WP.T1 “Understanding” creates solid basis for the SMACKER project activities and for any potential follow up and upscale of its
findings and methodologies.

WP.T2 “Participation and actions” implement concrete actions within SMACKER project activities by formalizing the participation
to the project processes and by acting in involved regions.

WP.T3 “Growth and Expand” creates solid basis for the propagation of the SMACKER effects to a deeper level and to a wider
audience.

WP.C is mainly focussed on communicating SMACKER results to external stakeholders in order to capitalize on them,
thus complementing the management and process-related communication.

The local e-carsharing provider in East Tyrol  opened 3 additional e-carsharing stations and released a new and easier registration and booking app. Demand increased even during the pandemic, as the vehicle fleet was used also for parcel services. The vehicles are also used as municipality taxis with volunteers driving few days a week. 

BKK Centre for Budapest Transport has renewed its journey planner app by integrating several functions: journey planner, real-time information about changes and online purchasing of tickets. The BudapestGO app will be continuously upgraded with new services such as DRT, already on the shortlist.

The City of Murska Sobota successfully wrapped up negotiations over a 4-year contract with the city bus service operator. Both the City and the service provider recognised the potential of the DRT bus line deployed within SMACKER, and pledged that it will be running at least until 2026!

In cooperation with local schools, Prague-Suchdol arranged a competition motivating children to use public transport, walk or cycle to school. 13 classes and around 270 children took part in this nudging activity filling in their travel diaries for more than one week. All participants received a diploma with the SMACKER logo.

DRT on Pohorje Mountain (SI), the green destination for cyclists, hikers and skiers, is closer to implementation. Stakeholders participated in a workshop to discuss options for optimal implementation of  DRT under the local conditions. Interesting ideas were shared and should lead to a realistic action plan to be developed by Spring 2022.

In recent months, Gdynia has distributed 353 “Welcome Kit” for new residents of the Chwarzno-Wiczlino district as part of a marketing campaign to encourage behavioural transport change in the pilot area. Gdynia provides information regarding the range of Public Transport options/sustainable mobility solutions in the district with the aim of fostering the use of public transport.

Novel ideas, new products and services demand a behavioural change. MURS is well aware of this, that’s why they’ve been working hard on social media and one-on-one communication to encourage both locals and visitors in the Pomurje region to try out their new DRT mobility service called Responsibus. 

Gdynia organized a site visit in Chwarzno-Wiczlino district aimed at identifying bus stop locations for public transport users and areas for possible DRT routes. Due to the dynamic growth of residents in the district, additional PT lines must be launched, it is indeed planned to launch two shuttle lines at the same time.

"SMACKER on Tour“ event on sustainable development of Prague-Suchdol was held on 27 May, attended/viewed online by over 100 people. Besides discussions on mobility strategic issues, future plans and opportunities for public transport were presented by Ivo Novotný, SQPM expert from the Prague Public Transport Authority. SMACKER good practice examples of DRT were also shared.

The SMACKER ETP training webinar is coming up and will be held on September 8. This event will provide ETP followers all the required information to correctly draft and present their Action Plan on how to develop/improve their DRT service. Key technical topics such as data needs and sources for planning and ICT tools will be discussed. Stay tuned!

In Obertilliach (region of East Tyrol) children painted in school to the topic: mobility in the future. They were trained on this topic in class and afterwards a painting competition started. The artwork will now be produced on postcards, distributed in the region and within tourism companies. These postcards contain also the address of the new mobility information website.  

July has come and a very hot summer is awakening a return to “real life” and in-person activities. Waiting to meet again in person soon, partners have once again met virtually on June 16 for their fifth Plenary meeting and Steering Committee. They got the opportunity to set the stage towards the next SMACKER achievements and present the progress of project activities to the PO and FO. 

ETP followers and their technical experts have drafted their regional State of the Art reports. A comprehensive overview of the transnational aspects will be discussed in an online TRAINING EVENT in July. Lessons learned about DRT implementation in the 6 pilot regions will also be transferred to the ETP followers, making the event a knowledge exchange between SMACKER and the ETP followers.

