Event report: Will the cities of the future be car-free?

Climate change, air pollution and lack of space - issues to a lot of cities. Is the solution to become car-free? The third day of the urban festival WeMakeThe.City festival saw experts from industry, academia and government come together to discuss the future of urban mobility during the “Autoluwe Stad” conference. Read the report, written by Ellie Roy.

Rethinking the role of cars

Rogier Elshout, moderator of the conference, started by asking the audience: “What should the city of Amsterdam aim to achieve by 2040? Should the city become emission-free, completely car-free or should the government just leave things as they are?” The audience clearly favoured a city in which pollution was avoided and the role of cars reduced. Like many other cities worldwide, Amsterdam has already set a concrete goal for the future: by 2030 the city will be emission-free for all forms of transportation. In order to make this happen, sustainable alternatives to the car need to play a larger role.

For the last decades cities, including Amsterdam, have focused on a car-centred design. Max Hirsh, research professor at the University of Hong Kong, explained how this poses a challenge: “For many people not having a car would lead to a reduction in quality of life. This issue is particularly relevant for those living on the outskirts of the city where the public transport network is more limited. This results in a phenomenon referred to as the “last mile problem” - the challenge of connecting transportation hubs with people’s final destination. While this problem persists, cars will remain the dominant mode of transportation.”

For improvements to be made, Max believes that the relationship between the car and the city needs to be reconsidered fundamentally. In order to do this “we need to start by looking at people’s desires and needs - rather than telling people how they should live. We should look at how they are living and ask them if they necessarily need a car to achieve these different tasks.” In his opinion, providing cheaper and more convenient alternatives is the solution to changing people’s behaviour. Innovations in e-commerce and logistics could play an important role. For instance, home delivery services and airport luggage collection would provide people with an alternative to transporting heavy items themselves, therefore reducing the reliance on the car.

Making car-free make sense

The City of Amsterdam is already taking steps towards reducing car dependence by investigating and implementing cleaner and smarter mobility options. Sharon Dijksma, Deputy Mayor for Traffic, Transport, Water and Air Quality, explained the city’s plans for the coming years. “We want more space and better air quality, therefore it is necessary to reduce the space for cars in the city in favour of cyclists, pedestrians and other modes of transport. In order to achieve this, a variety of new concepts are being tested. For example, in many neighbourhoods “eBuurthubs” will be developed together with residents. These are places where different types of sustainable mobility will be clustered, allowing alternatives to private car ownership (such as e-bikes and shared cars) to become more accessible.”

In addition, the city has conducted research into the feasibility of becoming less car dependent. A so-called “travel test” was conducted, in which 70 people handed in their car keys in exchange for a budget to spend on alternative modes of transport. Diederik Basta from Amsterdam’s CTO Office and Marije van Gent, researcher at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, discussed the outcomes of this experiment. Diederik explained that one of the most surprising conclusions was that none of the participants finished the 500 euro budget. Furthermore, one third of the participants decided to give up their car after the experiment. Marije pointed out that most people participating in the study were already considering going car-free. However, the results illustrate that being less car dependent is definitely a feasible option.

In many cities worldwide, Uber has become one of the companies helping to make car-free alternatives become more feasible. More than just a taxi company, Uber is expanding its services to include sustainable mobility options. Thijs Emondts, general manager of Uber Benelux, presented the company’s new vision. “Ultimately taxis and cars were just the start, the strategy is to become a platform for all forms of mobility”. Ride shares, e-bikes and public transport will all be incorporated into the platform. An entire journey could be made using one app, allowing sustainable alternatives to become easily accessible. This type of service could provide the city with many benefits. Sharon Dijksma was clear to emphasise the importance of policies to regulate new services, particularly in relation to data collection and privacy. “Anyone offering mobility services in the city also needs to be held accountable”.

Greener streets

Of all of the initiatives presented during the conference, one of the most striking was the redevelopment of the Frans Halsbuurt, initiated by residents of the neighbourhood. The Frans Halsbuurt is an area in Amsterdam characterised by narrow streets and many pedestrians and cyclists. Residents put pressure on the local municipality to remove all parking spaces and redesign the public space to create a better living environment. Peter Ulle, senior designer for the project, explained how collaboration with the residents was made a priority and used to establish the starting points for the design. A rough sketch of what the area might look like in 2020: an impressive vision of green public space. It made the audience wonder: is this what the car-free city will look like...?

