Archive: May 2024

It was organized by the National Institute of Infrastructure Development as part of the Road Safety Week . More than 150 participants representing state bodies and institutions, local self-government bodies, as well as public and engineering organizations took part in the online event.

Viktor made a presentation on the topic "Roads with three lanes of traffic as part of the Vision Zero approach. Theory and practice of application" , based on the experience and standards of Sweden and examples of sections of roads in Ukraine that can be "turned into Sweden" with fairly small efforts and financial costs, and achieve zero mortality on them.

"The peculiarity of roads with a 2+1 scheme is that they allow you to radically increase traffic safety and at the same time increase the average speed of traffic. It is also a surprisingly balanced solution that not only takes away something, but also gives: it physically makes overtaking and left turns in prohibited places, and at the same time provides many opportunities for safe overtaking and protected left turns," Viktor Zagreba noted. In his opinion, all sections of category II roads in Ukraine can and should be converted to the "Scandinavian manner", to the traffic scheme (2+1), because the width of the pavement is just enough for this.

Viktor noted that Ukraine has an effective DSTU from 2015 on three-lane roads, and such sections are implemented in practice in many regions, especially on uphills. However, this embodiment has significant problems and shortcomings, and often these places are "black spot" places. The main drawback of such areas in Ukraine is the lack of fencing between the directions of traffic, which leads to catastrophic road accidents with fatalities. Other shortcomings relate to the method of completion of the additional lane, the length of the transition zone and the distance of installation of warning road signs before the end of the lane.

Safe road infrastructure is one of the demands of the "Manifesto for Safe Roads" , developed as part of the "For Safe Roads" Campaign, which was signed by 40 public organizations. The NGO "Vision Zero" is also a co-developer and signatory of the manifesto.

In the spring of 2024, Ukrainian cities again faced planned and emergency power outages caused by enemy shelling of energy infrastructure. As in the winter of 2022-2023, public transport suffers greatly from this.

The electric transport system of the city of Dnipro. Source: NGO "Vision Zero"

During the event, Ihor Makovtsev, deputy mayor, director of the Department of Transport and Transport Infrastructure of the Dnipro City Council , gave a speech on "Adaptation of the transport system to energy crises and cooperation with energy companies". He introduced the webinar listeners to five steps that city authorities take to minimize the consequences of energy crises, most of which are implemented in close cooperation with energy supply companies:

• development of schedules of hourly outages;
• development of options for the operation of electric transport during the introduction of hourly restrictions on electricity;
• monitoring of electricity consumption to adjust the load in conditions of electricity shortage;
• organization of uninterrupted power supply of traffic light objects;
• operational evacuation of rolling stock.

The second report at the webinar was devoted to the energy sustainability of the city's trolleybus network. First of all, we are talking about such steps as autonomous power supply at traction substations and the use of battery trolleybuses. This was told by Volodymyr Kobets, director of Dniprovskyi Elektrotransport KP . "During the first blackouts, we had a problem - prompt switching on of traction substations. We developed a cabinet for our own needs, where we placed batteries for backup power," said Volodymyr Kobets. One of the main characteristics of this cabinet is 6 hours of autonomous operation when switching and 10 hours in standby mode. Currently, six such facilities have been installed in the city. "This year, it is planned to increase the number of cabinets to 11," the official clarified.

Technical characteristics of AKSM-32100D battery trolleybuses. Source: NGO "Vision Zero".

The next step is the use of battery trolleybuses. According to Volodymyr Kobts, the Dnipro trolleybus park now has 185 vehicles, of which only 47 cars (49 in the presentation) are equipped with batteries for driving without a contact network. Most of the battery-powered trolleybuses (35 units) have autonomous travel up to 1 km. This is quite small, so the city is modernizing them by replacing alkaline-acid batteries with modern lithium-ion batteries. This allows you to increase the autonomous range to 4 km without passengers and up to 2.5 km with passengers. "We have already made 12 such units, we will continue," said the director of KP "Dniprovskyi Elektrotransport".

