This project has received funding from the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency under grant agreement No 776381
1. The Context
Pilot site characteristics
Founded in 1983, Cité Descartes is located east from Paris, in the heart of the Paris-Vallée de la Marne agglomeration (20 minutes away from Paris by car).
Cité Descartes is labelled as a pole of excellence of Grand Paris. It brings together 25% of French research and development entities that work on the theme of sustainable city and counts numerous laboratories and technical research centres. It is seen as an experimentation site and demonstrator of many sustainable city solutions, thanks to the several pilots that (have been) taking place in the area.
The pilot’s stations will be in different areas of Cité Descartes. One of the main areas is the multimodal station of Noisy Champs, which is the main public transport station that serves the cluster with the RER (Réseau Express Regional), buses and a carsharing service that has been operated by Clem’ since 2015.
Users of transport in the area have very different backgrounds. They are students, researchers, teachers, employees, inhabitants, and others. This meant that they have different mobility needs and look for different mobility solutions.
2. The Challenge
Galileo set to enhance Clem’ shared mobility performance
Mobility as a service (MaaS) is a central topic in the pilot in Paris. Clem’’s shared eco-mobility platform already offers different mobility services (vehicle sharing, carpooling, and the reservation of charging stations) via an integrated mobile application that provides unified access to the customer. In addition, Clem’ has worked closely with authorities to create interoperability with local platforms and foster inter-modality between its own mobility offer and public transport services.The main challenge on the Cité Descartes is to meet the mobility needs of the different users with a reliable and simple mobility solution.
During the pilot, both carsharing and e-bike-sharing will be tested as being solutions to the mobility demand. Geolocation is one of the main key factors to an optimal operation of the service and is essential for the reliability of the service for the user and the operator.
3. The Technology
Tech enablers
Accurate geolocation through Galileo technology is necessary to determine the duration of use and cost for a passenger travelling between station A and station B. When a vehicle (car or e-bike) is booked in advance, location tools are required to invoice excess time and alert the operator when the vehicle is not dropped off at the station at the end of the reservation. Reliable geolocation also offers essential information in the case of any incidents. For e-bike sharing, reliable tracking is additionally a security guarantee against theft and helps monitor the use and operation of the service.
4. The Pilot
Establishing Demonstrators
The Galileo 4 Mobility pilot will consist of an electric car- and e-bike-based sharing service with a mixed fleet of 11 electric cars and 20 electric bikes that will be equipped with Galileo technology.
Bikes will be operated in a “one-way” sharing model (enabling users to ride them from point “A” to “B”) while cars will be in a “loop” configuration (vehicles taken from point “A” and returned to that same location).
Both services require a valid registration and booking to get access to a vehicle. A regressive pricing is applied for carsharing: the first hour costs €7, the second €6, and so on. For e-bike sharing, the basic formula is €1,50 per 30 min. A monthly subscription is suggested for regular user: this costs €4 per month, reducing the use pricing to €1 per 30 minutes.