In the move towards sustainable urban mobility through seamless intermodality, European cities are faced with the possibility of implementing shared mobility systems. They constitute an opportunity to create new urban hubs, considered as nodes of intermodality and places of urban intensity. In order to effectively plan the future locations of shared mobility hubs, this paper outlines the methodological framework that sustains the design of a new decision-support tool, the so-called Mcda2MobilityHub (M2MHub),¹ using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). For this purpose, the analysis of existing literature and interviews with local authorities and transport operators, led to the identification of six main location criteria (mobility, compactness, diversity of uses, profile of potential users, spatial configuration and environment). The criteria weights were calculated using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the framework was applied to the case study of the city of Barcelona. The results obtained are presented in the form of heat maps, highlighting the flexibility of the decision-support tool to transform open data into appropriate indicators and detailed maps. This output can be used to support future policies for planning shared mobility hubs as places for convenient multimodal transfers, which also enable social activities and improve the quality of life in European cities.@en

Seamless, efficient transport intermodality is a key aspect of the transition of cities toward sustainable mobility. The new “shared mobility hub” concept is increasingly gaining attention as a potential way to make this urgently needed transition happen. The present paper aims to provide an insightful view of the promising concept of shared mobility hub, initially by looking into the existing literature on its definitions and how they are classified to form different typologies. Following that, a new, flexible typology framework for shared mobility hubs is proposed. This is then applied to several existing hubs in five different cities in The Netherlands (Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Helmond), Spain (Sant Cugat de Vallès, Metropolitan Area of Barcelona), and Portugal (Lisbon). As these countries have different shared mobility policies in place and their citizens have very different mobility habits, we were able to reflect on how the proposed typology functions in varied contexts. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion of a very timely topic in Europe and worldwide, which is the need for the deployment of a new generation of mobility hubs, with an emphasis on shared mobility. We trust that the suggested typology can be useful to policy-makers, local authorities, and transport and urban planners, as it can help with the conducting of a first effective screening with regard to which type of hub is needed for each specific case.
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