Sustainable Rural Mobility, SuRuMo, is an EU project that aims to create a digital platform for people in rural areas so that they can choose between different existing mobility solutions. The objective is to reduce the environmental impact of transport and make travel as sustainable as possible.
Kristina Larsson is a research assistant at VTI, and she’s mostly been working on the project for VTI since it began in May last year. She’s a social planner and holds a master’s degree from Malmö University and a master’s degree from SLU Alnarp.
“Having lived in the countryside myself, I know just how important public transport is. I’d say it’s particularly important for children and young people, who can’t drive and can’t really cycle long distances on busy and sometimes dark country roads. Public transport is all part of children’s independence. It enables them to get around without being entirely dependent on their parents.”
SuRuMo is an Interreg project involving one region in Sweden (Östergötland) and two regions in Latvia (Riga and Courland). Three areas in Östergötland have been selected more specifically: one around Nykil, one outside Motala and one in Åtvidaberg. Östgötatrafiken is coordinating the project. Besides VTI, Linköping University is another Swedish participant.
“Our starting point is that transport problems are similar in different rural areas all over the EU. The most obvious thing is that people are very dependent on their cars and that public transport services aren’t developed sufficiently,” says Kristina Larsson.
The digital platform created as part of the project is being developed together with the people living in the selected regions of Sweden and Latvia. The development of the platform will be guided by user needs. Individual people are involved, as well as local groups, business owners, public transport companies, representatives from the municipalities, and others. People have been asked about their travel habits. How do people habitually behave today? What will they be doing in future? What barriers are perceived by individuals? What do people want in terms of mobility? They’ve been able to air their views in various workshops. Local needs are identified first, and then hopefully they should be addressed.
“We came up with a list of desired functions before we went looking for a supplier that could provide the technical solution we wanted. We clearly stated that users should be involved early on in the process, before the platform starts to be developed,” explains Kristina Larsson.
Other requests include the platform being able to cope with people who want to travel as well as service providers who want to offer their services to users.
“But we won’t be developing any new transport solutions, we’ll just be making the existing ones more accessible,” Kristina Larsson clarifies.
The platform should primarily suggest travel that’s publicly funded. The idea is to combine different types of mobility solutions as well. Public transport, school buses, private travel – is it possible to organise some form of sharing between them? It’s not easy, though. Laws and rules have to be respected. In Sweden, for example, school buses can’t be used for anything other than transporting schoolchildren.
One thing Kristina Larsson believes would be valuable for the residents in the different locations would be the ability to communicate within the platform. If the platform is interactive somehow and can be updated – when snow is being cleared, when a road is being repaired or if someone thinks that somewhere would be an unsafe place to stand and wait, for example – this could help to maintain an acceptable standard of travel.
But other functions come before communication in regions’ rankings of aspects they perceive as feasible and effective.
But according to Kristina Larsson, safety is an important aspect when it comes to travel.
“Talking to residents reveals that unsafe environments constitute a clear barrier to mobility, especially when children are travelling. My Master’s dissertation was all about safety when travelling by public transport in rural areas. For many women, for example, this can be a decisive factor when it comes to choosing whether or not to take the car.”
Translation: CBG
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