Our work : Opplandstrafikk
Opplandstrafikk: Oppland Rural Transport
Rural transportation based on real people’s needs.
Oppland county is a rural and mountainous area of Norway. It has a population of only 183,000 spread over an area the size of Wales. The largest town is Lillehammer, with 25,000 inhabitants.
Public transport as an alternative to the car
Public transportation in the region is very inconsistent. Lillehammer has a well-developed transportation system but in the outlying rural areas people can live up to 4.5 miles from a bus stop. The scarce population means that buses can be infrequent, half empty and not economically viable to run. Public transport in Oppland needs to be completely re-thought and re-designed if it is to provide a valid alternative to the car.
Involving users in the improvement of public transport
Opplandstrafikk forms part of a government-funded pilot project that aims to develop best practices for better public transport for rural areas in Norway. Opplandstrafikk was keen to abandon traditional top-down thinking to focus instead on the customers’ experience of public transport. Live|work has a proven track record in this area, having completed a successful project on rural transport for Northumberland County Council in the north east of England. Opplandstrafikk approached live|work to help them.
Transforming user insights into solutions
During the summer of 2008, live|work interviewed 18 people in the region – travelling to interviews on public transport to learn through first hand experience. In addition to meeting people in their homes, a co-design workshop was held with six 17 and 18 year olds from different areas of the region where ideas were shared, sketched and developed. By filming the interviews and workshop, we were able to capture the ideas and issues and tell their stories in a compelling manner both to Opplandstrafikk and the local authorities who fund the project.
The insights from this project have been invaluable to the authorities that manage transport services. We have shared the research with several of the departments within the county and showed it to more than 30 people who are involved. The participants of the different project teams can use these insights to identify challenges while keeping the focus on real people rather than systems. This makes it easier to create user-centred solutions for public transport.
As a result of this project live|work is now engaged in several initiatives to transform the user insights into new and improved services for public transport in Oppland. These include bus-on-demand via the Internet or mobile phones, and improved price-schemes for rural transportation.
“What we need is to start to make transportation based on what our customers say, not by what we think is the right way.”
– Arild Bøhn, Director of Transport, Oppland County Municipality
June 2008 – September 2008
John Holager
Senior Service Designer
Contact John on mobile +47 450 23 614.
Client list :
Public Sector
- British Standards
- Haringey Borough Council
- Home Office
- Kent County Council
- Newcastle University
- Northumberland County Council
- Ordnance Survey
- South Tyneside Council
- Sunderland City Council
- The Cabinet Office
Financial
- Egg.com
- Experian
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- NCR
- Norwich Union
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Transport
- BAA
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- EurotaxGlass’s
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- Opplandstrafikk
- Riversimple
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Telecoms, media & technology
Retail
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Health
- Department of Health
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- NHS – Ealing PCT
- NHS Innovation & Improvement Institute
- NHS – Luton PCT
- Norwegian Knowledge Centre for Health
Environmental-Sustainability
Manufacturing
- FIAT
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- Mustad
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- Sony Ericsson
Economic-Development
- Design Council
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- Norwegian Design Council
- ONE North East Regional Dev. Agency
- Scottish Enterprise
- Skills Development Scotland
- The Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority
- Tyneside Economic Development Co
Voluntary Sector
- Agrarian Renaissance
- Amnesty International
Museums & Cultural Institutions
- Baltic
- National Maritime Museum
