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Europe is one of the most urbanised regions in the world, and as such, European countries face numerous and diverse challenges. From road congestion and emissions to last-mile connectivity and accommodating micromobility solutions, cities traditionally had to solve issues internally; with lengthy bureaucratic processes slowing the speed of progress.
However, the innovative solutions and technologies offered by startups and SMEs have the potential to contribute to solving the unique challenges our cities face. By partnering city bodies with these agile and fast-moving startups, cities can test solutions and even scale them for greater impact.
This is the idea behind EIT Urban Mobility’s Rapid Applications for Transport (RAPTOR) programme. The agile, challenge-based programme invites cities to identify a niche urban mobility challenge, and startups and SMEs are invited to propose promising solutions. Winners are then awarded funding and receive customised mentoring to develop and pilot their solution in the city over a five-month period.
The RAPTOR programme pilots projects across Europe in 2024
In 2023, 12 European cities from 10 countries joined the third edition of the RAPTOR programme. Each of the cities identified a unique challenge they face, ranging from cycling safety to measuring carbon dioxide emissions. The participating cities were Akureyri, Iceland; Ankara, Türkiye; Ajka, Hungary; Barcelona Metropolitan Area, Spain; Capital Region of Denmark, Denmark; Debrecen, Hungary; Dubnicka nad Váhom, Slovakia; The Hague, Netherlands; Helsingborg, Sweden; Mechelen, Belgium; Munich and Stuttgart Region, Germany. The startups and SMEs that participated came from eight different countries and the programme produced 12 pilots across Europe.
Gareth Macnaughton, Director of Innovation for EIT Urban Mobility explains, “RAPTOR uses agile, innovative solutions to solve concrete urban mobility challenges in European cities. RAPTOR brings innovation to a local level freeing cities up from their dependence on big consulting or technology multinationals.”
While every RAPTOR 2023 pilot brought new learnings and provided opportunities for collaboration between cities and startups, the following is a brief overview of three particular pilots.
Helsingborg gets a nudge towards active mobility
Despite substantial investments in infrastructure, an awareness of the climate crisis and high fuel costs; the people of Helsingborg, Sweden travel by bicycle to a lesser extent than people in similarly sized cities. The focus of Helsingborg’s RAPTOR 2023 challenge was to understand the behaviours of citizens and to develop a “bicycle culture” in the city.
The Swedish startup, Nudgd, answered the call with their Smart Nudges Mobility platform, which focused on encouraging active modes of transportation for school commutes by highlighting and incentivising the benefits of active mobility. The pilot aimed to shift the commuting habits of elementary students and their parents and staff.
After the pilot, Nudgd found the 39% of participants changed, or planned to change, to a more active mode of transport; exceeding their target goal of 30%. Over 2,400 parents and/or guardians and school staff from 25 different schools were engaged in the pilot testing, and participants were twice as likely than non-users to switch from a car to an active transportation mode.
Participants not only received health benefits from choosing more active modes of transport, Nudgd anticipated that there would also be positive environmental knock-on effects of the programme. For example, with decreased car traffic around schools, there would in turn be an increase in safety and air quality in the areas around the participating schools.
Digital twins for data-informed decisions
The German city of Munich, with 1.5 million inhabitants, faces environmental and congestion issues due to the growing population and commuting traffic, necessitating more attractive public transportation options. However, before RAPTOR 2023, the public transportation operator in Munich (MVG) had limited knowledge of the behaviour of commuters in the city. Only 15-60% of public transport vehicles were equipped with counting devices, offering an incomplete overview of ridership behaviour.
The proposed solution, provided by Transcality and piloted as part of the RAPTOR 2023 programme, was to deploy a digital twin of Munich; essentially a multi-modal simulation of the city. To do so, the startup fused data from automated passenger counting devices with 82,000 road segments and 3000 public transport stops to create and calibrate a digital twin. Importantly, the digital twin had to be tailored to the requirements of MVG, with a defined roadmap for implementation. Therefore, Transcality used historical passenger count data and an existing static macroscopic model to analyse and thus create a dynamic mesoscopic multimodal transportation model. The developed digital twin concept can provide deep insights on travel behaviour in Munich, which will allow MVG to make data-informed decisions about their public transportation offering.
Changing EV charging in the Capital Region of Denmark
Denmark is aiming to electrify more than a million vehicles by 2030, but in order to do so, electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure must be improved. Namely, there needs to be more transparency for EV drivers to make educated decisions. The country currently has extensive public and on-street charging infrastructure for EVs, but the price of charging in the Capital Region of Denmark is regulated by charging operators themselves, not the government. As there are numerous operators, and each has its own pricing policies, this creates opacity for EV owners – with very little clarity on what the price of charging will be.
This was the Capital Region of Denmark’s RAPTOR 2023 challenge: to create more visibility through a holistic, real-time overview of the price of charging across all EV charging operators. To realise this goal, Chargeprice’s app of the same name, was successfully tailored to the Danish market and language. Moving away from manual price checks, the app now offers automated price updates twice a week for 10 e-mobility service providers. Data quality has been improved for over 16,600 charging points in Denmark, 900 of which are in parking zones in Copenhagen. By the end of the pilot over 4,200 Danish EV drivers had tested the service that allows them to search for charging stations based on compatibility, availability, time of day or night, and type and charging speed. Depending on the charging station, this allows EV drivers to save up to 50% of charging costs, hence contributing to the wider adoption of cleaner vehicles.
Three years of RAPTOR
Since 2021, the RAPTOR programme has encouraged cities to collaborate with startups and SMEs to solve their tricky urban mobility challenges. In the three years of the programme, 31 pilot projects have been completed in 24 cities across 17 countries.
Find these solutions, and over 400 others, on EIT Urban Mobility’s Mobility Innovation Marketplace.
