On 6 February 2023, the EIT Urban Mobility “IMPACTS” project (Inclusive Mobility: Public and Collaborative Trusted Spaces) launched its work during a successful kick-off meeting in Athens, Greece. EPF is glad and excited to be part of the project consortium which consists of 7 members from Germany, Greece, Croatia, Turkey and Belgium.

Public transport (PT) supports the mobility of all within the urban fabric. People in a city move to meet each other, to commute, for sightseeing, … Even if passengers know that it is a safe way to move, decreasing comfort due to overcrowding, limited digitalization of services, difficulties to consider the needs of different target groups and outdated reporting mechanisms create an urban space of reduced perceived safety and security. Moreover, the pandemic has enhanced distrust. Cities, transport providers and Urban Mobility third parties generally do not address citizen safety and security perceptions and wellbeing, while failing to collect and extract knowledge from citizens’ feedback.

IMPACTS envisions a human-centric public transport where passengers feel safe, support fellow travelers, and contribute with their feedback to improve services. The IMPACTS project will develop, implement, test and commercialize connecting and reporting innovations in PT. IMPACTS also focuses on bottom-up community-based innovations in existing critical urban mobility infrastructure that can have a dramatic impact on how we move in our cities.

IMPACTS aims to:

• connect passengers in ad-hoc communities to create supportive spaces, enable passengers to report issues, create trust using rating mechanisms, and encourage behavior change through stimulating analytics;
• enable cities and transport providers to receive real-time insights regarding passenger perception, exploit new feedback channels and extract knowledge;
• deliver a new approach to public transport, applicable to other cities, enhancing the attractiveness and effectiveness of PT; pilots in a megacity and a suburban area as well as the recognition of business opportunities aim to demonstrate the scaling up potential;
• foster the use of public transport in EU and other regional cities and communities, contributing to the delivery of better mobility services for citizens, feedback management, traffic reduction, environmental effectiveness and better use of urban space.

For further information, please visit the IMPACTS website or take a look at our infographic.