MAMBA for mobility and accessibility in rural Europe

During three years of project implementation, MAMBA (“Maximizing Mobility and Accessibility of Services in Regions Affected by Demographic Change”) contributed to quality of life, mobility and service provision in rural regions. From rural carsharing to transport-on-demand, from rural co-working to ridesharing: MAMBA realised a variety of small but inspiring rural mobility and accessibility projects. In their entirety, these projects outline new horizons for rural regions – despite demographic challenges and strained public budgets.

MAMBA: more than just transportation from A to B

While carsharing, ridesharing and many other, new forms of mobility are already widespread in Europe’s metropolises, rural communities face the challenge that these (business) models cannot be easily transferred to the rural context. In addition, demographic change and limited financial resources make it difficult for many communities to guarantee basic infrastructural services. For three years, MAMBA has developed innovative and efficient mobility solutions for rural areas. In doing so, MAMBA looks at mobility from a holistic perspective: it is not just about getting from A to B, but MAMBA is also concerned with the accessibility and provision of services in rural locations.

40.000 km for rural Latvia: The first-ever rural Transport-on-Demand

Our project partners from Latvia have set up a Transport-on-Demand service in two rural regions – the first service of its kind ever in Latvia. For the largely elderly population, who are cut off from doctors, shops and other services without their own car, this offer has great added value. During the test phase, the service was used for over 2,000 trips, covering a distance of around 40,000 kilometres.

Flexible and innovative solutions for rural areas

Other examples from MAMBA include a co-working space in southern Sweden that saves commuter traffic to larger cities, a rural carsharing service in Germany and a ridesharing service in the environs of the Danish city of Vejle, to name but a few – services that are all well-known from urban contexts, but cannot be copy-pasted to the rural world. Instead, they need genuinely rural approaches.

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