Currently, moving and stationary traffic take up 48% of public space in Dutch cities, while city space is already scarce. Moreover, urgent tasks such as energy transition and new housing also need space. Smart mobility can be part of the solution. This is expected to reduce car ownership in the cities and make a different traffic organization in cities possible. This will free up space for other developments.
Smart mobility is an all-encompassing name for the smart deployment and combination of innovative, technological discoveries with the aim of making the mobility system more efficient, safe, sustainable and comfortable. Many studies focus on its technological and traffic engineering aspects. Together with Goudappel Coffeng, we looked at the spatial consequences, especially if smart mobility is applied on a large scale. The results of the study were translated into seven lessons. One is the fact that Mobility as a Service saves space because individual car ownership is less necessary. We also learned that smart mobility such as the e-bike requires traffic mixing, because there is no room in the urban area for additional infrastructure. And the multitude and diversity of hubs are important to the success of MaaS, but making these nodes as full and useful as possible with all kinds of amenities also requires space.
Besides formulating spatial answers to the question, Smart Mobility, What If?, the goal of the study was to identify new transportation concepts, provide insight for generic policy development, and raise questions for follow-up research and/or methodology development.
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