From September 16 to 22, Uber joins the European Mobility Week and invites residents in all major cities of the continent to give up their car keys for a week. Participants of the challenge will change their habits of movement in the city by choosing mobile applications and public transport services. Artist Monika Linkytė, data analyst Petras Kudaras, auto journalist and rally driver Ilona Steponėnė, member of the Seimas Virginijus Sinkevičius and member of the capital's Council Vincas Jurgutis decided to participate in the experiment starting in Vilnius called #DitchYourKeys.
This year, the motto of the European Mobility Week initiated by the European Commission is "Sharing gets your further". The theme of the initiative is to remind Europeans that car sharing saves money, pollutes less and makes every journey more interesting.
One of the most popular ride-hailing platforms in the world, Uber, is launching an experiment to #DitchYourKeys. In Vilnius, Uber is joined and the initiative is supported by such partners as bicycle and car sharing platforms.CycloCity", Spark and CityBee, LLC "Communication services” and the transport app “TRAFI”.
The participants of the experiment, Monika Linkytė, Petras Kudaras, Ilona Steponėnė, Virginijus Sinkevičius and Vincas Jurgutis, left their car keys at the Uber office and throughout the coming week will seek to discover alternative ways to travel in the city, such as ride-hailing, bicycle or car sharing services and public transport.
Uber started operating in Vilnius almost 2 years ago and thousands of people in the capital already use it regularly. Together with the partners of the experiment, we will try to find out if we can change the habits of Vilnius residents by offering environmentally friendly ways of traveling in the city", said Enn Metsar, General Director of Uber in the Baltic States.
According to a study commissioned by Uber, more and more residents of European cities tend to exchange their own cars for ride-hailing services. The organizers of the experiment will aim to assess whether it is easy to do without one's own car in Vilnius and move around the city using only alternative means of travel.
Petras Kudaras, a data analyst who agreed to join the practical experiment, said that for a year now, his family has been choosing to travel in one car instead of two. "Compared to other European cities, the traffic jams in Vilnius are not big, but sometimes even 10-20 minutes longer travel due to traffic jams causes discomfort", said P. Kudaras - "The European Mobility Week makes you think about slightly different ways of traveling - maybe not it is most convenient to go everywhere by car and should you look for other ways of traveling in the city?"
The artist Monika Linkytė, who will soon continue her studies in London, revealed that she chooses public transport services for movement in this city. After returning to Vilnius, the work increases, so we have to look for solutions that help save as much time as possible. "Being in Vilnius, my schedule remains quite flexible, because I have to plan my work in such a way that we waste as few hours as possible in traffic jams," says Monika, "I have not considered completely giving up my vehicle until now. This is one of those things that makes everyday life so much easier. However, this experiment will be a great opportunity to look for other alternatives for movement in the city."
At the end of the experiment, participants, experimenters and partners will evaluate the results of the challenge.
