Mobility Energy Productivity Metric

Inspired by the Energy Efficient Mobility Systems (EEMS) mantra of creating a ‘maximum mobility minimum energy future’, and informed by the Smart City data model curation activity (pertaining to lack of appropriate holistic metrics in the urban mobility space), the Urban Science team created a new paradigm for evaluating mobility options within an urban area. This metric termed the Mobility-Energy Productivity (MEP) metric is, at its heart, an accessibility metric appropriately weighted with respect to travel time, affordability, and energy. Mobility is assessed with respect to a transportation system’s efficiency to connect citizens to a wide variety of goods, services, and employment that define a high quality of life. The metric, built upon established literature, is assessed for any mode, encompasses a spectrum of trip purposes, and creates a mobility potential field with which to monitor fundamental advances in the urban mobility systems with respect to efficiently connecting people to opportunities which encompass employment, health care, groceries, retail, entertainment, education, and recreation.