MAMBA partners in South Ostrobothnia have held the first Regional Steering Group meeting on the 25^th of June 2020. The Regional Steering Group (RSG) acts as the Mobility Centre in South Ostrobothnia, its role being mainly to share information and expertise, making recommendations and coordinating the logistics of the mobility services in the region.

The municipalities and joint municipalities are responsible for the actual organization of transportation services. The Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia leads the group and acts as the main organizer, guaranteeing the establishment and long-term operation for the MC. The Regional Council is responsible by law for the regional transport system planning, e.g. infrastructure and transport services, but not for the implementation and funding.

The meeting was held online, and there were 28 participants. Almost all municipalities from South Ostrobothnia were represented, as well as the Finnish Social Insurance Institution, The hospital District of South Ostrobothnia and the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment. This meeting was the first one, aiming mainly to present the role of the group and its members. A working group of 8 members was also set up at the meeting. All participants in the meeting had the opportunity to express their willingness to participate in the working group. Its purpose is mainly to prepare matters for the Regional Steering Group. This meeting provided positive indications for cooperation in transport planning in the South Ostrobothnia region. The next meeting will take place in August, and we hope that this cooperation will eventually succeed in building a joint transport service unit in the South Ostrobothnia.

In the Finnish South Ostrobothnia, MAMBA project was displayed at two project fairs in the early spring of 2020. MAMBA project partners in the region, Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences and the Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia were proud to present MAMBA, share information on rural mobility and the activities done locally.

Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences organised the first fair on February 6th. It presented all the different projects of the university in various fields. The event targeted students, staff, project stakeholders, collaborates and others interested in research and development work.

On March 9th, EU Direct in South Ostrobothnia organised the fair “EU in South Ostrobothnia, work and competence”. Almost 30 projects throughout the region were presented, and the day also included an exciting seminar. In this seminar, we were able to get an overview of different projects, information about funding programs and we even got an enlightening presentation by the Finnish Minister for European Affairs about the outlines of the future development within the EU.

At the end of March 2020, the MAMBA partners met up digitally, to discuss each other’s progress and the overall development of the project. During the meeting, the involved partners talked about what has been going on since the last partner meeting. The lead partners also informed about current coronavirus situation and the impacts on the overall project – some activities need to be postponed, such as the final conference.
The presentations and discussions held during the two days, and it was nice to catch up with everyone. It helped to make yet another advancement in a shared understanding and a further step towards an effective work structure, to proceed with the tasks that lie ahead.

MAMBA Fifth Rural Mobility Seminar, transformed into a webinar, has successfully taken place on the 26 March 2020.

The historical place Trelleborg City, with its Viking castle and beautiful Axel Ebbes statues, was unfortunately not able to welcome MAMBA project partners and MAMBA guests. Instead of having to travel, near and far, the seminar transformed into a webinar. Hosts Christoffer Pettersson-Hernestig and Felix Sunnesson, with the help of Natalia Muntean from Nordregio, guided participants through different topics about autonomous vehicles, autonomous technology and resilient thinking and planning. Ideas and visions of what will come were shared and projected.
The critical elements of MAMBA were presented once again but on a digital stage. As the project is coming to an end, a summary of everything done and explored was presented to the audience. This webinar presented new technology that could be one of many solutions to the challenges of rural mobility and what the future could offer, if the private and the public sectors, together with grassroots organisations, start planning rural mobility in a new innovative way.

The webinar did not only bring MAMBA project partners closer but also offered inspiration to other people as to what this new technology could bring. With this webinar, MAMBA was able to reach a broader audience, with a lot more people attending than during earlier seminars. Around 100 persons joined the webinar and started to share information among each other, which shows the potential with digitalisation and that the future will not only change physical mobility but also that the future will probably offer new digital tools to keep rural areas alive. Seeing this new way of coming together is precisely a result that MAMBA stands for since people blossom when they can discuss and share their knowledge with others. It is great to see the possibilities brought by digital solutions and how these can support and develop new ideas when it comes to mobility and service in rural areas.

*If you didn’t have a chance to join the webinar, you can find the recording and the  presentations below. 

Recording of the Rural Mobility Webinar “Digitalisation: rural mobility in the digital age”

Rural Mobility Webinar presentations:

MAMBA Project
Doris Scheer, SEMPRE & MAMBA Project manager and Annika Schmiedek-Inselmann, MAMBA Project

Autonomous shuttles in the countryside of northern Sweden
Petra Bassioukas Hanseklint, Traffic engineer, Skellefteå municipality

Results from the rural mobility study
Jonas Johansson & Tim Nilsson, Skånetrafiken

Tomorrow’s rural mobility today
Magnus Qvant & Silvia Haslinger Olsson, Nordic Urban Resilience Institute

Before work on the Bielsko District Mobility Centre was started, an analysis of the availability of such solutions and their effectiveness was carried out. At the initial stage of the work, it seemed that there was a need to create a physical office, where our staff would provide interested people with advice on the possibilities of moving around the Bielsko District using the available forms of transport, over the phone. The analyses have been carried out in the way of interviews with service providers and potential users, suggesting the need to move away from the traditional form of MC – a conventional office, and to create a website that will be available 24/7.

