SHARE-North Squared (SN²) aims to increase the sustainability, resource and spatial efficiency of real estate developments as well as the affordability of housing by integrating shared mobility as a means of supporting multimodal travel behaviour and for reducing car ownership, car dependency and the demand for parking.
SHARE-North Squared is an Interreg North Sea project co-funded by the European Union. The project was approved in 2022 and runs until 2026. The SN² partners are: City of Bremen (DE), GEWOBA (DE), Mpact (BE), Way To Go (BE), City of Helsingborg (SE), Lund University (SE), City of Aarhus (DK), Tækker (DK), City of Utrecht (NL), AM (NL), City of Stavanger (NO), Kolumbus (NO), Gustave Eiffel University (FR), City of Mechelen (BE), Woonland (BE) and Housing Europe (BE).
Together, all partners strive to reach our goal:
We will reduce car-dependency in real-estate developments by helping local governments and project developers to successfully integrate shared mobility and promote its use to end users.
The Ministry of Climate Protection, the Environment, Mobility, Urban and Housing Development of the City of Bremen is the local authority responsible for transportation planning, sustainable mobility measures, creating and managing legislation for urban development and mobility management measures, guiding urban development processes as well as approving building permits and creating the legal framework which allows the integration of innovative mobility management measures in real-estate developments.
Bremen is lead beneficiary in this project, responsible for project management, reporting and organising joint events and workshops. Bremen collaborates with Mpact to coordinate high-impact and high-quality communication activities and provide a harmonised communication strategy across the project partnership. Bremen will be one of the main policy creators and influencers in the project, will carry out living lab implementations and assess the long-term impact of mobility management measures in real-estate development policies and their uptake among citizens. Bremen will also establish a transferable training programme for real-estate developers and planners on how to effectively implement shared mobility and sustainable travel modes into new developments, in order to have a long-lasting impact on reducing car-ownership and car dependency.
The GEWOBA Aktiengesellschaft Wohnen und Bauen is the largest (social) housing company in the state of Bremen. Core business is the management of round about 42.000 flats. The business strategy of the GEWOBA is concentrated on sustainability. Next to the economic purpose, environmental and social aspects are crucial for the success of the corporation. As a municipal organisation, the GEWOBA is an addressee of multiple interests and expectations that go beyond only the supply of living space. For tenants and customers, shareholders, local politics and economy as well as the social and cultural facilities in Bremen and Bremerhaven, the GEWOBA is a reliable and dedicated ally.
The GEWOBA's role in the project is to implement mobility management measures in new and existing real estate development projects (including a mobility hub, bicycle repair shop, carsharing station, bike and cargo bike sharing as well as soft measures such a user group oriented communication for renters and buyers, providing carsharing memberships and supporting the use of other forms of shared transport). The GEWOBA's activities represent the living lab side of the new policy implementations of the City of Bremen. The organisation works closely with the City's Transport and Development departments in a knowledge exchange that allows the improvement of procedures not only within the approval process but also implementation process.
Mpact has been a pioneer in shared mobility since 1975 and has developed many shared mobility services, while also innovating and
creating public and political awareness. Mpact has developed a service for less mobile people, is the co-launcher of mobihubs in Flanders,and has participated in many European projects.
Mpact will collaborate with the City of Bremen in terms of the communication activities of the project. Mpact will also carry out differentpilots concerning business parks, housing and real estate in general. The pilots focus on three domains: carpooling and business parks,carpooling and train station parking, and the impact of cargo bike sharing and other shared modes in housing developments.
Furthermore, Mpact will translate the insights from these pilots to policy makers, planners and developers, and residents.
As the Flemish network on carsharing, Way To Go (formerly: Autodelen.net) establishes innovative forms of carsharing together with other carsharing providers. In the past years, Way To Go has also become an authority in Flanders on advising municipalities and real-estate developers on how to integrate shared mobility and carsharing in particular into municipal building codes, how to implement these services in this context to maximise user acceptance as well as maximise the reduction of cars owned and parking spaces required. The organisation supports local Flemish governments in setting up action plans on shared mobility.
Way To Go focuses on developing useful tools which are essential for the integration of shared mobility into housing developments such as a method to determine a concrete replacing ratio of private cars when implementing carsharing and an evaluations standard in order to measure the real impact on car ownership and the modal shift of carsharing. Way To Go also sets up several living labs for creating awareness for shared mobility among people living in new housing developments. Together with the neighbourhood, they determine what is needed in order to live with fewer private cars. Way To Go also provides policy recommendations and tips and tricks for local governments, providers of shared mobility and planners. Not only to integrate shared mobility, but also to make a success story of it.
The City of Helsingborg is the local authority for spatial and transport planning. Helsingborg brings expertise in operational and strategic traffic planning and has experience and knowledge in areas such as parking, cycling and deliveries. One of the most important goals is to find a holistic (circular economy) solution for urban mobility including the whole process from how energy is created and distributed to the people of the City who have a need for transportation. Helsingborg has three new development areas where the City is implementing multimodal urban mobility including shared modes.
