Dundee City Council is to back almost £750,000 worth of projects aimed at improving transport in the city.
Ideas proposed include a self-service bike hire scheme and improving access to electric cars in Dundee.
Seven organisations – Co-Wheels, E-Car Club, Enterprise, Atkins, Ride On, Urbo and Just Park – have all put forward plans that councillors will vote next week.
The money is available through the city’s Mobility Innovation Living Laboratory (Mill), which looks for ways to improve transport.
Mill backs new products, services and business models that aim to reduce cost, congestion and carbon emissions that can be trialled in Dundee.
Electric car rental firm C0-Wheels is looking to expand their operation in the city and improve their app in a bid to reduce the need for car ownership, and thus a reduction in carbon emissions.
E-Car Hire, another electric car hire company, propose installing charging points at the properties of people who receive care through Blackwood Homes. They will also donate electric cars to the carer company for employees to travel between clients’ homes.
E-Car Hire claim this will allow them to experiment with new “task allocation software” and will build on existing studies. It is hoped this will act as a case study for businesses across the UK.
Atkins plan to develop software that will show, in real-time, what parking is available in the city centre. It will also allow drivers to only pay parking for the actual minutes they used a space.
SNP councillor Lynne Short, city development committee convener, said: “We are at the forefront of clean, efficient and integrated transport solutions, from electric cars and charging points to hybrid buses and smart ticketing and the Mill helps to keep us there.
“Funding testing of the projects in the real-world will demonstrate to interested public, third sector and private bodies how these ideas could work be refined or developed to offer us innovative and creative solutions for the future.
“This type of work keeps Dundee in the leading pack of world cities seeking to address key issues like carbon emissions and congestion.”
The local authority tendered the first wave of projects run through Mill earlier this year. The funding has been put up to support the live trials, testing and refinement of the proposals.
The City Development Committee will meet on Monday.
