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In the Netherlands, cities are experimenting with using temporary bike parking facilities to show people the benefits of both increasing the space allocated for bike parking, and also of reducing spaces for car parking. In this way, parking management can support major modal shift. Replacing car parking spaces with alternative uses is a key part of this process, and as cities seek to encourage residents and visitors away from personal car use towards active modes of travel, substituting a car parking space for bike parking is proving critical.

Many cities are attempting to swap car parking spaces for facilities for bicycle parking. However, this is often easier said than done. Nevertheless, an innovative approach being trialled in the Netherlands may provide inspiration for others. Cities there have been installing temporary bike parking platforms, each with racks for 8 to 10 bikes, designed to fit neatly into one car parking space. These are then put in place for local residents to test before the change is made permanent.

In The Hague one street has been experimenting with a plastic platform with built-in racks inserted into car parking spaces. Over the subsequent two months, residents had a chance to give feedback. The verdict was that 86% of the people living on the street approved of the change. As a result, the city installed a permanent rack and moved the temporary platform (in Dutch, a fietsvlonder, or bicycle platform) to another neighbourhood to repeat the experiment.

The idea to install temporary bicycle parking facilities to expose people to the benefits of more bike parking originally came from planners in the city of Rotterdam, who were brainstorming ideas in 2015 to help increase biking in a neighbourhood that had extensive car parking. After Rotterdam had tested a platform in one location, it quickly started using them throughout the city centre. Now the bike platforms are used in the city maintenance department as a standard tool.

Rotterdam now has more than 70 temporary sets of parking facilities circulating throughout the city, and nearly 90 parking spots have been converted into permanent parking for hundreds of bikes. Other cities, including The Hague, have also started to use the tool. People are even able to request that a platform is installed in their own street.

This topic is now being discussed widely across the mobility field. Earlier in 2022, the EU-funded Park4SUMP project brought together key stakeholders from Rotterdam, the European Cycling Federation and others, to discuss parking standards and to explore how housing development which caters for cycle parking can support sustainable mobility agendas.

With approximately 80% of all journeys beginning and ending at the home, the availability of parking facilities near people’s homes is key to their mobility choices. All too often this has meant that the car is the preferred method of travel. As Rotterdam and The Hague have demonstrated, this does not need to be the case.

The Attica region surrounding the Greek capital Athens has announced the implementation of an innovative tool that will facilitate road users’ travel and help to reduce traffic congestion. The app will work on smartphones and will display real-time traffic data, such as travel times on different road axes, which will enable drivers to choose the best route to avoid traffic. The app will be integrated into the already operating electronic message signs that are regulated by the city’s Traffic Management Centre in order to ease travel in the region.

Such innovative tools have the potential to improve people’s daily life, ensuring safer and more functional movements and limiting the stress related to traffic jams.

The route calculation platform will integrate so-called ‘Floating Car Data’ (FCD), which monitors and calculates travel times in order to keep road users informed and help them make their route choices, whilst reducing congestion. As the app will collect data from FCD, it will enable road users to identify the most congested routes and the associated journey times. In this way, they will be able to adjust their journey and choose the best route amongst the ones proposed by the app.

Road users will also have access to historical data and will be able to investigate traffic-related problems identified on the app. Historical data can also be exported to ‘business intelligence’ tools or into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to help users to analyse, for instance, the correlation between air quality and noise levels of each route. Users can also select new routes, by adding the coordinates of their points of interest or simply selecting these points on the map, and the app will provide real-time data for that route.

The platform has been designed so that it has an easy-to-use graphical interface. In order to ensure flexibility and security, the technology that is running on the brand-new platform will operate using a secure cloud-based system. The platform will collect data from multiple sources and regions and will analyse these in real-time, thus acting as a data aggregator to improve mobility management.

Original article published by protothema.gr on 17 August 2022.

