Funded by:
Motivation
Mobility in rural areas (such as in Carinthia) is strongly dominated by motorized private transport. In contrast to urban areas, public transport in rural areas currently offers no real alternative to private cars in terms of service quality and price.
On the other hand, motorized private transport is one of the drivers of CO2 emissions. According to goals on EU-, national-, and regional level, we are encouraged to take measures to reduce CO2 emissions. An important lever for CO2 reduction is the transformation of the mobility systems. The Carinthian Mobility Strategy (MoMaK2035) suggests according fields of action. In particular, it is proposed to implement so-called micro-public transport systems or microtransit systems to reduce motorized private transport. Microtransit systems are smaller vehicles, (mini) buses, etc. that are currently operated by (private) associations or local mobility providers in areas with poor public transport connections. Such solutions for first-/last mile transport have the potential to flexibly connect rural areas to the existing public transport system (train, bus). Pilot projects for the introduction of such systems are currently being carried out. However, they are mostly regional stand-alone solutions that focus on specific user groups (e.g. pupils and students, retirees, etc.). In addition, they are often not coordinated among each other and with other modalities of mobility (e.g. train, bus).
MobiCar goals and results
This is exactly where MobiCar comes into play. For a high quality of service with the lowest possible CO2 emissions of the entire multimodal mobility system, a cross-modal coordination of the transport system is required. We want to develop suitable coordination methods based on proven methods of combinatorial optimization (route optimization) and swarm intelligence, which can be used flexibly and largely independent of particular physical realizations of the microtransit systems. We also consider user acceptance and the financial viability of such a system. The MobiCar methodology will also be open to trends such as autonomous vehicles, car sharing, managed mobility (fleets of mobility service providers), e-mobility with energy from renewable energy sources, etc. The integration of such technologies will further reduce CO2 emissions.
The results will be:
- validated methods for coordinating multimodal mobility systems
- recommendations for the design of multimodal mobility concepts and for business and financing models
- a concept for improving the current mobility system in Carinthia – especially in the area of the integration of rural regions (microtransit)
Project partners
The project partners combine the competencies necessary to successfully complete the project. The Partners are the University of Klagenfurt with two institutes and departments: The Institute for Mathematics (combinatorial optimization) and the Department for Sustainable Energy Management (user acceptance, business models). Lakeside Labs will contribute methods of self-organization and swarm intelligence and will be responsible for the simulation framework.
The project is funded by the Carinthian Economic Promotion Fund (KWF) with co-funding by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under grant no. KWF 20214/31942/45906.
Further information on IWB/EFRE can be found under www.efre.gv.at