Back On Track - Platform, Studies, APP and more

Electric, Electronic and Green Urban Transport Systems – eGUTS, code DTP1-454-3.1-eGUTS is a project financed by the Danube Transnational Programme inside PA3 - Better connected and energy responsible Danube, SO3.1 Support environmentally-friendly and safe transport systems and balanced accessibility of urban and rural areas, with a total budget of 1.819.075 Euros.   eGUTS strives to exploit potentials of e-mobility in 9 Danube cities, regions and beyond, by developing innovative eGUTS Standards for cities supporting e-mobility, based on combined Feasibility Studies, realizing Local Action Plans to deploy them. Implementation of eGUTS APP smart tool in seven Pilot Actions in the fields of road preference and parking policies, charging stations, rental spots, and more is previewed.   http://dtp.interreg-danube.eu/eguts

Project partners organised the first meetings of Regional Strategy Platforms. These meetings offered unique opportunity for stakeholdres to give feedback of eGUTS activities, aims and outcomes, and for the partners to learn more about the real needs of the cities in terms of traffic, mobility, e-mobility, and about how eGUTS could contribute to the local/regional development with planned solutions. The Feasibility Studies prepared by the eGUTS consortium brought wider point of view for all stakeholders in terms of existing and potential solutions and ideas in EU. All discussions were just first round tables as the RSP meetings will go into details within the next meetings where the Pilot Actions solutions in eGUTS cities will be discussed. One of the discussion outcomes in Austria brought important consideration: "For the future, further solutions for the application of e-mobility must be sought, which have been tried to find in the findings of the Feasibility Studies". 

Most of the partners have ongoing contacts with identified stakeholders - now members of the Regional Strategic Platforms. The involvement of the stakeholders is foreseen throughout the project implementation in order to get their feedback with regard to feasibility studies developed, the eGUTS standards and eMOB strategy, the pilot actions to be implemented and development of the Local Action Plans.

The Feasibility Study on integrativity of existing smartphone mobility apps in Danube region, as D.5.1.2 was also finalized. It contains a state of the art analysis of the apps (functional and technical aspects) that supports sustainable mobility options in the cities of DTP area along with common definitions and integration possibilities of existing smartphone mobility apps into the future eGUTS APP.

Worthy of praise is the fact that University of Maribor has published three scientific articles deriving from eGUTS feasibility studies during two international events:

“Charging infrastructure challenges and policy support in selected countries of Danube region”; 18th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TRANSPORT SCIENCE ICTS 2018, 14. - 15. 6. 2018, Portorož, Slovenia
“Interdependence between GDP and electric vehicles’ charging infrastructure in the EU”;  The 7th International Symposium on Applied Electromagnetics SAEM 2018; 17. – 20. 6. 2018, Podčetrtek, Slovenia.
“Pedelecs and e-cars in urban transport systems in selected countries of the Danube region”; The 7th International Symposium on Applied Electromagnetics SAEM 2018; 17. – 20. 6. 2018, Podčetrtek, Slovenia 
http://icts.sdzp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Zbornik-povzetkov-7.6.2018.pdf

Training Materials Pack for LAP also have been developed and translated to national languages by 9 partners. With the help of the documents partners could start to organize and hold the trainings in the concerned cities for the interested municipal staff members.

In Hungary, in Paks, ERDF PP5 South-Transdanubian Area and Economic Development Nonprofit Ltd. together with the Municipality of Paks are working intensively for the start of the first pilot project installation, which will consist of a charging station for eCars and eBikes, an implementation of parking policies regarding eCars and a docking and rental station for eBikes.

Meanwhile the development of the eGUTS APP also has been started, which will be a useful application for mobile devices and web, makes it possible to reserve, follow or rent eVehicles easily.

Regarding the promotion and dissemination activities an important accent put by the eGUTS project partners on activities performed for preparing National Awareness Campaigns for eMobility, eMobility week events and the eMOB Rally.

As eGUTS project has joined the European Campaign for Sustainable Urban Mobility inside the European Mobility Week in September 2017, Slovakian partners from eGUTS project consortium (NOGRAVITY, Transport Research institute and associated partners: City of Senec and Regional Development Agency Pezinok-Senec) organised the event entitled “Car Free Day” in the beautiful  Senec  Municipality, contributing  to limit the use of passenger cars, promote the benefits of more environmentally friendly modes of transport and to draw attention to the negative effects of car traffic on the environment and the resulting harmful effects on human health.

The event was in line with the theme of the year (2017) "Clean, Shared and Intelligent Mobility", the initiative inviting people to choose a greener way of transport (bicycle, city bus (MAD), scooter, roller skates, walking, etc.). In the frame of the program people were also invited to learn about e-mobility, to test various ecological electric vehicles (such as e-pedelecs, e- bikes, e- scooters, etc.) and charging stations suitable not only for companies but also for households. A project of EDISON electric car developed by a team of professors, students and doctoral students from University of Zilina and various utility electric vehicles were presented too. A survey collected precious opinion, knowledge and awareness on e-mobility among the inhabitants and tourists of Senec also had been carried out. The results are going to be used in planning and implementing pilot action in this city, which count with installing two public charging stations and e-rental of light electric vehicles.                                                  

It can be concluded that after several changes inside the project consortium, that caused some delays in implementation, eGUTS project is back on track again.

More details about the eGUTS demarches and activities can be found on eGUTS project website or by following social media channels.