Lukas Ballo


Last Name

Ballo

First Name

Lukas

ORCID

0000-0002-0843-0553

Organisational unit

03901 - Raubal, Martin / Raubal, Martin

Filters

2022 - 202537
Reset filters

Search Results

Publications 1 - 10 of 37
  • Modeling sustainable mobility futures using an automated process of road space reallocation in urban street networks
    Item type: Working Paper
    Ballo, Lukas; Axhausen, Kay W. (2023)
    Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung
    Transport policy research must explore different more or less radical mobility futures that would be able to rapidly reduce the carbon footprint of transport. In this paper, we present a method for modeling one such future by focusing on the allocation of road space between different modes of transport. In a case study for Zurich, Switzerland, we apply the method to reshape the street network allocating the maximum possible proportion of road space to cycling infrastructure, while still allowing access for motorized traffic. Multiple design rules are applied: Ensuring the reachability for motorized traffic, guaranteeing the routes needed by the present public transit services, and maintaining street hierarchies. The resulting network shows many single- lane one-way streets, with generous infrastructure for cycling. We use Value-of-Distance indicators from route choice models to represent the benefits created by the added cycling infrastructure. In a descriptive analysis of the present and the rebuilt street network, we show that the overall length of the cycling infrastructure can be increased by a factor of three while reducing the average distances perceived by cyclists by 20%. On the other hand, the average shortest path for motorized traffic would grow by 36%, its network of lanes would become less redundant and its capacity would decrease. A Python implementation is available as open-source software. The networks generated by the software can be used as input in common transport modeling tools for impact assessment studies.
  • E-Bike City masterplan
    Item type: Other Conference Item
    Ballo, Lukas (2024)
    mobil.TUM 2024 Online Abstracts
    Reaching the climate targets requires a substantial reorganization of our transport systems within only three decades. Technical innovations as well as massive policy changes are necessary to achieve the necessary effects.
  • E-Bike City
    Item type: Other Conference Item
    Ballo, Lukas (2022)
  • The E-Bike City as a radical shift toward zero-emission transport
    Item type: Journal Article
    Ballo, Lukas; Meyer de Freitas, Lucas; Meister, Adrian; et al. (2023)
    Journal of Transport Geography
    This think piece discusses current barriers to the rapid decarbonization of transport and ways to overcome them. Policymakers face a set of contradictory goals, leading them to ponder only incremental measures: The need to reduce carbon emissions conflicts with accessibility improvements and the resulting induced traffic. At the same time, the prevention of urban sprawl as a means of promoting sustainable mobility is fundamentally thwarted by technical advances in electric cars and autonomous driving. Unable to attract public acceptance for measures that would effectively reduce travel demand, transport policy is failing to provide convincing transition pathways toward sustainable and equitable mobility for growing urban populations. As a possible way forward, we propose a new starting point for transport policy discussions, exploring the feasibility of urban transport systems based on sustainable, flexible, and relatively cheap modes of active mobility – the E-Bike City. This paper aims to outline a research agenda for testing the effects of such a policy direction. In contrast to the literature on “cycling cities”, this effort should include possibilities newly opened by the recent availability of electric micro-mobility vehicles. Also, it should aim for a balanced and realistic transition rather than a unimodal utopia. Inspired by friendly conversations around recent urban visions like 15-Minute Cities or Superblocks, this paper is meant to begin a new discussion about alternative future directions for transport policy beyond mere optimization and technical incrementalism.
  • The E-Bike City as a radical shift towards zero-emission transport
    Item type: Other Conference Item
    Ballo, Lukas; Meyer de Freitas, Lucas; Meister, Adrian; et al. (2022)
    Decarbonization, growing urban population and equity issues are urgent challenges of urban planning. However, present transport policy is caught in a course that is unlikely to address them sufficiently within the available time frame. We argue that a stronger emphasis is needed on behavior changes towards lifestyles, activities and modes that are inherently sustainable. This paper presents a transformative vision aimed at such a path by prioritizing a massive use of e-bikes and exploiting their potentials to enhance cycling. Its core pillar is making cycling more attractive and discouraging driving by reallocating ~50% of road space to protected infrastructure. It is expected to contribute strongly towards decarbonization and help growing urban populations with increased transport capacity. However, changing generalized cost of travel across different distances also alters spatial patterns of accessibility, as well as the resulting structures of equity. While city residents travelling over short distances will gain, suburban commuters currently using cars will likely face accessibility losses. But using a common framework of transport justice, we find that the expected accessibility changes are just and may even drive land-use changes favoring more equity in the long term. Finally, we show several research avenues arising from the E-Bike City and invite experts in urban transport to engage in a creative discourse about possible future visions for transport policies in cities.
  • Designing an E-Bike City
    Item type: Working Paper
    Ballo, Lukas; Axhausen, Kay W.; Raubal, Martin (2024)
    Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung
