MOBISERVICE - Mobility Management Service Centres
Overview
Background & policy context:
Several Mobility and/or Traffic Management/Service Centres (collectively referred to here as MobiService Centres or MSCs) have been established in Europe in recent years, mainly as part of the large scale demonstration projects supported by the transport telematics sector of the EU's Framework 4 RTD Programme or through national initiatives.
They aim to collect information about conditions on transport networks, and to provide traffic and travel advice. However, the centres provide a wide range of different services and vary considerably from one to another. Some offer only local information, while others provide regional or even long-distance travel information. Some are information points in a city and expect enquiries from visitors. Others are connected with a traffic or public transport control facility and disseminate information via telephone, kiosks or the Internet. Some effectively collate the information from various databases, while others use a central database. Some provide multi- and/or inter-modal transport information, while others offer only mono-modal traffic information.
The project involves partners who are amongst the leaders in the development and provision of MobiService Centres in Europe.
Objectives:
The main objectives of the proposed MobiService Centres project were to analyse the multi-modal systems and services provided by the leading Mobility Management and Service Centres in Europe and to identify requirements for improving the services provided by them in order to achieve a standardisation at a high level. The results would show which facilities, systems and services, and which technologies, applications and methods, should be adopted to provide such a high level standardisation and what are the implications for organisation, skills, benefits and costs.
The second main aim was to investigate the ease and requirements for transferability of systems and services and to develop guidelines and recommendations for their transfer.
A third aim was to investigate the multimodal systems and services provided by the leading MSCs in Europe in order to identify best practices and promote the take up and deployment of MobiServices by European cities and regions (e.g. Stuttgart, Munich, Cologne, Berlin, Paris) by involving them in the project activities through a network of 'followers' with common interests.
Finally, an investigation of the transferability of these systems and services would then enable guidelines and recommendations to be produced for the transfer of best practice between centres, as well as for establishing new MSCs with a comprehensive range of services. This task would also show the way for other European cities and regions to develop and benefit from these best practices.
Methodology:
As mentioned above, the main aim of the MobiService Centres project was to investigate the multi-modal systems and services provided by the leading MSC's in Europe and to identify best practice. The project partners cities were Birmingham, Bristol, Frankfurt, Hannover, Toulouse, Bologna and the region of Hampshire. These cities and the region have the experience and are at the forefront in the development and provision of MobiService Centres in Europe.
Together with a user group of followers, they investigated the systems and services provided by the leading MSCs in Europe in order to identify best practice. The investigation was carried out by means of surveys, questionnaires and a workshop to learn the range and the details of mobility services available from the partners and other interested agencies.
The results would show which facilities, systems and services, and which technologies, applications and methods, should be adopted to provide better services, as well as the organisational implications, and those for organisation, skills, benefits and costs. The project then investigated the ease and requirements for transferability.
A 'set' of essential MobiServices was defined and for each essential service, the partners that did not offer that service at that time looked in detail at how they could accept, and transfer the best practice example from another partner who did offer it. The results were presented in a draft report for presentation and discussion at a conference.
The final report took into account the results of the conference and included confirmation of the likely impacts on organisation, skills, benefits and costs. The project activities were supported throughout by a programme of information dissemination that included the preparation and publication of brochures and other materials, setting up an Internet site, as well as through workshops and a conference. The final report of the project was prepared to show the method and results of the work, the experiences gained and lessons learned.
Share this page