In Boden, it is easy to make a sustainable transport choice in everyday life. All local buses run on biogas and the bus lines in central Boden are planned with frequent trips during rush hour. In rural areas, it is now supplemented with demand-driven buses.
Boden’s urban area has good access to public transport. About 90 percent of those who live in the urban area have a maximum of 400 meters to the nearest bus stop from home. In Boden we are thus as close to the bus as in Luleå urban area and better than Sweden on average.
– Before the pandemic, 570,000 bus trips were made annually per year. We can now see that travel is starting to recover. During August-September this year, 16,000 more journeys were made than in the same period last year, says Carola Medelid, traffic engineer at Boden municipality’s traffic unit.
One generation that has definitely realized the benefits of the bus is the young people. Most trips with public transport are made with the youth card, which means free travel within the entire municipality for SEK 350 / year or SEK 175 / six months. But more and more adults and pensioners have realized the benefits of jumping on the bus and hopefully this will increase further with the subsidized pension card.
The so-called 40-card is also affordable. Each trip for an adult costs SEK 14 compared to taking the car with today’s fuel prices.
Commuting to work by bus
The bus times in the city center are set with departures every twenty minutes on the times when most people travel. The lines pass at a maximum of 400 meters walking distance to all workplaces with at least 20 employees.
Many people are thus close to a bus stop both at home and at work, but it also needs to fit in with the times and the puzzle of life in general. Choosing local transport for at least some of their journeys, in addition to benefits for the environment, also benefits for one’s own health. Several studies show that a public transport passenger cycles twice as much and walks three times as much as motorists.
– On average, you get between the residential areas around Boden and the center in 18 minutes. To Erikslund, for example, it takes eleven minutes. Local transport is planned so that it will be a competitive alternative to the car. It is also a perfect moment wind down, says Carola Medelid.
