
eration—especially in urban areas. Examples are the space 2) The development of a methodology for the
demand in parking and fluent traffic (with resultant traffic evaluation of different modes of transport, based on
congestions), space demand and the costs of energy sup- the consideration of a broad range of pre-defined
ply infrastructures (e.g. electric charging stations), traffic criteria.
safety or noise. For these reasons, it is essential that the 3) The evaluation itself of different modes of transport
focus is not only on the vehicle itself. New approaches based on the introduced methodology and presented
provide an integration of technologies for individual mo- data.
bility into entire mobility systems. By this means a smart
combination of different transportation technologies is Limitations
able to support successful sustainable urban development The objective evaluation is based on a limited selection of
and energy supply strategies. criteria for different vehicles and modes of transport. As-
With the motivation to facilitate the development of in- pects, which are not able to be considered in this work,
novative transport concepts, the present study focuses on an are efforts concerning the provision of infrastructure, e.g.
objective evaluation of different existing means of transport for the construction and maintenance of streets, roads
in urban areas. State of the art evaluations of transportation and rail tracks. The developed evaluation methodology is
technologies focus on one specific criterion at a time, e.g. transferable to other cities. Since the data collected is de-
the energy demand or equivalent fuel consumption [3–6]. rived mainly from a single specific urban region (Graz),
But there are more criteria which must also be evaluated, the results may be subject to change. Furthermore, the
Brunner et al. Energy, Sustainability and Society (2018) 8:9 Page 3 of 11

evaluation is based on neutralised, physically based com- measurement drives in the urban area of Graz. The investi-
parison indices. In the sense of a scientific evaluation, the gated characteristics and results are illustrated in Table 1.
consideration is strictly related to purely rational criteria Further details on specific processes for determination are
such as average journey speed or energy consumption. Fi- included in the subsequent sections. In a second step, an
nally, the study does not consider the cost aspects for cus- evaluation methodology is developed, which takes a smart
tomers and/or communities. combination of different evaluation criteria into consider-
ation. Selected criteria in the present results include re-
Methods source demand, space demand in fluent and parking
In a first step, the majority of common in-use vehicles and traffic, and the average journey speed as a user-related cri-
means of transport are detected and categorised. Technical terion. Finally, an evaluation is carried out using all the
and in-use characteristics are then investigated via analysis collected data. Further details about this are provided in
of existing data in scientific literature and conduction of the subsequent sections.

Table 1 Collected data for the means of transport considered

Max. number Occupancy Eff. number of Traffic space demand Traffic space demand Parking space Parking space
of persons [#] rate [%] persons [#] [m2] [m2/P] demand [m2] demand [m2/P]
Pedestrian 1 100 1.00 2.0 2.0 0.0 0.0
Bicycle 1 100 1.00 4.4 4.4 1.0 1.0
E-bicycle 1 100 1.00 4.4 4.4 1.0 1.0
Scooter 2 55 1.10 10.3 9.4 2.0 1.8
E-scooter 2 55 1.10 10.3 9.4 2.0 1.8
Light urban EV 2 55 1.10 22.0 20.0 4.3 3.9
Subcompact PC 4 27 1.07 25.5 23.8 7.9 7.3
Subcompact EV 4 27 1.07 25.5 23.8 7.9 7.3
Mid class PC 5 27 1.34 27.6 20.6 9.8 7.3
Mid class PHEV 5 27 1.34 27.6 20.6 9.8 7.3
Luxury PC (SUV) 5 27 1.34 29.5 22.0 13.4 10.0
Luxury PHEV (SUV) 5 27 1.34 29.5 22.0 13.4 10.0
City bus 103 21 21.54 72.8 3.4 44.5 2.1
Articul. bus 155 21 32.41 108.8 3.4 63.4 2.0
Tram 145 25 36.25 243.0 6.7 91.4 2.5
Vehicle gross Averg. Energy demand in Equiv. fuel consumpt. Equiv. fuel consumpt. C02e WTW [g/ C02e WTW [g/
weight [kg] speed [km/h] use [kWh/km] in use [1/100 km] in use [1/100 Pkm] km] Pkm]
Pedestrian 0 4 0.08 0.96 0.96 0.0 0.0
Bicycle 18 12 0.03 0.35 0.35 0.0 0.0
E-bicycle 24 13 0.04 0.41 0.41 7.4 7.4
Scooter 130 17 0.32 3.75 3.41 91.5 45.8
E-scooter 145 17 0.05 0.58 0.53 10.5 5.3
Light urban EV 389 16 0.10 1.20 1.10 21.7 10.9
Subcompact PC 986 16 0.55 6.46 6.03 157.7 39.4
Subcompact EV 1248 16 0.18 2.08 1.94 37.5 9.4
Mid class PC 1246 16 0.69 8.05 6.01 196.6 39.3
Mid class PHEV 1599 16 0.25 2.88 2.15 51.8 10.4
Luxury PC (SUV) 2281 16 1.14 13.24 9.88 323.2 64.6
Luxury PHEV (SUV) 2462 16 0.32 3.72 2.78 67.1 13.4
City bus 11,529 18 4.84 56.37 2.62 1371.5 13.3
Articul. bus 17,055 18 5.81 67.65 2.09 1645.8 10.6
Tram 33,500 16 4.55 53.01 1.46 955.5 6.6
EV electric vehicle, PHEV plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, PC passenger car, SUV sports utility vehicle
Brunner et al. Energy, Sustainability and Society (2018) 8:9 Page 4 of 11

