EPOMM Newsletter September 08

ECOMM: Call for papers and Award
	Dear reader, This e-update has been produced together with our cooperation partner, the MAX-project. MAX is the largest EU-research project on Mobility Management and as such will report its developments in six e-updates of EPOMM - this is the first issue. Find out more in the chapter on MAX. The theme this time is "Evaluation", an important, but often difficult issue in Mobility Management. EPOMM, together with MAX, is working to coordinate European efforts in achieving some amount of standardisation as well as on bringing this theme to more prominence. This is reflected in that the central theme of the next ECOMM (European Conference on Mobility Management) is Evaluation and Cost Benefit of Mobility Management. Why evaluate at all - see some arguments from MAX on the new ECOMM-website. The ECOMM 2009 takes place in the beautiful city of Donostia / San Sebastian. The new website has just gone online. The call for papers is open until 12 December - download the forms here. For the second time, the ECOMM will host the award-ceremony for the Pan European Workplace Mobility Plan awards. The awards come with an attractive prize - you can find everything on how to apply for an award here.
Evaluation in Sweden: the success-story of SUMO
	The MOST project was the first attempt to define a standardised evaluation scheme for Mobility Management, resulting in the MOST MM evaluation toolkit, the MOST MET. Unfortunately, the MOST-MET turned out to be too complicated for most practitioners. The only country to apply it was Sweden. The EPOMM member Swedish Road Administration commissioned Trivector to translate the MOST-MET into Swedish and to adapt and simplify it for Swedish purposes. The result was SUMO (System för Utvärdering av MObilitetsprojekt) - the Swedish system for evaluation of Mobility projects. As the Swedish Road Administration made the use of SUMO an obligatory requirement for co-financing MM-projects, well over 100 projects have so far applied SUMO. Currently, a national database called SARA is under development with the purpose of collecting and making the evaluation results available for research, comparison and benchmarking.
The MAX project
	MAX is the EU's largest framework research project on Mobility Management (MM) and Travel Awareness (TA) in transport. Four thematic work packages are developing products useful for MM and TA practitioners: WP A, "New approaches and innovative campaigns in MM", is developing a guidance tool to improve awareness campaigns in the field of transport. WP B, "Predictive Model and Prospective Assessment", is developing a standardised European wide evaluation tool based on SUMO and MOST-MET (see above). Also included are a decision support tool and a database to collect data on a European level. This will then serve as a basis to develop a predictive model. WP C, "Linking MM to Quality management", is developing a tool, especially for cities, but also for other practitioners, to connect Mobility Management with Quality Management. WP D, "Integrating planning and MM", is developing a guidance tool to integrate land use planning and mobility management. It is also developing and testing a "simulation workshop" that has already proven to be a valuable tool for mobility planning in development sites. Most MAX reports will be available as "beta-versions" at the ECOMM 2009 - MAX plans to hold training sessions there. MAX has produced a common definition of MM, that is available on the MAX and EPOMM websites and already in use by several countries and many European Projects. More information is available on the MAX-website, an overview on MAX was also presented at the ECOMM in 2007, download here (231 kByte).
MAXSumo to be tested in EPOMM-countries
	The MAX-project is developing a new evaluation tool based on SUMO (see above), with the working title MAXSumo. The EPOMM member states have agreed to test this version. This involves translation of the tool from English into the respective national language, but also adaptation to the national framework conditions. Pioneers will be the Dutch, that have sort of joined forces with their Flemish counterparts - so the translation has to be done only once. The French, Spanish and Austrian members have agreed to follow the Dutch example. The feedback from these testers will be very important for the further development of the MAXSumo. This is the first step towards a European evaluation tool and evaluation standard. It will also be closely observed by the city networks Eurocities and POLIS - that have shown keen interest in MAX. Eurocities as part of the EPOMM consortium will actively disseminate MAX-results, POLIS has also agreed to do this.
Evaluation in Austria: under the umbrella of klima:aktiv:mobil
	There is no standardised evaluation of MM in Austria. However, the by far largest support scheme for MM, klima:aktiv:mobil, actively supports evaluation. Every institution receiving support has to sign an agreement with the supporting institution: the Austrian member of EPOMM and the bank providing the support. In this agreement, the planned measures are described and for each a realistic estimate of CO2 reduction has to be made. This estimate then serves as target. The attainment of these targets is verified for some of the projects by random inspections by independent evaluators. The consultants working directly with the institutions receive less support if the set targets are not met. A meta-evaluation of the whole klima:aktiv programme determined that especially these target agreements made the programme very efficient. Austria also agreed to test the MAXSumo with projects from the klima:aktiv:mobil programme.
Evaluation in the UK: Trics, iTrace, TRAVL and more to come
	In the UK, there is no standard evaluation tool for mobility management The British Standards Institute is preparing a national standard for workplace mobility plans which is due to be launched before the end of the year. However, the UK is in the happy position to already have several data collection and analysis tools in place: iTrace is a web based tool that helps to set up a mobility plan and enter data on mobility plan targets, survey results and modals shift achievements. It is used by the London boroughs and many cities in the UK TRICS® is a computerised database and trip rate analysis package used extensively for transport planning and development control. It is the only national (UK and Ireland) trip generation and analysis database, containing trip generation data and site information for over 2,800 sites. TRICS® regularly produces research reports. TRAVL (Trip Rate Assessment Valid for London) is a unique, multi-modal trip generation database designed specifically for London. It is used by planners working on projects across Greater London to estimate the effect of proposed changes in land use on transport patterns and, in particular, on the amount of road traffic in a particular area. The TRAVL database now contains surveys of over 400 sites. The sites identified reflect urban development trends across the city and are chosen to ensure that the coverage of the TRAVL database remains comprehensive.
Other EPOMM Activities
	Pan European Workplace Mobility Plan Awards 2009 The application for this award has opened - you have time until 12 February 2009. Below you can download the application files: PEWTA Authorities 2009 PEWTA Employers 2009 PEWTA Networks 2009 See the winners from 2008 here.
	ECOMM 2009- call for papers Download the call paper here. Download the instructions for the call here. Link to the ECOMM 2009 website Take up of the OPTIMUM2 network As announced in the last e-update, EPOMM will take up the OPTIMUM2 network from 2010 on. In the interim period, the OPTIMUM2-network will be continued by the ASTUTE conference and the MAX final conference:
	ASTUTE-Conference 4-5 December 2008 You can still register for the conference - download the leaflet. Fill in registration form. On Thursday, December 4th,there is a drinks reception (17.00 hrs in HMS President London). It's your chance for an informal get-together with other members of the OPTIMUM2 Network, the London European Partnership for Transport and the ASTUTE partners. More information: www.astute-eu.org MAX final conference September 9th -10th 2009 in Cracow, Poland This conference will show all the final results of the MAX-project and also be an OPTIMUM2-network meeting.