On 9th July 2026, Hiroshi Uemura (D3), Department of Urban Engineering, received Best Paper Award at The 15th Asia-Pacific Conference on Transportation and the Environment.
Best Paper Award
This award was presented to outstanding papers at the 15th Asia-Pacific Conference on Transportation and the Environment (APTE2026), an international conference in the field of transportation and the environment.
About awarded research
Hiroshi Uemura, Department of Urban Engineering, PhD student
Giancarlos Parady, Department of Urban Engineering, Lecturer
Lichen Luo, Department of Urban Engineering, Assistant Professor
Kiyoshi Takami, Department of Urban Engineering, Associate Professor
In recent years, shared micromobility services, such as bike sharing and e-scooter sharing, have attracted attention as new urban transportation modes. To implement such new transportation services in an economically and socially sustainable manner, it is necessary to establish appropriate operational strategies. In this study, we proposed a method for simultaneously optimizing multiple operational strategy components, such as station locations, station capacities, and fleet sizes, using an Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search (ALNS) algorithm, while accounting for the characteristics of shared micromobility services as transportation modes, including the spatiotemporal variability of vehicle availability and endogenous interactions in service availability. The results of a case study in a real urban area showed that, under the profit-maximizing behavior of operators, concentrating services in the city center with high travel demand was derived as the optimal solution. However, this raises issues from the perspective of transportation equity, indicating the need for appropriate policy interventions to balance operational efficiency with broader social objectives.
Your impression & future plan
I am deeply honored to receive this award at an international conference. I would like to once again express my sincere gratitude to Associate Professor Kiyoshi Takami, Lecturer Giancarlos Parady, and Assistant Professor Lichen Luo for their continuous guidance and support throughout this research. Encouraged by this award, I will continue striving to produce research outcomes that contribute to addressing social challenges in the field of urban transportation.
Best Paper Award, The 15th Asia-Pacific Conference on Transportation and the Environment (APTE2026)
Sanshiro Uyama and Keisuke Wada (M2 at the time of award), and Taro Kawano (B4 at the time of award), Department of Urban Engineering, received Best Presentation Award
