International SmartHubs Symposium Vienna
Governance of multi-modality in public space –
what options do we have?
On Friday, 16 September 2022, the SmartHubs International Symposium took place at Lakefirst in aspern Seestadt (Vienna). The event was organised by the SmartHubs research team, with support from aspern.mobil LAB. From dusk til dawn, discussions were held on the topic of " Governance of multi-modality in public space – what options do we have?”.
After a coffee or tea to wake up, the event started with introductory welcoming words by Walter Wasner (BMK), Alexander Kopecek (Wien 3420 aspern development AG) and SmartHubs project coordinator Karst Geurs. The whole symposium was moderated by Oliver Roider.
Opening remarks by Walter Wasner (BMK)
Copyright: Maximilian Kipke (aspern.mobil LAB)
The event kick-off was followed by various presentations with subsequent opportunities for professional discourse. Firstly, Alexander Scholz from the Vienna Municipal Department MA18, Urban Development and Planning) gave an insight into the Vienna Shared Mobility Concept as well as the formulated guidelines for mobility stations in Vienna. Leonie Schöch (Wiener Linien) followed up on this and explained how the hub concept is implemented in Vienna by Wiener Linien. Christian Kainz (zukunftswege.at / Salzburger Verkehrsverbund) explained how multimodal hubs are planned and designed in the Salzburg region with the help of the action plan for multimodal hubs in rural and urban contexts. The design processes of mobility stations in Lower Austria, more specifically in the Weinviertel region and the city of Tulln, respectively, were also presented by Christoph Weber (NÖ Regional), embedded in the LISA project.
The following block consisted of short inputs on the SmartHubs project. The SmartHubs integration ladder for the design of mobility hubs developed within the project was vividly presented by Karst Geurs (University of Twente (Netherlands), Centre for Transport Studies). Furthermore, Linda Dörrzapf (TU Wien, Research Department Transportation System Planning - MOVE) showed the functionality of the open data platform on mobility hubs.
From the Institute of Political Science at the University of Münster (Germany), Antonia Graf and Julia Hansel explained which political framework conditions as well as governance framework conditions should be fulfilled for a successful implementation of SmartHubs. The focus in this case was on the establishment of stations in Austria.
Antonia Graf and Julia Hansel (University of Münster) presenting
Copyright: Maximilian Kipke (aspern.mobil LAB)
After another short break, the participants split up. Intensive discussions took place in five rooms in workshop format on various focus topics:
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Participants interested in assessment tools/methods for sustainability and stakeholder assessment were able to attend a workshop by colleagues from the Research Centre for Mobility, Logistics and Automotive Engineering at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium). After an introduction to the SmartHubs appraisal tool using fictitious examples, the session participants were able to ask questions about the tool and the underlying criteria and express their opinions.
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Another workshop was held on the topic of accessibility of mobility hubs with different means of transport in urban areas including a compatible, "automatic" accessibility tool (TU Munich, Germany). In the form of isochrones, walking distance and the facilities located in the vicinity are displayed. The session participants found the tool helpful. They saw potential for improvement in the graphical interface as well as in the extension of the input data to include travel costs (as well as budget constraints) and the possibility of a user-based selection of different facilities and intermodal options.
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The colleagues from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Bologna (Italy), on the other hand, focused on resilience in the context of accessibility and network. The resilience tool presented was developed with the aim of analysing the resilience of urban areas and public transport networks according to hypothetical disruption scenarios. The resulting evidence can be particularly useful in assessing the choice of the most appropriate locations for mobility hubs. The development of the tool is proceeding in phases. The tests with simulated and real data so far have been promising and showed that the current version works flawlessly.
Two additional workshops were prepared by colleagues from the Institute of Political Science at the University of Münster (Germany): One session addressed political guidelines and their impact on governance aspects. The second group focused on public debate and citizen participation. In the session on policy guidelines, a checklist of potential impacts in terms of priorities was discussed. It became clear that a comprehensible strategy with clear (political) objectives is elementary. In addition, a common understanding and a clear distribution of tasks and resources among all stakeholders are necessary for a successful implementation of SmartHubs. Among other things, it remained open which institution is best suited for the organisation of mobility hubs.
The first part of the symposium ended with a short summary by the workshop leaders on the content discussed in the different breakout sessions.
Well revitalised after lunch, the final task was to actively explore aspern Seestadt itself. Under the guidance of Christoph Kirchberger (TU Wien) and Lukas Lang (Wien 3420 aspern Development AG), the interested visitors were able to get an idea of the large development area for themselves on a guided walk. A truly crowning finale!
You can download the overall slide collections here.