Marian Marsh, Transport Planner Raising the bar for public transport: Reading’s EasyGo Project BikePlus Conference 27-28 September 2017 Marian Marsh, Transport Planner BA, MA, M.R.T.P.I., M.C.I.L.T.

How it all started… Inspiration arose out of NODES EU project Reading’s Local Transport Plan: Connecting Reading Desire to build on LSTF investment Mobility as a Service Nodes – card in wallet for bus and car share… Our vision for transport is that people should be able to travel into and around Reading – to and from home, work, leisure or the services they need – easily, sustainably, safely and comfortably. MaaS – means different things to different people – essence seems to be better info on all modes to make better choices for end to end journeys

Successful bid: Car Plus / DfT Car Club Demonstration Project To enable door to door sustainable journeys Linking car share, bike share and public transport Encourage people to give it a go via an Incentives App Introduce on-street car share Collaborative working group Having seen how easy door to door sustainable journeys can be in German cities, the EasyGo vision was to introduce new multimodal hubs on the ground where modes of travel coincide, two new on street Car Club car share cars and a Smartcard to unlock Readybikes, Car Club cars and Reading Bus travel. The Smartcard also provides incentives to travel sustainably across all modes including walking and cycling through rewards using a ‘BetterPoints’ Smartphone App. es, Car Club cars and Reading Bus travel. The Smartcard also provides incentives to travel sustainably across all modes including walking and cycling through rewards using a ‘BetterPoints’ Smartphone App. Making it all visible to drivers stuck in traffic. Pulled all operators and App developer together to discuss/explore what we could do

Reading Buses Innovative Municipal Bus Company Carries over 90% of Reading’s passengers 114 out of 135 departures an hour in central Reading Hybrid and gas buses Quality bus corridors with colour branded buses for each route State of the art interiors High patronage. Already using cards, innovative, state of the art fleet

Co-Wheels 7 cars off street in Reading – including University and town centre Demand for more cars in high density housing areas just outside the town centre Demand for more cars from high density housing areas under parking pressure ie areas with parking on street, no driveways. Young professionals and students receptive to car share as suits their lifestyle. Another car at Uni campus adjacent to ReadyBike and bus stop providing another multimodl hub. Similar at TVP ie new docking st next to car share and bus stop.

ReadyBike Opened June 2014 200 bikes 29 docking stations Over 77,000 Rents, total distance cycled over 350,000 miles 44% of trips replacing vehicular modes 33% of rentals from people who do not own a bike Reading’s Cycle Hire scheme comprising of 200 bikes at 29 docking stations opened in June 2014, funded by the Local Sustainable Transport Fund. It provides a network of readily accessible cycles at local destinations, including education, retail and employment hubs and transport interchanges. Council owns bikes and stations, HourBike now running commercially with Just Eat sponsor.

BetterPoints Smartphone App rewarding sustainable travel with points to spend at local retailers Dashboard monitors progress and goal setting 20,000 users in Reading Track and Trace Push messaging Grew out of LSTF Challenge fund

Collaborative working – sharing the vision Joint working group successes: Switch to on-street car share Promotion of all 3 modes at Uni and Business Parks Locating new ReadyBike docking stations and car share near to bus stops with signing Rewards App to encourage end to end sustainable journeys using bus, bike and car share Design work for easygo card, website and video. Gathered operators, app around the table to discuss vision and how it might work. Joining up our thinking – seeing the links.

Smartcard and logo design   Design work was jointly done - To convey message of joined up multimodal travel. Still to be launched – wave and pay now favoured, Council cuts mean staff have to concentrate on major LEP projects… Focusing now more on incentives App to encourage multimodal travel.

Challenges New concept - raising awareness – all modes visible when stuck in traffic How do you convey that it is a very easy way to travel? Video Not easy for residents to grasp if their chief concern is whether they can find a parking space near their home Not an easy climate at the moment – uncertainties with staffing and funding means priorities can change Parking pressure. Our biggest challenge was and still is how to convey to local people that this idea is a very attractive and easy way to travel. This new shared transport concept is not easy for residents to grasp particularly when their chief concern is whether they can find a parking space near their home. It is hoped that in the long run, there will be less pressure on parking as new residents use the shared transport rather than buying a car and that some residents may decide to give up a car. Raising awareness - make people aware of new travel choices. For example, using a shared bike scheme to access a car club car for a journey is attractive since there are no worries about leaving your own bike unattended for hours.

Future hopes To launch easyGo card Card to take on functions as a library card, accessing leisure centres To provide Real time info on buses to show availability of bikes at next bus stop Joint registration If access to mobility is easier, customers will use a wider range of transport modes (Polis Maas discussion paper, 4 Sept 17) What do you think? It is intended, funding permitting, that the EasyGo scheme will grow taking in new operators and incorporating other functions such as serving as a library card and accessing leisure centres and other facilities in Reading.  

Thank you for listening Marian Marsh, Transport Planner BA, MA, M.R.T.P.I., M.C.I.L.T. Pic shows university staff and students using Readybike next to our site for a new co-Wheels car.