Overview
Even though private car use still prevails, the number of people using public transport is increasing. People expect intelligent and affordable mobility, like seamless and accessible collective transport as well as safe infrastructure for walking, cycling and private vehicle use. They also expect more flexible and greener mobility solutions. Most EU citizens believe that the traffic situation in their home area should be improved.
The USEMOBILITY project applies a novel approach that directly identifies the reasons for behavioural change in the mobility of European citizens and forecasts future potential. This approach is based on the behavioural change, which has already taken place.
A survey will be conducted in ten selected regions in five European countries to find out the real reasons for mobility changes. Citizens will be interviewed who have: actually switched from mono-modal car travel to multimodal transportation chains (incl. public transportation) or who have increased their share of multimodal transportation. It will also include citizens who, on the contrary, have had their experience with multimodal transportation, but now rely more on monomodal transportation.
The project aims to:
- identify the reasons for behavioural change towards eco-friendly multi-modal mobility and forecast future potential;
- help make transport in Europe more energy efficient and more environmentally friendly; and
- encourage greener European transport policies.
Factors which have an impact on the choice of transport mode will be analysed. 'Hard factors' (like structural, technological and communication factors) and also 'soft factors' (like socialisation, amenity values of transport and environmental awareness) will be highlighted.
The area of investigation is local and regional transport used by most citizens for their daily travel. This offers a range of possibilities for multi-modal transport and changing of transport modes. If multi-modal transport chains are used, rail should build the backbone of the transport system, while buses, cars and bikes work as feeders to the rail system.
Based on the results of the analysis a measure-mix with the best cost-benefit ratio will be suggested for the medium term and long term to better adapt the transport services being offered and the framework conditions to the customers' needs.
USEMOBILITY will elaborate future scenarios for eco-friendly multi-modal mobility and discuss them with decision makers in politics and transportation companies and also with civil societyorganisations, representing European citizens and passengers. Finally, strategic recommendations for future eco-friendly multi-modal mobility will be elaborated for national target groups and also for the European Commission. The findings will be intensely disseminated by the civil society organisations.
Funding
Results
The USEmobility project investigated on the behavioural patterns of passengers when choosing their means of transport. The project concluded that these patterns are much more dynamic than originally expected, as well as much more multimodal and pragmatic; 70% of 'swing' users (users who switched in the last five years from the car to public transport or vice versa) already use multimodal combinations, or decide flexibly as the case arises which mode of transport suits their purpose. In addition, on average more than a quarter of swing users’ take a pragmatic point of view when choosing their mode of transport.
It is clear that the dynamism in people's modal choices, the ongoing change in users' attitudes towards mobility, as well as the influence of changes in people's personal situation have obviously been underestimated. The USEmobility project studied the influential factors and divided them into three categories:
- User-related factors
- Offer-related factors (transport alternatives)
- Transport policy related factors
The project concluded to a series of recommendations for decision makers in politics, the European Commission, the transport service providers and the civil society associations.
Main recommendations to policy makers in politics
Satisfying 'hard factors':
- Transport policy should improve reachability by public transport (investments in infrastructure improvements and enhanced multimodality (stations / stops, bike and ride, park and ride, etc.);
- Transport policy should work on increasing the capacity of public transport (preparing for future growth);
- Public transport authorities should support and (co-) fund extended times of operation and integrated synchronised timetables;
- Public transport authorities should support competitive travel costs of public transport and common tickets for all public transport services (end-to-end tickets).
- Satisfying 'soft factors':
- Public transport authorities should integrate requirements for satisfying 'soft factors' (travel comfort, cleanliness, staff etc.) into the public service contracts and monitor these criteria during the contract period.
Main recommendations to the European Commission
- Define clear targets for a higher market share of public transport and supporting member states in developing coherent strategies;
- Give priority to public transport and multimodality in EU po
Strategy targets
Innovating for the future: integrated urban mobility