On April 21st, 2021 the 5th ICARUS webinar focused on Demand Responsive Transportation (DRT) presented by Mr. Joshua Biondi, Business Development Manager at Shotl. Shotl is an active start-up based in Barcelona, providing ICT services for DRT. During the webinar Mr. Biondi provided valuable information related to their experience in providing Demand Responsive Transportation services all around Europe. DRT means abandoning the usual “fixed line – fixed schedule” module public transport and passing to the algorithm technology to ensure a more dynamic solution. Such solution has proven to be rather useful in suburban and rural areas, which are usually large areas but with scarce connections to the city. Travel times in this area are usually efficient, but the waiting times are not. To meet passenger demand, smaller minibuses have been introduced, thus producing minor costs for the operators. As a result, passengers expressed their satisfaction and the public transport use triplicated in passenger numbers. The operational cost increased due to the service increase, but at the same time the revenues increase as well.
Even during the covid-19 pandemic, such a service was fully used, as the line could be booked online, the number of passengers was reduced to 50% (from 16 to 8 passengers on a minibus), which made passengers feel safer.
What’s next for DRT? Some towns, like Pavia have been considering night buses which is the perfect candidate, considering the low demand option and the difficulty to cover different areas, according on the day-to-day basis. In some areas there are good public transport lines, which however are not properly linked to the surrounding area. Hence the DRT represents a perfect solution for the “first mile – last mile” connections.
There is also the possibility to apply a hybrid option, using the fixed and on demand route, meaning a bus covers a fixed route, with some stopes that can be activated on demand.
Sensible autonomous vehicle service is another solution provided by Shotl, thanks to its technology which is used in Finland, with the application of the DRT option.
A set of such offers for sure is able to convert mobility patterns and habits, incentivising passengers to use public transport more frequently.
The full video is available in our gallery - under the section video!