New Mobility Master Plan for the Barcelona Metropolitan Region

ATM Barcelona is acknowledged to be one of the pioneering
European public transport authorities in the field of developing
integrated sustainable mobility plans at metropolitan scale. After
the plan implemented for the 2007-2012 period (see EMTA News
nr. 30, October 2007), the Board of Directors of ATM recently
adopted the 2013-2018 Mobility Master Plan (pdM) for the
Barcelona Metropolitan Region.

As in many countries and regions across Europe, mobility patterns
have changed substantially over the past years and challenges
are now different to the ones faced in the past decade. This new
and faster changing scenario is duly taken into account by pdM
2013-2018, which has been shaped as a planning tool allowing
permanently adaptative strategies.

Smartly moving towards a smart region
Mobility in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region has changed because of the economical crisis but also due to the increase of environmental
awareness and the boom of new IT technologies. Within this framework, pdM 2013-2018 establishes quantitative mobility
and environmental targets to be attained at regional scale – which urban mobility plans at municipal level will also have to comply
with – and proposes a new approach which highlights research and innovation as methods to cope with the envisaged challenges. It
is not that ATM’s plan has given up the “classical” action streamlines on urban planning, provision of public transport services or
infrastructure development and safety issues; it is that the relative weight of them has changed. Hence, proposals related to new
energy and vehicle technologies and the spread of knowledge, information and communication are much more stressed than in the
previous 2007-2012 plan.

Simple goals of pdM 2013-2018

In short, pdM 2013-2018 fosters broadening the concept of a smart city to that of a smart region in the field of mobility by focusing
on specific proposals such as the following:

• To integrate all mobility services into a new smart e-ticketing system based on the T-Mobilitat contactless card (see EMTA
  News nr. 50, Spring 2014) so as to make public transport and other services like public bike-sharing more friendly to use.
  Furthermore, T-Mobilitat will allow payments associated to private mobility such as tolls and parking ;
• To strengthen the use of variable speed signalisation, dynamic information and digital cameras on metropolitan roads to
  manage traffic congestion, to reduce accidents and to provide real-time information to drivers ;
• To efficiently manage new bus dedicated infrastructures by monitoring access to them and by establishing priority for buses
  at initial/end interfaces with conventional roads or streets. Use of bus dedicated lanes by green cars and trucks will be also
  considered at periods when the number of buses in operation is low (off-peak hours) ;
• To develop an integrated P&R and public transport system in which drivers and cyclists can get online information regarding
  free parking spaces, parking prices, transport public schedules, delays of trains and buses, availability of electric charging
  stations and other car, motorbike and bike services in a way that helps them to plan their multimodal journeys in advance ;

• To establish a new information centre on public transport at regional scale in order to provide citizens with reliable real-time
  information on PT services. The whole fleet of metropolitan buses will be provided with upgraded embarked information and
  communication systems so as to offer global data allowing trip planning & tracking on a wide variety of devices (on board
  systems, smart phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) ;
• To improve social knowledge on mobility issues by fostering benchmarking of good practices and new projects in collaboration
  with universities and research centres. pdM also proposes the creation of a metropolitan observatory of new mobility technologies
  by ATM, a place where all institutions and citizens will be able to share their projects in an open way.

Sharing the process – sharing the actions
pdM 2013-2018 actions are to be carried out by different public
bodies with different responsibilities on mobility at metropolitan
level. All these bodies have been engaged in the diagnosis and
proposal definition planning phases in a “sharing process” way
to guarantee a successful plan implementation. Other stakeholders
like citizen organizations with interests in mobility, consultants,
mobility experts, university researchers, entrepreneur associations
and trade unions have been also involved.

As a matter of fact, it is after the adoption of pdM 2013-2018 by
ATM’s Board of Directors when the plan has started to live. The
different stakeholders are now expected to strongly pursue the
actions for which they are responsible and to share the facts and
findings arising from them. This collaborative work will be crucial
to strengthen the plan, to indentify additional possible synergies
and ultimately to achieve the pdM targets as envisaged. At the
end, the Mobility Master Plan for the Barcelona Metropolitan
Region is a commitment among public entities, private organizations
and citizenship to attain a more sustainable and liveable region.

Contact: Josep-Anton Grau - Director General