Topic 3: Evidence for the urban mobility transition: data and indicators for effective decision-making

Challenge Description

Robust data empowers policymakers to design targeted, impactful strategies, optimise resource allocation and foster innovation for the mobility transition. However, lack of access to sound data and tools poses a current challenge for city administrations. In the context of urban mobility transitions, there are gaps and fragmented availability of data across a multitude of sectors, stakeholders and levels of government. Furthermore, a particular challenge are substantial costs and lack of capacities, which hampers efforts to develop interventions based on solid evidence. This topic focuses on the need for robust and accurate data, which is supported by scientific insights, is locally contextualised and complemented by qualitative inputs. It sets out to foster effectiveness, transparency and inclusiveness of urban policy in the mobility and transport sector, by improving data accessibility and accuracy, assess and pilot tools for monitoring and visualisation as well as building local skills and capacities.

Scope

Proposals are encouraged to address the full extent of data and evidence for urban mobility transitions – ranging from data collection, processing and management, tools and methods for monitoring to support understanding relevant developments, building scenarios and informing decisions on interventions, up to visualisation and communication. It will be specifically important to close gaps, where reliable data is not sufficiently available yet. For the mobility sector this includes, but is not limited to, dynamic activity data, reliable information on transport of goods and delivery, walking in the modal split, and mobility across administrative city limits.

Proposals should aim to apply methods, tools and solutions that build on systems and expertise already available in cities, and which can be easily adopted and transferred. Furthermore, they should build on needs around mobility data challenges of partners from city administrations, invest efforts in capacity and skills building, and create propositions for cities of different sizes and contexts.

This topic invites proposals to look at intersections and exploit cross-sectoral learnings for the mobility sector, especially connecting to topics of energy transition and circular economy. Furthermore, a wide scope to relevant data for local mobility transition is encouraged; one that applies a broad perspective on sustainability, considers data disaggregated by intersectionality, and includes qualitative data and stakeholder engagement for reference and contextualisation. Proposals are asked to align their methods with well established metrics, such as SUMI (Sustainable Urban Mobility Indices), SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) or Gender Equality Index.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission monitoring is central to measuring progress through and accuracy of local climate mitigation policies. In the mobility sector, it will be truly demanding to take the next step and assess scope 3 emissions*, which will be central to create a more accurate picture of true environmental impacts of mobility and make informed decisions. Proposals are encouraged to create insights, test and demonstrate methodological approaches, and engage city authorities.

Furthermore, there is a need to create a better understanding of interactions between mobility and planning policies, and dynamics of (in)equality. Proposals are encouraged to build on existing approaches, indexes and dashboards, and develop suitable indicators and tools to determine the level of access and equality of opportunities for different societal groups on a neighbourhood level. This can include, but is not limited to, active and public transport, exposition to transport externalities, local quality of life, community capital, socio-economic and intersectional data on inequality. Projects should co-create and contextualise their method with local stakeholders and focus on transferability and scaling.

 

Project proposals submitted under this topic should address one or several of the following issues:

  • What are effective methods for assessing and analysing mobility policy implementation, especially considering availability and use of data and evidence?

 

  • How may urban mobility data collection, processing, and management be optimised to fill existing data gaps?

 

  • What are the barriers to collecting and sharing mobility data between levels of government, and the public and private sector, and how may they be overcome?

 

  • What are effective strategies for building capacity and skills in city administrations to enhance their ability to utilise mobility data for decision-making?

 

  • What are key challenges and unsolved questions associated with methods of measuring scope 3 mobility emissions, and which approaches can help addressing these?

 

  • How may considerations of scope 3 mobility emissions help understanding mitigation policies for scopes 1 and 2 better? What are expected benefits as well as potentially undesired effects and trade-offs of a policy focus on scope 3?

 

  • Which indicators and tools may be used to evaluate access and equality on the neighbourhood level? How can they support decision-making processes?

 

Expected Outputs and Outcomes

Rather than provide isolated technical solutions, projects are expected to address this topic in a systemic way. Project outcomes should be impact-oriented and process-oriented, and therefore as concrete and user-centred as possible. Expected outcomes include, but are not limited to:

  • Contribution to developing robust evidence for urban mobility transitions, including data collection, processing, management, documentation and visualisation.

 

  • Enhanced knowledge on data gaps and availability, and improved methods for evidence-based governance, decision-making and monitoring, informed by needs and context of stakeholders

 

  • Transfer of methods, learning and capacity building on data for the urban mobility transition in cities of different sizes and contexts

 

  • Recommendations on effective decision-making based on qualified data

 

  • Scoping and experimentation with collaborative models and innovative solutions to collect and share data in practice with relevant stakeholders

 

  • Approaches to link and complement data on mobility and transport with tools and experience from other related sectors.

 

  • Further insights, methodologies and models to take on scope 3 of GHG emissions for the transport sector, and linked potential effects of a respective policy focus

 

  • Indicators and tools on dynamics between mobility and planning policies, and (in)equality on a neighbourhood level

 

*As defined by Greenhouse Gas Protocol and applied by EU-Mission Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030. These include all emissions from journeys and transportation outside a city’s limits but link to activities of its inhabitants and businesses, as well as with their consumption.