Study of Smart Mobility for West of Bangkok

When the negative impacts of vehicle ownership tend to increase (e.g. increased energy consumption, traffic congestion and inefficient land use), travelers search for alternatives, one of which is shared mobility.  The shared mobility is the services that allow users to share various transport modes and to use the services as necessary.  The shared mobility services can be categorized into 2 categories according to vehicle types: (i) automotive vehicle sharing and (ii) micro mobility sharing or personal mobility sharing. The automotive vehicle sharing is composed of the car sharing service and the ride sharing service.  The car sharing service allows users to use shared cars (similar to hourly rental cars) that replace private cars by paying the subscription fees such as Haup. The ride sharing service allows users to travel on the same route or partial route in the same vehicle such as Grab Shuttle.  The analysis of user intention has the relationships with the demand forecasting and economic assessment.  The prediction in the right direction to provide the services corresponding to the user requirements will need the analysis of intention to use the shared mobility systems.  The survey for the inhabitants in the west of Bangkok enables the analysis of intention to use different types of shared mobility by logistic regression models to determine the factors influencing user needs and to suggest the guideline for the provision of shared mobility. 

    As a result of the development of clean energy vehicles, autonomous vehicles are innovative automated driving systems developed to facilitate drivers and reduce human dependence on vehicle operations on the road. The autonomous vehicles also allow users to maximize their productivity while traveling in the vehicles. Many countries around the world have foreseen the need to develop technologies related to autonomous vehicles. Some countries legally allow the testing of automated vehicles on the road. The performance of autonomous vehicles depends on their learning capability, traffic composition and conditions, and physical characteristics of the road infrastructure. Therefore, to ensure effective and safe operations of autonomous vehicles in mixed traffic compositions, it is necessary for individual countries to prepare their roadway facilities for the use of autonomous vehicles.  There are studies on the readiness for autonomous vehicles in each country. The Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index (AVRI) has surveyed 25 countries based on their economic size and progress in self-driving technology development. The readiness assessments are conducted under four main areas, including 1) policies and legislation; 2) technologies and innovations; 3) infrastructures; and 4) consumer acceptance. The assessments equally weight each area based on both primary and secondary data from each country. Given the situation that the deployment of autonomous technologies is becoming more clear and more likely to be in real use earlier than expected, it is important that preparations for the transition to self-driving technologies are made at a national level. This study will encourage Thailand to have appropriate policies for the use of autonomous vehicles and promote the quality improvement of infrastructure for efficient and safe operations of autonomous vehicles.

    Electric vehicles are both energy-efficient and more environmentally friendly than vehicles with gasoline.  Electric vehicles are powered by in-car rechargeable batteries.  This gives a number of advantages, such as no carbon emissions or pollution, cost-effective and low noise.  The main disadvantages of these electric vehicles are the problems associated with electric power charging, and a network of charging stations that are not comprehensive. The solution to this problem is to build a charging station to cover current and future usage.  Increased demand should be planned and anticipated, and appropriate charging station areas should be identified to prevent insufficient electricity for the community in the area and optimize the power distribution structure to the maximum.  As we see signs that electric vehicles will soon become standard vehicles, what planners need to prepare is the ability of the power system to handle the expected increase in load on the energy infrastructure.  Analyzing spatial data with a Geographic Information System (GIS) can help find a solution to this problem.  A major problem in the transition to electric vehicle structures is the need for fast charging.  Therefore, it is necessary to plan the network expansion in the appropriate area and study the amount of electricity demand both at present and that will increase in the future.

    The West of Bangkok known as the Thonburi area has the network of natural canals covering the area.  In the past five years, the West of Bangkok has been expanded with electric train routes.  This allows travelers to efficiently plan their trips.  The study of canal and boat routes that intersect electric train stations will enable travelers to have an additional public transport mode.  Furthermore, the land use in the West of Bangkok is mixed use between residential and agricultural areas, resulting in the unique community by the canal.  The development of canal boat transit in the West of Bangkok aims at providing an additional transport mode that connect the land transport to the water transport.  The study of canal boat stations and their connectivity to the electric train stations, bus stations and conventional train stations aims at the efficient and sustainable transportation and the promotion of the communities in the area in terms of the social and economic development through the community involvement process. The possibility of electric boat design, the shared boat on demand and the automated boat will be studied.

The energy consumption in the road transport sector in Bangkok has been high due to traffic congestion and the connectivity problem in public transportation systems.  This leads to the air pollution problem, especially PM2.5, which is widely accepted to impact people’s health. The water transportation in Bangkok has become important and can be an alternative for travelers to avoid traffic congestion.  As the city expansion occurs along the electric train routes, people have more travel alternatives to plan their efficient trips.  The vehicles used in water transport nowadays have conventional diesel engines that lack the standard pollution emission and have low efficiency in energy consumption. As such, the mode shift from road transportation to water transportation may not be beneficial as expected.  To promote the search for the sustainable transport modes for Bangkok inhabitants, the public boat transport must be designed with the energy saving and the acceptable pollution and greenhouse gas emission level, and will not have an impact on the air quality and climate change.  Currently, there is no data on the energy consumption and air pollution emission from road transportation and water transportation in the West of Bangkok.  This project aims at the analysis of energy consumption and air pollution emission from road and water transport activities in the West of Bangkok, and prepare the basic database on the travels in the West of Bangkok that can be employed in the planning and evaluation of the energy saving and the reduction of air pollution and greenhouse gas in various scenarios.  The policy recommendations will be made.