Mobility management at Hilversum Media Park

 

Type of site

The business park Media Park is considered as the centre of the audio-visual multimedia industry in the Netherlands. It is a concentration of high-skilled, innovative and creative activities, performed by about 4,500 employees at about 150,000 m2 of business floor area. In the future (2020) Media Park is expected to grow rapidly up to: 

 

  • 250,000 m2 of business floor area and
  • 6,000-7,000 employees

 

It is expected the increase of the Media Park will cause heavy traffic in the near future. What’s more, there are plans to add new functions that will transform the Media Park from a pure business park into a combination of business park and theme park. The northern part of the park will keep its function as a business park, the southern part will attract more visitors. To see an impression of the Media Park in 2020, click here.

 

Location

Media Park is located at the north edge of town, opposite a train station. The Media Park has one main entrance for visitors and employees and an extra entrance for employees at the far side of the park.

 

Accessibility profile

By car
Media Park is accessible through various routes:

  • from the A1 via Laren and the N525;
  • from the A1 via Bussum;
  • from the A27 via the outer ring east;
  • from the A27 via the N201 and the outer ring west;
  • also, some short cuts are in use.

Since paid parking has been introduced (2004), there is no parking problem anymore. Central parking is offered in addition to dedicated parking.  

 

By public transport
Public transport facilities to the Media Park are good. Four times/hour trains from the directions of Utrecht and Amsterdam stop at Hilversum Central. From Hilversum Central, people can use the special shuttle service ‘Media Pendel’, running directly between the station and the Media Park, every 15 minutes, without stops. The Media Park is located opposite of station Hilversum North. At this station, trains from Utrecht and Amsterdam stop four times/hour.

 

By bike
There are several cyclings racks, both outdoor and indoor.

 

Mobility profile

Number of travellers
There are 4,500 people employed at the Media Park. In addition, some companies, such as large broadcasting companies, attract large numbers of visitors to their television shows. Together, these companies attract around 1,000-1,500 visitors a day.

The main crowd puller at the Media Park is the National Institute of Sound and Vision (Beeld en Geluid). Parts of the institute are open tot the public, attracting over 250,000 visitors in 2007.

 

Origin of travellers
About half of the employees comes from nearby cities such as Amsterdam and Utrecht. There are good train services between these cities and Hilversum. About 20-25% of the employees live in Hilversum, mostly people working at auxiliary services. and bout 30-40% lives at cycling distance from Media Park.

 

Modal split
Research indicates the following modal split:

 

  • car 50-65%
  • bike 10-25%
  • public transport 10-15%
  • other 5%

 

Car and bike share depend on the season.

 

Working hours 
About 60% of the employees have fixed working hours. The other employees start between 8-10 am and go home between 4 – 6 pm. About 20% of the employees have an ambulatory function and have to visit locations outside the Media Park.

 

Institutional context 

In 2005, the local autority has drawn up the ‘IBP’, an ‘Integral Accessibility Plan’ (Integraal Bereikbaarheidsplan Hilversum e.o.). The Media Park plays an important role in this plan. The basic principle of the IBP is that no new infrastructure will be built. Instead, existing infrastructure will be upgraded, together with measures for bike and public transport. To meet the increasing demand for travel there is an urgent need for mobility management. Mobility management is therefore one of the pillars of the IBP to increase accessibility.

Next to the local authority, TCN Property Projects, property developer of Media Park, is highly involved in mobility management at Media Park. TCN represents about 180 companies (tenants and subtenants) and is aiming for successful, demand-driven mobility measures to guarantee accessibility of Media Park in the future.

 

Motivation for mobility management

Parking was never a problem at the Media Park. However, a growing demand for parking space is expected, caused by the increase of employees and visitors of Media Park and visitors of the Netherlands Institute of Vision and Sound. Furthermore, travel times to and from the Media Park are unreliable. Especially during events, the entry and exit get blocked up during opening and closing times.

 

At the same time, there were no good alternatives for the car: safe bicycle routes to the Media Park were absent and public transport facilities were poor. 

 

Another reason to implement mobility management was the sustainable image the Media Park wants to carry out. 

 

The following goals for mobility management have been set up:

 

  • less travel time for car and public transport; 
  • enhancement of the reliability of travel times; 
  • increasing the attractiveness of car alternatives such as bike and public transport; 
  • decrease of parking by visitors.

