NextGenMobility
Inclusive and sustainable urban mobility for youth – based on the perception of mobility systems
- Category
- Project
- Call
- DUT Call 2024
- Duration
- –
- Project coordinator
- MEGAKOM Development Consultants
NextGenMobility tackles the disconnection between youth mobility needs and the spatial, social, and institutional structures of urban (transport) systems. In many small and medium-sized European cities, young people are disproportionately affected by long commutes, poorly integrated transport options, and lack of multifunctional public spaces—conditions that contribute to their selective outmigration. The project addresses a critical knowledge gap: the perception of mobility systems by youth, which includes not only physical access but feelings of safety, autonomy, and inclusion. Current planning rarely reflects these subjective dimensions, leading to interventions that miss the mark. NextGenMobility directly engages with this challenge by exploring how to localize the 15-minute city model in diverse urban contexts, ensuring it becomes socially inclusive and youth-relevant. By understanding how young people experience time, space, and movement in their daily lives, the project creates a foundation for mobility planning that is sustainable, equitable, attractive, and responsive to future generations.
NextGenMobility addresses the challenges through applied, co-creative research in three Urban Living Labs (ULLs): Nyíregyháza (Hungary), Oradea (Romania), and Bram (France). The project begins with a shared scientific framework that combines digital City Information Modelling (CIM), mobility audits, and innovative qualitative methods to capture youth mobility perceptions. These insights inform local co-design processes, where young people collaborate with planners, municipalities, and civil society actors to propose and test small-scale, low-threshold mobility interventions. Each ULL focuses on specific local contexts—such as commuting in peri-urban areas, integrating a university campus into the city, or reducing transport exclusion in vulnerable neighbourhoods. The solutions are tested in real-world environments and evaluated using a perception-driven approach. The project also facilitates cross-learning between ULLs and translates the findings into transferable toolkits, digital resources, and policy guidance. These actions collectively build a replicable model for youth-centric, perception-informed, and sustainable urban mobility innovation within the 15mC framework.
NextGenMobility will deliver inclusive, perception-sensitive mobility solutions that reflect the real needs of young people—empowering them as co-creators of urban change. Through perception- and participation-based ULLs, the project will develop and test practical, scalable interventions, demonstrating how youth engagement enhances the design, acceptability, and impact of mobility policies (e.g., SUMPs). Outcomes include new co-creation methods, tested tools, policy guidelines, and toolkits that cities across Europe can adopt to integrate youth perspectives into urban planning and to increase the uptake of low-carbon transport modes. Within these more youth-responsive policy frameworks, the project contributes to social inclusion and reduces incentives for youth outmigration by improving how young people access education, work, and services. NextGenMobility promotes a more inclusive interpretation of the 15-minute city, grounded in lived experience and applicable across diverse urban neighbourhoods—supporting more just, resilient, attractive, and future-oriented urban mobility systems.
Austria
France
Hungary
Romania
Association for Business Promotion in Romania, Eötvös Loránd University - ELTE, Municipality of Bram, Municipality of Nyíregyháza, Oradea Metropolitan Area Intercommunity Development Association, School of Advanced Engineering Studies - JUNIA, Vienna University of Technology - TU Wien
Contact
Mónika Komádi
komadi@megakom.hu