Padam Mobility
How Did the City of Padua Strengthen Its Night Mobility Offer Thanks to Demand-Responsive Transport?
Serving Night-Time Mobility
Context
With more than 210,000 inhabitants, the city of Padua had no night public transportation solution. Conventional buses stopped their service at 9:00 pm, putting a strain on the city’s highly developed night-time activity.
The implementation of an evening and night-time transportation solution becomes a necessity, to improve the well-being of the population, and preserve the attractiveness of the university campuses which attract some 60,000 students.
To meet these challenges, the local public authorities, in collaboration with the University of Padua, decided to experiment with a Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) solution. Padam Mobility technology is chosen to operate a first service in partnership with Busitalia Veneto, the urban and extra-urban transit operator of the province of Padua. The Night Bus service is created in January 2019.
To meet the rapid deployment objectives of its Paduan clients and partners, Padam Mobility has mobilized its teams to offer in just 8 weeks a relevant shared mobility solution that functions smoothly and that the people of Padua can be proud of.
- User and driver apps as well as a dedicated support in Italian have been developed.
- A local project manager was assigned to the project. As a privileged interlocutor with the clients, he ensured the specific local, social, and geographical characteristics of the territory were taken into account. As the city of Padua has many narrow streets that do not allow the circulation of “standard” vehicles, an in-depth urban mapping work was carried out to guarantee the efficiency of the service from its launch.
“As a Public Institution, we continue to believe in, and invest in, local public transport. Thanks to the collaboration with the University, we were able to offer this important service, expected and requested by many people. The use of night buses is a particularly economical solution for users and is able to meet the needs of all citizens. A useful service also for female students, who will have a safe way to get around at night.”
“In Padua, we welcome tens of thousands of university students who are very interested in being able to use the bus in the evening. The flexibility of this solution makes it possible to offer and maintain a night service, that would otherwise be too expensive compared to the passengers carried (...).”
Solution
With a fleet of 4 vehicles, the service is configured following a free-floating service design for more flexibility. The itineraries are defined and optimised by Padam Mobility’s algorithm, according to the users’ bookings. They can access the service every day at the following times:
- From 9:00 pm to midnight on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays
- From 9:00 pm to 3:00 am on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays
To access the service, users book their trip via a dedicated booking app or website, by indicating: their stop of departure and arrival stops; their desired departure or arrival time; and the number of passengers. Trips can be booked from one week to 5 minutes before the desired departure time. Users can also book the same itinerary on a recurring basis for several days, and for up to 12 people. An integration of the solution with a payment module allows payment on board, and directly on the app, or online.
When booking, the Padam Mobility algorithm checks the availability of vehicles and free seats, and provides an immediate response with the estimated waiting time and the number of the vehicle requested. Once confirmed by the user, the trip is guaranteed.
