STEAM

The STEAM project aims to analyze and design future vehicle usage concepts for passenger and freight transport in a holistic and user-centered manner. These vehicle utilization concepts leverage the potential for use in times of low demand, which results from the intersection of individual, public and freight transport and their optimal use.

To this end, the existing regular service will be supplemented by minibuses, taking into account individual user and usage requirements to be identified in the project, thus making it more flexible and efficient. The resulting semi-flexible bus routes will efficiently serve the demand for mobility in the peak and off-peak hours of traditional urban public transport services in a demand-driven manner. To achieve the project objectives, the project comprises: (i) the conception and simulative testing of electrified, semi-flexible bus lines, (ii) the prospective integration of urban delivery traffic into semi-flexible lines, (iii) the development and prototypical implementation of a suitable, modular vehicle utilization concept and (iv) the validation of the simulations and the testing of the vehicle utilization concepts in a real-world laboratory.

Finally, concrete recommendations for action will be derived from the combination of the simulations and the real-world laboratory with the aim of designing a long-term sustainable development option for urban mobility in Munich and other metropolitan regions. The project partners and other stakeholders will iteratively derive requirements for future vehicles and their interiors during the course of the project based on the validated and tested findings. In addition, the holistic, user-centered approach enables innovative operating concepts and thus business models to be designed and analyzed.