The SMACKER project partners met for the first time at the kick-off meeting on 7 and 8 May, in Bologna, Italy. The meeting gave the opportunity to start the transnational cooperation among the nine partners from six European countries (Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland) and share the objectives and expectations of the project.

SMACKER is led by SRM Reti e Mobilità – the Public Transport Authority of the Municipality and Metropolitan area of Bologna – and involves nine partners from six European countries. The three-year project will benefit from a total funding from the Central Europe program of 2.1 million euros and will foresee the implementation of 6 pilot actions.

SMACKER will study mobility issues related to peripheral and rural areas and will promote demand-responsive transport services able to connect local and regional systems to main transport corridors and nodes: “soft” measures (behavior change campaigns) and pilot projects (mobility services) will be used to promote sustainable solutions for public transport in low-density and peripheral areas.

SMACKER will help local communities to redesign transport services based on users’ need, through a coordinated co-design process between local/regional partners and stakeholders; it will also encourage the use of new transport services through motivating and incentivizing campaigns. The direct beneficiaries of the actions will be residents, commuters and tourists.

SMACKER will also be synonymous of innovation thanks to the introduction of nudging and gamification and the use of information technology.

At the local level, a pilot project will be launched involving 13 municipalities in Alto Reno. The pilot intends to develop a series of measures to promote sustainable mobility solutions for residents, tourists and commercial activities, and on the other hand plan and test a demand-responsive transport service aimed to increasing the services currently offered and guaranteeing an optimized level of service throughout the day. Starting of pilots is scheduled in 2020. ITL Foundation, in addition to supporting SRM in the development of the in Emilia-Romagna pilot, will coordinate the activities related to the promotion and replicability of the technical contents developed by the project at European level.

For more information: www.interreg-central.eu/smacker