The FAME project funded by the European Commission kicked-off on 1 and 2 September in Brussels. The 23 consortium partners from 12 Member States gathered with representatives from the European Commission, CINEA, DG RTD and DG MOVE to align and exchange on the ambitious tasks of the project which are meant to facilitate the sharing of knowledge, lessons learned and best practices and accelerate the harmonised development and deployment of CCAM in Europe.

The project, which is building on the legacy of previous EU-funded support actions including the VRA, CARTRE and ARCADE projects, aims at directly supporting the work of the CCAM Partnership and the European Commission for the identification of gaps and future needs for R&I in CCAM. Such a cooperation across stakeholders and coordination has been required by the European Commission, the Member States and Industry since the Declaration of Amsterdam and the High Level Meetings on CAD.

To address the remaining challenges related to coordination of Research & Innovation and sharing of knowledge for CCAM in Europe, FAME has five specific objectives:

• Establish a European Framework for CCAM testing activities on public roads comprising a taxonomy, Common Evaluation Methodology, CCAM test data space and a legal & ethical framework;
• Develop a common evaluation method (CEM) that provides guidance on how to set up and carry out an evaluation or assessment of direct and indirect (wider socio-economic) impacts directed at different user groups;
• Develop a CCAM test data space to establish trusted data sharing between different types of stakeholders within the CCAM community;
• Engage the stakeholder network of the CCAM Partnership and enrich it by the broader European and international CCAM stakeholder community for the further development, alignment and exploitation of the content of the Knowledge Base and the development of a common methodology and testing framework
• Enhance the present EU wide Knowledge Base with an efficient governance mechanism, ensuring continuous contribution from CCAM stakeholders to serve their and the CCAM Partnership needs.

This metastudy is based on the deployment studies carried out by 5G-CARMEN, 5GCroCo and 5G-MOBIX, the three EU-funded projects working on 5G-enabled connected, automated mobility (CAM) in cross-border scenarios, aiming at qualifying 5G as a core connectivity infrastructure to address vehicle-to-everything (V2X) for advanced CAM services.

The initial deployment studies were carried out to assess the connectivity demands of CAM and the corresponding 5G infrastructure investment delta in different European cross-border corridors. The objective was to provide an indication to policymakers, private and public investors, and relevant industries of the potential dimensions of additional infrastructure needed to provide sufficient and reliable 5G capacity and coverage based on the demands of connected, automated vehicles.

These studies have however been conducted independently and their methodological approaches, geographic and technological scopes differ. The overall objective of the metastudy is thus to compare the three underlying studies, integrate and align their results towards a consolidated perspective on 5G deployment and related investment estimates with respect to the CEF2 Digital deployment.

More information and the Metastudy can be found here

The SAFE-UP Project is proactively designing and analysing safety-critical scenarios in a highly automated and mixed traffic environment, by integrating traffic accident data and future traffic conditions with new forms of safety metrics and sub-microscopic models in a traffic simulation platform. Ahead of the release of the Euro NCAP 2030 roadmap, Technical Manager for ADAS (Advanced driving assistance systems) and automated driving at Euro NCAP, Adriano Palao Bernal, shared his thoughts on the programme’s vision for future vehicle safety in Europe and how the SAFE-UP project’s innovations support their work.

In which way do SAFE-UP’s outcomes relate to the 2030 Euro NCAP roadmap?

SAFE-UP’s project deliverables are promising. To achieve the goal of shifting towards scenario-based assessment and tackling advanced driving assistance systemss robustness in real-life situations, it is essential for Euro NCAP to rely on solid facts and data, ensuring we understand aspects such as:

• Accidentology: addressing relevant scenarios based on magnitude (number of killed or severely injured) and selecting the appropriate parameters after understanding the most common accident types (e.g., delta speed, overlap/impact point, occlusions).
• Testability: implications of introducing additional variables in a scenario, and the feasibility of harmonising the procedure across labs.
• Awarding real performance: fact-based understanding of which variations are a challenge to ADAS perception in the real-world – eventually closing the gap between true positive ratio in current track scenarios (which is high on average) and real-world scenarios (low on average). This will help to differentiate the truly robust systems from the ones that are not so robust.
• Assessment: as they move towards a scenario grid which is exponentially growing in size, it is necessary to look at alternative verification methods, such as spot testing and virtual validation. For the latter, we need to understand to what extent we can trust the results.

