LOG904-185 Sustainable mobility, policy planning and behavior change (Autumn 2023)

About the course

This course focuses on how to promote sustainable mobility via policy planning so to stimulate behavior change.

The course provides both theoretical and practical guidance on how to study and promote sustainability in both passenger and freight transport.

The course using stated preference techniques illustrates how they can be applied in practice in prioritizing solutions thanks to policy co-creation and stakeholder engagement.

Examples and exercises make up a central part of the course. Course participants are presented with case studies originating from applications in transportation economics. You will learn how to use a dedicated software that is used in European research projects.

Lecture notes and exercises instructions are delivered in class.

The course is connected to the following study programs

• Master of Science in Logistics
• Experience-based Master in Logistics
• Master of Science in Sustainable Energy Logistics
• Exchange programme - Master's level
• Master of Science in Sustainable Transport and Urban Mobility

Recommended requirements

This course focuses on how to promote sustainable mobility via policy planning so to stimulate behavior change.

The course provides both theoretical and practical guidance on how to study and promote sustainability in both passenger and freight transport.

The course using stated preference techniques illustrates how they can be applied in practice in prioritizing solutions thanks to policy co-creation and stakeholder engagement.

Examples and exercises make up a central part of the course. Course participants are presented with case studies originating from applications in transportation economics. You will learn how to use a dedicated software that is used in European research projects.

Lecture notes and exercises instructions are delivered in class.

The student's learning outcomes after completing the course

The course provides the student with a hands-on knowledge of Stated Preference Methods using a learn-by-doing approach. The techniques used will allow the student to gain insights into economic theory and be able to plan and implement autonomously a basic stated preference survey study with the intent of analyzing agents’ preferences so to promote sustainability in transport thanks to policy planning capable of stimulating behavior change.

Knowledge: The student will familiarize with a dedicated software that become familiar with basic microeconomic concepts and learn how to plan intervention policies capable of stimulating the much-needed behavior change so to promote sustainability in transport.

Skills: The student will acquire all the required skills needed to apply basic microeconomic concepts to develop planning capabilities linked to the promotion of sustainable policies for transport. The skills acquired will be cognitive (i.e., policy plan development), practical (i.e., questionnaire administration), creative (i.e., alternative plan definition and testing) as well as communicative skills (i.e., presenting the results obtained in class).

General competence: The general competences the student will gain are linked to the application of the knowledge and skills to different planning contexts also favored by experiencing and strengthening individual and group work capabilities supported by work sharing tasks and the development of a sense of responsibility stimulated by working under pressure and within a tight scheduling of group activities. All these elements put together will be enhanced and supported by the constant stimulus to think critically under cognitively demanding conditions so to realistically simulate working conditions that will be encountered when starting a profession. In particular, the student, at the end of the course, will be competent in planning, defining, piloting, fine-tuning, and administering a questionnaire capable of acquiring the necessary data to develop a well-grounded policy planning strategy capable of promoting sustainability in transport.

Forms of teaching and learning

This is a practical and theory-based course. The focus of the course will be on the practical implementation of scientifically sound techniques to a self-selected problem the student is interested in tackling so to promote sustainable transport. Hands on problems solving with self-produced primary data sets will be used to augment the presentations. The course will also include practical questionnaire administration.

 

Lectures (8 hours) plus practical work on case study definition, deployment and reporting (the remaining time).

Examination

 

• Form of assessment: Home assessment with presentation

• Proportion: 100 %

• Duration: 4 hours

• Grouping: Individually or group

• Grading scale: Letter (A - F)

• Support material: All printed and written material

Syllabus

TBA