Shaping the mobility in university campuses throughout ICT solutions

Problem statement Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) define a set of interrelated measures designed to satisfy the mobility needs of people. They consist of an integrated planning approach and address all modes and forms of transport in cities and their surrounding areas (Wefering et.al.,2014). A SUMP aims to create a sustainable urban transport system by addressing – at least – the following objectives: Ensure transport system accessibility for all, improve safety and security, reduce air and noise pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption, improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the transportation of persons and goods and enhance the attractiveness and quality of the urban environment (Veerle and Vincent, 2013). University Campuses in MED Area, with a territorial average extension of 430.000 m2 and an average of 35.000 between students and employees, are historically related with their urban area since they are always close to city center than built in the suburbs. A University Campus is then similar to an urban model and in most cases, it could be used as a test area for mobility policies related to public transport, multimodality or transport restrictions. Focusing on university campuses, any effort that is made to achieve sustainability must consider that universities are unique places functioning in specific contexts (Tolley, 1996; Balsas,2003). Universities are characterized by the fact that they represent a cross section of the population from different socio-economic backgrounds and ages, generate irregular schedules and the constant movement of people throughout the day. This is even more noticeable in university campuses located in suburban settings: Daily commuting of the university population, longer distances travelled, and the predominance of private car use over non-motorised means of transport (Miralles-Guasch and Domenech, 2010). Finally, considering that the present research focuses on ICT tools the term “Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)” is used to delineate the various Telecommunications and Information Technologies, which have been used in the field of Transport since the mid-80s. During the decade of the 90s notions such as “real time traffic monitoring”, were introduced for the first time to express the increasing intelligence and dynamic nature of those systems. After this and nowadays the “smart concepts” have been introduced in most of the fields; cities, mobility,