Project completion after three years’ development stage – Wiener Stadtwerke and ÖBB draw positive balance.

With their smile research project, Wiener Stadtwerke and ÖBB developed, together with competent partners, the prototype of an integrated mobility platform, complete with a smartphone app.

We are looking back on more than three years of intensive analysis, design, conceptual work, programming and further developing. Our goal was to devise an app that makes it possible to use and combine various means of transportation – underground, train, bike or e-car – as simply as possible. After several months of real-life testing, the project results were presented in May 2015.

smile promotes multi-modality

In an online survey, we questioned trial users of the smile platform: 75% of them indicated that they were very satisfied or satisfied with smile and provided numerous suggestions and ideas for future improvement. The research team of the Vienna University of Technology was interested in finding out whether using the smile app triggered a more environmentally friendly mobility behaviour. Indeed, 48% of the respondents stated that since using smile, they use public transport more often, while 21% used their private care less frequently. Additionally, smile encourages multi-modality. Combining car and public transport occurred more frequently for 26% of the pilot users; 20% of them combined a bike ride with public transport more often.

Building on the results of the smile project, both Wiener Stadtwerke and ÖBB are keen to further develop a digital multimodal mobility solution in order to provide a broadly accessible application.

Altogether, 16 mobility partners guaranteed the diversity of provision within this initiative, as the project partners Wiener Linien and ÖBB were joined by other prestigious mobility providers: car2go, EMIL, emorail, Taxi 31300, citybike, nextbike, Graz Bike, Twin-City-Liner, WIPARK, e-carage Elbl, Linz Linien, e-mobility Graz, Wien Energie Tanke and Energie Steiermark.

Contact

Reinhard Birke

Wiener Stadtwerke

E-Mail: reinhard.birke@wienerstadtwerke.at

Website: www.smile-einfachmobil.at

This project is supported by the Klima- und Energiefonds and conducted within the scope of the third announcement of the programme “technological lighthouses of electromobility (Technologische Leuchttürme der Elektromobilität)”.