Opening the MobilityAnalyst dashboard

You open your own version of the MobilityAnalyst dashboard by using your own MobilityAnalyst file. This acts as the key to your organisation’s dashboard. This file is generated for you based on the input template you fill in and the route and other calculations performed with it. You will recognise a MobilityAnalyst file by its extension ‘.mbl’. If you receive this file from your consultant, your mobility broker, or from MobilityLabel, save this file on your computer or network to open it locally in a browser.
In your browser, go to https://mijn.mobilityanalyst.com (or your adviser’s or region’s corporate style variant). Choose ‘Open file’ and browse to where you saved the relevant .mbl file. No employer data is sent over the internet during this process. Should you wish to change the tool’s language, you can use the language selector at the top right, before opening a file. The tool is available in English, German and Dutch.
If you have not yet ordered a mobility scan, choose ‘Demo’ for a fully functioning demo of a fictitious organisation. This will give you an insightful overview of all the functions and features of MobilityAnalyst.

Structure of MobilityAnalyst

Made up of several thematic tabs and a summary tab, the dashboard contains many different indicators, such as graphs and maps, that give a picture of your organisation’s commuting. These indicators show, for example, the number of cyclists and motorists, the number of parking spaces needed, CO2 emissions and vitality.
On the left side of the dashboard, it is possible to set different measures, such as bicycle policies and public transport policies. As soon as you set policies here, all indicators, graphs and maps on the right side of the dashboard change accordingly. For example, you can see how many parking spaces you can save with certain cycling policies and how much CO2 your organisation can save with certain public transport or home working policies.

Measures (left side of the screen)

The following measures can be set:

• Active travel policy. Here, you can set policies whereby everyone under an adjustable distance, travels to work with active mobility. Depending on the distance, this will be walking or using a bicycle, e-bike or speedpedelec. The calculation uses distances according to a dedicated cycle route planner (good to know: the fastest cycle route between two points is usually much shorter than the fastest car route between them)..
• Public transport policy. Public transport policy is adjustable in several ways:
  input additional travel time in minutes (for example: public transport is considered acceptable if the public transport journey takes less than 20 minutes longer than by car)
  input of additional travelling time as a factor (for example: public transport is considered an acceptable alternative if the public transport journey is less than 50% longer than by car)
  here it is also possible to add a lower limit value (for example: public transport is acceptable anyway if it is less than 30 minutes).
  if desired, trips with more than a maximum number of transfers are ignored.
  public transport is optionally calculated with or without bicycle in pre-transport or bicycle in pre-transport and post-transport.
  the combination of public transport and car (through P+R facilities) is also supported.
• Car policy. The car policy can specify that company car drivers also travel by bike or public transport if that fits the set policy; in fact, by default, the set bike and public transport policy does not apply to company cars. CO2 reductions can be set for company cars and private cars, for instance as a result of energy-saving measures such as eco-driving programmes.
• Under ‘Time and place’, remote work policies can be set, whether or not related to daily commute distance. This may take into account a minimum number of attendance days. For example: ‘persons who commute more than 30 minutes will work 2 extra days from home, provided they are present for a minimum of 2 days’. Enter ‘0 minutes’ to declare the homeworking policy applicable to everyone, regardless of commute time.

Each measure is provided with a fold-out explanation box (‘info’).
The tool shows the potential total effect of the different, stacked measures together.
Allocation to modes of transport is done according to a certain order: If a person falls within the set active travel policy, they will cycle. After that, public transport policies are considered. If this person does not fall within active travel policy, but does fall within set public transport policy, then he or she is counted within public transport potential. In other cases, the person continues to commute by car. This is different for motorists with a company car/lease car: in principle they continue to travel by company car, unless under ‘Car policy’ it is ticked that they too will travel by bicycle and public transport if that fits the set policy.

Indicators (right side of the screen)

Indicators come in different types and forms and are arranged on thematic tabs. They show the potential situation based on the given input and set policies. If the current situation is also shown for reference, it is in grey, with the potential situation in colour. The tool does not predict behaviour, or the extent to which certain policies become reality. It always compares the potential situation (‘everyone under 5 km will cycle’) with the current situation. The extent to which policies become reality depends on a multitude of factors such as, the facilities offered, financial incentives, behavioural interventions, exemplary behaviour, etc.
Each indicator is provided with a fold-out explanation box (‘info’) containing an explanation, rationale and possible assumptions. With the copy icon at the top right of an indicator, it can easily be copied to the clipboard. For example to include in your own report or PowerPoint presentation. If the explanation (‘info’) is open, it is copied along, if it is closed, it is not. The interactive maps cannot be copied automatically to the clipboard. Please use the print screen button or a cut-and-paste tool of your operating system or browser.

