Trends

"ASSURED-UAM aims to assure the safety, sustainability and acceptability of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) by embedding aviation best practices, recommendations and organizational solutions in city administrative structures.

The project provide comprehensive organisational and policy support for authorities, policy makers and urban industry organizations in the complex process of implementing vertical transport into urban and peri-urban mobility systems. It provide recommendations for the integration of surface modes under the U-Space Air Traffic Management System, regarding the introduction of unmanned urban air mobility."

The Greek capital has just inaugurated its first fully accessible metro station for people with reduced mobility. The project, which is part of the "TOGETHER EVERYWHERE we become accessible" initiative, has involved passengers with reduced mobility in the evaluation and implementation of the project, helping to identify the obstacles they face in their daily journeys."

Bucharest has announced the creation of an Urban Mobility and Management Centre. The project aims to foster discussion, communication and information exchange between the city's local authorities, its residents, and stakeholders regarding urban mobility projects of public interest. In addition, a digital platform will be launched to provide open data on urban planning and mobility, as well as real-time information from public transport operators.

The Romanian capital has announced a project to modernize and expand the intelligent traffic light system to improve the city exists, increase the traffic capacity and make crosswalks safer. Thanks to the artificial intelligence and the traffic control, the traffic lights can improve transport optimization, reducing contamination and improving road safety for the city.

With the objective of reducing atmospheric contamination, Kraków has announced its plans to create a "clean transport area". This makes the city the first in implementing a measure of this type, banning gasoline vehicles older than 31 years and diesel vehicles older than 27.

Article on the Mobility Consumer Index report, which analyzes the mobility patterns of 9 countries through three key segments: work, leisure and family

Barcelona has already 230km of exclusive bike lane, 100km of which have been inaugurated within the last 6 years. This gives response to the increase in use of the bicycle, corresponding to 11% between the years 2021 and 2022. Furthermore, the extension of the lanes has made possible that, in January of 2023, 90% of the citizens of Barcelona could say that they live at less than 300 metres from a bike lane.

Article in English on the results of the Mckinsey Global Survey, which shows that consumers are ready to take advantage of advanced air mobility, but concerns persist.

Slovakia invests in hydrogen with the creation of a new hydrogen refuelling station. This action is integrated within the Sustainable and Smart Mobility strategy of the European Union, that aims for 1.000 hydrogen refuelling stations to be installed before 2030 to supply the Slovakian and Central Europe hydrogen vehicle markets.

The French Government has announced plans to invest 2.000 million euros by 2027 to encourage cycling and support its cycling industry. Some of the measures proposed include doubling the network of cycle paths from the current 50.000 km to 100.000 km by 2030, increasing spending on secure bike racks at train stations and cities, and creating subsidy programmes for citizens.

With the aim of reducing CO2 emissions in the transport sector, the city of Hamburg aims for 80% of the journeys to be made by walking, cycling, public transport, or other forms of sustainable mobility. To achieve it, several projects will be made to promote and improve the bicycle and pedestrian network.

Hyperloop is a high-speed ground transportation system through tunnels for passengers and goods devised by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. Based on a system of low-pressure tubes through which transport capsules circulate, it reaches speeds of between 1,000 and 1,200 km / h, in addition to reducing energy consumption and generating a CO2 level per unit lower than that of the aircraft.

Italy invests in the development of the electric urban mobility as a response to the objectives of the national decarbonization policies. In this sense, they aim to have up to 21.000 recharging stations, 7.500 of them being super-fast charging, distributed throughout the country by 2026.

With the aim of encouraging car-sharing, soft mobility and staggering work depart and entry times, the French city of Lile has announced the measure to persuade drivers to not take their car at rush hour.

The Polish city of Gdynia has renewed its programme to help residents buy electric bicycles, doubling the funding up to 42.500€. This contributes to incentivize the change in transportation habits, covering up to half of the cost of acquiring a new bicycle.

The transition to self-driven cars has accelerated in the last years and will continue to do so in following years. It is expected that by 2025, 63,6% of cars have a level 1 level of autonomy, where driving and direction are partially assisted.

Faced with the high volume of cars parked on the streets of the historic centre and the beach, the Dutch city of The Hague has launched a pilot project with the aim of moving towards more sustainable mobility. It has set a flat parking fee of 50 euros, regardless of how long the car is parked, to discourage visitors from driving.

On an economic level, light vehicles have low acquisition and maintenance costs. However, in addition to this current crisis that also affects health, these vehicles make it possible to maintain social distance and guarantee transport safety.

Normally, when talking about Safe mobility, reference is made to issues and concepts directly related to Road Safety in its various meanings: road safety for the vulnerable individuals, urban road safety, occupational road safety among others. However this approach is correct, lately a major paradigm shift has been taking place in the field of mobility in two directions.

Article that aims to illustrate the complexity of an ecosystem such as the Last Mile, which has been growing exponentially in recent years and is facing enormous challenges, both from an environmental point of view, urban congestion and efficiency and sustainability of the companies and sectors that interact on it

At the end of April, the Portuguese capital started a trial to restrict motorised vehicle traffic in the city centre. Although it is not yet known if the ban will be made permanent, it is expected that it will contribute to changing citizens' behaviour and encourage them to use more sustainable mobility options. Moreover, the city will take advantage of the reduced traffic to undertake major infrastructure works on new public services.

Driverless technology keeps advancing, also for public transportation systems. As an example, a new European project, which aims at introducing 45 electric and driverless minibuses by 2025 to circulate for a year in Geneva (Switzerland), Kronach (Germany) and Oslo (Norway).