Read the full interview on the SAFE-UP website here.

In June 2022, BKK finalised its Action Plan for Energy-efficient public transport infrastructure deployment in Budapest, funded in the EfficienCE Interreg project. Complementing BKK’s Vehicle Strategy, the document specifies the decarbonisation process of Budapest’s public transport sector for the 2022-2050 timeframe. The action plan evaluated the timing of procurement activities, in order to reach the zero-emission goal for 2050.

In the action plan, BKK experts identified targets and dates for the transformation of bus and trolleybus transport in Budapest. The aim is for all buses and coaches in Budapest to be locally zero-emission by 2050. If the appropriate resources are available, there are plans for:

• the replacement of the most polluting diesel buses below EURO 5 by 2026 – around 400 pcs;
• procurement of zero-emission buses (battery-powered trolleybuses and/or e-buses) and development of the necessary charging infrastructure between 2026 and 2030;
• further procurement of zero-emission buses (battery-powered trolleybuses and/or e-buses) and development of the necessary charging infrastructure;
• conversion of external operator contracts to zero-emission requirements between 2030 and 2040.

More information about the process can be found here.

The original article was published on 26 June 2022 on the Interreg EfficienCE website.

In the struggle for climate neutrality, 64 participating cities from 22 EU Member States and 3 associated countries have contributed to the report City Needs, Drivers and Barriers Towards Climate Neutrality, which has been released by NetZeroCities (NZC).

The cities shown in the report are at various phases of their journeys toward climate neutrality and have a wide range of population densities. The NZC team examined the factors that would motivate a city to pursue climate neutrality (drivers), the obstacles in the way (barriers), and the elements that make up an enabling environment through 10 focus group talks with city leaders (needs) – UVARs were naturally part of the discussion.

The division of duties within municipal administration and the lack of proper coordination between administrative levels were two of the biggest obstacles that cities highlighted. Cities emphasised the need for a new governance model, a systemic approach, and reciprocal obligations at the EU, national, and regional levels.

The Climate City Contract is one of the most intriguing governance tools created in recent years, according to the towns consulted. It is a long-term commitment that guarantees collaboration between cities and other governmental levels, as well as a tool for the cities.

Cities emphasised the disparity between strategy formulation and practical implementation, expressing the need to scale up current programmes and initiatives and switch from a project-to-portfolio approach. Cities cited a shortage of human resources as well as the prevalence of cultural barriers as major problems. Lack of understanding about a solution frequently stops people from changing “business as usual” instead of motivating them to look into new possibilities.

Cities are conscious of the importance of involving local populations in achieving climate neutrality in the areas of culture, social innovation, and participation. The existence of opposition and anxiety from communities to modify business as usual behaviour – just think of pedestrain zones in city centres! -, the effort to effectively involve more vulnerable groups, and the limited collaborations with the commercial sector were some of the major challenges noted by city authorities.

Tools, techniques, and best practises for engagement strategies might be helpful to cities. To win over residents and other stakeholders, they also need to understand how to demonstrate the socioeconomic costs of inaction.

Cities acknowledged that one of the biggest obstacles to finance and business models was a lack of money and financing options. High initial investment costs, governance and regulatory obstacles, as well as a lack of knowledge and experience in climate financing and investments, are all contributing reasons to this barrier.

Therefore, cities require a standardised framework to evaluate funding choices and various financing methods.

Cities expressed a desire to share resources, techniques, experiences, and best practises with other cities and learn from them. Peer evaluations, instruction from outside experts, and demonstration of tools and approaches utilised effectively by other cities were all cited as beneficial features.

Finally, cities acknowledged the need for frameworks to assess policies after implementation by measuring progress, outcomes, and impacts.

The UVAR Box Tool is now available – and we could not be any happier!

