Park your car and hop on to a ‘flexible’ van

Opting for shared rides with a flexible pick-up and drop-off schedule could be the way forward to finding alternative modes of transport that truly work, research by the University of Malta has found.
Researchers from the Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development, working with the Vodafone Malta Foundation, found that implementing “demand responsive transport” (DRT) could offer a solution to the traffic problem that has for years plagued the island.
Through the DRT project, which was piloted among the University’s staff and students, the researchers tested out the efficiency of providing transport via a web portal and application.
The DRT system is shared and on-demand: passengers share the vehicle with other passengers for personalised trips.
During the pilot study, a van picked up and dropped off passengers at their requested destinations as part of efforts to test whether such a mode of transport could encourage a shift from personal car use and reduce traffic congestion.
According to the researchers, the DRT system was found to be “a feasible alternative to the use of the private car for commuting to and from the University”.

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