Since 2000, the city of Vienna has seen a 101% increase in overnight stays. In 2017, Vienna recorded around 15.5 million overnight stays (of which over 12.7 million were by foreign guests) and 7.1 million arrivals within the city limits. Tourists come primarily for the art and culture, the sights, the cityscape and architecture, and the history of the city. The city offers a wide range of attractions spread across the urban area. Some of the tourists travel to and around the city by coach, for example from the Albertina to Schönbrunn and then on to the next place of interest. The various traffic flows of these coaches need to be optimised so that they harmonise with the rest of the city's life and so that visitors enjoy Vienna as a quality destination and want to return.
ProBus: Schematic representation of the app and its functions, as well as the automated detection of entries and exits
As part of the PPPI challenge ‘Management system for optimised occasional bus services’, Wiener Buspartner (City of Vienna, Vienna Tourism, Vienna Chamber of Commerce) called for the development and presentation of a technology- and software-based solution for controlling (or influencing) occasional tourist bus services. The key question was: how can technology and software help to achieve orderly processes and optimised capacity utilisation and transfer journeys at existing pick-up and drop-off zones for tourist buses, as well as in connection with waiting and parking areas?
The mobility experts at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, together with their partner EVOLIT, submitted ‘ProBus’ – a solution based on mapping bus management as a digital system. Martin Reinthaler from the AIT Center for Mobility Systems: ‘ProBus enables efficient and orderly interaction between higher-level, dynamic tour and route planning, simulation and optimisation of boarding and alighting zones, as well as waiting areas, and provides an optimal tool for sustainably increasing efficiency and visitor satisfaction in accordance with the desired requirements.’
Martin Reinthaler, Silvia Bernkopf
‘ProBus’ was convincing – the jury selected the AIT solution as one of the five winners of the challenge. As a result, the team led by Martin Reinthaler and Silvia Bernkopf was invited to an innovation dialogue at the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber at the end of June to present the solution at a market discussion. How and in what form “ProBus” will now be implemented will be clarified in the next few weeks – in any case, AIT is ready!