Challenge description

Our cities are more and more congested by cars that citizens use even in cases where the walking distance is affordable, with severe consequences on pollution, natural resource consumption and effects on global warming.

It is estimated by the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA) that the number of cars in use in 2015 in Europe were 333 million [1], more than the total in the whole of America (NAFTA, Central and South America). i.e. 238 million, also considering a worldwide growth of cars in use from 653 to 947 million in the period 2005 - 2015.

As many other cities, Ferrara is searching for innovative solutions to face the problem. In fact, while the city has the merit to be “the city of bicycles”, where almost one third of urban mobility is based on bikes, it still needs to face the problem of vehicular traffic, which causes approximately 29% of CO2 emissions on its territory.

[1] http://www.oica.net/category/vehicles-in-use/

Challenge vision

Both local authorities and transport companies need to collect data about how and where citizens use bikes or walk, take public transport or use car-pooling, by the use of crowd-sourced data with gamification mechanisms.

At the heart of city transportation and smart city mobility planning is the overall reduction of car use – predominantly Single Occupancy Vehicle (SOV) trips.This so-called mode-shift from SOV to other forms of more sustainable transportation is essentially a society-level behaviour change intervention. Against this backdrop, car ownership has become engrained in our psyche, and people like their cars and the convenience of using them.

So, it is not a simple task to target car owners with mass marketing. Even punitive approaches such as congestion charges (applied in different European cities) have not had a material affect because the city is still congested, and it has pushed the congestion further out beyond the congestion charge zone.

Therefore, it requires a closer engagement with individuals to deliver appropriate and contextual information about the impact of using cars, and the viable alternatives available.

Modal shift is another way of describing behaviour change.

It will continue to be the major underpinning of urban transport initiatives – moving people from SOV to sustainable mobility, including multi-modal journeys and active travel. This will include creating awareness, educating, encouraging a consideration to change, and tracking the changes. It relates to all modes of travel whether it is existing mature modes such as bus and train, or newer modes like car-pooling, car-sharing, and electric bikes.

The specific objectives of this challenge are:

1. Identify which kinds of incentives may be applied in Ferrara to increase citizens’ engagement and participation in a "smart city" approach. Think beyond awareness raising and education. Look into more engaging co-creation approaches and expertise about subconscious decision making and cultural transformations.
2. Explore possible solutions to promote and enable sustainable mobility behaviours,
3. Analyse examples of existing programmes in other cities (e.g. Bologna, Trento, ...) and find out if similar tools and approaches might be replicated in Ferrara