Data acquisition and investigation of different means of capable of providing an economic alternative to conven-
transport tional passenger cars. The number of PTW is still increas-
Figure 1 illustrates an overview of the investigated means ing in many developed and developing countries. Most of
of transport. It includes three categories of mobility, which the world’s 313 million PTW can be found in Asia (77%),
are named micro-mobility, motorised individual passenger [9]. The term “PTW” is used for mopeds, scooters and
transport (MIT) and public transport. motorcycles. In this paper, motor scooters with a limited
In this study, the transport mode category micro- top-speed of 45 km/h driven either by internal combus-
mobility addresses individual transport over short dis- tion engine (ICE) or electric motor (EM) are considered.
tances with relatively low transportation demand. This Defined by the same European vehicle category L as stated
category includes walking and the use of small and light- for PTW, [1], small urban cars can be defined as a niche
weight human-powered or electric-driven vehicles, e.g. bi- vehicle type, which is placed between powered two-
cycles, e-bikes, small scooters and other single-person wheelers and full-sized passenger cars. Vehicles of this cat-
vehicles. As mentioned in [7], bicycles are used for rela- egory are designed specifically for urban boundary condi-
tively short travel distances below 3 km. In combination tions, such as those with reduced driving distances and
with public transport systems, vehicles of this category are parking space. These vehicles are characterised by a nar-
able to face first mile–last mile issues. In this context, the row shape, small turning circle and low parking space de-
term first mile–last mile describes the transportation of mand. One example of this vehicle type is shown in Fig. 2.
people and goods from a specific starting point to a trans- Figure 3 provides an overview of the methodology for
portation hub (e.g. with the use of a certain public trans- investigation applied in the present study. The data is
port system) and from a transportation hub to a final collected based on literature research, computer simula-
destination, [8]. In the present study, the category micro- tion as also extensive testing and measurement of vari-
mobility includes pedestrians, bicycles and electric bicy- ous vehicles in different urban areas.
cles. The category of MIT includes the use of powered
two-wheelers, small urban cars and passenger cars of dif- Transport capacity and occupancy rates
ferent size classes. Powered two-wheelers (PTW) are play- Maximum numbers of persons that can be carried, vehicle
ing an increasing role in both transport and recreation dimensions and vehicle gross weights are found in technical
around the world. PTW are commonly used for commut- specification publications for the representative vehicles of
ing and for touring. Small motor scooters in particular are each size class. The occupancy rate describes the ratio of

Fig. 1 Investigated means of transport. *Motorised individual passenger transport

Brunner et al. Energy, Sustainability and Society (2018) 8:9 Page 5 of 11

Fig. 2 Urban electric vehicle Renault Twizy [1]

the mean number of transported persons per vehicle to the based on several technical data sources and approaches,
maximum possible number of people that can be carried. which are described as follows.
Stated occupancy rates are mainly based on publications Equation 1 describes the related traffic space demand
from mobility inquiries, e.g. [7, 10]. The mean occupancy At_i in fluent traffic:
rates of public transport vehicles are derived from data
available from a public transport service provider in Graz,
 w
l1i þ s f i
Austria, [11]. Stated occupancy rates represent a mean np i
At i ¼ ; i ¼ 1; 2…nMT ð1Þ
value over an entire typical working day in the city of Graz. neff i
Figure 4 illustrates this time-dependent occupation of pub-
lic transportation in detail, where peaks can be detected be-
tween seven and eight o’clock in the morning. At_i (m2) Related traffic space demand of vehicle i in flu-
ent traffic
Speed-dependent traffic space demand and parking space l1i (m) Length of vehicle i
demand sf_i (m) Distance to front vehicle, based on a speed-
Data mining and investigation of the space demand of dif- dependent approach for MIT
ferent modes of transport in traffic and for parking were w (m) Lane width, assumed to 3 m

