Congestion and environmental impacts of short car trip replacement with micromobility modes

Transportation is a basic social need, but most trips are done by private vehicles, which is not environmentally sustainable with growing urban populations. Micromobility (e.g., shared bikes) represents a significant opportunity to replace short private vehicles trips (0-3 miles) and reduce transportation sector emissions. This paper uses Seattle as a case study and estimates that up to 18% of short car trips could be replaced by micromobility. A static traffic assignment model is developed to simulate and compare the results of peak hour traffic under a base case scenario (2014 traffic conditions) to scenarios where a portion of short car trips are substituted by micromobility. Results indicate that micromobility could reduce congestion on heavily congested corridors and wide-scale bike lane deployment can maximize congestion benefits, but the impacts to energy use and emissions are disproportionately low and other measures (e.g., vehicle electrification) are needed to meet climate change emissions targets.

Automated summary

This paper explores the potential of micromobility to replace short car trips and reduce transportation emissions in urban areas, using Seattle as a case study. Results show that micromobility can help alleviate congestion on heavily congested corridors, but its impact on energy use and emissions is relatively low, requiring additional measures such as vehicle electrification to meet climate change emissions targets.