 

Buses and other public transport improvements

  

Since December 2007, a shuttle bus (Media Pendel) has been running between the Media Park and Hilversum Central station. So far, the number of travellers is disappointing. On average, 150 people a day use the bus. However, outside peak hours, the bus is mostly empty. To promote the bus, free tickets will be distributed among all companies. Furthermore, the travel planner on the accessibility website will be changed, so the shuttle bus occurs in more travel advices.

 

Moreover, Hilversum Central station has gained the Intercity status since December 2007. This means that trains run to and from Utrecht and Amsterdam four times/hour. The number of trains stopping at Hilversum North has not changed.

 

Promoting cycling

Parking facilities were inventoried and new bicycle racks were added, creating 140 extra places at Hilversum Media Park. Additionally, signposting was placed, because some bicycles racks were poorly visible.

A bike plan has been set up including the following measures (implementation spring/summer 2008):

 

  • extending parking facilities for bikes;
  • adding signposting of cycling racks;
  • rented bikes (‘OV-fiets’) on several locations.

 

See also Plan van Aanpak Fietsenstallingen (in Dutch).

 

Combining solutions

Website
The most succesful measure in 2007 at Media Park was the release of www.mediaparkbereikbaar.nl, an accessability website. The website is divided in a part for visitors and employees. The main feature of the website is a personal travel planner, based on the postal code of the visitor.
The planner shows visitors the different opportunities for their trip to the Media Park, presenting four means of transport: bike, public transport, car and a combination of both public transport and car. Besides the personal travel planner, the website provides background information about different means of transport. In the bike menu for example, visitors find information about the OV-fiets (type of rented bike) and fiscal advantages of buying a bike, the car menu includes information about current traffic jam and planned road works and the public transport menu shows information about bus and train schedules and current departure times.

 

The website is highly succesfull: during the first two months, the travel planner was used over 27,000 times, an average of more than 400 travel advices a day. On average, the website attracts 60 visitors a day. So far, 30 mainly larger companies placed a link to www.mediaparkbereikbaar.nl  on their website.

 

Combination cards
Unfortunately, the implementation of combination cards turned out to be too complicated for three reasons:

 

  • The largest crowd puller, Beeld and Geluid, does not sell entrance tickets in advance, so it is not possible to combine travel tickets with entrance tickets; 
  • It was not possible to arrange a contract with the NS (national train company);  
  • Dinner shows and television recordings usually end late at night, when there are hardly any public transport services.

 

Mobility card
During summer, road works will be carried out around the Media Park. These road works have a negative effect on the accessibility of the Media Park. To reduce this effect, car use could be opposed by distributing mobility cards among employees at the Media Park. The mobility card should at least give free access to the Media Shuttle and, if possible, to other means of public transport and the OV-fiets.

 

Mobility facility point / mobility manager
Furthermore a mobility manager has been appointed until summer 2008. The mobility manager is responsible for the planning, implementation, evaluation and promotion of mobility management measures in mutual harmony and depends on funds from OPTIMUM². The mobility manager has been hired from XTNT, a consultancy in the field of traffic and transport. She is the co-ordinator of implementation of all measures. She regularly consults about measures with the local authority of Hilversum and TCN. There are many ideas, however, implementing them often takes more time than planned, because so many parties are involved.
From summer 2008, the local authority has to decide if they wish to renew the contract.

 

Mobility management process

The project group that was formed to introduce mobility management at Media Park consisted of:

 

  • city of Hilversum;
  • province of North-Holland;
  • TCN (property developer of Media Park);
  • 8 companies operating on Media Park.

 

These members mainly played a role during the start of the project. The province has mainly been occupied with the implementation of the shuttle service. They do not have a big role in the other mobility management measures.

 

Resources for mobility management have been derived from the IBP (about € 300.000) and OPTIMUM² (about € 40.000).

 

Marketing and communication

 

To promote the website www.mediaparkbereikbaar.nl, all companies on the Media Park were asked to place a link on their website. So far, over 30 companies have done so. Furthermore, the web address was printed on all promotional materials of the shuttle bus ‘Media Pendel’, such as posters and banners.

  

To promote the shuttle bus, a promotion plan was set up. The shuttle bus was launched in a kick-off meeting with the alderman and a representative of the province of North-Holland and hase been promoted in news letters, with banners, posters and media coverage. Because the number of travellers has been disappointing so far, free tickets will be distributed among all employees.

 

 

Contact

 

Would you like to know more about mobility management at Media Park? 

 

Please contact:
Jolanda van Oijen or Liset Bergevoet (XTNT) at mobiliteitsmanager@hilversum.nl