Visiting Guest Speaker - Dr Haruko Nakao
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Visiting Guest Speaker |
Dr Haruko Nakao Postdoctoral Researcher |
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Topic: Towards the seamless multimodal electric Demand Responsive Transport system Date: Tuesday, 4 July 2023 |
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BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Haruko Nakao, since January 2022, has been a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Luxembourg, specializing in modelling on-demand services, electric mobility, and demand estimation. In 2021, she completed her PhD at the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds, UK. Her doctoral research was concentrated on the supply side of on-demand services, during which she developed a stochastic process model t at captured the day-to-day dynamics between shared and non-shared on-demand services and their users. In her current role at the University of Luxembourg, she has been primarily dedicated to the M-EVRST project, which aimed at developing a seamless multimodal electric on-demand feeder service. Furthermore, Dr. Nakao is engaged in the creation of demand estimation tools that take into account the utilities of conducting activities at origins and destinations. |
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ABSTRACT: Increasing congestion levels worldwide are leading to significant economic losses, negative impacts on liveability, and health issues stemming from pollution and global climate change. Luxembourg, like many cities in Europe, bears the unfortunate statistic of residents spending an additional 163 hours driving in rush hour per year. To mitigate these negative externalities, governments and transport operators are investing in enhancing the attractiveness of more sustainable transport alternatives, such as free public transport. However, conventional mass transit services, with their fixed routes and schedules, lack the necessary flexibility and service quality to ensure competitive door-to-door journey times. This situation creates a need for the design and operation of transport and mobility solutions that efficiently complement mass transit, and offer seamless and flexible multimodal services. In a push towards sustainable mobility, Luxembourg, following global trends, anticipates transitioning from conventional gasoline buses to fully electric ones by 2025. However, this shift may introduce additional mobility challenges such as limitations in vehicle driving range due to battery capacity, and charging infrastructure planning problem. Hence, fundamental research is needed to tackle the energy efficiency management challenge for electric vehicle DRT system planning brought by this energy transition trend. Given this background, M-EVRST project aims at developing a flexible and generalized multimodal DRT system using EVs, which will contribute to sustainable urban development, smart cities, and energy efficiency. |
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