We need to stop thinking in terms of either trains or planes and link the rail and air networks together. With better international rail transport, Schiphol could grow with fewer flights.
However, this requires substantial investments – not so much in physical infrastructure, but mainly in international rail network services. With improved services, and only limited investments in physical infrastructure, international train travel could become a viable alternative and supplement to flights under 700 km. European airports should therefore develop into multimodal transport hubs, in order to seamlessly integrate improved rail transport with the aviation network.
For a number of places you can already predict that they will get such an air-rail hub: Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid, Rome and… Schiphol – if we want that. The airports of Frankfurt and Paris are already taking big steps, and if Royal Schiphol Group and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines do not want to miss their connection, we will have to start now with a long-term plan and cooperation between governments and transport operators. The Dutch government and the EU have an important role to play in this.
Many people believe that low digital skills are only a problem of the elderly. However, the group of analogue or non-digital travellers is much larger and much more diverse than that. In the Netherlands alone, it is estimated that a group of 3–4 million people is not digitally able enough to make use of digital services. This is due to several reasons. In order to make use of digital mobility services, users need to be able and willing to use digital services. In transport, especially for demand responsive transport (DRT) services, the lack of digital skills can create a barrier for people to make use of the service. Based on insights from literature and interviews about digital skills, we have categorized the different groups of non-digital travellers, and created five need-based personas. On the basis of this, we formulated user requirements and design recommendations for mobility services, and for DRT services specifically.
De toegang tot het internet en GPS leidt tot een duidelijke trend in de ov-wereld: digitalisering van ov-diensten. In vergelijking met vaste buslijnen heeft dit onder meer een hoger financieel rendement voor de vervoerder en presteert het (in theorie) beter op duurzaamheid. Toch valt er flinke winst te behalen op de gebruikerservaring. Met name analoge reizigers zullen een barrière ervaren om gebruik te (blijven) maken van vraaggestuurde busdiensten. In dit artikel wordt (de omvang van) het probleem geschetst, inclusief een verhelderende blik op deze gebruikersgroep.
Max was interviewed by ZOOV Magazine about his experiences when travelling with 'ZOOV Op Maat' taxi service for his benchmarking research about on-demand mobility services.
This interview has been published in ZOOV Magazine #7 (December 2020).
Mobility is a broad subject, not easy to predict. In order to work on the right solutions, it is important to understand how mobility will develop towards 2050. That is why INFO decided to ask eleven experts from market parties, the government and academics about their vision for future mobility. Participants in this report are KiM, ANWB, Hely, 9292, Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Parkbee, Municipality of Utrecht, De Verkeersonderneming, TU Delft, Lightyear and NS. One of these eleven leading players in mobility is Suzanne Hiemstra-van Mastrigt, who was interviewed on behalf of the Seamless Personal Mobility Lab.
(Publication Dutch Only)
The boundaries between collective and individual transport are fading. Current solutions for payment and planning of trips are suboptimal for journeys that span across individual, collective and shared transport modalities. The discussion around these innovations often tends towards public authorities needing to strengthen their integrating role, or towards the private companies developing key innovations. We argue that focusing on only one of these perspectives, either integration or innovation, is likely to lead to what we call ‘subtopias’. Furthermore, we discuss and resolve the conflict between the two roles based on four different scenarios, ranging from nightmare to utopian dream. Our claim is that a balance is needed between, rather than a prevalence for private and public, for integrated and innovative mobility services to manifest themselves. As we see it, authorities will need to direct, harmonize and coordinate specific elements of personal mobility systems in order to be able to facilitate a seamless multi-modal mobility experience for travelers.
Chapter in: B. Müller and G. Meyer (Eds.): Towards User-Centric Transport in Europe 2, LNMOB, pp. 225–239, 2020.