The new on-demand transport service for secondary school students, designed to take them to and from extracurricular activities, has now completed one month of operation. The service makes use of the innovative WeeDRIVE application, implemented by the Municipality of Limassol, and the initial statistics are particularly encouraging.
As project manager Professor Maria Kamargianni stated to “Entrepreneurial Limassol”, the service began on October 6th and “the users who adopted it from the very first day continue to use it — not a single one has left — while new users are being added every week.”
Ms. Kamargianni explained that this is a new, alternative form of transport aimed exclusively at children. “We know how Cypriots are — at first they are a bit hesitant; they wait to hear feedback from others who have already used it. Gradually, however, more and more users are joining. We are very pleased both with the progress of the service and with the feedback we receive from parents,” she said.
The project manager noted that parent-users report their daily routine has been greatly facilitated and their stress significantly reduced. Positive comments are also coming from the children, who are excited that they can travel using an innovative and safe means of transport, see where the buses are, who the driver is, and—most importantly—that they are no longer burdening their parents. “All these are very encouraging, not only for the citizens of Limassol but also for the city’s road network, which is struggling under heavy traffic congestion,” Ms. Kamargianni stressed.
She also announced that on November 21st, at the “Panos Solomonides” Cultural Centre at 11:00 a.m., the project will be officially presented to local professionals and municipal authorities. “During the event, the first statistical data of the service will also be presented,” she said, adding that representatives of local authorities from the wider Limassol area, as well as from other districts — Paphos, Larnaca, Nicosia, and Famagusta — have been invited, since the service may expand to other cities as well.
Ms. Kamargianni emphasized that this is a service developed in just a year and a half, while infrastructure projects planned by municipalities usually require a much longer timeframe. “If, for example, you want to create a new mode of transport or upgrade the road network, you are talking about a ten-year plan. But until then, what will citizens do? Will they continue to suffer in traffic jams that keep getting worse?” she asked rhetorically.
She added, “With such solutions that make use of innovation, you can immediately offer alternatives to citizens. In other words, within just a year and a half, we managed to bring something new to the city.” Referring to the participation of mayors from the wider Limassol area, she underlined that “mobility occurs across space and time. You cannot say, ‘here Limassol Municipality ends, and Amathounta Municipality begins.’ If you look at the statistics — where routes start and where they end — you’ll see, for example, trips from Agios Tychonas to Agia Fyla or Polemidia. Therefore, you cannot stop the service at the administrative boundaries of Limassol Municipality.”
The project manager concluded by noting that “the platform is already active and, in collaboration with EMEL Limassol Busses, nine buses have been deployed. Once the service stabilizes and the algorithms are ‘trained,’ other bus operators will also be able to join by creating an account, registering their buses and drivers, declaring their availability, and participating actively in the system.”
The WeeDRIVE service, implemented under the European project metaCCAZE, is currently in a pilot phase and is aimed at families with teenagers who seek safe, flexible, and environmentally friendly transport for their children. Through the app, parents and students can easily schedule their routes, calling mini-buses that serve students exclusively. The platform uses artificial intelligence to calculate optimal routes, reducing waiting times and emissions. At the same time, it allows parents to track their children’s journey in real time and to top up their “journey wallet” through the app.
Using WeeDRIVE is simple and takes just four steps:
1. Download the app from the App Store or Google Play.
2. Create a family account.
3. Connect family members.
4. Invite your children to join.
This initiative is one of the main actions implemented in Limassol through the metaCCAZE project (Flexibly Adapted MetaInnovations...), which aims to reduce traffic congestion and the use of private vehicles, promoting smart and sustainable mobility solutions.
The consortium implementing the project in Limassol includes the Municipality of Limassol, MaaSLab, EMEL, Nextbike, and Oxygono, with a total budget of approximately €5 million, of which €1,099,912.50 relates to the Municipality of Limassol.
