Dominique Breuil

An Analytical Hierarchical Process-based decision-making approach for selecting car-sharing stations in medium size agglomerations

This article presents an Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP)-based multi-step approach for identifying car-sharing stations in medium size agglomerations. Each agglomeration consists of several communities (also called communities). The first step consists of identifying communities that contain enough population that would be interested in using car-sharing. In the second step, we identify the potential locations for car-sharing stations inside the communities. In the third step, experts rate the stations using several criteria. AHP is used to compute the criteria and station weights. The individual weightings of the criteria and the stations are used to compute overall weights of the stations with respect to all the criteria. These weighted stations are then subjected to a predefined threshold. All those stations whose overall weight exceeds the threshold limit are considered as final stations for car-sharing implementation. We validate our approach by application on various communities of Poitou-Charentes region.

A Multicriteria Decision Making Approach for Carsharing Stations Selection

The current paper presents a three stage approach based on Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for carsharing stations selection. In the first stage, we identify the criteria for selecting the carsharing stations using literature review, discussion with carsharing experts and on-hand experience with LISELEC carsharing system of La Rochelle. The second stage consists of allotting weights to the criteria and the stations on a ratio scale using pairwise comparison. The criteria weights and the individual weight of stations for each criterion are used to calculate the overall weights for the stations. In the third stage, we select the stations whose overall weights exceed the threshold limit. Finally, we validate our approach by application on Angoulins-sur-Mer city of CdA La Rochelle, France.

Simulation of goods delivery process

Purpose – This paper claims that the parking policy is one of the most obvious tools for reducing traffic congestion, pollutant emissions and conflicts between transportation network users. The purpose of this paper is to propose and implement a strategy, via a simulation tool, for the sharing of parking places between light cars and vans for goods delivery.Design/methodology/approach – Temporal and spatial dynamic booking of on‐street parking places is described by using the multi‐agent paradigm. Main agents concerned by the sharing of parking places, their rules and interactions are implemented. Behavioral models and learning process of cognitive agents based on stated preferences collected beside the network users are designed for capturing multi‐agent interactions.Findings – By coupling a 2D traffic simulation tool and the Copert III methodology, it is possible to simulate the traffic and environmental consequences of several scenarios for different infrastructures, occupancy rate of the places reserv...

Sustainable mobility solutions: a pre-implementation questionnaire study for carsharing

This article presents a pre-implementation questionnaire study for a new carsharing system in La Rochelle, France. The questionnaire seeks responses on four main factors: profile of the users, transportation behaviour of users, willingness to use carsharing and preferences for new carsharing stations in La Rochelle. The target groups surveyed were city residents, tourists, businessmen, students and city transport organisations namely city of La Rochelle, CdA La Rochelle and Conseil Generale du Charente Maritime. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed in-person and a response rate of 81.4% was received. The findings of this study reveal useful information on the feasibility of the offer, user motivations and service design aspects for the new carsharing system. It was found during the study that appropriate marketing strategies and awareness campaigns are required to inform people about carsharing. Other areas of improvement are ensuring availability of vehicles at times, easy access to carsharing stations, easy return procedure for vehicles after use, low trip costs and providing vehicles suited to user needs. These findings have strengthened the need for a new carsharing system in the city and have identified appropriate operational factors for its implementation.

Decision Making Tool for the Selection of Urban Freight Transport Project

The control of transport is a very current preoccupation in a context of sustainable development. Nuisances associated to Urban Freight Transport (UFT) force politicians to propose measures relevant to sustainable development of the city. Nevertheless they should keep in mind the efficiency of UFT which renders the implementation of new projects quite difficult. We propose to transpose systemic approach to UFT problematic and to develop a global approach for the management of the evolution of City Logistics. Our first propositions in the domain conduce to the development of a tool allowing politicians to determine UFT solution coherent with their objectives.

Characterising urban freight solutions for medium sized cities

The experiments on optimisation of the urban goods movements are increasing in number. Many of them relate to the traditional goods without being concerned with an activity in particular. Others on the contrary are targeted on a precise sector. All these experiments are not taking into account the total organisation of goods distribution inside the city. Such an approach is undoubtedly difficult in large agglomerations but can be much more easily considered in medium sized ones. That will not only make it possible to reduce the generation of the side effects but will especially allow economic gains for the actors. Obviously, local authorities have several available actions of regulatory measurements for implementation, but they can enlarge with other types of actions and tools in a concerted approach with the freight actors. In this article, we propose a methodology to optimise urban freight transport from a systemic point of view. It has been developed considering the experiments in progress in La Rochelle, within the European project SUCCESS of the CIVITAS programme.

Systems Science for selecting urban freight solution: Application to La Rochelle

The distribution of goods in the urban centres is essential for their prosperity. The experiences for optimising the transport of goods in cities are numerous. Most of them concentrate on the transport of traditional goods (without being concerned with an activity in particular), the others on the contrary are related to a precise sector (fresh products etc.). All these experiments are undertaken independently without taking into account the total organization of Goods Distribution (GD) inside the city. In this case, comes the role of the community as an organiser or conductor of these different flows. In this article, we focus on the cities of medium size that offer a particular context for the GD: the urban specificities play a relevant role on the dynamics of the flow of goods. In this framework, we develop a global approach whose objective is to improve GD in these cities. This approach is based on the urban specificities and suggests to communities a choice of potentially efficient actions to be applied. The proposed methodology considers two physical specificities of the city: the distribution of places concerned by the logistic activities and the distribution of places facilitating the transit of goods. Its principle rests on the concept of entropy for obtaining a representation of disorder related to logistic activities. Finally, we describe this approach by focusing on the experiments in development in the agglomeration of La Rochelle (FRANCE) under the cadre of European project SUCCESS of CIVITAS program.