Text and photos: Ellie Roy

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Willem-Frederik Metzelaar, Managing Director at EIT Urban Mobility, posted Nov 13th

Hallo allen! Ik deel graag de uitnodiging voor een online webinar van EIT Urban Mobility. Op woensdag 𝟐𝟕 𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 organiseert EIT Urban Mobility samen met Smart Dublin een interessant webinar over ‘actieve mobiliteit in de stad’.

💡 Ze presenteren een nieuwe, innovatieve oplossing die recent in Dublin in gebruik is genomen en gaan in op ideeën en uitdagingen rond Actieve Mobiliteit – een thema dat natuurlijk past binnen de slimme stad.
🏙️✨ Zeker de moeite waard om bij te zijn!
ℹ️ Het webinar is in het Engels. Doe je mee? 👉 Meld u aan voor deze webinar via : https://kennislab.typeform.com/to/J8Ef0Vd8

Pelle Menke, Communications and Programme officer Mobility at Amsterdam InChange, posted Oct 16th

On September 26th, our community gathered in the AHK Culture Club at Marineterrein Amsterdam for our Datadilemma’s series. This edition focused on the use of Data and AI to create a more accessible Amsterdam. This article presents some of the key highlights and insights from the afternoon.

Together with the three speakers, Vishruth Krishnan, Hans Voerknecht, Michiel Bontenbal, and our audience we discussed how data and AI can help make our city more accessible for all. Which dilemma’s do we encounter when we use new technologies for an accessible city? How can data help to get more understanding of unequal access to mobility in the country? And what about sounds and noise pollution; how can data help make te city more livable?

What the three speakers had in common; a personal motivation to get away from the surface and dive deeper into the data, attempting to get closer to people’s experiences and perceptions. From an ordinary routeplanner, to one paying specific attention to challenges for people in weelchairs. From generic accesibility data for the region, to data highlighting the unequal distribution of access to mobility. And from recording noise levels, to measuring and classifying all different sounds in urban settings. In the paragraphs below, I will delve deeper into the different speakers and their topics.

Visruth Krishnan – Personalized Route Planner for People in a Wheelchair
To help individuals with limited mobility navigate the city more easily, the city’s innovation department has developed a prototype route planning tool. This route planner maps out the most accessible routes based on personal needs, considering preferences like maximum curb height at crossings, minimum sidewalk width, and whether to prioritize sidewalks or bike paths.

Visruth Krishnan, Data Scientist at the Innovation Department of the Municipality of Amsterdam, explained how data helps facilitate travel from point A to point B. However, to ensure route planning tools address the challenges faced by wheelchair users, we must feed these systems with data drawn from real-world experiences. A person’s journey might present specific challenges, such as detours, improperly parked bicycles, slopes, and narrow footpaths.

Working with a group of wheelchair users, Visruth studied the obstacles and experiences they encountered on their routes. This research generated precise data to feed the route planner, enabling it to provide personalized route suggestions that account for each individual’s freedom of movement.
Visruth presented several dilemmas encountered during the project:

Subjectivity in the data: How busy is a sidewalk or intersection perceived to be? Are cyclists at a certain point fast and aggressive, or is that just a feeling?
Minimal vs. comprehensive data collection: How much data should be gathered? While more data might provide deeper insights, it could also increase privacy risks.
Accurate vs. timely data: Timely data may not always be accurate, and accurate data may not always be available in time for critical decision-making. Consider issues like illegally parked bikes, construction work, and terraces that vary in size and location depending on the season.
Transparency vs. complexity: How transparent should data-driven processes be, especially when the algorithms or analytics behind them are complex? AI is often seen as a "black box"—people don’t understand how it works or how data is processed, which can lead to less trust from the start.

To address these challenges, Visruth and his team maintain an ongoing dialogue with the target audience. It’s an iterative process, and they keep the ‘human in the loop.’ The prototype is now ready, and hopefully, it can be further developed!

Hans Voerknecht – Unequal Accesibility and Data to Support The Narrative
Hans Voerknecht, strategist for sustainable accessibility at Een Nieuwe Kijk, presented the Integrated Perspective on Accessibility method, which he developed to get a deeper understanding of people’s accessibility. This method assists in collecting data and analyzing the severity of current inequalities and the effects of policy measures. The method has already been applied in nearly twenty projects, including four in the Amsterdam region, such as the Multimodal Future Vision of the Metropoolregio Amsterdam (MRA).

