ummadum - an innovative toolfor reducing traffic in municipalities

Especially in rural regions it is not always easy to be mobile. Often, people are dependent on their own cars. For older people, who are not able to drive a car anymore, it can be very difficult to get to the doctor or the bakery in the town-center on their own.

During the period of lockdown caused by the COVID19 emergency, the provincial Public Transport Agency looked for innovative solutions to meet the new organisational and resident/worker needs. One mode of transport that worked perfectly was the one called °call the bus°, a Demand Responsive Transport service.The end of the lockdown and the slow resumption of travel made it possible to rethink this mode of transport not only for work but also for tourism.This new initiative has been strongly encouraged by the mayors of the Valli del SOL Municipalities, the Development Agency GAL Genovese, the Beigua Geopark and financed through the European project Alpine Space Smart Villages.

The Vercors Regional Natural Park in collaboration with two intermunicipalities (Royans-Vercors and the Vercors massif) has set up a hitchhiking system organized in 2018-2019. This system makes it possible to pool the use of individual vehicles by encouraging users to practice hitchhiking in a friendly and secure manner. A network of users, passengers or drivers is created, via a site allowing free registration, signage is installed at strategic points of the territory.

That group of citizens handles an on demand transportation system in the Royans territory (France).

Prontubus is a transport on-demand project with the aim of integrate the existing suburban public transport system in the Modena Province territory. Thanks to reservation system (by app and by call center) the aim is to offer a higher number of routes for the inhabitants of rural areas with the purpose of increasing the modal shift towards public transport.

The main objective is the reduction of traffic in low-density areas by offering alternative means of transport such as bikes. Indeed, traffic is mainly responsible of greenhouse gases emissions. The aim of the project is to establish an easy hiring network of bike rental in order to make public transport more attractive. An other goal is offer a range of bikes, available round the clock, to support multimodal mobility.

Can a low voltage power grid support one street if allhouseholds are using an electric car? A small villagein Lower Austria was selected to test the influenceof e-cars on the power grid. 18 households got 23e-cars for their daily use. A simple control technologymonitored the voltage in the grid and slowed downthe charging process if needed. Within the six weekstryout the voltage in the grid was never in a criticalstate and each morning all cars had a full battery. Theparticipants were enthusiastic and used the electriccars for 90 percent of their everyday trips, with a totalof 53.000 km in 6 weeks.In the future, the field test will be extended. In the villageObersiebenbrunn, it will be analysed how e-mobilitycan be realised in large scale residential buildings; witha focus on charging in underground parking and e-carsharing systems. In a third village called Echsenbach,an intensification of the first field test will be repeated.Winter months will provide insights into extraordinarysituations with additional consumption of heat pumpsand electric cars.