EMILIA - Development of a pandemic-resistant public transport system

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

The Covid 19 pandemic has already cost countless lives worldwide and has long-term impacts that are difficult to predict. The mobility behavior of the population has also changed, which is hitting public transport (PT) and efforts to transform the transport system in a sustainable way hard. The aim of the project is therefore to develop effective recommendations for action for transport companies and public transport authorities, the implementation of which will, on the one hand, minimize health risks in public transport use and increase customer confidence in public transport and, on the other hand, take into account the consequential effects of a pandemic in the future design of public transport. This means that public transport as a whole should become more resistant to pandemics and epidemics.

The Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) is funding the EMILIA research project for the next three years with around 1.3 million euros.

METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

First, a comprehensive literature review will be used to gain insights into the objective and subjectively perceived risks of infection in public transport. In addition, the customer requirements and usage barriers in public transport that have arisen as a result of the Corona pandemic will be elicited by means of a comprehensive analysis of empirical studies. For this purpose, the results and data of conducted surveys of customers and non-customers of the practice partners NVV, RMV and VRS are used. In addition, 3,000 randomly selected citizens of Kassel were asked by letter to participate in a survey on mobility in Kassel.

Based on the literature analysis, a probabilistic model will be developed to estimate the risk of infection in public transport in different situations (e.g. rush hour in a standard bus). To assess the results of the model, the estimated risk of infection will be related to other risks associated with the use of transportation.

Based on this, or partly parallel to the above-mentioned research work, already implemented measures from the total of five fields of action will be presented

• Planning/operation (incl. school transportation),
• Vehicle design,
• Sales/Information,
• Financing/Fare and
• Communication

are researched, analyzed and evaluated with regard to their effectiveness. For example, it is planned to simulate the distribution of aerosols in vehicle interiors in order to estimate the risk of infection in different vehicle designs (e.g. arrangement of seats and air conditioning). Based on this, measures will be (further) developed for all five fields of action.

PLANNED RESULT

As a result of the research project, recommendations for action for a pandemic-resistant design of public transport are to be developed, which include both preventive and reactive strategies and measures. These recommendations for action are to be designed in such a way as to ensure the highest possible transferability to the national and, if necessary, also international public transport sector.