Project RESPONSE has helped strengthen the capacity of public transport authorities and local public transport service providers in the Baltic Sea Region to implement new transportation services that shift the approach from supply oriented to demand-responsive transport (DRT) solutions. Partners from Estonia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania contributed to developing DRT solutions in rural regions around the Baltic Sea. Piloting gave a better understanding of planning and running DRT solutions in real life and offered learning opportunities from different countries' experiences. These insights enabled the development of several tools and solutions, such as the DRT business model, a handbook about improving travel experiences among vulnerable travel groups etc.

The project also helped to demonstrate how existing geodata can be made available, visualised, and used for evidence-based decision-making in public authorities, including creating a data warehouse model and a cost prognostication model. Several communication materials, including the marketing strategy, were also developed during the project. All the created tools, handbooks and other materials are available on the RESPONSE official communication platform - www.response-project.eu .

RESPONSE project is a big step towards a more accessible and sustainable transportation sector.

Around 150 representatives from local governments, public transport centres, ministries and other agencies met at the beginning of December to discuss the future of demand-
responsive transportation in sparsely populated areas of Estonia.

In July 2021, a new pilot for demand-responsive transport (DRT) was launched in Saaremaa, Estonia. Saaremaa is the first local government in Estonia to develop a DRT service model to offer people more flexible transportation options based on their needs.

New research paper by RESPONSE project partner and  Norwegian transportation company Ruter is providing an understanding of how to innovate and create new on-demand transportation services.  

Many schoolchildren in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas are living outside the city centre in the surrounding suburbs. However, they often do not attend schools close to home and their commutes by car have an effect on the city environment. In the framework of the international project RESPONSE, Kaunas city municipality has launched a demand-responsive transport pilot to test out an alternative commute for schoolchildren.