Social acceptance assessment of alternative urban sustainable transport technologies in intermediate cities using AHP and SUMO

Abstract

The Colombian government is promoting the transition to electric vehicles in metropolitan areas; however, a lack of decision-making in intermediate and small cities hinders local sustainable objectives. The transition to clean technologies must be aligned with the realities intrinsic to cities. Therefore, a holistic methodology to quantify the social acceptance of sustainable transport technologies in intermediate cities is proposed, through an AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) model integrating four dimensions: technical, economic, environmental, and social. In the absence of local experience with low-emission vehicles, simulations were carried out in SUMO (Simulation of Urban Mobility) to evaluate Internal Combustion Engine Vehicle (ICEV), Electric Vehicle (EV), Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV), and Natural Gas Vehicles (NGV), considering the dynamics of individual public transport mode in the city under study (Pasto, Colombia). Five criteria were selected: energy consumption, autonomy, accumulated cost, government incentives, and life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions. The results show that NGV obtained the highest social acceptance rating, mainly due to its cost-effectiveness and infrastructure reliability under economic and technical dimensions. Prioritizing environmental factors improved EV scores, but infrastructure and financial constraints continue to limit their uptake. Evaluation robustness was enhanced by the AHP-TOPSIS approach. As institutional capacity and infrastructure advance, NGV seems to be a promising transition technology that will allow for a gradual switch to EVs. This research presents an approach adapted to contexts with limited experience in low-emission technologies, contributing to the sustainable modernization of individual public transport.