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Action Plan for the future of Mobility in Europe

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MOBILITY4EU (Action Plan for the future of Mobility in Europe)

Reporting period: 2017-07-01 to 2019-03-31

Global socio-economic and environmental megatrends are posing new challenges and demands on mobility in Europe. Novel technologies and services for passenger and freight transport provide opportunities to answer these. However, in order to become disruptive and change behavior, these solutions have to be cross-modal and tailored to the needs of users. User centric design concepts and a focus on interfaces between modes have to be employed. Collaborations and exchange are needed across a diverse stakeholder group from various sectors and perspectives to deliver efficient solutions and tap the full potential of new opportunities. Last not least, users have to be directly involved in a bottom-up approach.

The CSA Mobility4EU had a clear focus on user-perspectives and demands, the integration of modes as well as synergies and collaboration between modes and stakeholders. All modes of transport for passengers and freight as well as public authorities anduser representatives have been part of the project consortium and the continuously growing external stakeholder community. The project Mobility4EU developed a Vision for a user-centred and cross-modal European transport system in 2030 as well as an Action Plan to implement that Vision. The Vision and Action Plan have been developed interactively with stakeholders representing demand and supply side in passenger and freight transport. A series of interactive workshops as well as online stakeholder consultations have been organized within a scientific stepwise approach, the Multi-Actor-Multi Criteria-Analysis complemented by a more creative story mapping methodology. Furthermore, a European Transport and Mobility Forum that continues the work beyond the project duration and works on implementing the action plan has been initiated within the project.
The entire process from studying trends and options for solutions, developing a vision and finally creating the action plan was organized within a structured participatory approach that aimed to engage a broad stakeholder community into the consultation processes (Figure 1). This was achieved by employing a structured tool, the Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis (MAMCA) (https://www.mobility4eu.eu/project/mamca-methodology/ ) and an accompanying story mapping process that supports the process in a more creative and interactive way (https://www.mobility4eu.eu/project/story-mapping-process/ ).

Trends, drivers and technologies towards transport in Europe in 2030
The work towards the vision and action plan for the future of transport in Europe in 2030 was based on the identification and assessment of societal challenges that will influence future transport demand and supply. This led to the formulation of 9 trends that are projected to have relevance in shaping the future European transport system in 2030. They are represented in the Mobility4EU context map (http://www.mobility4eu.eu/?wpdmdl=1211 ).

The portfolio of solutions and opportunity map
Together with European experts from all fields in transport of passengers and freight, a portfolio of 92 promising and innovative transport solutions across all modes answering the identified trends has been composed. Links from the solutions to user needs are made within an opportunity map (http://www.mobility4eu.eu/test_/?wpdmdl=1209 ).

The structured stakeholder consultation process on future transport scenarios
The portfolio of solutions and the work on trends have been the foundation for co-creating 4 scenarios for the development of future transport in Europe. These scenarios have been ranked for each stakeholder group within the scientific, stepwise MAMCA methodology, thus prioritizing solutions. Two “winning” scenarios emerged that favour a high level of standardisation and interoperability, a regulatory framework that supports personal and corporate carbon emission reduction as well as the full digitalization of the transport system, albeit to partly different ends. Personalization is in contrast to a strict focus on shared use and active mobility. The increasing of capacity to answer rising demand conflicts with the reduction of demand to fit existing capacity.

Vision for transport in Europe in 2030
A further prioritization of solutions has been done through an adapted extended Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA). The solutions coming out of these rankings, MAMCA and FMEA, have been taken into a creative process of vision building. The Vision (http://www.mobility4eu.eu/test_/?wpdmdl=2160) is the result of the participatory process with all stakeholders and negotiates between conflicting concepts in the scenarios that have been most highly ranked within the MAMCA. The Vision describes a future of transport of passengers and freight that is decarbonized, sustainable in economic, environmental and social terms and offers tailored mobility solutions for all. It details an inclusive user-centric, a seamless and a sustainable transport path.

Action Plan for Transport in Europe in 2030
The Action Plan (http://www.mobility4eu.eu/test_/?wpdmdl=3115 ) details measures for implementing the vision that address technical topics but especially refer to societal aspects and issues for multi-stakeholder interaction, as e.g. policy, user acceptance, standardization, collaboration and the integration of the user perspective into the R&D&I process. The Mobility4EU Action Plan focusses on a strictly user-centric and cross-modal perspective providing recommendations on mainstreaming of universal design and user-centric design processes, synergies and collaboration potential between modes and the combination of transport of passengers and freight.
Within the project Mobility4EU, the European Transport and Mobility Forum (ETM Forum) has been initiated (www.etmforum.eu ). The ETM Forum aims to explore how to efficiently include the user-perspective and how to create added value by transferring knowledge and building new collaborations across modes and topics. For this, the ETM Forum brings together all relevant stakeholders of transport of passengers and freight and of sectors beyond the traditional transport industry as, e.g. smart systems, energy, data and service (from academia, industry, policy, users, operators etc.). The ETM Forum especially targets to include representatives of user organizations and connect them with the stakeholders that develop and provide transport solutions and also policy makers. The ETM Forum currently continues the work within 3 WGs: “Co-creating our future mobility system”, “Involving users in R&D&I” and “Viable business for seamless transport”.

The unique bottom-up and participative process involving stakeholders from all transport modes and user representatives enabled to give a voice to users and to initiate discussions and connections between stakeholders of the different modes. Such efficient collaboration between modes and with users is essential for building an integrated transport system that can provide multimodal and sustainable solutions that answer citizens’ needs. Mobility4EU was able to advance this collaboration considerably and raise interest for these topics with the broad stakeholder community.
Methodology of Mobility4EU