Topic:

On the Nidfeld site in Kriens, a new neighborhood with apartments and commercial space is currently under construction. To avoid overloading the traffic situation in the area during peak hours, there is a given requirement (by the authorities) on how many cars are allowed to enter and leave the site between 17:00 CEST / 5 PM and 18:00 CEST / 6 PM.

The "Fahrtenmodell" available to the site developer Losinger Marazzi AG estimates that the maximum of 200 entrances and exits will be exceeded once the new site is in use.

Challenge:

Use the "Fahrtenmodell" to gain ideas about reducing the number of car rides during the peak hour. Review / test your solutions based on the "Fahrtenmodell".

Possible Solutions:

Losinger Marazzi's current plan is to slow down the exit barrier to limit the number of exits temporarily. However, there must be a better solution than this. For example, there might be ways to create incentives for residents, workers, and customers to bypass the peak hour or use public transport, bicycles, or car sharing. You are free to think out of the box and come up with solutions that reduce the number of car rides to the allowed maximum.

Data & Tools:

• Further information on the Nidfeld Site and challenge (github link below)
• Development plan Nidfeld | Regulations (in particular access and mobility in chapter 6)(github link below)
• Development plan Nidfeld | Site plan (github link below)
• Geo portal Lucerne | Public transport stops in Kriens
• Geo portal Lucerne | Zone map Lucerne
• LUSTAT Statistics Canton Lucerne
• Federal Office for Statistics | Mobility & Transport Data
• Open data platform mobility Switzerland
• Google Maps
• Open Street Map
• GitHub

First update:

Initially, we have evaluated different possible solutions to reduce traffic during rush hours caused by residents. Still, on the other hand, we are also questioning the Mobilitätsbüro's calculation, i.e., Google shows that Prodega customers peak around midday-2pm, which would imply that the 10% share of DWV in the peak hours 5pm-6pm seems overly optimistic. We identified two possible stakeholder groups where significant improvements can be made: 1. Residents 2. Prodega customers

Result:

We evaluated possible solutions to reduce traffic during rush hours caused by the key stakeholders: residents and Prodega customers. Although a third group - employees of companies located in the area - contributes to the traffic situation, we focused on the first two groups. Measures for residents and Prodega customers seem to be more feasible than for employees. Before coming up with ideas and evaluating them, we questioned the data that was provided to us. When comparing the numbers of Prodega visitors with the "Popular Times" section for Prodega Kriens on Google, we detected that the number of customers peaked around midday-2pm. This implies that the Mobilitätsbüro assumption that 10% of DWV is from 5pm to 6pm seems overly optimistic.

Key Stakeholders:

• Residents
• Prodega customers

 Process:

In the beginning, we sat together to brainstorm. The goal was to get a wide set of ideas prioritized and evaluated in detail. This resulted in the following mindmap containing ideas for residents and Prodega customers:

 Residents:

We believe that financial benefits or other incentives can influence human behavior. Therefore we came up with ideas for residents to not use their cars during rush hour. The following options are among them:

• Carpooling service via App
• Partially subsidized car-sharing services
• Signaling: Control of traffic flow (i.e., sending outgoing traffic in one direction only)
• Reduced or even free public transport tickets
• Mobility Car Sharing promotion, i.e., free annual subscription
• Variable monthly parking fee. I.e., discounts if no exits in peak hours are registered. This may follow a staggered approach, e.g., no departures will give the highest discount, whereas up to 10 exits per month will yield a slightly reduced discount.
• Free delivery services for residents: We believe a certain share of exits may be attributed to grocery shopping.
• commercial stores on the ground floor: evaluate supermarket
• Make the way between the living area and nearest train station more attractive by offering e-mobility solutions like e-scooters or enuu vehicles, attractive pricing necessary.

Prodega:

• Partially subsidized delivery service for Restaurants
• Time-dependent discounts. I.e., time the discounts to only be valid during non-peak hours. Prodega's cooperation may be awarded a rent deduction.
• Promote online shopping services.
• Promote combined pickup for multiple customers
• Time-dependent parking fee:
  • Free of charge from 10am-3pm
  • From 4-7pm pm e.g. 5 francs/15minutes.

Evaluation of Main Ideas

Variable monthly parking fee for residents and employees

Implement a bonus system for individuals that rent a private parking spot. The default rent is set to above average in the beginning of the month. Residents can reduce their rent by not exiting the area during the peak time slot 5-6 pm. If a certain number of exits or entries during the peak time is not surpassed, the rental price will drop significantly. The App designed for the area could display the savings for each resident.

Time-dependent discounts for Prodega customers

Identify customers that regularly shop during peak times at Prodega. Analyze their shopping behavior and offer time-dependent personal discounts (i.e., use Supercard data). For example: "10% on mayonnaise before 5pm or after 6 pm."

Reduced or free public transport tickets & Subsidized Mobility Car Sharing for residents

Reduced public transport cost for residents may lower car usage. Subsidizing the annual subscription of Mobility Car Sharing for the residents and providing on-premise Mobility Cars might get people not to want to own a car.

E-Mobility solutions between living area and nearest/most important train stations

In order to increase usage of public transport the transfer time from the living area to the nearest train station is crucial. To shorten the transfer time, the availability of e-mobility vehicles like e-scooters, e-bikes or e-cars (for example, Enuu) could be ensured. The provider may implement a specific subscription model for residents.

Next Steps:

Before proceeding with further analysis, we strongly recommend to the challenge owner to verify the data provided by the "Mobilitätsbüro" as we can not assure its validity. LUSTAT and Astra may be the right institutions to get in touch with. Unfortunately, we could not communicate with them as we did not get any responses either by phone or by email.

We spent a fair amount of time trying to model the traffic flow using the open-source and state-of-the-art urban mobility modeling software "SUMO". We deem the software's capability as quite significant and thus recommend investing more time in modeling the traffic flow surrounding the area to trial various ideas. We are attaching the developed modeling environment in the following ZIP file: Link