ERGODIC: Combined passenger and goods transportation in suburb traffic

Research Project, 2023 – 2026

Living in city outskirts and suburb areas nowadays highly relies on private vehicles for commuting and getting everyday supplies. Due to low demand density, conventional public transport and delivery cannot provide high levels of service as they do in urban areas. Overcoming these challenges is crucial to transform the 15-minute city concept from a vision into a practical reality. To this end, this project proposes and demonstrates a novel system for integrated passenger and goods transport, consisting of flexible public transport with modular vehicles and last-mile travel/delivery service with active micromobility. Modular vehicles could flexibly change capacity by adjusting the number of connected and segregated cabins that carry either passengers or goods. The proposed system is compatible with current infrastructure, technically ready, and has great potential to reduce the use of or even replace private vehicles with comparable services. In this project, we focus on 1) business model development and demand matching of passengers and goods, 2) operational system design and optimization, 3) safety, social, and sustainable impacts analysis, and 4) proof of concept with field demonstration. The goal is to develop a sustainable multimodal transport service for residents in city outskirts and eventually realize the concept of 15min city. In 2026, we will run a pilot project in the city of Linz, in collaboration with NEXT. 

The project is funded by the European Commission and VINNOVA under the program Driving Urban Transitions (DUT) with a total amount of SEK 13.5 million. The consortium includes partners from Sweden (Chalmers, WSP, and Einride), Austria (Johannes Kepler University and City of Linz), UK (University of Liverpool, ESG, and BITA), and Italy (GETPLUS/NEXT).