The tool makes it easier for cities, regions and ministries to digitise UVARs and enable them to be put into navigation tools. Available for free for all cities, it comes together with a video and manual to support its use.

More and more navigation service providers are asking cities for data: this tool enables cities to give the data all at once and in a single format, rather than several times and in different formats. The UVAR Box Tool makes this process easy, with support for cities and regions from Country Coaches.

Moreover, one can only assume that if the Urban Vehicle Access Regulation is integrated in the navigation tools that drivers use, there will be higher compliance rates and fewer complaints.

Head out to the UVAR Box Tool dedicated page available at https://uvarbox.eu/uvarbox-tool/.

This information page allows cities to access all information about the UVAR Box digitisation tool, as well as the user manual and jointed step-by-step video that explains the main features of the Tool.

UVAR Box is currently creating an efficient structure for the account creation.

Anyone can submit the UVAR data through the tool, but only three different types of data can be submitted:

• Fully digitised UVAR data
• Manually create UVAR
• Manually added UVAR through the map feature

The German city of Cologne is about to start developing its Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP). In order to support the process, the city’s Traffic Committee has decided to establish a Mobility Council.

The Mobility Council will effectively be an expert panel, which will bring together members of the public administration, contracted external experts, political decision makers and stakeholders. The stakeholders will be drawn from a range of interest groups, including those focusing on regional cooperation, young people, seniors, those with mobility impairments, transport service providers and transport associations, as well as experts from economics and different scientific disciplines.

The main mission of the Mobility Council will be to provide professional support and quality assurance to the SUMP development process. It will also enable an exchange of ideas and a discussion of the concept and technical details of the plan between political decision makers, members of the administration, stakeholders and experts from diverse interest groups.

The development process of Cologne’s SUMP is scheduled to start in the autumn of 2022. The SUMP will be an important element of Cologne’s efforts to achieve climate neutrality in its transport system in the medium- to long-term.

From 5 September 2022, the use of park and ride car parks (P+R) in the Belgian capital Brussels will be free for commuters. In addition, the subscription costs for Cycloparking, a network of secure parking places for bicycles throughout the Brussels’ agglomeration, will be reduced by 75%. The aim of both initiatives is to encourage commuters not to drive into the city.

The price decreases announced by the Brussels Parking Agency (Parking.Brussels) put into action the decision of the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region of 16 December 2021 to adjust prices in an effort to promote the use of the P+R and to persuade commuters to leave their cars on the edge of the city and use public transport to complete their journey into the city centre.

The decision fits well with the city’s new Climate, Air and Energy Plan, in which the government promised to accelerate the implementation of Good Move, Brussels mobility plan.

Brussels Minister of Mobility, Elke Van den Brandt, explains: “By making the P+R free, we want to encourage our commuters and visitors to Brussels to park at the entrance of the city and use our efficient public transport. In addition, the new rates for bicycle parking will ensure that more Brussels residents and visitors can choose to cycle. It is two more steps forward that will make our Region more accessible and attractive to its visitors and make life more pleasant for its inhabitants.”

Currently, there are seven P+R scattered across the southern and eastern edges of the Brussels-Capital Region. Some of these can already be used for free, while others offer parking subscriptions for commuters, as well as parking spaces for occasional users. Currently, subscribers pay an annual fee of €60 and €1.50 per day of use, while occasional users pay €3 per day.

The level of use of the P+R is varied. Whilst, for example, the P+Rs in Stalle (which was already free) and Kraainem (which had to be paid for) have high occupancy rates to the extent that their expansion is being considered, the €16 million P+R in Coovi, which opened in 2019, has never reached an occupancy above 20%.

From 5 September onwards, all of these P+R will be free to commuters, although a subscription (which is also free) will still be required. Occasional visitors will be able to use the P+R for free if they use public transport onwards into the city. In such cases, they will need to scan their public transport ticket in the car park before leaving. Users of the P+R and cyclists who bought a subscription between the announcement of the new tariffs (1 August) and their entry into action will be able to apply for compensation through Parking.Brussels.