With the contribution of the LIFE programme of the European Union - LIFE14 ENV/GR/000611 and the co-financing of Green Fund, Greece
PROJECT
GOOD PRACTICES
Best practice analysis of existing journey planners – CityVerve project
CityVerve is a £10m investment from The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), UK to demonstrate the Internet of Things in Manchester City Region. The CityVerve Project aims to test better services using the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The collaborative research and development project will draw on expertise from the School of Architecture (Faculty of Art and Design) and the Schools of Computing and Engineering (Faculty of Science and Engineering) of Manchester to demonstrate the Internet of Things in Manchester City Region.
CityVerve analysis rank as the top 5 apps on journey planning Google Maps, TripGo, Here WeGo, Citymapper and My TfGM. This analysis is based on the following two criteria: 1) Modes of transportation supported and 2) Identified features supported. A second analysis based on 1) Effectiveness, 2) Efficiency and 3) Satisfaction is given. Based on these criteria the top 5 apps are TripGo, Citymapper, Traveline GB, Transit and London Journey Planner. Finally, existing journey planners have been analysed based on 1) Estimated installs per day and 2) Weighted user rating by number of reviews. Based on these criteria the top 5 apps are Google Maps, MAPS.ME, Here WeGo, Citymapper and Offi.
EU Transport Scoreboard 2016
The European Commission has published the 2016 edition of the "EU Transport Scoreboard", a benchmark which compares how Member States perform in 30 categories covering all aspects of transport. The objective of the Scoreboard is to help Member States identify areas requiring priority investment and action. The Netherlands tops the Scoreboard for the third year running with high scores in 15 categories, followed by Sweden, Germany and Austria. While they have different strengths, they all share a solid framework for investment, good transport safety scores, and a good record of implementing EU law. The main findings were:
1. Low emission mobility: There is progress across the EU towards more sustainable and environmentally friendly mobility, however, levels are still low.
2. Infrastructure: Some positive effects of investment can be seen in the perceived quality of transport infrastructure.
3. People: Consumer satisfaction with all modes of transport (urban, rail, air) has increased across Europe. This suggests that people's needs are understood and that the right investment decisions are being taken.
OASA Telematics – Information about public transport in real time
Real time information about public transport is important in urban areas where thousands of citizens travel by means of transport and especially when the congestion on roads can affect their transportations and consequently every planned activity. Therefore, taking into account this urgent need of accurate and direct information of passengers about means of transport, OASA developed the OASA Telematics application, which provides real time information about the city buses of Attica prefecture. One may download the mobile application using the following link.
Rejseplanen: A journey planner
Rejseplanen and the Danish road directorate have developed in Denmark, a co-modal journey planner which covers public transport, cars and park & ride options, for the whole country. The suggested by the planner routes are compared on travel time, costs as well as environmental impact. The main objective of Rejseplanen and the Danish road directorate is to improve the overall mobility by shifting journeys from private car to public transport or bikes, and to increase the number of car-pooling journeys. The core of the system includes mainly the product HAFAS of Hacon, Germany which is specialised in travel planning solutions. The journey planner is available in Danish, German and English and deals with between 5.5 and 6 million journey planning queries each month. One may download the mobile application using the following link.
Denmark first park and bike terminal in Aarus
The city of Aarhus, Denmark has created a new policy in order to increase co-modality and motivate citizens to move green in a daily base. The concept of bike parking terminal is introduced in Aarhus and located by Egå Engsø in Lystrup where a space for about 100 bikes and 60 parked cars was created. Most of the citizen working in Aarhus which is the second-largest city in Denmark with over 300 000 inhabitants, have a long drive in a daily base before they arrive in their office. The newly introduced concept of bike parking terminal referred to as 'Park and Bike Terminal', supports the use of bikes for the last part of the drive which is mainly in the urban zone of Aarhus. 'Park and Bike Terminal' supports the co-modal trips including biking. 'Park and Bike Terminal' was established in connection with a whole cycle routes of Aarhus city. Responsible for the implementation of the 'Park and Bike Terminal' was the Municipality of Aarhus. The 'Park and Bike Terminal' was ready on December 2011 and its total cost was 250.000 Euro. The main idea of 'Park and Bike Terminal' was to give the opportunity to the citizen to park their car outside the city center and ride their bike for the last part of their daily trip to work. 'Park and Bike Terminal' service is available for 50 Euro per year and includes a bike and car parking space as well as an outdoor fitness area and a bicycle playing area for children. The service was promoted to companies located in the center of Aarhus which could not provide parking space to all their employees. The project has received a lot of national media coverage as well as good feedback form its users. The last years the number of users is increased and new Park and Bike Terminals within around the city center are planned to build up.
