Taipei mobility : gone in less than 300 seconds : mixed modality transportation system in dense mixed-use urban fabric, take Taipei City for example

Abstract

Urban designers and planners always try to tackle the urban issues from spatial, cultural and economical point of views; However, sometimes these issues were limited or, even more, created by current transportation system. The thesis will discuss about the relations of urban mobility and urban space and try to redesign urban space from transportation point of views. According to United Nation Population Division Report, half world's people will live in urban area by the end of 2008. The urban population will rise from 6.7 billion in 2007 to 9.2 billion in 2050. Right now, A lot of cities already suffered the traffic congestion, air pollution which caused by current transportation system and also create low quality of life, we can expect the life quality in urban area will deteriorate more in the future because of population growth. We need new types of thinking to solve these problems. This thesis will introduce a new type of Mobility-on-Demand System to Taipei City, which is the case study city because of its density and mixed-use characteristics. This system will supplement the current transportation system to make public transportation more efficient and private transportation faster. The Mobility-On-Demand System is composed by City Car and Roboscooter, which were developed by Smart Cities, MIT Media Lab. They are electric, small footprint, fordable and most important of all, they are private and also public. This thesis will talk about how can a city be transformed and people's life quality be improved with the help of the new mobility Mobility-On-Demand System.