Integrated mobility plan for the Technical University

Summary

A pioneering aspect of this measure was the creation of the post of mobility consultant at the university, to provide employees and students with advice and information about sustainable modes of transportation.

Implementing sustainable mobility

The Technical University of Krakow was affected by the increasing number of cars in the city, with more and more employees and students using private cars to travel across the city between campus sites due to the lack of convenient and safe alternative modes of transportation. With the construction of the university’s new library, parking places were likely to be reduced even further. This prompted the university to request the Institute of Road and Railway Engineering to help identify an effective solution. As a result, the idea of an integrated mobility plan for the university emerged, focusing on the promotion of public transportation, cycling, walking and car pooling.

Progress

Firstly, the existing transport situation at the university was analysed via surveys of employees’ and students’ travel behaviour and preferences. The results, from 2,000 questionnaires, helped in the formulation of the main activities, which included:

• the creation of a new information website (www.info-komunikacja.one.pl) featuring data on public transport modes, cycling and the car-pooling scheme at the university;
• the creation of the post of mobility consultant to provide employees and students with travel advice and information;
• the development of a new cycling policy, including the promotion of cycling and the installation of 23 new bike racks (about 120 parking places) on the university campuses;
• the development of a new car-parking policy to reduce parking demand by increasing the cost of parking in the vicinity of the university in order to encourage public transport use rather than private car use;
• the preparation of a concept for bike paths between university campuses, in connection with traffic reorganisation on several streets and improvements in cycling safety;
• improvements in accessibility to the university campuses using public transport, involving changes to the nearby bus services and the introduction of a new tram line between the two main university campus sites;
• the organisation of a series of seminars and workshops for employees and students on sustainable mobility; and
• marketing campaigns to promote sustainable transport modes (brochures, leaflets, info-events).

Outcomes

The Technical University of Krakow is the first institution in Poland to implement a mobility plan and create the post of mobility consultant. As a result of the mobility plan:

• the proportion of trips in single-occupancy cars to the university campuses decreased, among employees from 45 percent to 41 percent; and among extramural students from 50 percent to 30 percent, due to the car-pooling scheme;
• the proportion of car-pooling trips increased, among employees from 1 percent to 5 percent; among full-time students from 0 percent to 7 percent; and among extramural students from 1 percent to 17 percent;
• parking demand in the university area decreased due to the car-pooling scheme;
• the share of bike use doubled among employees travelling to the university; and
• over 1,300 people had visited the Internet database www.info-komunikacja.one.pl by the end of November 2008, and the number of users is rising.

Alongside the success of the car-pooling scheme, there was a simultaneous reduction in the percentage of public transport travel to the university campuses, which can be explained by a rise in car ownership and the existence of an informal free car park near one of the university campuses.