New Tools and Strategies for Design and Operation of Urban Transport Interchanges

NODES "New tOols for Design and OpEration of Urban Transport InterchangeS" is a collaborative project co-funded by the Seventh Framework Programme focused on building and testing a Toolbox to support European cities in the design and operation of new or upgraded urban transport interchanges. NODES thereby provides greater support, services and satisfaction to travellers and users, to interchange operators as well as those societal and economic actors depending on the efficiency of the interchange. NODES provides a helping hand for European cities striving for inclusive, multimodal and sustainable urban transport. NODES is able to supply solutions and methods for Local Authorities, Public Transport operators as well as interchange promoters to better and more effectively plan, design and manage multimodal transport interchanges in European cities and beyond. NODES uses an integrated approach balancing and integrating land use and transport planning, interchange design, intermodality and Information Communication Technologies (ICT), interchange management and business models, energy and environment issues. The developed Toolbox is a catalogue of integrated planning, design and management tools for new or upgraded efficient urban interchange enabling every interchange promoter to create a more efficient, effective and inclusive urban transport system, bringing together all elements of a clean, energy-efficient, safe and intelligent transport. The Toolbox consists in a set of tools including technical, organizational, legislative, financial, energy and environment tools. NODES successfully developed and tested tools and integrated methodologies based on the most innovative technique, methods, models, software and regulations aimed at boosting performance of urban transport interchange in the different lifecycle stages such as newly build, refurbishment, governance and management changes, etc. NODES has assessed the effects of the Toolbox in the areas of land use planning, transport, society, economy, energy and environment. Nine different European cities have successfully tested the tools and integrated methodologies included in the Toolbox covering different situations, transport patterns and local peculiarities. These cities are: Toulouse (France), Reading (UK), Budapest (Hungary), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Rouen (France), Rome (Italy), Thessaloniki (Greece), Osnabrück (Germany), Birmingham (UK). Despite of significant differences among the above cities and relevant interchanges involved in the demonstrationś activities (e.g. small city interchange, central interchange in large city, etc.), all the involved sites achieved tangible results and benefits from the Toolbox's implementation, enabling to transfer results in other cities beyond the project. The main benefits can be measured in terms of increasing multimodal integration and integrated information provision, reducing time of transfer among different modes, enhancing liveability and experience from travellers' prospective, safety and security, enhancing energy efficiency, etc. The achieved results are the basis for a future further exploitation of the Toolbox towards a more technological and modelling-oriented solution based on multi-criteria, object oriented and agent-based approaches, enabling to deliver most effective and efficient combination of integrated tools and techniques, through an incremental and modular approach.