Description
Combined Mobility is an emerging strategy to reorganise transport to tackle mobility and sustainability challenges by offering an alternative to private vehicle ownership in sparsely populated areas. It may do so by, for instance, combining mobility and societal services as part of a single, seamless offering that is made available to users via app subscriptions. Stronger Combined (SC) brought the concept from urban to sparsely populated areas and aimed to address the key challenges of public transport reformation; generic lack of knowledge among political decision-makers, changing service preferences and expectations of rural citizens, and inflexible legal and administrative frameworks of operating transport. Outputs included development of a Mobility as a Service platform for the HITRANS Region.
Website: northsearegion.eu/stronger-combined/
Programme: Interreg North Sea Region (NSR)
HITRANS activities
- HITRANS role was to explore data requirements & framework for the development of combined mobility – exploring how open data could support visualisation of route planning, travel & payment information in a digital format
- HITRANS launched an innovation process to design a new combined mobility service for tourists and locals – an application was submitted to the MaaS Investment Fund in August 2019 to progress this aim, approved in Dec 2019
- HITRANS appointed a MaaS Project Officer in May 2020 to progress this work
- An e-bike share scheme also launched with 3 hubs with 30 e-bikes setup across Inverness for residents and visitors
- HITRANS explored needs, incentives & marketing strategies related to integration of local ride-sharing schemes and public transport operations