Bad Birnbach and the future of public transport in rural areas

Bad Birnbach and the future of public transport in rural areas

Thinking about the future of mobility is imagining the future it will have in the long term. We are very close to observing young people using futuristic robot taxis as part of their public transportation . Most autonomous projects do not lead sleek robotaxis to non-crowded areas, while minibusses are part of those heavy-looking projects. These are the aptly named: people transporters.

The beginning of this project is planned to have contact with narrow alleys and avenues of smaller towns that belong to rural areas. It is proposed that in the not too distant future, Bad Birnbach will be implemented in small towns. Especially in the spa triangle like Lower Bavaria, which is known for its thermal baths and has attracted many visitors since 2017.

Guests as well as fans and experts of new mobility will have a reason to visit this small town. The bad Bimbach is a small box-shaped vehicle with a maximum speed of only 15 km/h. It is defined as the first autonomous public bus in Germany.

Learn more about Bad Birnbach

Bad Birnbach has become a vehicle that marked the history of transport and mobility services. For the first time, a people transporter of this type is on the road with normal traffic but without a driver and with a safety operator. Up until this point, self-driving vehicles were only on the road on gated or private property.

Another model that also marked the history of current public transportation is the Shuttle, which traveled 700m between the city center and the thermal bath. The connection to the local train station also followed and the first autonomous connection between online transport and rail transport in Germany was realized.

Bad Birnbach has only recently opened a new chapter in mobility. However, it has since launched several additional autonomous vehicles and these have been driving to 20 virtual stops in the city area on demand. This is part of “Project HEAL” and aims to maintain the combination of on-demand autonomous vehicles and autonomous scheduled shuttles.

Bad Bimbach Benefits 

This vehicle has been created with the purpose of improving the quality of public transport , in addition to mobility between the train station and the city center. With Bad Bimbach, tourists and locals can be mobilized both to health centers and to stores for daily needs.

Thanks to the operating system for digital mobility, orders are transmitted to the autonomous bus line and autonomous shuttles on demand. The software takes care of the optimal route in the background and groups passenger requests using an algorithm. That is, trips can be booked in advance or spontaneously through the application and are free.

Another advantage is that the trips will have high capacity and less traffic at the spa. With the Ioki operating system, which Bad Birnbach uses, all modes of public transport can be controlled by good software.

Public transport regulation on autonomous driving

Once the services of the two autonomous vehicles were implemented in the Bavarian town, the Federal Council approved the regulation on autonomous driving. This raised questions like: What about the people of Bad Birnbach and their guests? They had long since entered the era of autonomous public transport .

For Bad Birnbach, people describe their city as rural, that is, manageable, close to nature, but also modern and innovative. So, the place according to a survey conducted by the German digital association, has almost 90 percent of the participants in the survey. New mobility services can improve the quality of life in rural areas in particular, especially in rural regions.

The desire for flexible and available public mobility is particularly high. After all, the offer here is not as good as in the city. Around 55 million people do not live in large cities and therefore do not have reliable public transportation.

Trust Bad Birdbach if you want to have high quality public transport

Because transport is based on the real needs of the population and is future-oriented thanks to new technologies, transport services are beginning to lean towards autonomous ferries.

This new autonomous vehicle is a promising option for good connectivity in rural areas. Furthermore, it is the expansion of mobility offered through flexible pooling services. Thanks to a survey carried out by the Association of German Transport Companies, rural areas in particular were shown to be a driver for new forms of mobility.

Public transport, to counteract the climate crisis and to truly offer everyone a good mobility service, must be more available in rural areas. This is the only way to succeed in the shift from cars to public and environmentally friendly transport.

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