These everyday connections are at the heart of “Better Public Transport, Better Cities”, the public awareness campaign developed as part of the OPTI-UP project.
After more than two years of research, modelling, planning and pilot implementation, OPTI-UP has entered the phase of sharing its results with a wider audience. At the centre of that effort is the newly developed OPTI-UP Toolkit, while the campaign places the project’s broader message into a simple context: better public transport planning can contribute to better cities and better everyday life.
One simple idea: better public transport creates better cities
The campaign slogan deliberately connects public transport with its wider impact:
Better Public Transport, Better Cities.
Because the quality of a public transport system affects much more than transport itself. A better connection can make it easier to reach a workplace. A better timetable can make school more accessible. A well-planned route can improve access to healthcare or public services. Better connections between surrounding settlements and urban centres can make opportunities available to people who do not or cannot rely on a private car.At the same time, attractive public transport can help reduce car dependency, congestion and transport-related emissions.
This relationship between transport and everyday urban life is already embedded in the OPTI-UP project objectives. The project identifies accessibility to jobs, education and essential services, connectivity between urban and suburban areas, equal opportunities for people who cannot drive, and reduced transport emissions among the reasons why public transport planning matters.
The visual idea follows the same logic
The campaign translates this relationship into a simple visual concept built around connections.
Public transport is, fundamentally, a network: people, neighbourhoods, services and opportunities are connected through routes and nodes. The campaign visual language uses this idea of connection to show that improving one part of the mobility system can have effects far beyond the journey itself.
That is why the campaign develops the central message through a series of connected ideas:
Better mobility. Better everyday life.
Better access. Better opportunities.
Better public transport. Better cities.
For professional audiences, the same structure shifts towards the planning process:
Better questions. Better planning.
Better context. Better decisions.
Better planning. Better investment.
Together, these messages connect two perspectives on the same issue: what citizens experience every day, and the decisions that public authorities, planners and transport operators make behind the scenes.
One campaign, different audiences
OPTI-UP was designed to reach three broad groups: decision-makers, experts and public transport users. The campaign therefore communicates at two levels.
For professionals, the focus is on the knowledge, methods and tools developed through OPTI-UP – particularly the new OPTI-UP Toolkit, which helps cities explore potentially suitable directions for improving their public transport systems.
For citizens, the focus is on outcomes: accessibility, connectivity, cleaner mobility and the role public transport can play in creating more liveable cities.
For decision-makers and transport professionals, the campaign also offers a practical next step. The OPTI-UP Toolkit turns the project’s accumulated knowledge into an interactive starting point for exploring what better public transport planning could look like in a specific city.
Explore the OPTI-UP Toolkit
From better planning to better everyday life
This is also why the campaign does not communicate the OPTI-UP Toolkit in isolation. The Toolkit is designed primarily for the people making and supporting public transport decisions. But the consequences of those decisions are experienced by everyone who moves through a city.
For decision-makers and experts, better public transport starts with better questions, better context and better planning. For citizens, it can mean better access, better connections and more opportunities to choose public transport as part of everyday life.
The campaign brings those two perspectives together. Because a better transport network is not only an objective for planners and operators. It is one of the elements that can make a city more accessible, connected, sustainable and liveable.
Better Public Transport, Better Cities.
Learn more about OPTI-UP and follow the project: Visit the OPTI-UP website | Follow OPTI-UP on LinkedIn