Flows
Third week of the course lead us into the next thematic block, Flows. Flow as in the use of space for movement. The seminary gave us questions and parameters of interest to understand issues in urban flow. Questions like how people and places are connected? Parameters like number of trips and trespassing traffic.
After rain comes sun, or in this case, after seminary comes workshop. The workshop was about learning and discussing options and methods to create a better sustainable urban infrastructure around our campus area in Johanneberg. We got three options to discuss, we choose Option 1: A plan for reducing traffic emissions in congested areas.
At the end of the week, we had the weekly Study visit. Rasmus Sundberg from EC2B informed us about a pilot project at Campis Johanneberg to digitalize transportation through a mobile application. The application worked like a hub for different types of sustainable transportation, from hiring bikes and cars to buy tickets to the local bus or tram. This all sounded very nice and efficient to engage people transporting themselves more sustainable through one single application.
Location of Interest
First, we had to find a location of interest. We already had an idea from last week workshop what location that has the heaviest loaded traffic through rush hour traffic, we confirmed our suspicion through visit www.trafiken.nu in rush hour traffic as the picture above are showing. From the picture it is clear that the street Aschebergsgatan between Chalmers Station and Kapellplatsen is orange and therefore has the most traffic emissions.
Potential Solutions, Their Implementation and Challenges
There could be several solutions to reducing the traffic emissions on and around Ashebergsgatan between Kapellplatsen and Chalmersplatsen. Further, some ideas will be presented together with ideas of implementation and potential challenges.
Traffic limitations
One potential way of reducing the emissions in the area would be to introduce traffic limitations between Chalmers station and Kapellplatsen. For example, private cars could be prohibited to drive on the street between 7.00–9.00 and 15.00–18.00 during weekdays. Through making it harder to pass through this area with a private car some persons may choose to go by other means of transportation, thus, contributing to a reduction of emissions. This could also result in more safety for pedestrians and bicycles, from last week workshop we said that Chalmers station had a dense area in rush hour traffic.
In order for this to be implemented the government of the city need to put up signposts next to the roads leading to Chalmers station and Kapellplatsen. They can also pass laws enacting limited parking space.
A potential challenge is that people living in the area, traveling by car, would be negatively affected as it gets harder to access their homes. A solution is to make an exception in the restrictions for residents of the area. For example, license plates could be tracked to be able to give fines to non-residentials only. Another challenge is that people passing the area by car might not appreciate the limitation, especially not in the beginning. Hopefully, after a while people would adapt to the new limitations as they have learnt new routes or means of transportation.
Electrical Rental Bikes
Another solution could be to introduce electrical rental bikes within the city of Gothenburg. As of today, Styr-och-ställ offers rental bikes within central Gothenburg, though, these are non-electrical bikes. The campus being situated on top of a hill results in many users choosing to ride a rental-bike downhill but choosing other means of transportation uphill. Through introducing electric rental bikes, the amount of people taking the bike uphill as well would increase, resulting in a decrease of cars and public transport passengers.
For this to happen, electric rental bikes need to be introduced. This could be done through redesigning the existing Styr-och-ställ concept or through introducing a new actor on the market. Making it possible to rent the bikes at more locations, as well outside the city center, would also likely increase the number of users.
One potential challenge with this solution is theft and vandalism of the bikes. Though, similar solutions exist within other cities, as for example in Copenhagen.
Theft, vandalism, users could be different from the one intended (bus users might use the bikes instead of car users).
New Means of Public Transport
As of this writing, public transportation in Gothenburg consists of buses, trams, ferries, and commuter trains. Introducing new means of public transport such as sky trains, metros, and cable cars would result in faster and more convenient travel. Such introduction could potentially lead to a higher number of people opting to use public transport instead of private vehicles.
Furthermore, completion of Västlänken, the railway tunnel under construction under central Gothenburg would also alleviate the burden of traffic commuting to and from central Gothenburg.
However, introducing new means of public transport is not only challenging financially, but also from a logistic standpoint. It could impact current traffic flows negatively, further exacerbating the traffic and pollution situation.
Rerouting the Traffic
Constructing new tunnels through the hilltop where Johanneberg is situated could decrease the number of private and public transport vehicles travelling through Aschebergsgatan. For instance, those travelling between Korsvägen and Sahlgrenska or Linneplatsen could be rerouted through the new tunnels. This would reduce the emissions in the specific area of study; however, such is not necessarily the case for the entire city of Gothenburg.
As is the case with introducing new means of transport, construction of new tunnels is also expensive and logistically challenging.
Modern Way of Work and Nearby Work Opportunities
Many of the people living in the suburbs of Gothenburg such as Mölndal, Angered, Bergsjön, etc. commute to the city core for job. Compared to the suburbs, the city core provides more and better work opportunities and other activities such as shopping. If such opportunities can be provided in the suburbs themselves, the number of commutes to the city can be reduced; thus, reducing emission in the city. Similarly, many of the jobs adopt modern way of working such as virtual offices, teleconferencing, and so on, the need of travel to the city for work would also be minimized.
For this to be implemented, businesses might need to be provided with incentives to establish locations in the suburbs. Such incentive could include tax deductions and subsidies. However, in today’s world, such decisions might not be politically palatable anymore. Furthermore, using digital tools for work could be challenging for those who are digitally illiterate.
Shared Vehicles
Another solution to reduce emissions in the said area of study is to promote sharing of vehicles. Organizations such as Skjutsgruppen facilitates sharing of vehicle by people travelling to the same location. However, a challenge for this solution could be that many people might not be willing to share a vehicle with strangers, thus reducing the adoption of such solution.
Reducing Parking Space
Reducing the number of parking spaces in an area would shrink the number of people travelling by private car to that area. Same solution can be applied to the area of study as well. For example, rebuilding the parking lot at Gibraltargatan into a residential area would result in fewer parking spaces available per inhabitant. Although this could lead to less people travelling to the area, this need not necessarily reduce the number of vehicles merely passing by the area. A downside of such solution is that people living in the area may not appreciate it as they will have lesser space to park their vehicles.
Conclusion
The solutions to reduce local air pollution through different transportations are infinite and are only limited to imagination. The challenges of implementation are the big problem with different levels of difficulties of keeping everyone satisfied and different outcome effects of pollution and possible rerouting traffic instead of decreasing and financial expenses of the different solutions.
Solutions for the challenge to keep everyone satisfied is the most difficult according to us and will probably never be completely fulfilled. To prevent dissatisfaction, we think that it’s very important to be informative, listen and be humble to the ones who get disadvantages from the specific solution.
