Collective mobility services for employees

Summary

Collective transport was promoted in Burgos in order to reduce road congestion and encourage cleaner modes of transport. The measure involved designing collective transport pick-up services for industrial zones in cooperation with private transport operators.

Implementing sustainable mobility

Prior to the measure, industrial zones around Burgos had always been served by multiple bus lines. However, collective transport only represented 20 percent of trips and many employees were still using their own vehicles to travel to work, causing congestion in peak hours. A similar situation existed in relation to educational centres in the city: collective transport was widely used in schools, but routes were developed for each individual school and the irregular occupancy rates did not correspond to vehicle capacity. In response to this unsustainable situation, the municipality designed a new transport management scheme in cooperation with companies from the industrial zone, based on the needs of commuters. Large companies were encouraged to share their own privately operated bus services and timetables, and employees of smaller enterprises were invited to use the new collective service. Operating costs were shared, and therefore reduced.

The ultimate goals of the measure were to:

• coordinate and promote collective transport services and increase the number of user groups by opening up the service to new users;
• design a pick-up service based on the transport needs of industrial parks, educational centres and other social groups;
• increase the number of target users of collective transport;
• increase passenger numbers from target groups using privately run collective transport; and
• reduce CO2 emissions per passenger through the use of cleaner collective transport.

Activities involved industrial park associations, industrial companies and schools in order to increase passenger numbers and improve service quality. Companies with more than 150 employees operating a minimum of two shifts and collective transport companies in the city were also involved. Public information campaigns were targeted at users and the media along with direct marketing activities to promote the measure.

Progress

Initially, it was planned to include both companies and educational centres in the measure. However, school transportation was already organised, so efforts were concentrated on the industrial area.
Some 200 companies were involved and various agreements were signed:

• by various small and medium-sized companies to share buses;
• by big companies to share a bus with small and medium-sized companies; and
• by two big companies to share buses. In this way, one company could promote one route in one part of the city and another a different route, making the services more accessible to employees, with stops closer to their homes.
   

Outcomes

• An increase of 5 percent in the occupancy rate of collective buses.
• More than 200 companies and more than 5,000 employees involved.
• The service is widely accepted and congestion has been eased due to fewer unnecessary trips.