Author(s)

B. Guirao & D. Briceño

Abstract

Ciudad Real is a medium size Spanish town of 70,000 people located 190 kilometres South of Madrid and enjoys collective public transportation and a high-speed rail link with Madrid. This paper presents and analyses the results of the first study on mobility and public transportation’s acceptability carried out in this town. Consequently, the methodology proposed is based on a household survey campaign (more than 995 valid questionnaires), main streets counting, a survey campaign at the main entrances and exits of town (1050 surveyed cars at the rush hour) as well as a sampling of travel time and occupancy of bus lines. Along with an analysis of city mobility, a detailed study is presented in which the relationship between the city’s interurban mobility with Madrid by high-speed train line is depicted. Keywords: urban mobility, transportation planning, public transport. 1 Introduction In Spain, according to the census conducted in 2001, 24% of the population lives in towns with less than 10,000 inhabitants, 26% in towns whose population ranges from 10,000 to 50,000 inhabitants and another 26% who lives in towns whose populations range from 50,000 to 250,000 inhabitants. In short, more than 75% of Spaniards live in small or medium size towns. These percentages vary between different countries but most of the population is concentrated in medium size towns. The concern to improve public transport efficiency and efficacy in these towns is directly linked to their level of development. Therefore, comparing towns of similar size but with different mobility guidelines does not seem to be fruitful. The local mobility of a given town should not be studied apart from its interurban mobility, especially for those medium size towns which have a very

Keywords

urban mobility, transportation planning, public transport.