Budapest’s first mobility point pieces together the transport mode puzzle
Since the beginning of May, St. Gellért Square in Budapest (Hungary) has hosted a brand new facility: its first Mobility Point. This pilot has been initiated as part of the Cities-4-People project.
Co-developed by local authorities, citizens, mobility providers and academics during several rounds of co-creation and prototyping, it will help fulfil various urban mobility objectives.
A stop on one of Budapest's main metro lines, St. Gellért Square is a busy transport hub situated on the bankof theDanube river. Between 7.00 – 19.00, the Mobility Point is open to both locals and tourists.
It offer is intended to ease congestion arising from high private car use in a central, busy location. Furthermore, it is expected to address first- and last-mile issues by complementing public transport services at the square with shared mobility options.
Users can access Donkey Republic and MOL BuBi bike sharing, LIME e-scooter sharing, and MOL LIMO and GreenGo car sharing services.
During its first 30 days, the Mobility Point rose in popularity: the number of registered trips in the area doubled for all five providers during this time. The effective cooperation between the Budapest local authority and various mobility service providers has been central to this success.
It is also worth noting the extent to which citizens have been involved in the pilot process. On 25 June, a community event was organised to elicit feedback from users and create further interest in the Mobility Point.
Participants arrived shared ideas on how the Mobility Point concept can be improved, with the City of Budapest, the city's public transport provider (BKK), and the various service providers on hand to answer questions.
The pilot is set to run until the end of June 2019. A temporary halt in operations is necessary for the Cities-4-People Budapest project team to analyse quantitative and qualitative data related to the Mobility Point.
This is being done in view of a scale-up at the beginning of 2020. The analysis will also provide insight into how the intervention impacted on public transport usage and how such services and shared mobility might be better integrated.
Visit the Cities-4-People website to see more on Budapest's work in the project.
Photo credit: BKK Centre for Budapest Transport (Budapesti Közlekedési Központ)/Nyírő Simon