Nevertheless, in the event of difficult access to the website (applies to the elder), a telephone line was launched in the Bielsko District Office to support the ToD, offering the possibility to talk to the operator about other transport options in the District. The established Mobility Center of the Bielsko District aim is to encourage residents and tourists to access information on various means of transport in our area. The benefits of creating an MC are also supported by transport providers (taxis, buses, etc.). An essential point in the creation of this type of activities turned out to be cooperation with local carriers, in the form of suggestions on how to conduct such activities. Access to the information mentioned above is possible through the website created for this purpose: www.cmpb.pl, which currently combines two functions: 

● is used for MC internet service https://www.cmpb.pl/zaplanuj-podroz-po-powiecie

● it is used to serve the ToD program implemented by the Bielsko District https://www.cmpb.pl/zamow-transport-na- zadanie

Due to the pilot nature of the implemented measures, the website is run only in Polish with the aim to create subpages in different languages, including English.

From September 2019, a new Transport on-demand service is active in the area of Bielsko-Biala. The pilot programme, active mostly within the Wilkowice commune, with a population of approximately 13,000 people, is implemented on the Wilkowice – Granica-Stalowik to Bielsko-Biala and Stalownik Bielsko-Biala to Wilkowice Granica axis. 

Residents can use the transport free of charge from Monday to Friday from 7.00 am to 3.00 pm. The chosen days and hours were decided upon earlier analyses of the movement of people in the area, provided by the involved stakeholder PKS (public transport provider) in Bielsko-Biala SA. 

At the beginning, the Bielsko-Biala transport service based on direct involvement from residents encountered significant difficulties in the lack of understanding of the ideas implemented and the whole project itself. Decisive actions for the ToD implementation turned out to be direct meetings with the inhabitants of Wilkowice, during which the service operation was fully explained. The increasing number of passenger has confirmed this fact, in September of 2019 these being 10 per day, and in February of 2020, the service counted 45 passengers per day. According to data analysis, the inhabitants of Wilkowice are very eager to use this innovative way of transport. During meetings with representatives of the Bielsko District, they often emphasise that the most effective form of requesting transportation was the online service at  www.cmpb.pl, an internet platform created as part of the MAMBA project, where the service can be accessed 24/7. This opportunity offers residents considerable flexibility when planning their trips. It also proves to be a useful tool for the pilot organiser, to inform service provider companies about the need to organise transportation on a specific day, at a particular time.  

The pilot program implemented by the Bielsko District proved to be such an innovative form of transport organisation that it was presented on national television, during news broadcasts. Representatives of the Bielsko District in the city of Bielsko-Biala are participating increasingly in the exchange of experiences and present the results of their work during talks with other regions of Poland, where such activities are planned for the upcoming months. A high interest in pilot activities is also shown by the Bielsko District Board Council, and this makes us believe that the experience gained with our pilot can be used in further similar programmes across the region. The pilot program is to come to an end in March 2020. 

On 19th February 2020, a new digital public transport service called POJO was launched in North Karelia, Finland. Now, information about train and bus transportation in North Karelia can be found from at same place. This new service allows residents and travellers to plan their journey in the region quickly and makes public transportation more appealing.

• Before the portal, information on public transport services in the region was scattered. The idea was to gather the data and add it all to a portal that is easy to use, says project manager Pasi Lamminluoto from Regional Council of North Karelia.

The POJO service, developed by the Regional Council of North Karelia, is available at pojo.pohjois-karjala.fi and can also be downloaded as a mobile application. The service shows the schedules and routes of Joensuu region buses, long-distance buses operated by Matkahuolto company in North Karelia and transport-on-demand organised by municipality. As a bonus, the service contains information of airport coach transfers, taxi dispatch services and private carpooling websites and groups.

Thanks to POJO, transport services organised by municipalities are now more accessible to local residents and visitors. These services are open to everyone, but they have not been widely advertised. Usually, their schedules and routes are available only on municipalities’ websites.

• Municipal transport services are an excellent way to enhance vitality and accessibility of remote areas. For instance, in some regions of North Karelia, shuttle taxis operate on a fixed route every week. You can reserve your seat in them one day prior to travel and the ticket price equals to public transport fares, says Lamminluoto.

