OptiTrans project consortium visited on July 9th, 2019 UTH facilities to be informed about GYM project and discuss issues on urban mobility and transport. The meeting also attended the President of Urban KTEL of Volos, Mr. Nikolaos Evangelinos.

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During the meeting Prof. Saharidis presented GreenYourMove application to the consortium of OptiTrans project, the data synchronization study performed and the forthcoming integration of real life data in the application. Then an interesting discussion on several topics covering aspects of urban mobility followed.

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The attendants showed interest in the update needs of GYM application and the data synchronization study performed under the frame of LIFE GYM project. The idea of a single electronic ticket covering the whole route, even if the passenger changes several transport means was also discussed.

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Prof. Saharidis highlighted the ability of the platform to compare the emissions produced by using public transport instead of private cars. Then a discussion followed on ways to change people’s habits in using public transport and several practices were discussed.

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Mr. Haars from Tartu city Government, Estonia, argued that one way to increase public transport usage is to offer it for free and include its cost in city taxes. Ms. Fabian from Baia Mare Metropolitan area, Romania, pointed that educating people to decrease their car usage and shift to public transport will take years. In Romania, it is about forcing people to use public transport and that can be achieved by increasing pedestrian areas, creating parking lots outside of the city, etc.

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Mr. Bougarz from Ministry of Infrastructure and Agriculture of Thuringia mentioned that currently a smartphone application is being developed that will calculate the covered distance a passenger travels by the time  he hops on a public transport mean to the time he hops off.

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The meeting was concluded with attendants declaring their common intention to cooperate on increasing public transport.