My project ‘Flexi’ is about making public transport accessible in Bergen. The core idea of this project is to encourage new customers to use public transport by targeting a group of cars users in Bergen. I initially proposed this project for my homeland Pakistan, but after moving to Norway, I decided to use Bergen as my point of departure instead.
The transport system in Bergen is well organized and it is a small city for testing purposes. This study and its outcomes can subsequently help me in further work on adapting the project to the culture of Pakistan.
My initial idea was to target the whole of Bergen, but I quickly discovered that families are a big group of car users and would be a suitable target group. I investigated the needs and problems that force them to spend more money on private cars when a cheaper and well-maintained mode of transport already exists. I also tried to analyse the benefits of cars.
I realized that families need public transport to be as accessible as private cars. Especially in Bergen where the climate is wet almost the whole year.
A great deal of research, brainstorming, experimentation and mind mapping have been conducted in connection with this project. In order to make this project work, I designed a strategy and developed core values for my project: Accessible, Flexible and Friendly.
Technology makes a great contribution to this project. While devising the strategy, I concluded that this project will work in parallel with service design and identity development.
I tried to give a clear picture of this project through its identity. I placed more emphasis on the visual language in order to make the project more understandable for my target group.
This project is still in an early phase and I have started this project on a smaller scale to test the outcomes. I have designed two services under one flag which are Bus and Bring.
This project uses Bergen as an example, but I believe that it has the potential to be introduced in other countries around the world as well. The needs of families are almost the same all over the world. This project can be implemented in other countries by making minor changes to their cultural values.