As many as 120,000 people commute to work in Ljubljana daily, significantly contributing to the traffic volume and congestion during peak hours. In pursuit of the goal to reduce emissions, daily commuters from areas where public transportation does not provide convenient connections is a highly relevant group. Appealing alternatives to personal vehicles should be sought. Dynamic shared transfers by vans may be the alternative that comes closest to the comfort, speed and flexibility of a private car ride.
Therefore, the SmartMOVE project has developed and pilot-tested a completely new sustainable commuting alternative from the surrounding areas to Ljubljana for the purpose of reducing traffic density and its associated negative impacts, a so called dynamic group transportation.
The efficiency of this new mode of transportation was tested by providing free rides on routes determined based on an analysis of needs and surveys of employees in the areas around the University Medical Centre (UKC) and the BTC shopping center (including IKEA) as the designated final destinations of transfers. Residents commuting to Ljubljana for work from Kranj, Kamnik, Domžale, Radomlje, Komenda, Menges, or Trzin could participate in the group dynamic transportation. The transportation services to the University Medical Centre and the BTC shopping center were available every working day, and occasionally on weekends for testing purposes, from February 1st to April 30th 2023. The approximate pick-up and drop-off times were pre-arranged, and users were informed of the exact time of the next day’s transfer via email and SMS by GoOpti as the transfers coordinator.
Out of more than 500 applicants, who sent their interest through the specially designed pilot project website, www.goopti.com/gremoskupaj, 131 were selected as users of the pilot transfers.
The transportation services were received with enthusiasm. The key findings and effects were presented at a press conference (May 2023), following the project’s completion and are summed up here and accompanied by a series of graphical representations prepared by GoOpti based on data processed by the “Jožef Stefan” Institute.
