Sustainable urban mobility: comparison of two university campuses using multi-criteria analysis

Resumen

Urban mobility is currently being challenged to become more sustainable. In this sense, decision-making seeks to choose the best alternatives based on evidence. To this end, the development of indicators and indices serves as a tool for evaluating the initial situation and the impact of new projects. The present study focuses on developing a sustainable mobility index for the campuses of the Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS) in Bahía Blanca, Argentina, based on the analysis of indicators related to non-motorized means of transport, electric micro-vehicles and use of public transport. After collecting data and performing the calculations, it was determined that the Alem campus obtained a value of 0.724 for the index, while Palihue reached 0.458, indicating that Alem has a 58% higher level of sustainable mobility. This is due to a greater number of bicycles and bus lines in the Alem campus area. While it is suggested to improve pedestrian infrastructure and increase bus lines in Palihue, a higher use of electric micro-vehicles was observed in this campus. The analysis carried out in this work seeks to collaborate in the decision-making process of sustainable mobility policies to be applied in both campuses, which can have a positive impact at the city level, considering that university environments are fundamental to generate sustainable habits in the community.