Astrid Zwegers & Mark Verbeet on the opportunities and challenges of mobility

In the near future, we could all be sharing rides and using a single app to get made-to-measure travel advice – sparing the climate and preventing congestion. But for now, car-ownership remains the norm and ridesharing in Dutch cities is mostly experimental. We caught up with Astrid Zwegers, coordinator of smart and green mobility for the city of Eindhoven and Mark Verbeet, her counterpart in Utrecht, on the opportunities and challenges of the new mobility. ‘It’s try, try, try.’

What do you think are some of the biggest challenges facing new mobility today?

Mark Verbeet: ‘One major challenge is that some of the new mobility concepts, like autonomous transport and ride-sharing, haven’t quite yet proven themselves. How can you ensure that they will fit into building and housing projects that are designed to last for the coming 100 years?

‘Another challenge is getting everyone on board. And success in this depends on whether people are going to bring vision and conviction to the table. I know maybe a bit of a dirty word among civil servants, but making the new mobility work requires a streak of entrepreneurship.’

Astrid Zwegers: ‘I recognize that. When working with other parties, you’re working at different paces. When it comes to shared mobility and MaaS (Mobility as a Service, that integrates transport services and customizes users’ options, ed.), we don’t know where that’s going be in five years, but you want it to be part of long term plans for the city now.’

A gap between metropolitan and rural areas is already evident in many aspects of life. How do you ensure that the new mobility isn’t just available in big cities, but serves places outside of them as well?

MV: ‘New mobility concepts are hard to organize in places where cars are still dominant. And in crowded cities, of course, there is a greater urgency to organize mobility more efficiently. Still, we can think of ways the new mobility works outside big cities too. How can we let shared e-mopeds in Utrecht be used for single trips to nearby Zeist or Nieuwegein and vice versa, for instance?’

AZ: ‘They’re two different worlds. The region surrounding Eindhoven is still very car-dependent. We should invest in regional hubs, so that people transfer to a public transport or other more sustainable modes of transportation and don’t go the whole way to work using their own car. But shared mobility can be hard to get off the ground in areas with lower population densities.’

Shared rides are often considered expensive, even though they can be cheaper than car ownership in the long run. How do we ‘sell’ shared mobility to a skeptical public?

AZ: ‘I hear skepticism in the world of mobility itself. Sometimes shared rides are seen as an unhealthy, lazy choice. And there’s complaints of some users being a nuisance in these new public spaces. But we are still getting acquainted with this type of transport. I mostly see opportunities. For now, let’s make sure there’s enough supply, and let people try it. It’s try, try, try.

MV: ‘One way to make these alternatives to cars more attractive from a multimodal and user friendly  perspective is MaaS. You don’t want to have to upload your driving license or pay for a deposit for eachnew shared mobility operator you would like to use.  . And ride shares can be quite expensive in the short run. We have to wonder how we can make this type of transport available to everyone. One way could be to better connect these solutions to existing offers of the city like the U-pass which offers low-income residents of the Utrecht region discounts on social services, like public transport.’

AZ: ‘In Eindhoven, people tend to like ride-sharing service Amber. The company has a warm image, because it was founded by students from TU/e. You need that kind of soft power too.’

Will shared mobility actually solve problems? Or will it come at the cost of public transport and active mobility, like people moving by bike or foot?

MV: ‘Let’s not forget: shared mobility is not a fix-all. It has to complement walking, riding a bike and public transport. If people can walk to the supermarket, they won’t need a shared ride. But what if you could take a bakfiets (cargo bike) instead of a short car ride? Most people will see how that’s an improvement. For a shared bike, it’s harder to explain what the gain is.’

What lessons have you drawn from working on these issues?

AZ: ‘Start small and invest what you can, rather than waiting for everyone to go in on it together. It is important to gain practical experience, learn from it and adjust your plans accordingly. You try to build bridges with other parties, but it’s not easy. Because the regions around the city are saying: these new forms of mobility are nice for you, but we have we have other challenges.’

MV: ‘For me, organizing things nationally can serve as an accelerator. At the local level, we’ve spent years peddling new mobility projects everywhere. Once the national government – facing a housing crisis – got involved, everyone felt a new sense of urgency. It has taken way too long, in my opinion. But the most important thing, in the end, is that it happens.’

Lessons from Astrid Zwegers and Mark Verbeet:

• Try to build bridges, but start small and invest what you can, if that’s what it takes to move ahead
• To get something done at the local level, the involvement of the national government can serve as an accelerator
• Get people excited about shared mobility and other new forms of transportation by embracing their ‘soft power’