Nicolai, what exactly are you working on in the field of "connected mobility" and what are these mobility stations all about?
Nicolai: We have been a partner in the eHUBs project for just under four years, an EU-funded project in which mobility stations have been put into operation and are being researched in ten different European cities.
How can you imagine this? What kind of cities are these exactly?
Nicolai: This is quite a good mix of major cities such as Amsterdam and Manchester, as well as smaller cities, such as Leuven in Belgium, for example, or Kempten in Bavaria. We also have rural regions like Wallonia, but also cities with different mobility cultures. The "lead" city is Amsterdam, with which one automatically associates bicycles and an openness to new mobility. But we have, for example, the city of Dublin with it, which is very car-centric - so, as I said, both large and small cities, as well as more progressive cities in the sense of new forms of mobility and traditional car-centric cities.
Is the mobility hubs or stations only about cycling or what forms of mobility can I find there?
Nicolai: In theory, this can be very diverse. Here in the project are then mainly bicycles as well as e-cars. An important focus in the project is also the topic of cargo bike sharing or E-load bike sharing. The scooters, which we see in all places here, are treated rather incidentally in the project. But that also has to do with the fact that scooters are not yet that widespread everywhere. In the UK, for example, we don't even have road approval yet, so there is no scooter sharing there, and in 2019, when the project was launched, people weren't that far along in the topic of e-scooter sharing either. The focus is on bikesharing, especially e-bikesharing, cargo bike sharing and e-car sharing.
So I can look for the mobility that I just need?
Nicolai: Exactly, but that also depends on the city in the case, to what extent these offers are then also integrated into the public transport. In the case of Manchester, it is the case that the project is run by the transport organization there. In other cities, it is actually the city that is driving the project forward. The issue of integration then of course plays into it, to establish all these shared mobility offerings as an extension of public transport.
Where are the biggest challenges then? Where do you notice, there hakt what?
Nicolai: I think the biggest challenge is basically to reach the right target groups with the offers that you create. After all, at the end of the day you want to achieve certain goals: less car traffic, less parking pressure, less emissions and also noise pollution, for example, and I can only achieve that if I address car drivers. But not if I primarily address people who travel by bicycle anyway or who have an affinity for such offers and do not have a car themselves. In this case, such offers could actually produce the opposite effect. If I make car sharing available, but ultimately can't get anyone to get rid of their own car, then I just end up with more cars.
Which would lead to the shortage of space in cities getting even worse...
Nicolai: Exactly. That's the fundamental challenge, simply reaching the right target groups. We have the topic with the cargo bike sharing also. There are already some cities in Bavaria that also have cargo bike sharing, and there it comes down to looking at what purpose this means of transport fulfills, what use cases does such a means of transport serve, and I have to position it accordingly. I was recently on the road in a smaller city that also offered a kind of mobility station, including cargo bike sharing, but in an industrial area near the university campus. This makes me wonder, who is going to use this cargo bike? Freight bikes are usually used by families to go shopping or to take their children to the playground or kindergarten. Here, one should pay closer attention to what goals I want to achieve. At the moment, many cities involved in the project are asking themselves how they can ensure regular operation beyond this project. This is often the case with projects of this kind. You get funding for a certain time frame and when the funding ends, these services have to prove to be economically viable. What is sometimes difficult for municipalities, but of course also a pity, if you have to take back an offer that you have created once before, because you can not ensure regular operation.
Let's take a closer look at the project again. What aspects are you looking at, how are you evaluating?
Nicolai: Well, the project is, of course, on the one hand, to build and operate the pilot hubs. This has taken a lot of time and was also made quite difficult by the Corona pandemic. Which also affected the availability of vehicles. In addition, the accompanying research already mentioned is an important aspect. On the one hand, of course, we are looking from the perspective of transportation science to see where good, suitable locations are for such hubs, based on the settlement structure, traffic volume and other factors. On the other hand, we also want to evaluate whether the hubs actually have a positive effect on CO2 emissions in a city: How do I have to organize and structure a hub network so that it can actually become a good business model? Finally, it is also a question of how I actually get people to use a mobility station as an alternative to their own car - here we are researching this with a behavioral psychology chair at the University of Amsterdam.
