Moving Things & People

Digital meeting point increases collaboration in the mobility project

Caroline Wendt
September 15, 2021

The Interreg project Mobilitet på tvärs (Cross Mobility) created a mobility forum to increase its visibility but also to incite more collaboration in the field of mobility among actors from Greater Copenhagen. An exhibition place is being built on Scheelevägen in Lund. And an upside to the pandemic is that there also exists a virtual and interactive exhibition which makes the project even more accessible. The launch happened during a webinar and combined workshop where participants got to try the projects own computer game which takes place in the exhibition space!

Towards the end of May 2020 Innovation Skåne, Future by Lund and Gate 21 invited to a webinar with interesting speakers that also encompassed a panel debate and a workshop. The project’s exhibition divides the many projects of Greater Copenhagen into five categories: Electric Mobility, Mobility as a service, Active Mobility, Mobility management and the Smart Society. These categories also mirrored in five workshops that participants could engage in.

The workshop on mobility as a service and shared mobility was headed by Skånetrafiken.

– We at Skånetrafiken need to think more about new possibilities for services that exists beyond our busses and trains, says Henrik Johannesson, strategist at Skånetrafiken. There is an expectation at Skånetrafiken to dare taking more space but also to leave space to contribute in different ways. We need to think of mobility in a wider sense and not just as public transport. According to my understanding, this will affect Skånetrafikens future work.

Anna Thormann, from Gate 21, led the workshop on Active Mobility. Here, the participants brainstormed about different models that companies can offer to their employees to be more physically active. For example, by offering e-bikes – a possibility that might be even more interesting once employees go back to their offices after the pandemic. A new idea from the workshop was to connect mobility and the healthcare sector.

The municipalities of Sjöbo and Tomelilla collected ideas on how to engage more citizens to the topic of mobility. Partly, to make all possibilities visible and accessible but also to make it safer to lend one’s car to somebody else or to use car pools.

–  Communication work and getting information out to inhabitants is important to create inclusion. It has to be easy for them to participate and they must feel that it is thought through and clear what they get themselves into, says Frida Tiberini, co-project manager at Cross Mobility (Mobilitet på tvärs). Many are initially a little bit reserved about travelling together with others or sharing their car with somebody they don’t know, so the security aspect is important to take in when we plan car pools or car sharing.

The municipality of Lund discussed possibilities and challenges around digitally connected bicycle parking. This solution could make it safer to park the bike at the central station. But this also demands to think about the technical fixes that are needed and how to provide ample protection of the personal data.

Participants had the chance to test the mobility forums interactive and virtual exhibition space which is a digital replica of the regional mobility center situated in Lund. Naemi Jaworowski and Anneli Xie are the creators behind the concept.  To spice it up, participants were also able to test the mobility forum game which is an escape room. Here, you can test it yourself.

Tobias Nordström, from Spacescape, held an interesting presentation about the Vinnova project Smart Streets. It is a research project where knowledge, experience and trends are collected around the topic of street functionalities. The goal is to develop a guide on how to build and rebuild streets in the future.

– How one designs streets is an important sustainability question, says Tobias Nordström. It is a challenge to be able to quickly change our cities, so that the street environment supports the sustainable transport laws. This can minimize changes in the climate and increase the adaptability to the climate changes that are coming.

To change existing streets to smart and more multifunctional streets is a step-by-step process. That is way the aim is to produce street prototypes which show how the street environment can change. Nowadays, there exist many guides in different countries which point to a change with more place for pedestrians, public transport and cyclists. A sub-project in Stockholm tested transforming different types of streets to, for example, social spaces and places where cars drive with limited speed. The results will be published in a guide that shall spark inspiration in Nordic cities and is expected to be ready in 2022.  

The other main speaker was John Hultén, from K2, who does research on how the traditional public transport can go hand in hand with new mobility services. He stressed how important it is for society to be able to steer technologies that come from private actors. Having this possibility enables to find new solutions for existing challenges without creating new problems, that can’t be solved afterwards. The public sector possesses instruments such as the authority to demand, ban and allow. But it also has the ability to steer investments and subventions. The ability to create an organization with people working in a specific area or the importance of being at the center of social networks and information are additional instruments.

– As public service it is important to reflect on one’s roll and one’s resources and to formulate a conscious approach, may that be proactive or reactive, says John Hultén. It can be smart as a public actor to make sure that the public values are not negatively affected, for example that smart mobility shall not lead to more unequal transports or more emissions.

John Hultén also pointed out that real progress requires collaboration and that nobody can drive the change by themselves.

– Public organizations need to create the conditions for collaboration, so that the actors really want to work together in these questions.

Mobilitet på Tvärs (Cross Mobility) is an Interreg project within Greater Copenhagen. The mobility forum is a sub-project of Cross Mobility, headed by Malin Larsson from Innovation Skåne. Malin Larsson led the webinar together with Anders Bengtsson from Future by Lund. The project also has a LinkedIn group, Cross, Mobilitet på tvärs (Cross mobility), which gathers those who are interested in the topic.

Translation: Christin Scheller

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