The research team aimed to achieve a paradigm shift by putting walking and cycling on an equal footing with motorised modes. Non-motorised modes of transport should be recognised as an effective means to alleviate urban congestion. This overall objective was achieved through a transdisciplinary approach along with state-of-the-art tools for assessing the impact of pedestrians and cycling on congestion busting.
FLOW - Furthering Less Congestion by Creating Opportunities For More Walking and Cycling
The FLOW project focused on urban road transport, analysing the role of pedestrians and cyclists.
Congestion assessment methodology
PTV contributes to this paradigm shift through the elaboration of the FLOW congestion assessment methodology including a multimodal congestion definition and a set of multimodal indicators measuring direct and wider consequences to assess the effectiveness of walking and cycling measures in congestion reduction.
Modelling and impact assessment
The core of PTV´s contribution corresponds to the improvement of the existing transport simulation software (PTV Visum, PTV Vissim and PTV Viswalk), as well as the development of a socio-economic impact assessment to better analyse the impacts of walking and cycling measures on the road transport network performance, and thereby on congestion.
Capacity and network building
The user-friendly FLOW methodology, together with the state-of-the-art modelling and assessment tools, will be directly applied to and tested in the FLOW cities network throughout Europe.