Creating a modern intermodal transport hub in Ghent
Ghent-Sint-Pieters is an over 100-year-old train station with daily visitors more than 50.000. The station is located at the city of Ghent, Flanders Belgium which has approximately 250 000 inhabitants. The station holds a strategic place as is situated at the crossroads of the line connecting Lille, France to Antwerp, Belgium and the line connecting Belgian coast to Brussels. In the frame of Ghent-Sint-Pieters project, the train station was remodeled into a modern co-modal transportation node where travelers could transfer to train, bus, tram and bicycle. The remodeled station include an indoor parking for 10.000 bicycles and an underground parking for cars. Tram and bus station are integrated in order to facilitate co-modal transport. An increasing number of people taking the train daily at Ghent-Sint-Pieters (i.e. in 2007 35.000 people and in 2014 50.000 people) and arriving by bike at the train station (i.e. in 2007 3.500 people and in 2014 7.500 people) was observed. In total six partners are involved in Ghent-Sint-Pieters project: the supervisor of the project Eurostation, two railways companies i.e NMBS and Infrabel, a public transport operator i.e. De Lijn and two public authorities i.e. the city of Ghent and the Flemish government. The total cost of the project is around 500M Euro. The project started on 2007 and will continue until 2024. The results up today are a) the increased capacity of the train station keep the same number of train tracks, b) significant reduction of the number of switches, c) higher speed of trains when entering or leaving the station, and d) a first part of the covered bicycle parking providing free parking for almost 2.400 bikes. Visitors, commuters and residents have been very positive regarding the new developments and they have approved the changes at the station as well as are willing to invest time and ideas into the further development of the site.
Public transport smart cards - London's Oyster travel smartcard
A smart card (i.e. an integrated circuit card - ICC), is any pocket-sized card that contains an embedded integrated circuit chip which is capable of storing information for identification, authentication, data storage and application processing. Most modern smart cards used by public transport authorities, are contactless and use the RFID (radio frequency identification) technology between card and reader devices. Smart card solutions have the form of electronic fare ticketing and promise to provide efficient travel options for public transport users as they allow rapid movement through stations and onto different modes of travel. Smart cards have higher security, reliability, and resistance to fraud than magnetic stripe cards because of the more advanced technology used. Examples of widely used contactless smart cards in Europe are London's Oyster card, Paris' Calypso/Navigo, the Dutch OV-Chipkaart and Lisbon's Lisboa Viva card. Oyster card smart cards contributes to an increase in revenue of transport operators by increasing the number of passengers and reductions in ticket fraud. By promoting modal shift away from private cars, the smart cards also contribute towards co-modality. Another benefit of Oyster smart cards is the data automatically collected. These data provide a rich source of information about the use of public transport, travel time and distance, trip frequency, ticket type and mode share and are used as a basis for analysis of travel behavior. The costs of the smart card solution mainly include infrastructure & management, revenue protection, product sales, customer information & service, and smartcard production & distribution. In case of London Oyster card system, these costs count for about 14% of fares collected. Since its first day (i.e. 30 June 2003), around 60 million cards have been issued and over 85 per cent of all rail and bus travel in London is paid for using Oyster. The high usage, network coverage and customer satisfaction of the Oyster card serves as a role model for other big cities.
Transports-idf.com: A journey planner
Transports-idf.com initially created by an association of the public transport operators and currently managed by the public transport authority STIF, provides multimodal information for the region of Ile-de-France where the 20% of French population is located. Transports-idf.com provides a range of services, such as map and timetables, ticketing and traffic information. This journey planner gives information on public transport covering bus, tramway, subway, suburban train, regional train and river boats network. The transport-idf system launched in 2000 has been developed to be in accordance with existing French standards. The project is promoter for the use of standardized exchanges and is aware of recent work on European standardisation. Transport-idf journey planner is provided in 3 languages (French, English, and Spanish). One may download the mobile application using the following link.
Qando mobile app
Traveler information systems such as a journey planner are electronic systems running on a mobile phone which offer assistance to travelers at all times and places, being co-modal and covering various modes of public transport as well as walking and biking. Journey planners give access to internet-based information services such as real-time information on public transport and road network conditions as well as maps, timetables and traffic events (e.g. accident). Additionally, some journey planners enable users to access booking and reservation facilities or to obtain the latest tourist and destination information. Many point-to-point traveler information systems on mobile devices already exist in Europe, such as “Scotty Mobil” (Austria), “Qando” (Austria) and “DB Navigator” (Germany). The users for these services are public transport operators who implement them to provide information to, and attract, potential users. The end users of point-to-point traveler information systems are public transport users, cyclists, pedestrians and co-modal transport users. Since 2009, Qando app is available to users that would like to find the best route to move from one point to another. Qando is one of the most successful apps for public transport and has won several awards. Since the last update, the mobile includes additional features. The most commonly used features of the app are the route plan and the departure monitor, which can be displayed as a widget on the iPhone or the Apple Watch since the last app update. In the widget set stops favorites or departure times of public transport nearby at a glance can be seen. In addition, the departure monitor the removal of nearby stops announcements and direction data are output as times (e.g. "stop Neubaugasse at 6 clock in 109 meters"). One may download the mobile application using the following link.
