Laying the groundwork for a smart mobility program
Laying the groundwork for a smart mobility program
In 2016, the Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment announced an ambitious accessibility program in the Southern Netherlands. No pilot schemes or trial runs, but a large-scale rollout involving an investment of €100 million. The ambition? To optimize accessibility and create the smartest road network in Europe using smart mobility. This meant moving towards customized mobility and self-driving vehicles based on a completely new way of working and interacting. Read on to find out how we provided extensive transportation advice for this project.
The challenge
Rebel was asked to lay the groundwork for the program with the province of Noord-Brabant and the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, and to organize governance aspects. This SmartwayZ.NL program encompasses the rollout of mobility solutions on sections of the A58, A2 and A67 highways and in southeast Brabant.
The approach
Mobility solutions involve smart traffic lights that improve traffic flow into and out of the cities, services people can use to travel outside peak hours, and in-car systems that enable vehicles to communicate with each other in order to reduce congestion. We drew up a Smart Mobility Action Plan with three core projects: the large-scale matching of supply and demand for mobility services, the rollout of a region-wide Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems network, and the construction of a real-time data dashboard for insight into traffic flows and reasons for journeys. After defining our approach, we began to lay the groundwork for a partnership organization as co-creator.
We also designed a test environment for smart mobility on the regional road network. And finally, as program manager working on behalf of the Ministry, we developed a wide range of projects to bring our plans closer to fruition. This project prompted a new form of collaboration between government and market, enabling us to give full rein to our expertise in this area. We were able to draw on our extensive innovation experience using business cases, administrative decision-making, program management and community building.
Impact
The organization is up and running, the ‘living lab’ is taking shape, and other smart mobility projects are in the pipeline.
