Setting up a car-pooling scheme
Thematic areas
Active mobility
- Walking
- Cycling
Collective passenger transport & shared mobility
- Accessibility
- Bike sharing
- Intermodality
- Service improvements
- Ticketing and tariffs
Summary
As part of Rome’s efforts to reduce city-centre congestion, home-to-work trip plans were developed as a way of changing commuters’ travel habits.
Implementing sustainable mobility
During peak hours, many of the cars circulating in the centre of Rome have a single occupant travelling to work. The idea behind car-pooling schemes is to cut congestion by encouraging people who are making the same trip to share a vehicle. At the time of measure implementation, some companies already had car-pooling “crews”, but they tended to be formed spontaneously rather than in an organised way. The idea behind this measure was therefore to develop a systematic approach in order to promote collective car use more effectively.
Progress
A comprehensive survey, comprising over 100,000 interviews, was carried out in order to analyse current travel behaviour in the demonstration area. A simulation model designed to manage car-pooling services was developed and installed by the Sustainable Mobility Department of the public transport operator ATAC and integrated with the mobility management system. The model uses origin and destination data and incorporates revealed preferences about trip characteristics and scheduling.
ATAC identified a specific area in which to provide support to mobility managers keen to promote car pooling among their colleagues. In particular, ATAC provided legal and technical expertise and support through computer-based tools, allowing an analysis of the different needs of companies and individuals, and helping them to develop home-to-work plans. This led to the design of several such plans and potential car-pooling schemes.
In the municipality’s offices, a group of 480 employees were involved in the first trial and 160 car pools were formed.
The trial at the hospital Policlinico Umberto I had an even greater impact, with 600 employees signed up and 200 crews formed.
A home-to-work plan was produced for the Ministry of Public Health and submitted to its mobility manager (100 employees, 23 crews created). Agreements were made with local garages to provide facilities at special rates.
Outcomes
A total of 1,180 car poolers were addressed during the trial, and the vehicle occupancy rate was 75 percent. The good results in terms of concentrations and emissions reductions were obtained as a general effect of all the measures adopted in the MIRACLES project.