Mobility Alliance

Summary

With the establishment of a ‘Mobility Alliance’ in Aachen, local mobility providers for bus, trains, car sharing and pedelec sharing worked together in order to develop a mobility platform for the regional transport market and to offer multimodal and intermodal mobility options for citizens, built on interactive Mobility 2.0 applications. The aim is to provide a multimodal and intermodal routing information platform, as well as integrated booking for public transport tickets, and reservation and booking options for car sharing and pedelec sharing services.

Implementing sustainable mobility

The Mobility Alliance in Aachen tackles the main challenges of urban mobility, e.g. reducing environmental pollution (local and global pollutants) and noise emissions, improving road safety, revitalising urban space, discouraging the use of private vehicles, and encouraging smart information and communication services for improving alternative mobility services and harmonizing them.

The Mobility Alliance brings together different players of the mobility market in a regional mobility network, concentrating know-how and opening up synergies in the field. The Mobility Alliance represents an uniform information and distribution platform that enables citizens to arrange their individual mobility needs in a fast, comfortable and competitive way.

The main objectives of the Mobility Alliance measures were to:

• The Strengthen cooperation of urban and regional mobility service providers in order to jointly develop comprehensive, easy to use, affordable and attractive alternative transport services for customers.The elaboration of a “Mobility Alliance” concept including a role and business model and new tariffs as the basis of a future financially secured alliance of all mobility providers in Aachen in the long-term
• The creation of a uniform, multimodal/intermodal –wherever possible cross-border – internet-based information platform for all mobility service providers in an urban area. Users must be able to access, for example, public transport timetables (real-time) (see also measure A3.2 Travel Assistance – individualised notification system) and fares, fault reports in the motorized personal and public transport network, availabilities for car-sharing and bike-sharing, etc.
• Integration of new services for the client (suggestions, questions and complaints)

• Break down existing barriers for customers: no complicated fares, , easily understandable settlement of mobility costs, easily accessible and clear mobility information, etcHow did the measure progress?

Progress

All mobility service providers in the Aachen region have (various) electronic information and distribution channels as well as diverse access media (paper tickets from ticket machines or printed at home, validation of mobile tickets via smart phones, chip cards, etc.). In addition, a lack of coordination can be observed, as information and distribution systems run largely independently from each other.

The city and county of Aachen aim to cooperate more closely on mobility services. This has led to the establishments of networks to increase communication and to initiate common activities. In particular, activities such as ‘FahrRad in Aachen’ (biking in Aachen), the ‘European Mobility Week’ or ‘pedelec-testing weeks’ have been designed to encourage alternative mobility solutions. The goal of establishing a Mobility Alliance is highly supported by the local authorities.

Planning & preparation

• A market analysis was conducted, including both an examination of currently existing multimodal offers as well as a determination of target groups and market potentials.
• On this basis, a detailed Mobility Alliance concept was elaborated, including various organisational, financial, technical and legal issues, describing the procedures how to gradually implement a Mobility Alliance in the Aachen region and the cross-border region of the Euregio ‘Meuse-Rhine’.

 Implementation & demonstration

• Implementation of an ‘intermodal routing system’ into a newly designed mobility information platform (webpage also suitable for mobile applications)
• Integration of booking and reservation functions
• Simplifying customer access to the mobility products to break down entry barriers
• Provision of a chip card as one interoperable access medium for car sharing and pedelec sharing
• One registration form for the users, the data recorded is adopted by an automated procedure in the corresponding car sharing and pedelec sharing contracts.
• Development of novel mobility products through cooperation with several mobility service providers and local authorities as well as public transport operators (e.g. discounts on  car sharing and bike sharing use, discount on and a daily price cap on mobile single-ride tickets for public transport in the AVV)).
• 100 test users tested the Mobility Alliance during a three months pilot period from April to July 2016.

Outcomes

Tangible outputs:

• An expert report providing: First, an overview of multimodal mobility offers in Germany and particularly in Aachen. Second, a detailed market analysis, including information on mobility behaviour in the Aachen region. Third, a determination of customer target groups, considering the specific requirements of future mobility.
• The expert report also includes a detailed concept for a Mobility Alliance, examining various organisational, financial, technical and legal issues. Moreover, this concept provides proposals for the implementation of a Mobility Alliance in the Aachen region. This has led to the development of a business model, including a short-term, practicable solution for the pilot phase and long-term concept that goes beyond the DYN@MO project.
• The newly designed mobility platform contains (real-time) routing information on public transport in the AVV, cambio car sharing, Velocity pedelec sharing, car, bicycle, on foot, park and ride, bike and ride
• A chip card as one interoperable access medium for car sharing and pedelec sharing

 Expected outcomes in the short to medium-term:

• Integration of booking and reservation functions for car sharing and pedelec sharing into the intermodal routing information system
• Electronic fare management for public transport in the AVV, so that an associated customer medium (e.g. chip card or mobile phone) can be provided for public transport as well.
• A distribution and reservation system for intermodal travel
• Easy customer access to the mobility products by breaking down entry barriers.

 Expected outcomes in the mid- to long-term:

• Reduced CO2 and other pollutant emissions.
• Reduced noise emissions.
• Cross-border harmonisation of mobility information and products.
• New (local) business opportunities in the area of alternative means of transport.
• Establishment of a young, dynamic and modern image for public transport.
• Higher degree of public acceptance for alternative mobility services and higher customer satisfaction.
• Increased use of public transport and other alternative mobility services, decreasing individual car use and car-ownership rates.

- See more at: http://www.civitas.eu/content/mobility-alliance#sthash.WdvZALah.dpuf