The spatial logic of e-mobility commutes within urban areas

Spatial configuration can explain how urban roadnetworks are connected and navigated, plus why certain locations tend to be more accessible and attract more human activity than others. Movement and accessibility patterns are often associated with the differences found in urban morphology and network configuration. While configurational analysis has validated several measures that estimate likely movement patterns for pedestrian and vehicular-motorised trips, demonstrating significant correlations between real movement and high flow and accessibility in certain radii, there are still uncertainties regarding which radius – or radii – are related to conventional cycling (c-bikes) and, more recently, to emobilities such as e-bikes and e-scooters. The latter transportation modes tend to follow spatial logics that are seemingly distinct when compared to pedestrian or vehicular-motorised movements, therefore, not directly relatable to the analyses established radii. This paper investigates the spatial logic of e-mobilities movement within urban areas, through the analysis of a sample dataset of commutes made within the City of Bristol (UK). The paper proposes a method to establish spatial relationships between the e-mobility trips, acquired through GPS monitoring, and configurational analyses. It measures accessibility at different radii covered by emobilities to establish which radius tends to have a greater correspondence between high accessibility (tomovement) and real e-mobilities movement. Results show that e-mobility commutes tend to be set in semilocal radii of accessibility, in-between those validated for pedestrian and vehicular-motorised movement. Further studies using a larger dataset are required to verify these tendencies. Nevertheless, findings can serve as a guide to policies and actions to both optimise the use of these transport modes, as well as to relate them with the placement of urban services and economic activities.