SAMPO (1996-1997)

The SAMPO project was supported by DGXIII under the Telematics Application Program under the EU 4th Framework Program. It carried out an in-depth assessment of both the user needs and the application requirements for ITS-supported Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) in 5 countries (Finland, Sweden, Italy, Belgium and Ireland). It conducted comprehensive user needs and validation assessement, as well as coordinated cross-site evaluation work. A successor project, SAMPLUS (1998-9) deepened the evaluation work with particular emphasis on user attitudes, business development and economic viability.

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Deliverable D3: Analysis of User Needs for Demand Responsive Transport Services

This document carried out an in-depth assessment of Users and their needs, both for the five individual sites and consolidating the knowledge gained. Four main ‘User Groupings’ have been established : End-users, Operators, Authorities and Active Destinations. In turn, these User Groupings have been broken down to a further level of ‘User Categories’, and it is at this level that the SAMPO project reports user needs. The document includes the detailed information from the five sites.

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Deliverable D9: Recommendations concerning the market, operation, organisation and business case of DRTS

This document presents the main findings from the SAMPO project, covering the user needs, technology validation and demonstration site results, plus an assessment of future prospect and risks/barriers that need to be addressed. It should be noted that this was written at a time when ITS was at the early stages of deployment in DRT. While many of the technology aspects have since been resolved, many of the user need, service requirements and regulatory/administrative/financial aspects remain valid today.