Exploring the impact of ICT on urban mobility in heterogenic regions

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been widely applied in the monitoring, operation and management of transport services, while they were proven to have a great potential to increase the efficiency in the use of urban transport infrastructure and at the same time reducing negative impacts on the environment. The aim of this paper is to explore the impact of ICTs applications in reducing carbon dioxide emissions and costs in different regions across Europe: a) Bucharest - Ilfov (Romania), b) Centro Region (Portugal) and c) Extremadura (Spain). Through different scenarios we estimate potential emissions savings and damage costs for carbon dioxide. The total emissions in each scenario were calculated using COPERT 4, while the estimation of the total emission costs was based on the updated values of damage costs (€ per tonne, 2010) that are provided from European Commission’s Handbook on External Costs of Transport. Results show that ICT measures can have significant impacts in terms of costs savings and can contribute to the rapidly reduce of carbon dioxide emissions.