During the summer of 2022, the city of Coventry (UK) made the first tests with VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing), a helicopter designed to transport passengers within the city, and different companies are working to implement it in other cities. This new method of transportation could make travel within the city up to 75% faster and, thanks to its design, that does not require a runaway, make it more flexible. Moreover, it is a greener alternative, as it works with batteries and uses cleaner fuels, like hydrogen.

Free public transport is promoted as an action towards the city's climate change targets, encouraging people to use the service. Since 2020, Luxembourg has made all public transport (interconnected trains, buses and trams) free of charge, becoming the first country in the world to do so.

Luxemburg is building a cycling and pedestrian bridge between the capital and the Belval university campus. The 1.2km cycling bridge is going to be the longest in Europe and contribute to the expansion of the cycling lane network for the city, from the current 600km to up to 950km.

The transportation and logistics (T&L) industry has demonstrated a strong capacity for innovation to adapt to the needs of industry and consumption. This website includes a series of articles on Artificial Intelligence, the Industrial Internet of Things, Advanced Robotics, as well as Autonomous Vehicles, New Interfaces, Digital Platforms and BlockChain, with the aim of separating media noise from reality, describing these technologies, analyzing their maturity and adoption, as well as their current and potential impact and applications in T&L, both in large and small companies, in leading countries and in developing countries. development.

The city of Paris has voted to eliminate e-scooter sharing services in the city. Despite the low turnout, only 103,000 votes (less than 10% of registered voters), the mayor has promised to respect the result, making Paris the first capital city to ban e-scooters. This decision is motivated by the negative perception of residents, who consider them dangerous, environmentally unfriendly due to the short life of their lithium batteries, and a source of conflict in public spaces.

The general objective of REBALANCE is to carry out an open deliberative exercise with a view to the future towards a transformative transport policy strategy in favor of a paradigm shift in mobility, which takes into account emerging social values ​​(with a growing concern in relation to climate change) and better alignment with the SDGs. The deliberative process has begun and has been supported by thinkers who are not necessarily directly involved in transport research debates. They have helped to formulate research questions and working hypotheses, which are being addressed by a wider representation of stakeholders in the mobility and transport sector. Several workshops will be held to establish the vision for the longer-term transport system and, ultimately, a Manifesto for a new European mobility culture and policy will be developed.

Article in English about mobility and the change it is currently undergoing and that will affect companies and society for generations. Find out how developments in four dimensions (cars, consumers, cities and competition) are already shaping the future.

The Basque city of San Sebastián has installed 350 smart parking devices to fight against illegal parking in spots designed for people with disabilities. This smart mobility solution is directly related to the topics of environmental sustainability and social justice.

The Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca has launched a system to help public transport users access bus information in real time. The aim of the system is to contribute to the modernization of the system and the actualization of the public transport network, and it is part of the local digitisation strategy. At the same time, it contributes to fostering collaboration between city authorities, community groups and local businesses.

The City Council of Sofia has launched a new on-demand bus service for the outer suburbs of the Bulgarian capital. This project aims to make public transport more attractive by offering more and better connections to residents of the suburbs, providing an affordable and more sustainable solution for their last mile commute.

With the aim of achieving a fossil fuel-free transport system and boosting the development of electric mobility solutions, Sweden has committed to building the first permanent electric road. This project aims to test the entire electric road system, including support services, payment and access systems and installation in a real-world environment, allowing electric vehicles to be charged while driving.

The German micromobility operator TIER has partnered with Lazarillo, an inclusive orientation app that acts as an audio and map guide. Thanks to the collaboration, the app will incorporate more information about the objects and obstacles that may be in the road, with the aim of providing predictable mobility conditions in urban environments to people with visual impairments, improving their safety and mobility.

A new study shows that owning a full electric vehicle in many European countries is cheaper than having a gasoline or diesel one. This is because despite the increase in fuel and electricity, ownership costs (taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc.) are cheaper for electric vehicles.

The initiative "Mediterranean transport and logistics in the post-COVID-19 era: perspectives and opportunities" convenes experts from different professional fields, different Mediterranean countries and regional and international institutions to discuss possible post-Covid-19 scenarios for the sector of transport and logistics in the Mediterranean, through thematic articles. By bringing together multiple critical views and perspectives, the initiative aims to consider different approaches and involve different actors interested in promoting future regional strategies and opportunities for cooperation.

Micro-mobility systems allow for more autonomy and efficiency to travel within a city. Now, a French start-up has designed a system to make it possible for wheelchair users to use scooters with a universal attachment that joins the wheelchair with the scooter.

Cities must think about the mobility model to which they aspire, knowing that citizens demand total freedom and flexibility.

Article in English where he talks about the great opportunity of autonomous driving to transform mobility. While autonomous private cars are less attractive than autonomous taxis, the market model suggests that they could provide OEMs with great growth opportunities.

Zaragoza City Council has approved the construction of a vertiport, a landing and take-off centre for drones. The main objective of this project is to acquire experience in the integration of vertical take-off and landing electrically propelled aircrafts. It is a pioneering project in Europe, that may contribute to improve the transport of medical goods, as well as investigate new possible business models.

Article in English on the potential impact of autonomous electric vehicles on global decarbonization and the implications for business. In some projections, A-EVs alone could close 1/3 of the gap needed to limit warming to 2 degrees, leading to a major business disruption.

Article in English which analyzes the airline sector beyond the pandemic: they must deal with five new realities and devise strategies to adapt

Érica is an autonomous bus that represents an evolution of transport on demand. In the future, it will complete the implementation of flexible transport in Catalonia, an implementation that has already begun. It uses an algorithm that manages the data of all users in real time. In this way, all origin and destination requests are efficiently managed, creating routes and assigning buses to each of them.