Fig. 3 The investigation methodology. EV electric vehicle, PHEV plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, PC passenger car, SUV sports utility vehicle
Brunner et al. Energy, Sustainability and Society (2018) 8:9 Page 6 of 11

Fig. 4 Time variation curve of an occupancy rate (%). Mean value from various bus-lines during one typical workday in Graz, Austria [12]

np_i (#) Possible number of parallel driving vehicles in distance to the front vehicle was determined as one ve-
one lane hicle length (shown in Table 1).
neff_i (#) Effective number of persons in vehicle i, based Equation 2 describes the calculation of the related
on the space offer and occupancy rate parking space demand Ap_i for each vehicle i.
nMT (#) Number of compared means of transport


The distance to the preceding vehicle for all vehicles is in- l1i þ lp i þ w1i þ 2 wp i
Ap i ¼ ; i
fluenced by a speed-dependent approach. After observation neff i
of fluent traffic at different spots with different mean veloci- ¼ 1; 2…nMT ð2Þ
ties in the urban area of Graz, a minimum time period of
2 s is defined between each pair of vehicles. According to
this defined time period, a time-dependent distance be- Ap_i (m2) Related space demand of vehicle i while
tween the front of vehicle i and the rear section of the pre- parking
ceding vehicle can be calculated according to Fig. 5. l1i (m) Length of vehicle i
At low speed (below 10 km/h), the minimum distance lp_i (m) Longitudinal distance to front vehicle, according
is set to 1 m, according to results from the conducted to measurements
observation. The maximum speed limit of the observa- w1_i (m) Width of vehicle, including exterior parts (e.g.
tion was 30 km/h. The possible number of parallel driv- mirrors)
ing vehicles in one lane, np_i, is set at 1 for public wp_i (m) Required additional lateral parking space
transport and cars, at 2 for powered two-wheelers, and neff_i (#) Effective number of persons in vehicle i, based
at 3 for micro-mobility and walking. For investigated on the space offer, designated occupancy rate
public transport modes (buses and tram), the minimum nMT (#) Number of compared means of transport

