The main objective of the 3x30DebrecenMob initiative was to promote active and sustainable transport. In partnership with the City of Debrecen, the project was initiated and led by the Barcelona Region and funded by EIT Urban Mobility.
Every month from mid-September 2020 until the end of the year, participants of the DebrecenMob project were able to take part in a new playful transport challenge. Anyone could register for the challenges via a smart phone with internet access, the target group was the population of Debrecen and employees of companies with a higher employment rate in the region. The aim of the challenge was to reward participants if they used active and sustainable transport modes. In addition, the initiative aimed to support local businesses that offered prizes by giving them the opportunity to showcase their products or services through the challenge's web interface and smartphone app. Participants could redeem the scores they achieved in the challenge for discounts and, if they reached their target, they could win valuable prizes. Larger local companies took part in the competition to encourage the involvement of their employees as much as possible. In the end, more than 30 companies and organisations from Debrecen joined the initiative.
Almost 3x as many users registered for DebrecenMob as for the parallel FutureMob challenge in the Barcelona region (with 15 times the population). The 1,035 users travelled more than 138,000 km in an active and sustainable way, saving 42,000 kg of CO² during their journeys. This is equivalent to using 18,000 litres of fuel or charging 5 million mobile phones. Another argument in favour of sustainable transport is that the participants saved more than 10,000,000 HUF (~25,000 €) in 3 months compared to if they had driven a car.
The DeberecenMob helps urban planners, as by the end of the campaign a large amount of data were collected on travel habits, broken down by mode of transport, anonymously, available for all to check on the heat map on the website https://debrecenmob.hu/ (now archived). The data show, among other things, where people in Debrecen go to work and back home, where they cycle and walk, and where they use public transport. This information can be used to make a number of suggestions for improving urban transport, including the creation of new cycle routes, safer pedestrian crossings (e.g. through smart zebra crossings) or more efficient public transport.
In the competition of companies and organisations, the University of Debrecen have won, covered more than 51,000 km. NI Hungary Kft. came second with 14,500 km and Debreceni Vízmű Zrt. came third with almost 8,200 sustainable kilometres.
By way of comparison:
- 51,000 km is the equivalent of driving the Debrecen - Budapest route back and forth more than 100 times
- 14,500 km equals 10 times the Debrecen-Paris distance
- 8,200 km is almost the same as the distance from Debrecen to Japan.
