ECOMM 2014 Mobility management as a tool for facilitating cycling in the sector of home care (cleaning services and family care) TRAJECT Katrien Backx

The project is situated in and around the city of Leuven WHERE? The project is situated in and around the city of Leuven Leuven is situated close to Brussels. It has about 100.000 inhabitants. Some characteristics: a brand new railway station; a lot of busses that enter the city from the big access roads; lots of students and bikes; even some strange vehicles like the “Kickbike”

WHO? Public social welfare centre of Leuven +/- 230 employees and +/- 1200 clients Services: cleaning and family care (cooking, shopping, doctor’s visit, … )

Location employees and clients Employees personal help Clients personal help Legend Location employees and clients This chart shows where the employees live (the circles) and where the clients are located (the triangles). It was perfectly possible that an employee who lives north of Leuven had to visit a client in the south.

OBJECTIVE More sustainable mobility: From home to clients Between clients Offer a service with the same quality and customer focus

HOW? Creating new zones: Smaller zones (  smaller distances between clients) Taking into account: Location of the railway station The channel (forms a barrier) Concentration of clients Some important roads

Important roads channel Ring road

10 smaller zones 4 big zones

HOW? Use mobility criteria in assigning employees to a zone Bike accessibility: who lives within +/- 3 km of a zone gets assigned to that zone The colour of each circle shows the previous zone. Example: the circle in the south had to go to the north and now to the zone next to the home-address

HOW? Use mobility criteria in assigning employees to a zone Accessibility by bus: Who lives in walking distance of a bus stop with direct connection to one of the zones, gets assigned to that zone

HOW? Use mobility criteria in assigning employees to a zone Accessibility by train: Who lives near a train station (with direct connection to Leuven) gets assigned to a zone near the train station of Leuven

Communication Communication towards employees is important ! Explanation of the purpose of the project Opportunity to explain their personal situation Personal travel advice (how to get to new clients with public transport or bicycle)

I have to bring my children to school I have never used the bus Have to be home by 5 … I don’t have a bike … … Dangerous route to cycle … …

Travel advice bicycle: Overview map Link to website (to download the route) Detailed map

Travel advice by bus: - Location of bus stop (+ distance) - Timetable of the busses

SATISFACTION A survey was held after implementation of the project Most people were satisfied with the changes

SATISFACTION “I work now in the center of Leuven and I use the bus. I have a very good bus connection. Now I can leave home 15 minutes later and I am home earlier. The most important thing is that the distances between the clients are shorter. So I don’t have to stress to get from one client to another. I’m going to work with pleasure !!”

RESULTS More use of public transport and bicycle Shorter commuting distances and travel time

FUTURE Introduction of additional projects: Testing bicycles (including electric bikes) Making bicycles available at central locations (e.g. train station or important bus stop) New calculation of the travel fees (based on average distances to each zone and between clients)

CONCLUSION Mobility management as a tool: To facilitate both commuting and work-related trips To organise the work in a more efficient way To give a boost to cycling and public transport To get a better work-life balance for the employees To be able to attract new employees in a scarce market