Nothing flowery about Roos

Roos (Rose in English) says that one of the reasons for her flying solo is that it provides her with more freedom to continue to do what she believes in – engaging people with the advantages of sustainable transport and making our roads greener and faster.

Prior to setting up her own company, Roos & Co, Roos was responsible for communicating the sustainable mobility policy and involvement of public transport company Arriva, after it won the bus concession for the Waterland region in the Netherlands.

In other words, it was her job to persuade more people to get on the buses and to showcase Arriva’s commitment to sustainability.

Make friends

Roos’ first line of advice for public transport organisations looking to raise interest in their green transport projects is to build up a good relationship with the local and regional stakeholders, travellers and the press. It was one of her key aims at Arriva, and one that achieved considerable success.

She generated a great deal of positive press coverage for the company and significantly raised its profile and reputation in the field of sustainable mobility in North Holland.

Catch them fresh

One of her highest profiles projects was a multi-channel media campaign that included free bus tickets for the public. Anyone who moved to the area was provided with a free, three-month ticket giving them free use of all Arriva’s bus services in the region. This resulted in a large increase of people taking the bus to Amsterdam.

“Moving house is one of the key moments when people are open to new ideas about mobility. It’s a period of change in their lives and a window of opportunity to show them an alternative way of doing something,” says Roos.

Waterland was one of the first regions to use this idea and it has since been replicated across Europe. UK bus provider Stagecoach, for example, recently announced plans to offer free bus transport to people moving into a region where it operates. Although the Brits aren’t as generous as the Dutch and Stagecoach only offers a measly seven days.

Make the ride a pleasant one

To support the campaign in Flevoland, bus drivers were sent on training courses to provide them with a thorough knowledge of the area, and more buses were laid on that were fully climate-controlled, to make the ride as pleasant and attractive as possible.

“You need to put the basic foundations like these in place first, so that when new users take the bus for the first time, their expectations are exceeded, or at least not disappointed,” says Roos.

And that is why she established Roos & Co to give her more control over the projects she works on, and help ensure that the communications side strongly engages with the public.

Electrical bike recharging points

One of her latest projects is the promotion of electrical bike recharging points in Rotterdam, called ‘Rotterdam puts the plug in’ in English.

Roos says electric bikes allow people to double the distance they can comfortably cycle to work. A message the city of Rotterdam is keen to embrace.

In the city a number of businesses offer electric bikes to their employees to travel to and from the office. Roos hopes that by having more charging points it will encourage more large organisations to instigate similar schemes to help improve the city’s air quality .

Sustainable mobility for all

“The message is that sustainable mobility is for all of us. It is not just about using buses or cars. Its’ a way of thinking. One of the best ways to be more sustainable is to chose the right way to travel, fits for the right moment. Sometimes the car is the best way to travel, most times it isn’t! It’s a simple message and one I aim to shout to as many people as possible,” laughs Roos.