Erzgebirge: Electric shuttle just a swipe away
28.01.2022 —
Berlin: In the Erzgebirge an electric shuttle will start normal operation this weekend. After a test phase, the ERZmobil in the small town of Zwönitz will be in operation from Saturday at a total of 28 boarding and alighting points, flexibly and in line with demand, and can be requested by passengers via an app. The tech solution provider IAV supports the municipality in the project ERZmobil in establishing a line demand service for the development of the last mile.
In many rural areas, public transport is not widespread and only operates every hour, for example. The reason: The utilization is too low. For passengers, this means that they must arrange their journeys in advance on the basis of the timetable. This leaves the car as the most common form of transport. This is not only problematic for ecological reasons, but also in rural regions there are people who do not drive themselves – because they do not want to, but above all because they cannot for various reasons. For these people, too, it must be ensured that they can be self-determined in their mobility and participate in social life.
With its Smart City project, the town of Zwönitz is aiming to ensure attractive accessibility to all parts of the town and to improve access to infrastructural services in the town centre (doctors, traders, etc.). The ERZmobil project was launched in March 2020 to complement public transport with an economically sustainable and environmentally friendly mobility solution. For this purpose, an electric shuttle serves a total of 28 entry and exit points, depending on current demand and without a fixed schedule. Over the past few months, the team has been working flat out on the vehicle, which in particular ensures the connection to the local train station, and the app solution. From Saturday the 29th of January, anybody can use the service of the ERZmobil.
IAV mobility platform controls the ERZmobil
The mobility platform, which coordinates the shuttle’s on-demand system, essentially consists of two apps, the user booking service and the information service for the person at the steering wheel.
“Since the start of the trial operation, we have gradually developed our mobility platform. We have optimized the artificial intelligence-driven route planning of the shuttle, as well as the bundling of the traffic requests and increased the stability of the system. Now we are ready to make the hybrid service of regular services, on-demand mobility and ride pooling accessible to the general public in Zwönitz,” says IAV project manager Dr. Michael Gröschel.
