Superblock Design and Evaluation by a Microscopic Door-to-Door Simulation Approach

The present study contributes to narrowing down the research gap in modeling individual door-to-door trips in a superblock scenario and in evaluating the respective impacts in terms of travel times, modal shifts, traffic performance, and environmental benefits. The methods used are a multiple-criteria approach to identify the superblocks and a large-scale, multi-model, activity-based microscopic simulation. These methods were applied to the city of Bologna, Italy, where 49 feasible superblocks were identified. A previous large-scale microscopic traffic model of Bologna is leveraged to build a baseline scenario. A superblock scenario is then created to model five proposed traffic intervention measures. Several mobility benefit indicators at both citywide and superblock levels are compared. The simulation results indicate a significant increase in walking time for car drivers, while the average waiting time of bus users decreases due to the increased frequency of bus services. This leads to a noticeable car-to-bus shift. In addition, absolute traffic volumes and traffic-related emissions decreased significantly. Surprisingly, traffic volumes on the roads around the superblocks did not increase as expected. In general, this research provides scientists and urban and transport planners with insights into how changes in door-to-door travel times of multi-modal trips can impact individual travel behavior and traffic performance at a citywide level. However, the study still has limitations in modeling the long-term effects regarding changing activity locations within the superblocks.