Guided by the belief that mobility planning should be grounded in real-world behavior, plan:mobil has been supporting cities, regions, and transport associations for over 20 years. The firm specializes in developing practical, data-based solutions for public transport and sustainable mobility—always with a focus on usability, efficiency, and long-term impact.
Plan:mobil combines expertise in transport planning, mobility research, and public participation to help shape future-ready mobility systems. Its work ranges from strategic master plans to detailed service optimization, often using innovative data sources like mobile network data to replace traditional surveys and reduce costs.
As a trusted partner in the public sector, plan:mobil contributes to shaping mobility frameworks that are socially inclusive, environmentally responsible, and economically viable. Through its projects, the company helps lay the groundwork for transport systems that meet today’s needs while preparing for tomorrow’s challenges.
Challenges
- Reliable mobility data was a key component in developing the Public Transport Master Plan 2035 for VVOWL.
- A consistent empirical foundation was essential to evaluate over 350 local travel connections in the greater Bielefeld, Gütersloh, Herford, and Minden area and to uncover potential improvements in public transport services.
Solution
- Anonymized mobile network data was used to analyze actual mobility flows across the entire region, segmented by day types and times of day.
- The public transport share was derived by combining traffic volumes with distributions from the "Mobility in Germany" study to enable a realistic demand estimation.
- An optimization of the service offering could be easily derived based on the hour-by-hour daily movement patterns.
Benefits
- The conceptual advancement of public transport is now based on collected mobility patterns, differentiated by weekday and time of day.
- Mobile network data has replaced costly traditional surveys, leading to significant cost savings in the process.
- Based on the results, action requirements for the existing service offering were identified, along with an assessment of the consequences and necessities of implementing a consistent, network-wide 30-minute interval on routes with sufficient passenger potential.
Thanks to the collaboration with T-Systems, we’ve finally been able to ground our public transport planning in real-world mobility patterns for the first time. Their mobile data analytics solution provided the accuracy and confidence we needed to optimize routes, adjust service frequencies, and allocate resources more efficiently—delivering measurable improvements across 50 municipalities.
Dr.-Ing. Timo Barwisch - Transport Planner and Authorized Representative, plan:mobil
