The European Union wants to create 100 climate neutral and innovative cities by 2030. The U!REKA partnership (Urban Research and Education Knowledge Alliance), of which HOGENT is a partner, is responding to that European objective with its application for an Erasmus+ 'European Universities Initiative'. But the U!reka partners already now develop several research and education project in that are closely related to this European goal. The HOGENT project Bus on the Move is one of them.
Sustainable and smart cities imply efficient, safe and sustainable transport policies. The 'Bus on the move' research project of HOGENT is responding to this. It starts from the principle of Mobility-As-A-Service (MaaS). This is a new mobility concept where travelers no longer own their own car or other means of transport, but have access to a varied mobility package anywhere and on demand, offered by the interface of a single mobility director.
The interface is built on the basis of a multimodal route planner that shows the possibilities of reaching your destination using different means of transport. Then, according to the chosen route, the user can book a means of transport and buy tickets on that same platform.
For Flemish coach companies, making the leap to a MaaS application turned out to be far from obvious, despite their great strengths in terms of collective transport. This project offered bus companies some tools to step into a MaaS story by integrating existing or new transport services within such a platform.
Based on desk research, three field tests and stakeholder meetings at home and abroad, the team of Bus on the Move developed its own vision and approach to deal with the current mobility revolution and apply them to coach operations.
More info? Contact tom.storme@hogent.be