• The primary outcome of IMMENSE is an integrated platform for city authorities to inform, implement and evaluate TDM schemes on urban roads by applying a demand-based pricing strategy
  
  
• During the two-month pilot, the system will be tested with users in Esplugues de Llobregat (Catalonia) and Munich (Germany), with an integrated system platform and end-user application capable of managing urban traffic demand through a dynamic pricing strategy.
  
  
• The pilot has been launched to coincide with the European Sustainable Mobility Week celebration.
  
  

Barcelona, 21 September 2023 – The Immense project enables the development of digital tools to simulate with test users an innovative pay-by-distance satellite toll system to be implemented in the low-emission zones of Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona) to promote smart and connected mobility, encouraging shared transport and active travel. 

The proposed solution, which will be tested for two months with the participation of citizen testers, will simulate a demand-based pricing strategy, where users will be informed about the payment defined by a fixed fee to access the low emission zone, and a variable fee depending on the number of kilometres travelled, the level of usage and the congestion at the time of access.

The project aims to help the municipality of Esplugues de Llobregat to support the efficiency of their Low Emission Zones (LEZs).

To achieve a final solution that could be scalable and useful to other cities, Immense has the active participation of Munich and Esplugues de Llobregat, as both have different consolidated management schemes, including low emission zones and vehicle access regulations. In addition, Immense will serve as a platform for city authorities to simulate, report, implement and evaluate these schemes.

About IMMENSE

IMMENSE proposes the creation of a TDM tool that can dynamically influence traffic demand on road ecosystems depending on congestion and pollution levels. By using a dynamic rate system with game design elements or “gamification” (such as automatically rewarding users with points for reducing travel time along congested routes if they choose an alternative one), the IMMENSE solution discourages users to access congested roads at times when high demand occurs. This way, pollution, and congestion levels will be reduced when it is more needed, also improving safety and helping the quality of life in surrounding areas. Moreover, users who access cities through more sustainable modes will get rewarded with discounts on active and greener solutions.

Project partners: CARNET, Abertis Mobility Services, UPC, City of Munich, Ajuntament d’Esplugues de Llobregat
CIMA Engineering & Environmental, S.L.

• The first challenge aimed at reducing motorcycle-related accidents was presented today at an event organised at Ca L’Alier, where the DGT and Barcelona City Council signed a cooperation agreement towards this objective.
• Starting in January, Barcelona City Council, together with Fira de Barcelona, the DGT and EIT Urban Mobility, will launch the first challenge aimed at reducing motorbike accidents. The winning project will receive €100,000 to subsidise a pilot project for 18 months.
• Barcelona Innova Lab is the first living laboratory established in Barcelona, created by Barcelona City Council, DGT, Fira Barcelona and EIT Urban Mobility.

Barcelona, 20 December 2022 –  Last March, Barcelona City Council, Fira Barcelona, EIT Urban Mobility and the Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) formalised an alliance to create Barcelona Innova Lab’s urban mobility laboratory. The recently opened living lab, is one of the instruments to attract innovative solutions related to the mobility sector. Its aim is to attain specific goals for reducing accident rates in general and to incorporate the 0 vision for the year 2050. This instrument, the first living lab set up in Barcelona, reinforces its objective of becoming a natural space for experimentation where innovative products, services and methodologies can be tested to check their usefulness, operation and the generation of public value before being scaled up to products or services that can be implemented and marketed.

Urban challenge: “How to reduce motorcycle-related accidents”.

The founding bodies of the Barcelona Innova Lab have already taken the first step and will launch the urban challenge award in January. The aim of the challenge is to reduce the number of accidents involving motorcycles, thereby increasing road safety in the city for both motorcyclists and other people who travel through the city, whether on foot or in other vehicles. The urban challenge formula is a new way of solving urban problems and complex city needs that require innovative solutions.

The challenge will have a budget allocation of €100,000 in grants, corresponding to a maximum of 80% of the total amount of the proposed solution. Solutions submitted may be aimed at solving the accident rate from either (or both) of the above-mentioned prospects: from behavioural innovation, through a solution that is capable of intervening on the behaviour of the people who use this type of vehicle, or from technological innovation, where the solution will have to prioritise an innovative technological component.

The timeframe for implementation of the winning proposal will be 18 months, of which the pilot phase with monitoring will have to be a minimum of 6 months. The proposal will also include a pilot phase in a real environment to achieve a measurable impact in relation to the safety of drivers, motorcyclists, and third parties in public space.

The following solutions will be pursued:

• An innovative and differential component, using innovative methodologies and resources in terms of planning and implementation.
• High impact, with a demonstrable effect and a measurable and lasting return over time.
• Projects that can be implemented in the short term.

The project should define the deployment space of the driver, either citywide or in a specific type of space.

Collective involvement

The cooperation agreement also underlines the need to involve the various groups related to the world of motorbikes and mopeds through actions in each field by members, users, etc. Always working with the different city councils, society (entities that integrate various groups in the field of mobility, road victims associations, etc.) and companies related to the world of mobility. In addition, the project is also aimed at engaging mutual insurance companies, educational centres, universities and driving school associations.

Laia Bonet, from the Barcelona City Council and Pere Navarro, from DGT sign the agreement 

About Barcelona Innova Lab

Last March, Barcelona City Council, Fira Barcelona, EIT Urban Mobility and the Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) formalised an alliance to create Barcelona Innova Lab’s urban mobility laboratory.

The aim is to encourage and facilitate the implementation of innovative projects and pilot tests in smart and sustainable urban mobility.

