Park and Ride with public transport school service

Summary

The measure consisted of provision of Park&Ride facilities and connecting them to schools. The aims of this measure were to enlarge public transport offer, to raise awareness on the benefits to use Park&Ride facilities and to encourage car drivers to change their mobility behaviour in the city centre of Funchal.

Implementing sustainable mobility

The Park and Ride system in Funchal, which is known among the locals by its commercial name MOBI PARQUE, aims to integrate four relevant parking infrastructures in the public transport, located at the periphery of the city. The parking infrastructures are closely linked to the existing public transport network so it provides good connections to the city centre through regular routes of the Public Transport Operator. This package of parking and public transport service, aiming at the support of intermodality, is delivered with competitive fees. In the scope of the P&R agreement, the PT Operator does not have to pay a rent for the parking space. It rather has to divide the revenues of park and ride users with the park owners

On a second step, the PT Operator had set a special connection to some of the main schools of the city of Funchal, arguably to make this service more appealing to families. The scope of the measure lies therefore in the cross fertilization between the P&R concept and a new complementary action to take children safely and seamless to schools. Decrease traffic congestion in the city and improvement of quality of PT are therefore targeted hand in hand with this measure. It was expected that not only the MOBI PARQUE users but also other residents use these bus lines.

Progress

Since March 2011, four P&R facilities (MOBI PARQUE) have been operating in peripheral areas of the city. This enabled commuters to park their car in the periphery of the city and to continue travelling by PT services, benefiting from a discount on the ticket price for the driver and one additional passenger. Furthermore, two new bus lines were implemented in September 2011 to connect some of the main schools to the P&R facilities (MOBI PARQUE school service). 16 schools (ranging from primary schools to professional schools) were connected to the network, and over 15.000 citizens who either study or work in these schools could benefit from these two new PT routes.
Horários do Funchal was responsible for steering the measure implementation supported by technical assistance from the Municipality of Funchal. The Municipality played a crucial role in the establishment of cooperation with car parking managers and with schools located within the target area.

The future is to maintain the P&R facilities because there are no extra costs to sustain the service as it is (in the scope of the agreement between the park owners and the PT Operator (Horários do Funchal don’t have to pay a rent for the parking space, the parts divide the revenues of park and ride drivers). Moreover, there is a policy strategy to provide an extra modal choice for commuters and to incentive co-modality among the region as a sound mobility solution.
Horários do Funchal will also study and consider other possibilities, like expanding the P&R facilities to a 5th park and test the feasibility of using parking facilities on the street where parking meters are installed and are right next to bus stops. With this system that would require some liaison with the Municipality and the local police for enforcing, Horários do Funchal could have more revenues, than with a parking facility because there would not be any need to share them with the parking owners.
Regarding to the new school routes, Horários do Funchal will continuously promote these routes, and adjust the frequency to the demand.

Outcomes

The key results are as follows:
• Data collected about the financial assets of the measure clearly shows two contrasting features. MOBI PARQUE is financially sustainable whereas in the new school service costs outweigh the revenues achieved. In times of scarce financial resources, one can realize that the MOBI PARQUE service can progress as it is, because it is creating added value for both the PT Operator and the park owners. Yet, the school services can only be sustained in time only if its progress is positive and more users are convinced in using these two new routes.
• Over 60% of residents surveyed in the frame of a regional-wide event (Expo Madeira) find MOBI PARQUE and the school service as useful for them. And half of people surveyed are acquainted with the MOBI PARQUE service. This result comes as a lesson, that even though people do not use the service, the knowledge that it exists and is being provided can in the future trigger its usage level.
• The School Routes have decreased the travel time for most of its users.
• The measure has come up with almost 6.000 new PT passengers in one year and 2 months lifetime. Yet, it is important to bear in mind that this result could be even higher, if the implementation period was longer and therefore the new bus lines have been able to gather more PT users.