The pilot of the online DRT service system in Budapest runs smoothly. It has more than 320 registered passengers. The 3rd Local Mobility Forum will be held on 3 June, where the experts could share their first experiences, and discuss the future possibilities of the service. The event will be virtual. 

SMACKER was part of the online workshop on Sustainable commuting, where the DRT service was presented as a good practice in Slovenia. It was part of the GreenReg project , which addresses the challenges of the cross border program area Slovenia-Hungary, where there is a clear and well-founded need for cooperation in the field of cross-border environmental protection.

Sustainable mobility in Pohorje (SI), the green destination for bikers, hikers and skiers has always been a challenge, and mobility between the major centres on Pohorje Mountain has never been successfully addressed. DRT is being explored within SMACKER ETP: preliminary analysis shows good potential for implementation, so the development of an action plan for DRT is on its way!

On 23 March, Prague-Suchdol held its 5th Local Mobility Forum online with focus on cooperation between the City of Prague and Central Bohemia region within sustainable mobility and development. Challenges related to increasing suburbanization and car commuting and possible solutions were discussed.  The event was attended by 30 stakeholders.

On March 1, optimisation of PT offer for Chwarzno-Wiczlino pilot area (Poland) was launched! Frequency of PT lines operating in the area will increase as well as the accessibility of the peripheral area to the City centre and main transportation nodes. Posters, an animated movie and a "welcome kit" were distributed to residents to encourage the use of PT, and a competition with rewards was launched!

ETP activities on track! With the Transational training event of last November, useful material is available for ETP followers for collecting ideas and learning new approaches helpful for the next stage: the State of the Art report. This is a first step towards the definition of an Action Plan to create new DRT services or improvig existing ones. Next ETP technical training in June 2021!

The Bologna pilot facilitates last-mile mobility in the Apennine rural area of the metropolitan city. The bus-on-demand network is now defined and the service will be available upon reservation from Summer 2021 on!

RMO presented the situation of mobility in East Tyrol and the project SMACKER to Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation and Washington CORE. Facing similar challanges, it emerged clearly from the meeting that mobility can be managed and changed only with tight cooperation and collaboration, and that it is important to learn from each other and to exchange experiences. 

Murska Sobota SMACKER team successfully conducted the first hybrid pilot testing of the DRT-service in Pomurje! The system is up and running and fully functional. In cooperation with the University of Maribor, smart tablet stands for added accessibility and a seamless user-experience was developed. The service will be launched in spring 2021!

SMACKER partner Prague-Suchdol is working on motivating people to use public transport, cycling and walking instead of private cars. Within the many discussions and events, a Car Free-Day was organized on September 19 within the European Mobility Week. The central area of Suchdol was opened to pedestrians and cyclists who could participate in a wide range of  activities with focus on sustainable modes of transport and healthy life style!

Austrian SMACKER partners RMO and BOKU will attend the 7th Austrian tourism mobility day on October 7 in Linz. This year topic is "Sustainable mobility in tourism, experiences and results of projects co-funded by the European Commission". SMACKER will participate to the discussion on last mile of tourism mobility.

Three new FLUGS e-carsharing stations are now open in Austrian East Tyrol and the fourth station will start operating at the beginning of October. Thanks to a cooperation between carsharing providers and public transport companies, it is now possible to use both offers with one membership, a single app for planning mutimodal trips is also being tested. 

The development of the online service request system in Budapest has started in August 2020. The procurement was successful, four bids were received and the contract was signed with the winner IT developer company. The expected launch of the online service request platform is late September 2020!

Throughout the summer, the Murska Sobota team worked hard to get the first DRT-service in Pomurje started. Negotiation with the bus service provider was successful and a reliable back-end office operator was found, now all the hotels in the resort town of Moravske Toplice are on board and will actively promote this innovative service among their guests. We can’t wait for the first test run this autumn!