Summary

The summary tab shows a convenient summary of key indicators, such as total commuting distance, CO2 emissions and distribution of different travel methods. This summary can be exported to clipboard or pdf, and optionally shows the current or potential situation, and optionally the main key figures in general or relative terms (e.g. for benchmarking).

Travel methods in modal split

The travel method tab shows in two donut graphs the current and potential travel methods, according to set policy. The inner circle shows the main modality (active travel, public transport and car), and the outer circle shows the sub-modalities such as e-bike or company car. Explanations appear when hovering the mouse over the chart and are also shown in the accompanying legend table.

Travel methods on the map

The mode of transport tab also contains the interactive employee map. This shows where employees live and how they (can) travel. Clicking on a residential address shows individual commute times and routes (including individual travel time tables and sample journeys with varying route details). Different travel methods can be made (in)visible on this map, as can map layers with cycle paths and public transport facilities. One can choose to only show changes in travel methods. For scans with large numbers of people, the maps tend to be clearer in clustered mode. At the bottom right of the map, in addition to zoom buttons, you will also find the option to display the map full-screen.

Other indicators

The diversity of calculated indicators is large. The main remaining indicators are:

• Modal split total and per distance category, modal shifts
• CO2 emissions per FTE and per modality, CO2 reduction, costs of CO2 emissions, energy reduction
• Parking spaces needed and associated cost savings, charging points needed, bicycle parking spaces needed, fleet size
• Variable travel costs total, per FTE and per modality
• Location occupancy, location distribution, remote working days and flex office potential
• Annual commuting distance and travel time
• Exercise time and calories consumed by active travel and the impact on sick leave
• Average travel distance (by mode), average travel time one way and per year
• Carpool potential
• Public transport quality (number of transfers), disembarkation stations and P+R facilities used
• Travel time loss due to traffic jams, number of car trips and public transport trips during peak hours
• Use of certain predefined analysis points (bottlenecks in the road network and public transport network)

Route data

For each employee, we calculate as precisely as possible the travel methods available and the associated travel distance and time. These route calculations are based on moving average congestion, current public transport timetables and the current road network for car, bike and walking routes. The travel chains used are: car morning rush hour (Tuesday morning), car evening rush hour (Tuesday evening), car without rush hour, bicycle, public transport without bicycle, public transport with bicycle (max 4km.) in pre-transport, public transport with bicycle (max 4km.) in pre-transport and post-transport (not available in all countries), car with public transport (via official P+R). All times are total door-to-door times, with estimates of walking time, transfer time, parking time and congestion time as realistic as possible. All travel times and distances are current at the time of producing the MobilityAnalyst file. Travel times and distances can be found at employee level by clicking on the relevant residential location in the map viewer on the ‘Mode of transport’ tab, they are also provided as raw data in a large Excel file.
Not all combinations of travel methods are always available to every employee. Sometimes there is no public transport stop nearby, or there are no P+R facilities that lead to a faster car – public transport -chain. The bicycle in the first/last mile combination of a public transport chain is only used if cycling (including parking) is actually faster than walking.

Additional functions

At the bottom left of the screen, the user will find some additional functions, namely:

• • Save (save-icon). Data can optionally be saved as a MobilityAnalyst (mbl) file or exported to Excel. This can be done either for the current selection (see ‘Filtering’), or for the entire file.
  • Filtering (funnel icon). By default, the entire file is displayed. Its scope (number of organisations, branches and persons) can be found in the summary tab. If you want to zoom in on a specific group, you can do so with the filters, divided into the ‘Target group filters’ and ‘Commute filters’ tabs. With target group filters -depending on the scope and input provided – you can easily make a selection of one or more organisations, branches or organisational units. With commute filters, you can make a selection of people coming from certain origin areas, travelling to certain destination areas, and/or using certain en-route points, such as defined bottlenecks in the road network. Filters can be used to successively set different policies for different subgroups (e.g. distinguishing between staff and field services, or specific branches). A partial selection with chosen scope can also be saved (as a MobilityAnalyst file) and exported (to Excel).
  • Settings (gear icon). Various default values and settings can be changed in the settings screen. Should the file contain assumptions about travel methods specified as ‘unknown’ (see supplied case log document), these assumptions can be disabled here if desired.
  • Tour (signpost icon). When MobilityAnalyst is launched for the first time, a tour of the application is started that helps the user get started with some tips. If you want to open this tour again, you can do so with this button.