    Effective and timely decarbonization of urban mobility requires systemic changes to transportation systems. High-quality cycling networks are seen as one of such measures and multiple scholars have developed automated approaches for a quick generation of such interventions. However, a common shortcoming is that they mostly ignore the tradeoffs in allocating scarce road space to different modes. In this paper, we introduce an automated process for generating alternative multimodal transport networks within the boundaries of existing road space. Based on the user’s configuration, the resulting networks can prioritize separated cycling infrastructure or modes and follow a variety of design principles. The outputs can be visualized on a map and used in common transport simulation toolkits. A case study in Zurich is used to demonstrate the process and discuss the results. The underlying software package SNMan (Street Network Manipulator) is available as open-source software and can be utilized by researchers and planners to envision alternative urban mobility futures in any place in the world.
  • Introducing the e-bike city
    Item type: Working Paper
    Ballo, Lukas; Meyer de Freitas, Lucas; Meister, Adrian; et al. (2022)
    Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung
    This think piece deals with challenges of urban transport related to decarbonization, population growth and equity issues. We argue that present transport policy, largely building on technical and incremental developments, seems unable to address these challenges sufficiently within the available time frame: Electric cars, autonomous driving, carpooling, working from home, or similar developments can help reduce the carbon footprint but will likely fail to deliver climate neutrality quickly enough under prevailing conditions of population growth and induced demand effects. Instead, some scholars argue that the required results are only possible if more substantial behavior changes are also part of the solution. In this paper, we touch on the possibilities of urban design in rapidly encouraging shifts toward more sustainable travel behavior and discuss the possible consequences of such an approach. We introduce the E-Bike City, a hypothetical transformation reallocating large part of existing road space from cars to cycling, while utilizing the potentials of e-bikes for making cycling widely viable. Undoubtfully, such transformation has far-reaching effects on mode choice and emissions but also on travel speeds, accessibility, and social equity. In an open-ended discussion, we elaborate possible consequences of such intervention and how they could affect the overall desirability. Finally, we invite other researchers to openly discuss about further overall visions of achieving sustainable transport through urban transformations.
  • Street designs for an e-bike city
    Item type: Presentation
    Ballo, Lukas (2023)
  • Bike network planning in limited urban space
    Item type: Conference Paper
    Wiedemann, Nina; Nöbel, Christian; Martin, Henry; et al. (2024)
    The lack of cycling infrastructure in urban environments hinders the adoption of cycling as a viable mode for commuting, despite the evident benefits of (e-)bikes as sustainable, efficient, and health-promoting transportation modes. Bike network planning is a tedious process, relying on heuristic computational methods that frequently overlook the broader implications of introducing new cycling infrastructure, in particular the necessity to repurpose car lanes. In this work, we call for optimizing the trade-off between bike and car networks, effectively pushing for Pareto optimality. This shift in perspective gives rise to a novel linear programming formulation towards optimal bike network allocation. Our experiments, conducted using both real-world and synthetic data, testify the effectiveness and superiority of this optimization approach compared to heuristic methods. In particular, the framework provides stakeholders with a range of lane reallocation scenarios, illustrating potential bike network enhancements and their implications for car infrastructure. Crucially, our approach is adaptable to various bikeability and car accessibility evaluation criteria, making our tool a highly flexible and scalable resource for urban planning. This paper presents an advanced decision-support framework that can significantly aid urban planners in making informed decisions on cycling infrastructure development.
  • Bike network planning in limited urban space
    Item type: Working Paper
    Wiedemann, Nina; Nöbel, Christian; Martin, Henry; et al. (2024)
    arXiv
    The lack of cycling infrastructure in urban environments hinders the adoption of cycling as a viable mode for commuting, despite the evident benefits of (e-)bikes as sustainable, efficient, and health-promoting transportation modes. Bike network planning is a tedious process, relying on heuristic computational methods that frequently overlook the broader implications of introducing new cycling infrastructure, in particular the necessity to repurpose car lanes. In this work, we call for optimizing the trade-off between bike and car networks, effectively pushing for Pareto optimality. This shift in perspective gives rise to a novel linear programming formulation towards optimal bike network allocation. Our experiments, conducted using both real-world and synthetic data, testify the effectiveness and superiority of this optimization approach compared to heuristic methods. In particular, the framework provides stakeholders with a range of lane reallocation scenarios, illustrating potential bike network enhancements and their implications for car infrastructure. Crucially, our approach is adaptable to various bikeability and car accessibility evaluation criteria, making our tool a highly flexible and scalable resource for urban planning. This paper presents an advanced decision-support framework that can significantly aid urban planners in making informed decisions on cycling infrastructure development.
Publications 1 - 10 of 37