GUARD – Guaranteed Ride Home Keywords: Transport planning, urban-rural relationship, Public Transport, Transport Model Over the years the number of people commuting between cities and surrounding areas has been constantly growing. Whereas modes of public transport are usually welcomed and used when travelling within city limits, commuters are not attracted because of the lack of interconnectivity between city and surrounding villages. To achieve a switch from motorized individual traffic to sustainable and eco-friendly modes of public transport, a higher grade of service quality and complete travel information has to be provided. Project GUARD Guaranteed Ride Home is based on solid experience gathered over the past years concerning technological solutions in the design of traffic models, IT based operational control systems and intermodal travel information systems. GUARD is developing technical solutions for an optimized integrated system for public transport (PT) by providing reliable and fast connections and complete travel information. A high-resolution multimodal traffic model, which relates to time and location, will serve as a comprehensive tool to map supply and demand in traffic. In order to raise the attractiveness of public transport, a mayor objective of project GUARD is to develop a multistage model for secured interconnectivity. Together with the traffic model, traffic supply can subsequently be better planed according to demand. Moreover, multistage informational systems for travel information will be developed and implemented. Special factors such as subjective travel time and real-time information on connections will be taken into account. Evaluation of overall economic aspects such as environmental concerns and cost-effectiveness as well as operational aspects concerning providers and customers of PT services will be secured by a special, tailor-made tool.   Duration: 2008 – 2010 Persons involved at Graz University of Technology:

• Martin Fellendorf
• Michael Haberl

External cooperation partners:

• FGM-AMOR GesmbH
• Steirische Verkehrsverbund GmbH
• verkehrplus GmbH
• Grazer Stadtwerke AG – Verkehrsbetriebe
• Mentz Datenverarbeitung Austria GmbH
• ÖBB Personenverkehr
• Land Steiermark, FA 18A

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