ABSTRACT
Urban freight transport is an essential element in the sustainable economic development of urban areas. However, there have been great concerns about sustainable urban freight transport, with issues such as: (1) Can we balance the efciency and the environmental friendliness, safety, and saving energy associated with urban freight transport? (2) Is it possible to establish sustainable urban freight transport systems in megacities into which an increasing number of people are moving? (3) What are the features of sustainable urban freight transport systems in an aging society? The environment, safety, and energy issues in urban areas are critical not only in industrialized countries but also in developing countries. Recently, rapid urbanization has been observed around the world. Approximately one-half of the total world’s population of 7 billion people lived in urban areas in 2010 according to a survey of the United Nations
1.1 Overview 1 1.2 Important Elements 4 1.3 Procedure of Urban Freight Transport Management 5 1.4 Modeling 8 1.5 Home Health Care Issues 9 References 10
and this is predicted to be over 60% by 2030. Problems relating to urban goods distribution are more difcult in Asia and Latin America, due to the concentration of population living in mega-cities. As well, the change in demographics in terms of the increase of elderly persons generates the demand for more services to homes such as medical, nursing, and other daily services. To address these challenging issues, the concept of city logistics was proposed (Taniguchi et al., 2001b). Several policy measures have been implemented and evaluated using mathematical models in a number of cities in the world (Taniguchi et al., 2006).
