Multimodal transportation performance certificates (MTPC) for buildings and neighborhoods – comparing methods for benchmarking the effect of built environment on travel

Abstract

The ambition in Europe is to create cities with integrated, multimodal transportation systems where it is easy to walk, cycle or use public transportation. There is extensive research on urban form and travel, sustainability indicators and rating systems for buildings and neighborhoods and there are new mobility apps, travel planners and websites which provide transportation information, track travel behavior or evaluate and benchmark different transportation modes. This paper assesses three methods to measure multimodality: green building and sustainable neighborhood certification and rating systems, websites that benchmark multiple transportation modes and trip generation tools. It also proposes instituting Multimodal Transportation Performance Certificates (MTPC) as a hybrid method. Three Swedish neighborhoods Munksjostaden and Tenhult in Jonkoping and Haningeterrassen in Haninge, Stockholm, are analyzed and the results show that each method produces different, but fairly reasonable results considering their specific scopes and applications. The conclusive MTPC benchmarking procedure aims to harness the best of each method, though it inherits some of their problems.