The Bologna Local to Think Global training was successfully delivered online on 16 July by SRM in collaboration with the Association of Engineers of the Bologna province. More than 180 participants attended the webinar focused on the role of DRT for increasing the accessibility of the peripheral areas and their connection with TEN-T. SMACKER pilot findings were also presented to the audience.

On May 27, Gdynia held an on-site LMF meeting in Chwarzno-Wiczlino with the aim of identifying key bus stop improvements for PT users and the areas predestined for the DRT concept. The improvement of bus stops quality and of the frequency and transparency of PT offer will lead to future possible offers such as DRT, which came out as the most preferable option among respondents.

The call of the Enlarged Transfer Program (ETP) will soon be online! The ETP will involve  external stakeholders interested in working on the definition of new DRT services and/or the improvement of existing ones, they will have the opportunity to learn from SMACKER results and to be involved in SMACKER events and webinars: STAY TUNED!

MCPS organized an online Local to Global training on May 26, around 25 key stakeholders took part and the main focus was on sustainable mobility and public transport from the local and global perspective, user needs, nudging activities and the expected impact of the pilot action in north-western part of Prague metropolitan area.

The SMACKER Project Partners met virtually on 14 May for the 3rd project Plenary Meeting and Steering Committee. The Project Officer and the Financial Officer joined as representatives of the Joint Secretariat. An intense working day to review the activities and results and to mutually update on consequences of COVID-19 emergency. Next meeting will be in Maribor (SI) in November!

Multimodal mobility is a key for better framework conditions in the Osttirol region in Austria. The development of 5 new e-carsharing stations in 4 municipalities is ongoing and start operating in autumn 2020. Residents and tourists will gain experiences on how the combination of e-carsharing and public transport can enhance mobility in rural areas. 

In February, 200 users of DRT lines in Budapest were interviewed about their travel habits, satisfaction, preferences and needs.Came out that users are satisfied with the service, but do not like the call based service request. On the joint LMF and LTG training, results were discussed with experts and the importance of an online service request was confirmed.

Visitors to the Pomurje region, Slovenia, mostly reach their destination by car and use it as their primary mean of transport, mainly because tourist attractions and spa resorts are not easily accessible with public transport. The Slovenian pilot aims at establishing a sustainable connection between the spa town of Moravske Toplice and Expano, by the Sobota Lake.

Building competences of stakeholders on public transport accessibility with special emphasis on Demand Responsive Transport is at the core of Local to Global Trainings. The trainings bring global best practices and initiatives to regional level where they are coupled with specific circumstances of each pilot area. 

The city district Prague-Suchdol started cooperation with students of the University of Life Sciences on SMACKER. The team visited a class at the Faculty of Engineering  to present its pilot activities and provide instructions for conducting surveys on users mobility needs in Suchdol area, whose results will serve as input for MCPS pilot action. 

On February 6, Gdynia held a meeting with Chwarzno-Wiczlino District Council on SMACKER; data collected on mobility preferences and behavior of residents of Gdynia’s pilot area were discussed, as well as a catalogue of possible pilot solutions with focus on optimisation of existing PT, better passenger information and possible implemetation of DRT in pilot area. 

Bologna pilot will run from June 2020. The DRT service network in the Apennine area was designed involving the stakeholders through the Local Mobility Forum (LMF), which is participated by local authorities and touristic and economic operators. LMF ensures a constant support providing ideas and suggestions for developing the pilot action, guaranteeing the contribution of non-experts (Community of Interest), practitioners (Community of Practice) and policy makers during all the pilot phases.

SMACKER released a “Review of service level and technical level for rural and peripheral areas”, an analysis of the literature on existing Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) services in the Central Europe area, taking in account the lessons learned from previous and ongoing European projects and last implementations. Good and bad practices are analyzed, with a particular attention to technical developments and solutions, including possible adaptation of technologies planned for other purposes.

The first SMACKER Transnational Newsletter was released. The contents are: 

• Overview of the project
• Pilots description
• Budapest meeting
• What's next?
  

Find more information on the dedicated page.

SMACKER officially started on 1st of April 2019 and will be kicked off on 7th-8th of May in Bologna, Italy.