PTV Group to support EU project UPPER on the potential of public transport

Karlsruhe, 07/19/23. The PTV Group – part of Umovity is participating in the new Horizon Europe project UPPER, which makes public transport a cornerstone of sustainable mobility. The project name stands for Unleashing the Potential of Public Transport in Europe. A combination of 80 measures in ten cities and regions should inspire people to switch to public transport across Europe. PTV transport planning technology is incorporated with U-SIM, part of the UPPER toolkit for implementing these measures. This solution is on the one hand based on the desktop software PTV Visum (U-SIM.plan), on the other hand on PTV Optima, the real-time traffic management software (U-SIM.live).

Cities will play a central role in achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, the goal of the European Green Deal. To speed up the transition to climate-neutral cities, project participants are working with ten cities and regions: Valencia, Rome, Versailles Grand Parc - Île de France, Oslo, Mannheim, Lisbon, Leuven, Budapest, Thessaloniki, and region Hanover. The 4-year project coordinated by the UITP was launched in January 2023.

80 measures for switching to public transport

A combination of 80 pull and push measures is planned; these should encourage people to abandon their cars in favor of public transport. A major focal point is the participatory management and incorporation of citizens to take various target groups’ needs into account as well as possible. 

The overall goal of the so-called Living Labs and city partnerships is to increase public transport usage to more than 30% and passengers’ satisfaction by more than 25%. Christian U. Haas, CEO of PTV Group – part of Umovity, is convinced: “Changing people’s choice of transport is the basis for many other positive changes toward human and sustainable mobility.”

Traffic planning software for real-life planning and implementation

The planned activities will be supported by the UPPER toolkit (U-TWIN, U-SIM, U-NEED, U-GOV, U-KNOW, U-TRANSFER, and U-SUMP). These seven IT tools, which combine social and technological innovations, are demonstrated in the Living Labs, and will be used in twinning locations.

PTV transport planning technology is incorporated with U-SIM. U-SIM.plan is based on the traffic planning solution PTV Visum, which is already in use in eight of the cities. It is a comprehensive, flexible software system for traffic planning, transport demand modeling, and network data management. Designed for multimodal analyses, the tool integrates all relevant modes of transport, such as trains, trams, buses, pedestrians, cyclists, cars, and trucks into a uniform network model. This network model provides the standard for macroscopic simulations and macroscopic modeling of both transport networks and transport demand. This assists with the planning of public transport and the development of long-term transport strategies and solutions. 

On the other hand, U-SIM.live is based on PTV Optima, which is already used by some of the partner cities. The real-time traffic management software is also to be used for short-term operational deployment. It is a suite of web-based tools, allowing the operators of the mobility control centers to orchestrate the different modes of city mobility in real time by addressing private modes and public transport systems: buses, trams, subways, and trains. Its network model starts from a standard digital twin, like the ones modeled in PTV Visum, and keeps it always updated with live data from its connectors to live data feeds, from different mobility data sources. In UPPER it will assist with the operational decisions in management of the private and public mobility, by public transport operators and agencies.

Background information

UITP is the international association for public transport operators, based in Brussels. The association was officially founded on August 17, 1885. The member organizations come from 100 countries.
https://www.uitp.org/news/unleashing-the-innovation-potential-of-public-transport-as-backbone-of-urban-mobility-upper-project-launches/

The 84 pull and push measures should affect five “innovation axes”, which influence users’ decisions about selecting a mode of transport:

• Mentality and culture
• Urban mobility planning
• Ecosystem for mobility services
• Road network management
• Democratic management