Sustainable development in its three dimensions -economic, social and environmental -has become a major concern on an international scale. The problem is global, but must be solved locally. Most of the world's population lives in cities that act as centres of economic growth and productivity, but which -if they develop in the wrong direction -can cause social inequalities, or irreversibly harm the environment. Urban transport causes a number of negative impacts that can affect sustainability targets. The objective of this study is to propose an analysis of sustainability of urban passenger transport systems based on available indicators in most cities. This will serve to benchmark the practices of different cities and manage their transport systems. This work involves the creation of composite indicators (CI) to measure the sustainability of urban passenger transport systems. The methodology is applied to 23 European cities. The indicators are based on a benchmarking approach, and the evaluation of each aspect in each case therefore depends on the performance of the whole sample. The CI enabled us to identify which characteristics have the greatest influence on the sustainability of a city's transport system, and to establish transport policies that could potentially improve its shortcomings. Finally, the cities are clustered according to the values obtained from the CIs, and thus according to the weaknesses and strengths of their transport systems.

Urban areas play a key role in the development of European territories, and it is essential for them to be sustainable and efficient. However, the European cities are facing some challenges related to certain trends that are threatening their sustainable development and operational efficiency. In this paper, we compare the contribution of three policy measures-cordon toll accompanied by public transport improvements, teleworking and re-densification-to address different city challenges. The policy assessment requires a long term simulation tool, i.e., the MARS (Metropolitan Activity Relocation Simulator) model, which is able to consider interactions between land use and transport systems. The simulations of the different policy scenarios were carried out for the case of Madrid in the period 2012-2031. The contribution of the policy measures to address the city challenges was measured through different indicators. The results indicated that the three policy measures contributed to the time efficiency challenge, by saving time for the commute, reducing congestion and improving the traffic flows at peak hours. The most effective policy in this regard is the teleworking measure. Another challenge addressed by the three policies was the accessibility to PT. The three policy scenarios, when simulated, showed higher PT use, especially the cordon toll scenario. However, the only policy that really contributed to the energy, emissions and pollution city challenges was the re-densification measure, which reduced travel distances and encouraged a mobility that relies more on PT and slow modes.

The development of autonomous vehicles (AVs) holds a high potential for improving security, reducing congestion, increasing fuel efficiency, and saving time. Various studies conducted on the implementation of AVs predict that fully autonomous vehicles will be available for the public in the 2020s. However, it will take another three decades, at least, for these vehicles and technologies to be accepted among the general masses and become reliable and affordable for use. Nonetheless, while a great deal has been stated regarding autonomous cars, little attention has been paid to autonomous public transport, more specifically, autonomous buses (ABs). The present report analyzed the psychological barriers preventing the complete implementation of ABs through data collected from focus group (FG) discussions. The main objective of the FGs was to determine the factors influencing perceptions regarding ABs and their acceptability. The most important factors from the positive side were the reduction of personnel costs, the potential to decrease congestion, waiting time at intersections, and reduced emissions. On the other hand, the most important negative factors were an increase in vehicle and infrastructure costs, safety risks under certain conditions (e.g., system failures, terrorist attacks, etc.), and the possible reduction of employment opportunities.

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Sustainable urban mobility requires accessible and demand attractive public transport (PT) networks. However, urban sprawl has been the main characterizing growth pattern of European cities since 1950. In these increasingly dispersed cities, PT is facing increasing problems of efficiency to compete with cars. The sprawling cities are dominated by car use, especially in the peripheral areas. Moreover, Europe is still reeling under the financial crisis, which first hit the continent in 2007. In this context of economic crisis, the lack of financing resources and the declining demand for PT have further weakened the PT systems in European cities. This study considered the urban PT systems of six Spanish cities in order to determine their evolution over the last ten years. This evolution is examined in the backdrop of urban sprawl and economic crisis. The analysis is based on several indicators meant to measure PT demand, supply, and efficiency. The study shows how did each city react to the lack of resources and trip reduction during the economic crisis, by adopting different PT management strategies. The differences in reaction produced different results, but none of the cities could avoid the loss of PT efficiency. The results indicate that policy strategies need to include land use and transport measures to achieve more sustainable PT systems. Only integrated strategies could improve PT efficiency and quality levels and contribute toward increasing competitiveness of PT, even in adverse contexts.