Regional Park of Vercors, a SaMBA Pilot
To increase carpooling and hitchhiking using reward measures to make citizens, tourits and event-goers choose more sustainable modes of transportation.
Problem
Common modes of transportation are lacking inside the park, and to get around is necessary to have a private one such as a car or a motorbike. The frequency of public transport, that connects to the Grenoble urban area, is low and the range of time slot is narrow. The bicycle can be used, but the steep slopes of the different passes in the Park are only accessible to trained users.
Description
The goal of the Park is mainly to reduce the number of cars on the road by increasing the number of persons in cars and to offer new mobility services in areas where they are missing. This is not linked to traffic issues, but mainly to a politician willing to reduce the place of cars in the natural park and, offer new services to people having mobility brakes and to reduce their energetic bill. The three main target groups identified for those policies were: Tourists, Inhabitants and Event-Goers. From that, a preliminary analysis was carried out, followed by a stakeholder analysis. From that, specific measures were planned for each target group.
Results
For Tourists: dedicated means of communication were planned, as well as the development of a specific storytelling, developed with local travel agencies, to enhance the desire to go around the park without cars.
For Inhabitants: dedicated means of communication and enhancement of campaing and communication strategies for carpooling and hitchhiking.
For Event-goers: creation of incentives for carpoolers in events, communication strategies that promote carpooling.
Moreover, the Park has developed guidelines on “how to organize car-pooling incentives in the frame of events”. The goal is to have a kit for carpooling that can be used by organisers with light assistance of the Park.
Lessons Learned
Regarding carpooling incentives for events, the main lesson is to give better visibility to incentives before the event and during the event. So good communication is crucial to make people aware of the offer, and during the event, all the participants have to see the advantages reserved for car-poolers to make them think about it for the next time.
The feedback from people shows that money is not the main motivation. Practical advantages are much more interesting for them (reserved parking places for example). A special offer or discount is more an attractive trick to get the attention than the real advantage.
Another important lession is that changing habits takes time. Experiences show that for an annual event, it is necessary to repeat the incentives every year to have an effect.
