Sustainable mobility in European cities

[Transport Economics]

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The course will give sudents the knowledge basis to address the issue of 'sustainable urban mobility'. The focus is on European cities, on their spatial organisation and mobility pattern. The approach is interdisciplinary, and is rooted in the European Union's conception of 'environmental and social sustainability',

Level: post-graduate; credits: 6; hours of teaching: 44; semester: 2°;

Labs: A. Lab of quantitative analysis; B. Lab of visual economic

Lecturing period: February 21- May 19, 2011

Lectures Time: Monday 16.30-18.30; Tuesday 16.30-18.30.

Room: T7

Tutorial: Wednesday 16.30-18.30; Thursday 14.30-18.30.

Course outline

Against the background of the EU' approach to the environmental sustainability of the economic process the course will address the issue of 'sustainable mobility in cities'.
The first part of the course will be devoted to explore the 'spatial dimension' of city. The spatial organisation of the European city, the systems of focal points that characterises them  and the related mobility pattern will be discussed at conceptual and empirical level. In particular, the spatial organisation of contemporary  (European) cities as 'dispersed cities' will be discussed. An empirical analysis of the spatial organisation of the some European cities will be conducted (see also  Stat-Lab)
Particular attention will be given to the 'circadian cycles' of individuals, and to the factors influencing them: relative prices, meta-preferences, spatial organisation of the city, infrastructures. A model of circadian cycle will be presented and discussed.
A theoretical model of the environmental impact of urban mobility will be also presented, discussed and empirically tested.
The course will also present the best practices in urban mobility of some European cities and discuss the EU's policy framework for sustainable urban mobility.

Labs

Lab of quantitative analysese (Stat-Lab)

Using the statistical software STATA, sutdents will learn to analyse - analytically and graphically - various urban phenomena. Students will learn how to use STATA to produce graphs (bar graphs, ,histogramms, scatter plots, box plots, etc.), correlation indexes, hypotheses tests, linear regression, etc. The Lab will have a strictly applied orientation.

Lab of visual economics

The visual representation of the physical and social world has played an important role in scientific research. The new technologies of data processing have openend up new possibilities for the visual reperesentation of social and economic phenomena. In the Lab examples of how photography has been used to describe and intepret urban phenomena will be discussed. Students will learn how to 'extract' economic information (data) from photos. The epistemological basis of the visual reperesentation of the soical world will be also discussed..

Calendar

Readings

- Antonio G. Calafati, Economie in cerca di città, Donzelli, Roma 2009;

- Antonio G. Calafati, Lineamenti di economia urbana, Dispensa, Ancona 2011;

- European Union's reports [list and download]

Assignments

[to be decided]