Through Barcelona Urban Lab, mobility challenges will be defined and projects will be selected that will lead to improvements in this sector. Moreover, selected companies will be offered a public space as a test bench to test their projects in a real environment.

They will also be provided with a new space to develop innovation projects at Fira de Barcelona, advisory services and access to the city council’s sensors and database hub.

EIT Urban Mobility is co-organising, together with Fira Barcelona, Tomorrow.Mobility World Congress 2022, EIT Urban Mobility’s flagship event.

Walk, cycle or catch a bus. Jump on a scooter or moped. Take whatever sustainable means of transport available, but don’t miss the second edition of Tomorrow.Mobility World Congress (TMWC), held on 15-17 November, in Barcelona, Spain. The event will be held at Fira Barcelona within the framework of Smart City Expo World Congress, the world’s leading event for cities, ensuring unique cross-selling opportunities and a huge presence of worldwide public sector professionals. The two events will together welcome 24,000+ attendees, 1,000+ exhibitors, 400+ speakers and 700+ cities.

TMWC will gather city administrators, policymakers, manufacturers, investors, academics, public-private providers, start-ups, entrepreneurs, students, and researchers. It will be the perfect opportunity to discover tangible solutions about how to lead the transition to a greener and safer urban mobility  at demonstrations and booths and to network and connect with key players in the field.

7 strategic enablers for sustainable mobility growth

TMWC will focus on seven key topics responding to the main challenges facing today’s urban mobility covered during the congress sessions:

• autonomous vehicles
• micromobility
• public transport
• last-mile logistics
• urban air mobility
• transport infrastructure
• energy transition and efficiency

Save the date, stay tuned for the announcement of speakers!

The public transportation ecosystem of each European city is a highly complex environment in which end-user’s travelling needs are put in its core. This ecosystem is exceedingly depended on the development of new technologies that constantly transform and shape user’s needs, infrastructure as well as public transport itself. To understand the digitalisation dynamic and speed of penetration of new technology into urban transportation system is a key priority for efficient planning of the infrastructure, sustainable use of public transport and appropriate addressing of users need. All this has a strong reverberation on business, economics and, foremost, environment.

As quickly as digitalisation permeates the transport environment, a prompt response has to be developed to grasp the opportunities and address the challenges that cutting-edge technologies bring into public transport sector. These are of diverse nature and intricacy.

New training “Mobility Digitalisation” very soon in Barcelona

The training “La Digitalització de la Mobilitat”, designed by Factual with the EIT Urban Mobility funding and the support of the Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM) of Barcelona, is blueprinted to tackle various aspects of new technologies and digital transformation that have a significant impact on modern society, businesses and unambiguously on the urban mobility sector.

More specifically, this training will equip the participant with a comprehensive knowledge on relevant aspects of digital transformation in the urban environment. It will also help to understand a smart-user behaviour to meet his transportation demand, predict changes in the end-user travel patterns and model the impact of these changes on all urban transportation landscape, long distance travel, logistics, economy, and businesses. This training will also provide tools that will assist the participant to face and solve the future challenges that new technologies bring into modern city environment.

The main objectives of the training are:

• Acquire thorough knowledge on digital technologies and getting confidence in incorporating them into mobility planning measures;
• Understand their potential to change the way that mobility is planned and managed;
• Facilitate the interaction and cooperation with their IT peers in their organisation;
• Understand how to transform the organisation and internal procedures to properly leverage digitalisation;
• Be ready to manage projects incorporating digital technologies: assess their implications in terms of cost, benefits, resources, timings.

The first edition of this training will be held in Barcelona from October 6 to December 1, 2021, aiming to develop this training in other EU cities in further editions.

More information

Visit the training website: www.factual-academy.com/course/la-digitalizacio-de-la-mobilitat

Contact Víctor Moyano, Senior Consultant Mobility, Factual: victor@factual-consulting.com

Urban Radar, a French based start-up supported by EIT Urban Mobility,  was selected to run a pilot project on curb management and urban logistics in Barcelona, one of the leading European smart cities. Urban Radar’s platform fits in Barcelona’s strategy by enabling communities and city managers to take an accessible data-centric approach.  Thanks to this solution, carbon emissions, pollution, and congestion will be reduced, thereby contributing to more sustainable mobility of people and goods.

Following EIT Urban Mobility’s mission to improve mobility to make cities more liveable places, Urban Radar’s pilot proposal focuses on enabling sectoral collaborations and tailoring tools to improve the way city logistics is currently understood, coordinated, and regulated. The coordinated work with the city of Barcelona has delivered insights on how the current network of loading zones (AreaDUM- Area of Urban Distribution of Goods) is utilised, and what policies and changes could be made to the network to better address the needs of citizens and industry.

On the pilot project, Raül Feliu, Business Creation Manager at EIT Urban Mobility, explained that this project is at the core of EIT Urban Mobility’s mission to create more liveable urban spaces by tackling the logistics and curb management challenges faced by the city of Barcelona and by many other European cities.

According to Philippe Rapin, CEO of Urban Radar, this pilot is a win-win. “Our technology can combine multiple data sets to build measurable impact solutions in a quick, affordable, and secure way together with the city of Barcelona”.

The pilot project is one of the first steps on Barcelona’s mission towards a new governance model in urban logistics, founded on public-private collaborations and the digitalisation of logistics activity and loading zones.

Àngel López, Director of Mobility Strategies at the city of Barcelona considers the project a key turning point to better manage the last-mile logistics and the continuous flow of vehicles and packages across districts. This collaboration between Barcelona, Urban Radar, and EIT Urban Mobility will positively impact citizens’ life by lowering congestion, improving air quality and promoting more sustainable urban logistics.