Devyn Helen Avhild Remme

Tell us about yourself?

I grew up in the US and then came to Norway when I was 19 years old, and I have been here for 14 years now.

What education do you have?

I studied chemistry and math in the US, and then I came to Oslo and studied art for 3 years and then I took a bachelor's degree here at UIB called Environment and Resources which was transdisciplinary between math, natural sciences, and social sciences. And then I wrote a master's thesis on sustainable mobility here in Bergen and now I'm doing a PhD in all the materials needed for electric cars.

What makes you interested in these topics?

I like to mix math, natural sciences, social knowledge, and philosophy. Especially when it comes to sustainability issues since you need everyone on board. And it was a bit random that I started with mobility, I'm not really interested in it but I got the opportunity. I was paid to work on a mobility project.

How can we make public transport systems more practical and accessible?

We have a lot in place that is good, such as the zero-growth goal. It is a standard that we can be quite proud of in Norwegian cities. The zero-growth goal is that we should not have any growth in private cars while the city grows with people. One thing we can do better is the bus systems.

What are the advantages of using public transport? Are there economic and safety benefits?

Yes, both are major advantages and often the biggest ones we have. Safety increases as people who drink prefer to use public transport rather than putting others at risk by driving their own car. It has also been researched whether it helps society that people have more opportunities to talk to each other. In Norway, it is not necessarily that people talk to each other when waiting for the bus while in other countries, it is more common to be social in this way.

What needs to be done for more people to use public transport?

One needs to remove parking spaces, which is very convenient. And another thing is to make it more expensive to use a car, but that has negative sides such as class differences. Therefore, we should rather improve the public transport offer than increase the prices for driving their own vehicle. Building densely is also important for making it easy to use public transport.

Does public transport have any negative sides and what influences does it have if more people use public transport?

Generally, things get better and better the more people use it, so the disadvantages tend to be very specific such as "ups, in this situation it went a little wrong", but generally, we want more public transport and more people using it. But that doesn't mean that there are no disadvantages, but it is so much better than private cars. I also think that it is not the public transport itself that will have disadvantages, but how it is developed, that is if they focus on profit and thus will give those with more money better offers and again create a class difference.

What can companies like Skyss, Vy, Bolt, Obos, and others do to make public transport more attractive?

First of all, it has become a bit complicated with what Skyss can do because they do not own the buses or the bus drivers, they own almost nothing, they are just involved in the organization. This can be a bit controversial, but I want them to stop using security guards. I mean this because it costs a lot to send out the security guards and it is often those who have the least who are without a ticket. Therefore, it is like hunting for those who do not have money, while we use a lot of tax money to build roads for cars and other measures for cars. So saying that we do not have enough money