New transport master planning standards in Romania

In July 2014, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Great Britain, placed a large order for the development of sustainable mobility master plans in Romania. The project budget stands at around EUR 1.35 million. PTV Group is assuming a leadership role and providing consulting, expertise, methods and software for transport planning and modelling in three cities: Craiova, Iaşi and Ploieşti.

The EBRD has set itself the ambitious target of establishing sustainable transport planning in a total of eight Romanian cities over the next few years. The approach is a new one for Romania: on the basis of an integrated planning process – working alongside and for municipal authorities, and with the participation of local stakeholders – sustainable policies will be developed for urban transport.

The introduction of quantitative transport planning methods is a core part of the contract. For example, transport modelling is to be introduced for objective assessments in all cities. The project is of central strategic significance. "The whole of Romania should benefit and learn from the new transport planning methods," asserts project leader Dr.-Ing. Rainer Schwarzmann of PTV Transport Consult GmbH. "Particular emphasis is to be placed on knowledge transfer between all participants. We will provide city developers and transport planners with the know-how for the day-to-day work and cooperate with them, using professional software tools, to develop the sustainable transport models."

Expertise for Romania from the Karlsruhe technology region

Several firms from the PTV Group are involved: PTV Transport Consult GmbH is responsible for the overall coordination of the project and brings its expertise in transport planning, public transport and parking space strategy. PTV AG provides extensive and suitable software tools, while supporting the development of new transport models with its experts. The public transport theme will be backed by consultants from TTK GmbH and Search Corporation Srl will be involved as a local partner.

The official contract is to develop "Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans for Growth Poles in Romania". The growth poles encompass four different regions surrounding the cities of Braşov (Kronstadt)/Constanta, Craiova/Iaşi/Ploieşti, Cluj-Napoca (Klausenburg)/Timişoara (Temeschburg) and Bucharest/Ilfov.