Fig. 5 Time-dependent distance approach for sf_i

Brunner et al. Energy, Sustainability and Society (2018) 8:9 Page 7 of 11

According to the measurements conducted and the de- energy and fuel production (gasoline and diesel). The
fined mean values, lp_i is 0.9 m for passenger cars and energy supply sector data stem from life cycle inven-
0.2 m for PTW. Length wp_i is 0.15 m for passenger cars tory models, [18]. CO2e emissions of electric energy
and 0.25 m for PTW. Additional parking space for public production base on the average Austrian electric en-
transport vehicles is set to 2 m for lp_i and 0.2 m for wp_i. ergy mix (210 g/kWh), [18], which is valid for the use
of every electric-powered vehicle in the present study,
Average journey speed including electric bicycle, electric scooter, passenger cars
The average journey speed describes the distance trav- and tram. The reason for the choice of this relatively low
elled divided by travel time. In contrast to the average emission value for electric energy production is to discuss
speed, the average journey speed also considers delay its influence in relation to the use of fossil energy sources
in congestion and at traffic lights. Average journey on the final result.
speed values for walking and bicycling is derived from The collected data are summarised and illustrated in
measurements. Since there is no separate data avail- Table 1.
able for electric bikes, the defined values are based on
measurements and assumptions of the share of human Evaluation method: weighted traffic performance index
power and electric power usage. The MIT data is de- (WTPI)
rived from test runs conducted in the urban area of In order to compare nMT different means of transport
Graz, Austria. A mean value of 16 to 17 km/h is deter- (e.g. a mid-size class passenger car and a city bus) in refer-
mined for every type of vehicle for MIT in the inner- ence to one specific performance criterion (e.g. the aver-
urban area, [1, 12]. The public transport vehicle data aged fuel consumption per passenger), a developed traffic
is from analysis of the information provided on the performance index TPIi is introduced, see Eq. 4:
websites of transport service providers, e.g. [11], and
measurement drives that were performed.  
Vt
TPI i ¼ 10 min ; 1 ; i ¼ 1; 2…nMT ð4Þ
Energy consumption and CO2 equivalent emissions VM i
Energy consumption for walking and bicycling is derived
from [13], based on the nutritional requirement of a hu-
man being. Therefrom, specified values in kilojoule per TPIi Traffic performance index in a certain category
minute have been converted in relation to the particular Vt A specific target value for this criterion
average journey speed (4 km/h for walking and 12 km/h VM_i Actual value for the considered case
for bicycling). Additionally, the metabolic rate at rest has nMT Number of compared means of transport
been subtracted. The metabolic rate at rest defines the A specific target value Vt of a particular criterion is set,
basic energy demand of a living being at no physical activ- such that the related index TPIi will reach the top grade
ity. This share of energy consumption is also present dur- 10 if the ith means of transport can fulfil or even exceed
ing, e.g., driving a car or using public transport. Energy this target. This value is related to the actual value for this
consumption of MIT is derived from [1, 3, 14, 15]. The case, VM_i, such that 0 < TPIi ≤ 10.
public transport data is derived from [16, 17]. The deter- The comparison of nMT means of transport in the
mination of the equivalent gasoline fuel consumption for context of nPC different performance criteria is then ex-
electric-driven vehicles follows Eq. 3. tended to the weighted traffic performance index WTPIi,
which is defined as
be i
bf i ¼ ; i ¼ 1; 2…nMT ð3Þ
Hu ρf
X
nPC
WTPI i ¼ f Wj TPI i ; i ¼ 1; 2…nMT ; j
j
bf_i (l/km) Equivalent gasoline fuel consumption of ve- ¼ 1; 2; …nPC ð5Þ
hicle i
be_i (kWh/km) Electric energy consumption of vehicle i
Hu (kWh/kg) Heat value of gasoline, Hu = 11.6 kWh/kg
ρf (m) Fuel density, 0.74 kg/l WTPIi weighted traffic performance index
nMT (#) Number of compared means of transport fWj Weighting factors
CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions for the in-use nPC Number of different performance criteria
phase are based on calculations of the energy con- The weighting factors of the nPC performance criteria
sumption in operation and include the resulting CO2e sum up to 1, corresponding to 100%. Again, it holds
emissions for the energy supply of both electric 0 (lowest grade) < WTPIi ≤ 10 (best grade).
Brunner et al. Energy, Sustainability and Society (2018) 8:9 Page 8 of 11

Results and discussion Evaluation

Data collection The developed methodology of evaluation is based on a
Table 1 presents a comparison of the technical charac- broad range of different criteria, describing technical, eco-
teristics for the means of transport that are considered. logical and economic characteristics and effects of the use
As an illustrated example of the collected data, Fig. 6 of different modes of transport. In the present study, four
shows the absolute equivalent fuel consumption for the criteria are considered for the comparison. In urban, areas
use of different modes of transport (left) in comparison especially space requirements are important. Focusing on
with the relative equivalent fuel consumption per person resource demands in use and climate change, the equiva-
(right). Hence, it points out the influence of the occupancy lent fuel consumption is also taken into consideration. Fur-
rate on the relative energy demand. The highest values thermore, the vehicle mass is defined as a representative
can be detected for the use of passenger cars with internal for resource demands for vehicle production in this first
combustion engines. The reason for this can be found in a step of evaluation. The possible average journey speed is
relatively low driveline efficiency in comparison with a considered in order to focus on user demands. The four
relatively low occupancy rate. The absolute energy con- criteria considered can be seen in Table 2, including the de-
sumption for public transport vehicles is high, however, fined target values and the applied weighting factors for
due to the relatively high occupancy rates and the person- each criterion.
related energy consumption is relatively low. The lowest As a result of the study, Figs. 8, 9 and 10 show the
energy consumption values can be determined for the use calculated weighted traffic performance indices WTPI
of bicycles and small electric-driven vehicles, as the results for the use of different modes of transport in urban
show. areas, based on the collected data, calculated specifi-
As another example, Fig. 7 illustrates the defined traf- cations and defined categories, as also the pre-defined
fic (left) and parking (right) space demands, based on weighting factors into consideration. A high index is
the developed approaches at a mean vehicle speed of a reference for a high suitability of a certain mode of
17 km/h. Based on the theoretical approach of two vehi- transport.
cles driving parallel in one lane, powered two-wheelers Taking the collected data and pre-defined criteria into
require half the space of a passenger car in fluent traffic. consideration, the highest indices in scenario balanced
Aside from walking, public transport is singled out for are achieved by human-powered modes of transport
its relatively low results in traffic space demand due to (walking and bicycle). Due to a relatively low resource
high occupation levels. Similar relations are obtained for demand, small electric-driven vehicles achieve a similar
results of parking space demands. level to that of public transport vehicles. An interesting

