RESPONSE – Demand-Responsive Transport to ensure accessibility, availability and reliability of rural public transport

RESPONSE

PROGRAMME 2014-2020

priority

3 Transport

objective

3.2 Accessibility

RESPONSE

RESPONSE helped public transport authorities to develop demand-responsive transport solutions for rural areas.

Project summary

The mobility of vulnerable groups such as the disabled, elderly, minors, and the unemployed is limited especially in the sparsely populated areas in the Baltic Sea region. Regular local services do not meet users’ expectations and are not cost-effective. Public transport is regulated similarly throughout the Baltic Sea region. The public authorities responsible for organising public transport are usually slim organisations that plan and procure the operation of various transport services. The capacity of these public authorities and higher-level decision-making bodies to address central challenges and take advantage of the new trends is largely missing.

Need-oriented service design

RESPONSE helped to shift the approach from supply-oriented to demand-responsive transport solutions by developing according technical solutions. The project showcased how geodata can be used for decision-making by public authorities. It piloted seamless trips, digitalised business models, and need-oriented service design as an alternative to the fixed bus routes.

Budgets

RESPONSE
in numbers

2.48

Million

Total
1.34

Million

Erdf
0.00

Million

Eni + Russia
0.40

Million

Norway

Achievements

RESPONSE was formed to increase the capacity and usage of best practices in the public transport sector to take advantage of crucial societal trends – the open data revolution, digitalisation, and demand-orientation. Project piloting tested how publicly funded transport services can link to various actual needs, for instance, after-school activity services.

The project demonstrated how the existing geodata can be made available, visualised and used for evidence-based decision-making in public authorities, including a data warehouse model and a cost prognostication model. The models are technical tools that were developed to help public authorities responsible for planning and managing public transport, mostly on a local level. The tools were designed to better plan the public transport services and adapt to the needs of the citizens.

Besides, the technical tools empowered the policy makers to make choices about service options, community needs, and combined mobility. Several local government authorities have already taken the demand and cost prognostication model into use to test out initial plans for their demand responsive transport solutions and estimate the possible costs of running the services.

Outputs

Technical tools for the application and modelling of demand responsive transportation

The technical tools developed for public authorities include: - Open-source based data warehouse. The output can be used by organizations that use the highly popular General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) format for describing the routes in public transportation networks. - Demand and cost prognostication model and a handbook on forecasting the costs and travel demand associated with different demand responsive transport services. The developed model supports the scenario-based estimation of the accessibility, availability and quality of a range of demand-responsive services in a dedicated services area. The open and free-access model supports better service planning and make the demand-responsive public transport more efficient and cost-effective.

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Marketing toolbox

The marketing toolbox contains a marketing strategy, recommendations and other useful tools for the authorities to apply to create their own services. These tools are accessible on the RESPONSE website and enable the partners to prepare a communication strategy of new service as well as professional and purposive information campaign materials. The marketing strategy helps to present different services to specified customers and potential users. All the produced materials enable adaptation, translation and transfer to other partner and non-partner public authorities in the Baltic Sea region.

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