UNDERSTANDING SUM
By 2050, the urban population is expected to account for 82% of the world’s population, posing major challenges for sustainable urban mobility. A shift from private cars to public and shared transport is essential to address problems such as air pollution, congestion and energy consumption. The EU co-funded Seamless Shared Urban Mobility (SUM) project aims to transform existing transport networks by introducing New and Shared Mobility (NSM) integrated with public transport (PT).
The objective of the SUM project is to facilitate the transformation of mobility in 15 European cities by 2026 and in 30 European cities by 2030. This transformation involves the integration of new shared mobility modes with public transport, focusing on innovation, interconnectivity, environmental sustainability, safety, resilience and replicability.
KEY ACTIVITIES
As part of the SUM PROJECT, Krakow, located in southern Poland, plans to expand the Krakow Public Transport (KMK) system and introduce a new on-demand transport service. The aim of the project is to create a complete system that will provide its users with a short waiting time for the service and fast transport to the nearest interchange. The service will not be based on fixed routes or timetables, but will adapt to current demand. The Municipality of Krakow, in cooperation with the Jagiellonian University (JU), carried out analyses for the implementation of the DRT service in Krakow.
As this service has not yet been implemented, the actual demand for the proposed service is unknown, and therefore the travel behaviour and perception of the users is unknown. To solve this problem, JU proposes a parameter-free method to identify the optimal urban area for the implementation of shared mobility services. Its comparative assessment takes into account factors influencing user choice, including the likelihood of choosing the new mode, the potential reduction of waiting times, the competitiveness of the new system with public transport and its overall added value. JU uses municipal socio-demographic data, travel patterns and the road network in Krakow to predict the demand for alternative services and applies the utility-based approach to estimate mode choice.
The analysis consists of two steps.
- In the first stage, JU analyses the New and Shared Mobility (NSM) from the origin of the traveller to the public transport hub. It considers 12 areas of Krakow with selected hubs (one or more different for each area), resulting in 24 different combinations of regions and hubs. The task is to select the best hub for each area and to compare the areas in terms of NSM.
- The second stage of the analysis considers the integration of NSM with public transport (PT). Based on municipal data, JU compared two areas in Kraków (Bronowice and Skotniki) in terms of their potential for introducing on-demand feeder bus connections with light rail. Despite similar general characteristics (population density, road network, proximity to the city centre, etc.), our methodology revealed significant differences. The biggest advantage is shown by the competitiveness parameter, which is twice as high for Skotniki as for Bronowice. In addition, the probability of choosing the service is almost 5% higher for the Skotniki area. The remaining parameters, although not significantly different, also favour Skotniki over Bronowice.
The Krakow Public Transport Authority (the contracting authority) has finally decided to launch the new transport system in the Skotniki area. The choice of the area was made on the basis of analyses based on spatial data, demography, traffic studies, technical aspects, etc., and with the support of specialists from the Jagiellonian University. We wanted to select a peripheral area of Krakow, where scattered buildings and often narrow streets make it impossible to provide a sufficient (acceptable) level of service to residents with regular KMK lines.
The task of the public transport company is to create a special application to connect passengers with the drivers and to order two vehicles for passenger transport. The service will also be integrated into the KMK fare system to facilitate transfers to other modes of transport such as buses and trams. This integration will also be reflected in the branding of the service, so that it is associated with the City of Krakow, Krakow Public Transport and other municipal sustainable mobility services such as LajkBike, and will be called LajkBus.
To date, the formal and technical aspects of implementing the application have been prepared, closed tests of the application have been carried out, the technical specification has been prepared, and the vehicle rental contract has been launched.
The on-demand transport system will be piloted in Krakow for a period of 18 months. The service will be co-designed with its users and, depending on the results of the pilot, the offer may be adjusted or extended (in terms of area or functionality).
“We decided to pilot an on-demand transport service because we want to meet the expectations of residents who would like to use public transport on a daily basis, but because of the distance to reliable public transport, for example, they choose the car as their primary means of transport. A lot of effort has gone into designing the service to provide a solution that is well thought out and best serves residents from day one. From the first day of implementation, we will track user feedback and measure the effectiveness of the service in order to best adapt its operation to meet residents’ expectations. This is why collaboration between the city, the university and technology partners is crucial at every stage, right from the start.”, Łukasz Gryga Director of the Traffic Management Centre in Public Transport Authority in Krakow.