IKOB stands for "Integrale Kijk Op Bereikbaarheid" (Integrated Perspective/view on Accessibility). IKOB examines the travel time and costs that people face to reach their workplace by bike, car, or public transport and it visualizes how many jobs people can access from a specific area.

IKOB uses 'distance decay curves<strong>,'</strong> meaning that jobs located closer are given more weight than those further away. Travel time and costs are adjusted depending on the target group. Factors considered include income, access to a car, travel cost reimbursement, public transport options, and preference for a mode of transport (car, public transport, or bike). For people with a lower income, costs weigh more heavily than for those with higher incomes.

Throughout his talk, Hans discussed how data can be used to support a narrative, either consciously or unconsciously. Regional research on the state of mobility can quickly paint a positive picture if you're working with averages and fail to examine differences between people. There are groups that experience less access to mobility, and for whom this issue carries more weight due to financial constraints. The way data is researched and how deeply you investigate determines to what extent this group and their challenges are brought into focus.

One of the dilemmas Hans mentioned was the fact that poor accessibility is a personal experience. It’s subjective, and there can be a lot behind it. Regardless of the detail and quality of your data, you can never be completely sure if it truly reflects the human experience it’s supposed to represent.

Michiel Bontenbal – The Urban Sounds Sensor
Our third and final speaker discussed sounds and noise pollution in an urban environment. It may not seem to immediately fit with the rest of the speakers, but urban sound is also important to consider when creating an accessible and liveable city. Michiel Bontenbal, lecturer in business and IT courses at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, told us more about the Urban Sounds sensor, developed in collaboration with the volunteer organization Sensemakers. He explained us more about the challenges they face with this AI-driven solution and raised some dilemmas in his work.

The Urban Sounds Sensor project was developed in response to the need for evidence of nighttime noise disturbances. It was crucial to be able to distinguish between different types of sounds, such as music, mopeds, alarms, doors, car noises, and honking.

Together with the volunteers from Sensemakers, Michiel designed the sensor in such a way that the recorded sounds are neither stored nor released. The microphone registers the sound, and the algorithm in the sensor immediately categorizes it within the device. This approach ensures privacy by design.

Training the sensor is still an ongoing process. Achieving high accuracy is challenging, as even humans sometimes have trouble identifying certain sounds. And, while measuring noise disturbances is definitely getting more attention in the city now. However, this specific method of distinguishing between sound categories is still lagging behind in both development and interest from government authorities.

Michiel concluded his presentation by discussing his dilemmas with the audience. One of his dilemmas, as expected, was about placing microphones in public spaces; how desirable is that, really? It's important to talk about ethics and privacy when measuring in public spaces, especially with a sound sensor that isn’t visible. His second point focused on the experience of city sounds. How you perceive sounds depends on personal experiences and preferences. Some people enjoy urban sounds, like the noise of a tram or ringing bike bells. People may have associations with certain sounds that determine whether they find them annoying, don't even notice them, or actually enjoy them. This is a factor that a sound sensor and the data it collects have difficulty accounting for.

Panel Discussion
After the presentations, we brought the speakers together for a panel discussion. Led by Chris de Veer, programme manager Mobility at Amsterdam InChange, there was an engaging conversation with the audience. To wrap things up, I’d like to highlight three key statements made by the speakers in response to some critical questions from the audience:

"We often try to objectify the world with data, but there is no objective truth. However, diving deep into data can give you a better and more diverse understanding of an issue or region." – Hans
"Data is always messy. If the data we input is messy, the outcome will also be messy. Garbage in, garbage out." – Michiel
“The Route Planner method and platform could be of great use in gaining a better overview of building accessibility throughout the city.” - Visruth

Thanks to the speakers for their stories and to the audience for the lively discussions afterwards. Want to join us for our next Data Dilemmas event? The next edition of this series of open events will be announced soon. We’re also always open to new themes and topics for this series; we’re curious to hear about the data dilemmas you encounter in your work!

Dennis Mansell, Product Development at Fonetic, posted Aug 30th

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The EU project CommuniCity encourages the development of tech solutions for and with various marginalized and/or vulnerable groups. This afternoon, we will present serveral of the pilots that were carried out over the past year, demonstrating how artificial intelligence and other technologies can contribute to the well-being of various residents of Amsterdam.