Sustainable Mobility Index for assessing the location-related mobility potential

NaMIX

Comprehensively determining the potential of sustainable mobility

NaMIx is a programme for calculating an index that assesses the potential for sustainable mobility at a location. Such an assessment is particularly relevant for stakeholders from the mobility and property sectors, as it provides a sound basis for decisions on necessary infrastructure and measures. To this end, NaMIx bundles various mobility-relevant aspects and maps them in a joint index. In this way, the model supports a sustainable orientation of mobility as well as the avoidance, shifting and more efficient handling of traffic.

How it works

The calculated index integrates existing data and indices and maps different spatial levels. This distinguishes NaMIx from existing mobility indices, which do not take a (spatial) overarching view of several data sources.

Instead, NaMIx calculates 10 indicators for each building within the area under consideration, which measure various aspects of sustainable mobility:

  • Walkability: number of crossings in the footpath network per metre within a radius of 1 kilometre
  • Cyclability: proportion of cycle paths in the road network within a radius of 1 kilometre
  • Public transport services: Accessibility of the nearest slow public transport stop (bus, tram) in minutes and accessibility of the nearest fast public transport stop (underground) in minutes
  • Sharing offers: Number of available car-sharing vehicles within a radius of 1 kilometre and number of available rental bikes within a radius of 1 kilometre
  • Local supply: Number of supermarkets within 10 minutes walking distance
  • Health care: Number of health facilities within 10 minutes walking distance
  • Education: Travel time to the nearest primary school on foot and travel time to the nearest secondary school by bike

These indicators are summarised below to form the overall index.

Most of these indicators are calculated using data from the free world map OpenStreetMap (OSM). However, data on sharing services in particular must be obtained from third parties.

NaMIx can be run as a Jupyter notebook, which visualises the overall result as well as the individual steps.

NaMIx overview map
The Sustainable Mobility Index describes the potential for travelling in an environmentally friendly and resource-saving manner. The index assesses this potential for each address in the study area, illustrated in the image using the example of Munich. For this purpose, the researchers introduced a rating scale ranging from 10 (lowest) to 100 (highest).
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Use, download and installation

NaMIx is available as open source software under the Eclipse Licence 2.0 at https://github.com/DLR-VF/NaMIx
The DOI is 10.5281/zenodo.8328622

Related publications

Sustainable Mobility Index for the assessment of location-based mobility potential - NaMIx: Final report on the mFUND project.

Heldt, Benjamin; Pabst, Emil: Yosmaoglu, Serra; Oostendorp, Rebekka; Krajzewicz, Daniel; Nieland, Simon und Cyganski, Rita (2024).

New planning tool for neighbourhoods: the Sustainable Mobility Index.

Heldt, B., Yosmaoglu, S. (2023).

Related project

Sustainable Mobility Index

NaMIx

As a result of the collaboration between science and practice, NaMIx developed a procedure and an open-source tool for calculating an index that can be used to better measure the potential for sustainable mobility at a location and in a neighbourhood.

Contact us

Lukas Hamm

kommissarischer Abteilungsleiter
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)
Institut für Verkehrsforschung
Instituts- und Strategieplanung
Rudower Chaussee 7, 12489 Berlin