Fig. 6 Left: equivalent fuel consumption per vehicle. Right: equivalent fuel consumption per person in the vehicle
Brunner et al. Energy, Sustainability and Society (2018) 8:9 Page 9 of 11

Fig. 7 Relative traffic and parking space demands of investigated vehicles. Space demands in fluent traffic base on an observed mean velocity in
urban areas of 17 km/h

point is the relatively high suitability of the electric introduced methodology enables an objective evaluation
scooter. The use of passenger cars, either fuel or electric of various means of transport for urban areas, whereby
driven, results in the lowest values. In the user optimum different weighting factors are considered for addressing
scenario, the most important criterion is the average the specific demands of various stakeholders. A subse-
journey speed. A broad range of the generated results quently performed evaluation points to the potential of
thus achieve relatively similar levels. In combination with different means of transport taking specifically defined
the second important criterion—the fuel consumption, priority-scenarios into consideration. Considering the
addressing the direct costs of mobility—electric scooters varying demands of different stakeholders, the weighting
and bicycles achieve the highest level in this scenario. At factors are exemplary set to show their influence on the
resource optimum, mainly influenced by relative mass and calculated evaluation results. As one important cognition,
equivalent fuel consumption, again walking, the use of bi- it is clearly shown that individual-motorised traffic, domi-
cycles and electric scooters achieve relatively high indices. nated by the use of private passenger cars, represents the
Taking the three illustrated scenarios into consideration, most inefficient form of inner-urban mobility. On the
small vehicles from the category micro-mobility can be other hand, small vehicles from the category micro-
seen as the most efficient modes of transport in urban mobility can be seen as efficient modes of transport in
areas after public transport systems. urban areas, revealing their great potential for contribut-
ing to sustainable urban mobility. One disadvantage is the
Conclusions limited action radius, as can exemplary be found in [1].
The study provides a database with specific mobility- This issue could be addressed, however, by the combin-
related criteria and parameters, which include technical ation with public transportation in first-mile/last-mile
characteristics and the effects of the use of different vehi- concepts. By application of selected scenarios, it is shown
cles and means of transportation in urban areas. A newly that the generated database and calculation method

Table 2 Defined performance criteria, target values and applied weighting factors
TPI categories Target values Vt Weighting factor fwi
Balanced (%) User optimum (%) Resource optimum (%)
Related mass per person 75 kg 25 5 20
Rel. traffic space demand 2 m2 25 5 20
Average speed 32 km/h 25 70 5
Equivalent fuel consumption 0.3 1/100 Pkm 25 20 55
Brunner et al. Energy, Sustainability and Society (2018) 8:9 Page 10 of 11

Fig. 8 WTPI values, scenario balanced (25% related mass, 25% related traffic space demand, 25% average journey speed, 25% equiv. fuel consumption)

Fig. 9 WTPI values, scenario user optimum (5% related mass, 5% related traffic space demand, 70% average journey speed, 20% equiv. fuel consumption)

Fig. 10 WTPI values, scenario resource optimum (20% related mass, 20% related traffic space demand, 5% average journey speed, 55% equiv.
fuel consumption)
Brunner et al. Energy, Sustainability and Society (2018) 8:9 Page 11 of 11

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Acknowledgements
The authors extend their grateful thanks for the data contributions and support
received from the various sources as given in the references.

Authors’ contributions
HB and WH conceptualised and structured the paper. HB was responsible for
the data collection and analysis, supported by advice from other authors.
The paper was jointly drafted and developed in its entirety by all authors
with the intention of providing a current status report. All authors read and
approved the final manuscript.

Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Author details
1
Institute of Automotive Engineering, Graz University of Technology,
Inffeldgasse 11/2, 8010 Graz, Austria. 2IBV Fallast—Ingenieurbüro für
Verkehrsplanung und Umweltplanung, Wastiangasse 14, 8010 Graz, Austria.

Received: 6 March 2017 Accepted: 24 January 2018

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