In Emilia-Romagna Region, The Institute for Transport and Logistics facilitated the creation of an open-source web app that allows digitalizing demand-responsive transport (DRT) solutions effectively and efficiently. The goal was to reduce the DRT management costs for small rural municipalities interested in developing such solutions but with low budgets for developing and managing them. Before, DRT services in Valmarecchia and Valconca valleys were managed only by phone calls, not allowing any kind of real-time notifications to final users if something is delayed and/or cancelled. Now, this process is simplified and upgraded.
Two companies managing the two demand-responsive transport services and the mobility agency, AMR, managing the public transport services in the Romagna area, created an app with different sections.
For the users, the interface consists of:
- Landing page, providing general information and a unified entry point to all the DRT services
- Users’ WebApp, allowing the users to book the specific DRT services.
For the operators, the interface includes specific elements:
- WebApp Back-end for management
- Drivers Webapp, allowing the exchange of real-time information between the public transport control rooms and each single bus.
In this “learn by doing” process, many stakeholders were consulted, as well as experts and best practices.
The WebApp is available here.