March 12th 2020- The Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe (DVB) together with the City of Dresden, the DREWAG and other partners opened the 17th Dresden Mobility Point (MOBIpunkt) at Fetscherplatz. It combines the environmentally friendly mobility offers of tram, bus, car-sharing and rental bikes as well as charging points for electric cars and offers optimal transfer conditions between the different means of transport. The new MOBI-point is located directly on Fetscherplatz. Of the total of 76 planned locations, a further 18 are to be opened in 2020. The first MOBI-point went into operation at Pirnaischer Platz in September 2018.
MOBI-points as an important building block for environmentally friendly mobility
“The people of Dresden are increasingly using the transport services of the environmental alliance. This is shown by the results of the traffic survey “Mobility in Cities – SrV“, which has just been presented to the public. The MOBI-points help us to combine the use of cars with environmentally friendly forms of mobility in a meaningful way, given the growing number of inhabitants and the increasing number of daily trips made in Dresden. This reduces noise, space requirements and air pollution. We have formed a strong alliance of local partners to set up and operate the MOBIpoints, “explains building mayor Raoul Schmidt-Lamontain. “We also want to make it easier for all Dresden residents to do without a private car and remain mobile without causing more traffic.”
Part of the Dresden Smart City activities
Since 2017, Dresden has been a so-called “lighthouse city” with the European Commission’s MAtchUP project and is assuming a leading role for Smart City solutions in Germany and Europe. The new Johannstadt MOBIpunkt is part of the project team’s action plan. “MAtchUP is about sustainable urban development. This is why this project focuses on forward-looking mobility concepts and energy management,” explains Dr. Robert Franke, Head of the Office for Economic Development of the City of Dresden. “The city will receive funding of around 4.5 million euros for the MAtchUP over a period of five years (2017 to 2022),” says Franke. The Office of Economic Development is coordinating the project and bringing together important partners from the business, science and administration sectors as well as citizens.
Battery storage cuts off power peaks through fast charging and actively counteracts overloads
The special feature of the Fetscherplatz site is the battery storage facility, which was installed by DREWAG on behalf of the city as part of the German funding regulation “Saubere Luft” (“Clean Air”): “This storage facility has a capacity of 241 kWh and is used to buffer fast charging processes. This allows the grid connection capacity at the site to be limited to 140 kW. Nevertheless, it will still be possible to simultaneously refuel three electric vehicles with a maximum charging capacity of 150 kW“, explains DREWAG Managing Director Dr. Frank Brinkmann. The use of the battery storage facility has prevented a comprehensive expansion of the grid at the Fetscherplatz site. “Through the funding regulation “Saubere Luft”, efficient charging infrastructure for citizens, businesses and commuters is offered here for almost 400,000 euros“, adds Brinkmann. This serves to maintain the stability of the electricity grids in the long term and minimizes the cost of upgrading them with smart technologies.
MOBI brand for multimodal offers
Andreas Hemmersbach, Member of the DVB Board of Managing Directors, said: “Together with our partners, we are combining our respective offerings under the MOBI brand. At the MOBIpunkt, car sharing, bike rental and individual electromobility are easily and conveniently linked to public transport and are positioned as easily recognisable offers thanks to a uniform design. We make it tangible that the customer does not have to commit to an offer, but can choose the most suitable means of transport for the route in question from a whole range without having to rely on his own car. In the future, there will be a separate app for this purpose, which will combine the car and bike-sharing offers that can be booked with separate apps with public transport“.
Turnstile for train, bus, partly cars, rental bikes and charging stations for electric cars
The new mobility point at Fetscherplatz has a total of four parking spaces for car-sharing vehicles of the partner teilAuto. Two of these can be electric cars. In addition, there are three public double charging points at MOBIpunkt, each with a charging capacity of 150 kilowatts, where up to six electric cars can be charged simultaneously. In order to provide the necessary electrical power on a permanent basis, DREWAG is using an innovative battery storage system with a correspondingly high capacity, which is unique in Dresden. In addition, twelve rental bikes are currently on display at the MOBIpunkt. Regular DVB customers receive price advantages when using car-sharing vehicles and can rent bicycles free of charge for the first half-hour. The environmentally friendly mobility offers are networked with three tram lines and one bus line, which travel at frequent intervals. With almost 11,000 passengers entering, leaving or changing trains every day, Fetscherplatz is one of the most important nodes in the DVB network.
Reference for the design
For the development of the MOBI-points, DVB actively involved the Dresden population in advance and interviewed them on the test version set up. The results were incorporated into the planning and implementation of a uniform design. The planned MOBI-point for Fetscherplatz served as a reference project for the overall design, which has already been implemented at other locations. DVB cooperates with numerous local partners in the construction and operation of the mobility points. In addition to the state capital of Dresden, these include DREWAG Stadtwerke Dresden GmbH with its charging points for electric cars, nextbike bike rental and teilAuto as a medium-sized car-sharing operator.
Support through national climate protection initiative
In addition to the EU project MAtchUP, the project is also supported by the Federal Ministry of the Environment as part of the “National Climate Protection Initiative” and by the Federal Ministry of Economics through the “DatenTanken” programme to promote electromobility.
Further information is available at www.dvb.de/mobi.
Cover photo: Eroeffnung Mobipunkt Fetscherplatz am 12.03.2020 in Dresden, by Oliver Killig
