Low Vehicle Occupancy Rates as a Big Challenge For Urban Mobility or How to Change Bad Habits

Abstract

The problem of traffic congestion in modern cities is the result of numerous factors that must be addressed by various management, regulatory and design solutions. The average vehicle occupancy, especially passenger cars, is certainly one of the significant indicators of the street network condition. In general, with the increase of the motorization rate, there is a noticeable decrease in vehicle occupancy, which directly affects the level of service. This does not conform with the green agenda of the development of sustainable and resilient cities. As part of this paper, the methodology and the results of the latest vehicle occupancy survey on selected characteristic corridors of the city of Belgrade will be presented. The research showed that passenger cars occupancy is very low, and on average is equal to 1.47 persons/car. A more detailed analysis and discussion of spatio-temporal variabilities will be presented in a separate chapter of this paper. In the concluding part, the authors will provide preliminary guidelines and suggestions for potential solutions to overcome or at least mitigate the consequences caused by the low occupancy of passenger cars in correlation with their high presence on the street scene.