After the reports, the speakers answered the questions of the listeners. One of the issues concerned the installation of renewable sources at traffic lights. "A powerful traffic light object needs somewhere between 4 and 4.5 kW. And these objects are under construction, that is, there is not enough sunlight. Therefore, it is very difficult to understand the efficiency of this system. We have similar [generation] systems, most of all they are used on access roads to the city," answered Ihor Makovtsev, director of the Department of Transport and Transport Infrastructure of the Dnipro City Council.

You can view the speeches of speakers at the webinar and answers to questions at the link: https://bit.ly/3V7sMBO

More information about the steps taken by the city government of Dnipro towards the energy sustainability of public transport is available in the presentation at the link: https://bit.ly/3V3qLWV

In Ukraine, a survey of territorial communities about the need for humanitarian buses is starting. This initiative was launched by the non-governmental organization "Vision Zero" and the Association "Energy-Efficient Cities of Ukraine" (AEMU) in order to assess the demand for used (humanitarian) buses for the communities of Ukraine and establish communication with potential providers of vehicles in European countries.

Used buses from German cities now connect the settlements of the Buchansk community. Photo: "Buchanski Novyny" newspaper , (printed organ of Buchanska city territorial community)

"In the conditions of martial law, many cities of Ukraine are limited in investments in the development of public transport. The way out of this situation, albeit temporary, is humanitarian aid from European municipalities. Some communities, in particular large cities or those cities that suffered from the occupation, have already received and continue to receive used buses from Europe, which are quite suitable for use on city and suburban routes. Our initiative is designed to encourage the leaders of territorial communities to more actively involve humanitarian buses from Europe and improve urban transportation with their help," said Sviatoslav Pavlyuk , executive director of AEMU .

In order to submit an application for receiving used (humanitarian) buses from European countries, heads of territorial communities need to fill out a special electronic form. "Filling out the questionnaire is a voluntary notification of potential interest and does not oblige you to receive it in the future," says the preamble to the online form. The questionnaire provides for the collection of information about the population in the community, the availability of a utility carrier, the required number of buses and their type (small, medium, standard or increased capacity).

The electronic form for applying for used buses for utility companies of Ukraine is available at the link.

"The destruction of power generation facilities by the aggressor state has increased the problems in the field of transport as well, and buses are now also needed as replacement transport on trolleybus and tram routes. As a public organization, we would like to understand approximately how much the need for buses still exists and prove this information to the transport associations in the EU. We do not know how many buses in decent condition are available in the EU. But those who do not ask, do not receive. Our goal is to find out about it, and in the case of positive answers, as well as in the case that the proposed buses still have a working resource, then help the communities to get the vehicles they need," said Viktor Zagreba , chairman of the board of the "Vision Zero" NGO.

Humanitarian buses on city routes

After the de-occupation of Kyiv Region, Chernihiv Region, and Sumy Region in the spring of 2022, some cities in these regions began to receive used buses from friendly European countries as humanitarian aid. This allowed them to improve the level of public transport and create an alternative to public electric transport during power outages in late 2022 - early 2023. For example, Kyiv received more than 100 used buses from European cities, Chernihiv received more than 10 units, etc.

Some cities, with the help of used European buses, managed to organize passenger transportation, which before the full-scale invasion was either absent or carried out by small-capacity vehicles of private carriers. In particular, in the summer of 2022, Bucha received the first buses from the German cities of Dresden and Bergisch-Gladbach. For their operation, in November of the same year, a communal carrier - "Buchatransservice" - was created in the Buchansk territorial community. The new enterprise started its activities in May 2023 on four routes connecting Bucha with other settlements of the community.

At the same time, as noted by the NGO "Vision Zero", the use of used buses from European cities, received as humanitarian aid, is not regulated in Ukrainian legislation, which creates legal obstacles for the operation of the received vehicles on the routes. In order to resolve this issue, in April of this year , draft law No. 11165 was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Public organizations and communities are waiting for the adoption of this or a similar law that will allow the use of buses on routes with the collection of fares.