How can public transport be best adapted to the needs and habits of commuters? With the point-by-point commuter flow analysis, there is a completely new approach.
Commuter flow analysis forms the basis for reorganization of public transport
Urban sprawl, a high share of private motorized transport in the modal split and traffic jams caused by commuters, who in the vast majority of cases travel alone in their own cars. These are the challenges facing the greater Salzburg area with the city of Salzburg and the surrounding communities in Flach- and Tennengau. Together, these problems are now to be solved. The urban transport planning of public transport and the planning of regional transport are to be merged.
The necessary data basis for an optimal coordination and reorganization of public transport is to be provided by a commuter flow analysis. The number of changes of location between different municipalities will be surveyed and evaluated. From this, it can be derived how many commuters travel from A to B, in what time and with which means of transport.
The Research Studio iSPACE of the RSA FG, with the support of the Salzburg Transport Association, has developed a program in a pioneering project that measures commuter flows to an accuracy of 250 meters. The largest data source is Statistics Austria, which records the place of residence and workplace of commuters. In addition, there is purchased data from mobile phone providers – in the future, leisure traffic will also be recorded in this way. The data sets are anonymized and compiled by the iSPACE research studio.
The comprehensive data makes it possible to adapt lines and schedules to demand with pinpoint accuracy. Thomas Prinz, Studio Manager from Research Studio iSPACE:
The tool shows us who commutes from which municipality to where. Distances to stops and travel times can also be recorded. This level of accuracy is not yet available elsewhere.
The tools and possibilities of commuter flow analysis are extended in the ULTIMOB project to the greater Salzburg area up to Golling.
„In cooperation with the project partners Salzburger Verkehrsverbund and RSA FG iSPACE, a new transport hub is currently being built at Neumarkt am Wallersee station. The goal in ULTIMOB is to define the most important multimodal transport nodes and to work out optimization possibilities.“ explains Allegra Frommer from the Salzburger Verkehrsverbund.
At these nodes, different means of transport are optimally linked with each other: From rail, bus and car traffic to bicycle and pedestrian traffic. Access to the stops, stop equipment, the availability of Park & Ride and Bike & Ride parking spaces, and customer information will be improved and adapted to the needs of users.