Skip to main content

Swedish public transport map asks people to walk instead

Västtrafik creates new route map detailing how many footsteps are between stops
By Adam Hill July 1, 2020 Read time: 1 min
Västtrafik's new 'walking' map of Gothenburg (credit: Forsman & Bodenfors)

A public transport company in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, is asking travellers to walk rather than take its buses and trams.

To promote social distancing and to ease overcrowding, Västtrafik has produced a new version of its map showing the number of steps between bus and tram stops in the city - calling it "a simple reminder that distances are actually quite short in the city centre".

“If more people have the possibility to walk instead of taking the bus or tram in Gothenburg, we encourage that," said Lars Backström, CEO of Västtrafik. 

"That way we make it safer for those who really need to use public transport."

The company says that people are already choosing alternatives to public transport post-Covid, taking the bus or cycling to work. 

More than 30% claim they walk more now compared to before the pandemic, it adds.

The new map is featured in print adverts and on billboards as part of an initiative created by Forsman & Bodenfors.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Cable cars come of age in trans-continental expansion
    April 30, 2015
    David Crawford explores a high-level option of public transport. Sharing its origin with that of ski lifts at winter sports resorts in the European Alps, urban aerial cable transport is attracting growing interest as a low-footprint, low-energy alternative to conventional public transport that can swoop over ground-level traffic congestion.
  • Platooning with Ease on the I-70
    July 15, 2025
    What would happen to truck platooning - a nascent technology - if the weather turns nasty? The I-70 Truck Automation Corridor Project in the northern US should provide some answers, reports David Arminas…
  • The cloud - the future of in-car telematics?
    February 28, 2013
    Fiat Chrysler product concept and infotainment director Pierpaolo Tona told the conference that the big car manufacturers need to organise their telematics approach around three key pillars – and the first one of those is people. “OEMs need to understand consumers and their needs better than they understand them themselves,” he commented. The second pillar, suggested Tona, is technology. “Technology is never for the sake of it. Choose the right technology with the right performance to fulfil every consumer’
  • New thinking needed on the transportation front
    December 10, 2014
    Having spent his working life in transportation, Larry Yermack gives his views on today’s technology challenges. I remember it vividly; it was the late 80s, soon after I started as CFO of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority and I was standing mid-span on the deck of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge on a Friday afternoon.