The TRAINO – TAXI case in Hellenic Region
TRAINOTAXI is about a service introduced by the Greek Railway Operator (TRAINOSE) in cooperation with TAXIS associations offering the possibility of a combined trip with train and taxi, under a single ticket, in Athens, Thessaloniki, Volos, Xanthi, Larissa, Katerini, Edessa, and their respective suburbs, giving TRAINOSE passengers the affordability of a taxi transfer to and from the railway station. The taxi is waiting for the passengers in a specifically designed parking area at the Railway Stations of the six pre-mentioned cities at their arrival, to transport them to their destination or passengers having been collected by a taxi at their starting point, disembark in the same area in the respective stations.
In order to test the TRAINO-TAXI service in real conditions TRAINOSE applied the system in the city of Thessaloniki where the train-taxi service offered to TRAINOSE customers for their trip demands from (to) central rail station to (from) city. The city of Thessaloniki is divided to 17 zones and for each zone there is a fixed price where taxis operate in the old “fashion” way. The use of TRAINO-TAXI in Thessaloniki city had significant results such as the reduction of 525kgs per day of CO2 due to combined trips.
The ECOMPASS project
The eCOMPASS project (eCO-friendly urban Multi-modal route PlAnning Services for Mobile uSers) aims at the reduction of the environmental footprint of people and goods mobility in urban areas. In this frame, eCOMPASS investigates people mobility through private vehicles or public transport and goods mobility through fleets of vehicles. Its objective is the optimization of private vehicles navigation, vehicle fleet route planning and multi modal public transport planning.
A Guide for Planning and Operating Flexible Public Transportation Services
A guide for planning and operating flexible transportation services was established in 2010. The idea of flexible transportation is appealing and a viable solution for a number of agencies and public transport service providers. Twenty six agencies were initially identified in the research, followed by ten agencies, nine of which were public and one private nonprofit that actually were involved in the process. A number of data and information was gathered, e.g., name, area characteristics, transit information, policy objectives, marketing policies, etc. The idea of flexible transportation involved the following features:
• Route deviation, meaning altering the vehicle route to offer higher quality services for passengers that are unable to follow the regular route;
• Zone routes, involving route services limited to a specific area and occasionally limited to particular time of day, or day of the week, etc.;
• Requested stops, concerning the capability of passengers to claim a ride passing from a specific position.
The benefits of the flexible transportation are many, including enlarged service area, decreased costs and expenses, awareness of the passengers’ requirements, balanced routing efficiency, real-time services and enhanced transportation services, such as low demand times, flexibility, etc.
Electric busses in Vienna
Vienna, the capital of Austria shifts to electric busses in order to test new systems to create a greener and quieter urban environment. In order to do that, Vienna took advantage of already existing tram lines; the existing infrastructure was used so that electric buses recharge their batteries. In total, 12 busses were put in service, with a capacity of 40 passengers each. By shifting to electric busses, Vienna is expected to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 300 tons per year.
cities.multimodal project
Cities multimodal is a European project funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme 2014-2020. Through different activities and measures, 10 partner cities want to make it easier and smoother for their citizens to combine walking, cycling, the use of public transport as well as shared mobility ( bikes, cars, e-cars and bikes) as a more sustainable alternative to individual private car use. The consortium of cities, NGO´s, universities and expert partners are applying a low threshold approach for sustainable urban mobility, attractive and easy to adopt for follower cities. Within the project, the partner cities define a pilot area, in which they implement different activities and measures on multimodality and mobility management.
The project will result in a variety of outcomes - publications, guidelines, handbooks and other materials.
OPTIMIX – The Mobility Facilitator in Strasbourg
OPTIMIX is a free global service offering initiatives for companies, associations and administrations (private and public) in Strasbourg to help implement a mobility plan. It relies on a web platform, consisting of multiple tools, which allows for the analysis and support of partners’ mobility.
It aims to analyse and provide advice regarding home-work mobility, with an emphasis on a change of habits about travel around Strasbourg via alternative modes to the private car.
Bus priority system in Malmö/Sweden
The measure objectives were to introduce bus priority systems at 42 traffic lights in Malmö, Sweden . But also to improve the attractiveness of public transport in Malmö by increasing the intervals from 10 minutes to 7,5 minutes intervals without increasing the amount of buses.
After estimating the measures results, driving times were generally shorter with bus priority turned on at the measured intersections. The average bus speed during day time increased from 15.4 to 16.1 km/h in the direction towards city centre and from 15.9 to 16.5 in the direction from city centre. The best result was reached in the afternoon peak where the average bus speed increased from 14.1 to 15.5 km/h, an improvement by nearly 10 %. There was also a positive effect on keeping the time table where the accuracy rate increased from 25 to 29 % in direction from city centre and from 23 to 25 % towards the city centre. The bus priority system also had a positive effect on the car traffic decreasing the delays at the traffic lights by some 14 %.