Interview with WP T1 leader
Interview with Dana about the project
Dana Sitányiová, has been working as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Žilina since 1998. She is currently working at the Department of Geotechnics. Her scientific activities are in the fields of hydrology, geology, transport planning and urban mobility. Thanks to the last two activities and her experience with the implementation of European projects, she is an experienced leader of work package 1. Dana was so kind and gave us an interesting interview.
Dana, can you tell us something about your workplace?
I work at the Department of Geotechnics as a head. My department is the part of the Faculty of Civil Engineering. Through its activities, the faculty contributes to the development and dissemination of knowledge and education with the goal of educating a harmoniously balanced personality with knowledge, wisdom, goodness and creativity and thus help to develop education and increase the scientific, technical and economic level of society. In fulfilling its mission, the Faculty, based on the more than 60 years tradition and current professional profile, focuses mainly on technical, economic, operational, environmental and technological aspects of engineering structures, transport and building constructions. For the future, the faculty will support top research focused especially on the following areas:
- an intelligent, safe and environmentally friendly transport route,
- implementation of the ICT in construction process,
- progressive materials and constructions,
- environmental aspects of buildings, and impact of transport on the surrounding environment,
- or intelligent buildings and systems in the transition to a carbon-free and circular economy.
Can you tell us shortly what is the main goal of thematic package 1, of which you are the leader?
It’s no secret that public transportation continues to present challenges for communities in rural areas. With difficulties in obtaining funding, service frequency, and a lack of access to services compared to urban public transport, regional governments are in greater need than ever before to improve their transportation services in rural areas. Public transport links rural communities to cities and regional centres, and connects them to essential services. It is important that rural population of different ages is not disconnected from opportunity. In this thematic package partners focus especially on capitalisation of knowledge for previous projects. Three partners: UNIZA, T Bridge and HZPP try to improve rural public transport in dedicated rural territories. UNIZA learns from new concepts introduced to facilitate multimodal transport interchanges in rural areas and knowledge of the MoTiV project to bring forward a decision-making tool to facilitate the planning of infrastructure investments, based on the unconventional CBA concept. UNIZA collaborates with Trenčín self-governing region. The aim is to inform the regional government about various possibilities how to improve public transport in the region, and to prepare action plan for future. T Bridge in turn takes use of Rumobil results for flexible on-demand bus services (mainly Modena's "ProntoBus") that are coordinated by innovative software and allow reservation by customers through their smartphone. HZPP in turn elaborates a strategy addressed to smaller rail operators to use tourism-related services to increase rail use and to generate additional income allowing to offer better mobility services in rural areas. At the end of the project the strategy, based on an earlier document of the RUMOBIL project, giving a comprehensive state-of-the-art overview and recommending steps to be undertaken to offer smart mobility will be up-dated and complemented by a tool-box with technical details of PT tools that have successfully demonstrated their added value during RegiaMobil.
What do you personally perceive as the greatest benefit of the RegiaMobil project?
Making good decisions now is a crucial for the future of rural communities. Regional authorities should learn from past projects and good or bad decisions of others in order to apply the lessons to related decisions in the future. RegiaMobil does not reinvent the wheel, but uses proven methods and procedures, improve them with the latest technologies to enhance mobility of people living in rural areas.
Dana, thank you for your time and interview and we wish you much success in completing the activities of Work Package 1.
