Upgrading the car-pooling system with an events feature

Summary

Stuttgart’s innovative, free online car-pooling system was expanded to include event-oriented car pools.

Implementing sustainable mobility

Every day there are around 750,000 commuters in the Stuttgart region; 205,000 cars enter Stuttgart each day while approximately 58,000 commuters drive from Stuttgart to the surrounding region. On average there are 1.3 people in each car. The Pendlernetz Stuttgart car-pooling system offers all commuters a chance to find an appropriate car pool, enabling them to travel to work in a more relaxed and environmentally friendly way.

The Pendlernetz Stuttgart car-pooling system, which is able to organise door-to-door car pools, is operated by Stuttgart Mobility Centre and was developed in the framework of the EC ISCOM project (Information Systems for Combined Mobility Management in Urban and Regional Areas). It was created in order to improve the mobility of all citizens and visitors to the city and the Stuttgart region. Innovative features of the system included communication on potential car pools via mobile phone text messages to users; geographically referenced route mapping; and automatic transfer to the public transport information system to help people find alternative options in the event that no suitable car-pool match is found.

During the CIVITAS CARAVEL project, the aim was to:

• improve mobility by promoting the Pendlernetz Stuttgart service among visitors to major events, with the aim of increasing occupancy rates in cars;
• develop alternatives to conventional transport modes by integrating information management systems and promoting intermodality; and
• reduce congestion, fuel consumption and emissions.

Progress

The car-pooling system was extended with the addition of an events-oriented feature aimed, for example, at visitors to football matches and concerts. This involved integrating an events data pool into the Pendlernetz Stuttgart system. The new service was aimed in particular at visitors to the home games of the football club VfB Stuttgart. Since around 50,000 visitors are expected at each match there is a high demand for travel to the same destination at the same time. VfB Stuttgart helped to promote the scheme, for example via the club newsletter and stadium display screens.

As well as improving the content, a technical upgrade was carried out to enhance features, services and user friendliness.

The system was integrated into the intranets of 35 companies in Stuttgart, including big car and software companies, who organised promotional campaigns among their employees with flyers, presentations and posters.

More than 30 towns in the region also set up links on their websites to the car-pooling system.

Outcomes

As a result of the measure, demand for the car-pooling system increased: the number of hits on the car-pooling portal rose from around 200,000 in 2005 to more than 800,000 in 2008.

The events-oriented car-pooling service was successfully implemented and was available for visitors to the Cannstatter Frühlingsfest, the opening of New Fair Stuttgart and home matches of the local premier league football club VfB Stuttgart in 2008.

Awareness was raised among members of the public as well as among private companies and public institutions in Stuttgart and the region. More than 120 companies and about 40 municipalities in the Stuttgart region added a web link to the Stuttgart Pendlernetz portal.

This fact sheet has been updated by a third party on the basis of available information (not by the city itself), therefore we do not guarantee any data with respect to their content, completeness or up-to-dateness.