Electromobility is one of the leading trends transforming public transport worldwide. Supported by international organizations, such as the European Union, and national cofounding, public transport operators and local authorities are taking strategic decisions on the direction and scope of the electrification of rolling stock. Most of the electric buses that are being put into operation replace the previously used conventional buses, and consequently, most of the electric buses are operating on existing bus lines. By applying a strategic approach to selecting bus routes for electrification, the advantages of electric vehicles can be maximized. Based on a case study of the Polish city of Gdynia, this paper explores the usefulness of the multi-criteria analysis for selecting the bus lines for electrification. Multi-criteria analysis methods help decision makers to consider and weigh diverse criteria that include, among others, economic, social, technological and environmental aspects. To fulfil the above purpose, the paper compares different methods for evaluating electromobility options at an early stage. The primary research methods include multi-criteria analysis, literature review and case study analysis. An example of using multi-criteria analysis in the decision-making process of in-motion charging trolleybuses to replace diesel buses on particular lines is discussed and concluded. It is found that the multi-criteria analysis method could be used at an early but important stage of the operational level when particular lines to be replaced are being discussed. Moreover, the case is made that the local context should always be considered, including features of the existing public transport systems, and that cost–benefit analysis should be conducted for the selected optimum scenario.

The current quantitative and qualitative development of bike-sharing systems worldwide involves particular implications regarding the level of sustainability of urban development and city residents’ quality of life. To make these implications as large as possible as well as the most positive, it is essential that the people who use municipal bikes on a regular basis to the largest extent possible abandon car travel at the same time. Thanks to their operational characteristics, electric bikes should enable meeting the transport needs of a wider group of city residents compared with traditional bicycles. The main aim of this study was therefore to check whether the municipal electric bike system (MEVO) in Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot metropolitan area of Poland lived up to the hopes placed upon it by policymakers. Therefore, the article tests the hypothesis indicating that the municipal electric bike systems constitute a substitutable form of transportation against passenger cars to a larger extent than against collective urban transport and walking trips. The analysis was performed based on the results of primary studies conducted among the users of MEVO. The data show that the MEVO was a substitutable form of transportation against collective transport and walking trips to a larger extent than against passenger cars. Through logistic regression analysis, the variables concerning the probability of replacing car trips by MEVO bicycles were determined. Among the analyzed variables, the following turned out to be statistically significant: age, the number of people in the household, the number of cars in the household, the distance from work, and gender. The results therefore indicate that substituting in favor of electro bikes was more probable for younger people with fewer people in the household and a distance to travel below 3 km, whereas it was less probable for people with more cars in the household or traveling a distance longer than 10 km. Additionally, females were more likely to choose the bike system.

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In recent years fare-free public transport (FFPT) found itself at the centre of attention of various groups, such as economists, transport engineers and local authorities, as well as those responsible for the organisation of urban transport. The FFPT is hoped to be the answer to contemporary transport-related problems within cities, problems which largely result from insensible proportions between trips carried out via personal mode of transportation and those completed by the means of public transport. This article reviews the motives and effects connected with the introduction to date of fare-free transport zones across the globe. It also presents, using data obtained in market research, the actual impact of a selective extension of the entitlement to free fares on the demand for urban transport services. The effects observed in other urban transport systems were then compared against those observed in relation to one, examined system. Analyses of observed FFPT implementation effects were then used to establish good and bad practices in the introduction of FFPT. The article also contains forecasts on the effect of the extension of entitlement to free fares and an increase in the public transport offer may have on the volume of demand for such services. The analyses have shown that an increase in the public transport offer (understood as an increase in the volume of vehicle-kilometres) would increase the demand for urban transport services more than the selective implementation of FFPT (assuming that the costs incurred by the local authorities remain unchanged).

The article familiarizes the reader with the concept of Bus Rapid Transit systems as a type of transport that combines the advantages of conventional buses, tramways and urban rail transit systems. For this purpose, the genesis of the idea of BRT systems was presented and the system functioning in Curitiba, considered to be the progenitor of the concept, was described. In the second part, the advantages and disadvantages of BRT systems as compared with other means of urban transport were described and differences between BRT subtypes, including BRT Lite, Heavy and Full BRT were presented. The final part of the article was devoted to illustrating the process of expansion of BRT systems around the world and the development of these systems in selected countries.