The POJO public transport service was developed in the MAMBA project in collaboration with municipalities, transport operators and various authorities. Since its launch, the portal has attracted over 5,000 users and has been covered in national media and regional and local newspapers.

On 27 February 2020, on a rainy Thursday, forty-six stakeholders and partners of the MAMBA project from Northern Germany and Denmark took part in a regional conference.

After a warm welcome from the Pastor of the Diaconie of Schleswig-Holstein, Heiko Naß, and a discussion regarding “Europe in Schleswig-Holstein”, initiated by Susanne Grahl, part of the European ministry of SH in the department of Interreg Baltic Sea affairs, the focus shifted on to the MAMBA project. Doris Scheer presented MAMBA in a European context, and the project partners from the County of Plön, the County of Cuxhaven, Vejle Municipality and Diaconie of SH presented their pilots and their experiences. After the presentations, a conversation titled “Rural Area – Aspects for Discussion”, with an input from Mr Hawel was initiated.

The interactive part of the conference took place after lunch, under the guidance of Muthesius Art academy, who encouraged the participants to work in groups and use specific material to create a “Movement supporter”. The session produced impressive outcomes that were presented at the end of the conference day.

Overall it was a successful conference day with fruitful discussions, detailed MAMBA experiences and an exciting journey in changing one’s perspectives.

Trelleborg Municipality, through the MAMBA pilot and co-working space, is nominated for most innovative public solution! 

The award is for the most innovative public solution, offered by the national welfare conference, Future and Welfare 2020, which will take place in Malmö on 5-6 March. Trelleborg Municipality is testing a rural mobility solution related to social mobility, arranging weekend trips for older citizens with the help of school buses, when those are not in use. Another part of the initiative consists of a co-working space in Södra Åby, where residents and entrepreneurs can sit and work, thus reducing the need for commuting. Besides these two ideas, the city of Trelleborg has now a cargo bike pool service, meaning that citizens can borrow a cargo bike for 11 days, free of charge. 

These initiatives have been possible thanks to collaboration with most administrations within the municipality and rural community associations. Together with these, MAMBA has succeeded in bringing a positive change into the lives of elderly citizens in rural areas, and it is tackling mobility challenges in new ways.

Read more about the Future & Welfare Conference (in Swedish):

https://www.futureandwelfare.com/index.html

On January 31, 2020, local politicians from 26 municipalities in the Vidzeme region gathered in Cesis to hear about the progress of the MAMBA project and the pilot of transport-on-demand in Latvia. The Minister of Transport of the Republic of Latvia was also present at the stakeholder meeting.

Stakeholders found out the latest statistics regarding the use of the service. And according to these, during October 21, 2019, and January 30, 2020, Alūksne County operated a total of 82 trips and carried 240 passengers. Meanwhile, during the same period, Mazsalaca County registered 255 trips and 534 passengers. It should be recalled that in Mazsalaca County, the transport-on-demand service can be used all over its territory, and the ToD bus can be booked every working day, while in Aluksne County the bus operates in specific areas where public transport is generally unavailable. Each area is associated with a particular day of the week to book ToD.

So far, there are 32 residents registered for the service in Aluksne municipality, compared to 130 residents in Mazsalaca municipality. The leaders of both pilot territories were also present at the meeting, and they offered insights on the usefulness and popularity of the service for the local population.

The chairman of Mazsalaca County, Harijs Rokpelnis, had previously acknowledged and reiterated at the meeting that the activity of the locals was fantastic and that this service is likely to improve their quality of life significantly. The people who used this option have completed surveys that revealed that the feeling of security, which has increased with the implementation of the service, is highly appreciated. “The feeling of free mobility when needed is priceless,” says a citizen in a survey form.

The project team informed the attendees that a neighbouring municipality has also requested to include part of the municipality’s pilot area due to the recent reduction of public transport service and reduced mobility. Trust in the pilot project as a solution to mobility difficulties is growing, and other areas are beginning to see it as a possible solution to the problem in remote rural areas.

The current issue, which is being initiated by the service users themselves and the representatives of the pilot municipalities, is whether the service will be provided even after the MAMBA project is over.

The Minister of Transport concluded the meeting, stating that it is worth waiting for the long-term usefulness and effectiveness of the service to be evaluated. The project team intends to continue to inform the Minister about the pilot implementation process by purposefully collecting data that will be analyzed in detail with the help of Vidzeme University College.

The project team in Latvia hopes that the results achieved in Alūksne and Mazsalaca counties will prove to be excellent examples for new local mobility solutions in remote areas and that some new legislation related to this issue could be implemented.