The City of Helsingborg is one of the many living lab sites in the project and has several activities that are relevant for this project. A particular focus lies on on three development areas where houses, streets and infrastructure are built with multimodal transportation and shared mobility as one major focus. The areas are: Mariastaden (semi-rural area to the city), Östra Ramlösa (new development area in the city) and Oceanhamnen (in the city centre adjacent to the central station and bordering to the ocean). Helsingborg has a special interest in exploring how to increase the proportion of shared transport.
The Environmental Strategy, Department of Service Management and Service Studies, ISM, at Lund University has competencies in sustainable urban planning and development of new housing areas, climate change aspects and CO2 budgets, sustainable and shared mobility, urban natural ecosystem services and the value of shared public space, production and use of renewable and sustainable fuels, the climate change challenge linked to urban planning, sustainable business trips and local bicycle strategies, pedagogical aspects of reduced energy demands, etc.
Lund University is a full partner in the project and the tasks within the project are to contribute with research and act as advisor to project-partner cities and other project partners on sustainable mobility, urban natural ecosystem services and other issues related to urban values and sustainable urban space solutions, also in new housing developments and in densified city areas. LU is responsible for monitoring and providing impact assessment tasks in the project, particularly of the implemented pilot and living labs solutions. LU also builds up new research competence at the University, and creates a research basis for higher education in relation to e.g. sustainable mobility, natural ecosystem services and new sustainable mobility strategies for new housing development areas as well as contributing to creating new academic research platforms.
The Aarhus municipal department of mobility is responsible for all aspects of the spatial planning of infrastructure and mobility in new development areas. Over the last couple of years, the responsibility for the green transition of the transport sector towards a carbon neutral society by 2030 has also been allocated to the mobility department. This has led to an increased focus and increased competencies in green urban mobility planning, competencies that can be used in this project. Aarhus simply needs to connect the dots between urban development and mobility and practice in understanding which urban development mechanisms and services that can support the target of carbon neutrality.
The City of Aarhus is the facilitator of and provides the planning framework for sustainable urban mobility housing developments. The project is a showcase on how public authorities and private developers can work together on a common goal of sustainable mobility oriented development. The City acts as both the authority, but also as mobility manager and sparring partner for the private developer, and ensures that the implemented measures will be evaluated and assessed according to the standard of the project. The knowledge the City gains from participating in the project will both be in terms of new ways of collaboration and in terms of demonstrating impact on the modal share in the chosen urban development area.
With Utrecht’s strategy “Healthy Urban Living for Everyone”, the City places health at the centre of urban development by weighing all decisions with regard to their impact on every citizens' wellbeing. In addition, the “Mobility Plan 2040” aims for zero growth in car traffic and to be the Cycling City of Europe. The City is growing fast; space has to be used efficiently, so shared mobility is very important. Utrecht has many innovative and best practices to share on sustainable shared mobility, such as progressive projects like the MaaS App "Gaiyo", the development of shared mobility hubs and Coding the Curbs with its smart organised multifunctional use of space. Utrecht has ambitious plans to scale up (necessary due to the high growth), however, it also creates (un)foreseen issues within the context of urban (re)development in higher density areas, like to accessibility of shared mobility for each citizen, especially low income groups.
Inclusivity is given priority in the ‘Mobility Plan 2040’ where citizen with a lower income or distance from the labour market should also be given the opportunity to use shared mobility. Affordability and lack of understanding of shared mobility is one of the issues why these people do not use these mobility services. Although large urban development projects included shared mobility in their concepts, these are struggling between matching a (commercial) offer and possibilities of lower income groups. In this project, Utrecht aims to make shared mobility more accessible and affordable for low-income target groups within urban development projects by implementing practical living labs and suitable policy frameworks to support this. Utrecht also researches and designs a better policy framework that sets the necessary requirements to organise and finance a shared mobility management solution for lower income citizens in urban (re)development projects on a futureproof manner.
AM is a district developer based in the Netherlands and mostly active in cities and urban regions in the Netherlands. The housing shortage combined with the sustainable mobility challenge requires new solutions to decrease car ownership and usage. Based on thorough research on shared mobility in newly built housing areas, AM created a sustainable mobility approach which the developer now implements in 22 projects with four mobility hubs. However, AM acknowledges that the upscaling and long-term effectiveness of new (shared) mobility solutions requires a more integral approach, policy innovation and smarter solutions.
Shared mobility falls in between public and private sector and requires collaborative action for success. AM develops governance structures that can help to further shared mobility in urban building sites (e.g. at the pilot site Merwede in Utrecht) from the perspective of a real-estate developer. AM brings a private sector perspective into the project as a housing developer with experience in the mobility market as well – this is a rare perspective that is beneficial for the other housing and real-estate developers as well as providing insight for the public sector partners. The pilots and activities implemented by AM attempt to answer many questions around long-term business cases of shared mobility and the required scope for future-proof and adaptive policy frameworks.
The spatial plan for the City of Stavanger emphasises developing a city of short distances. The goals are to reduce the need for transport, the dependency on car use and reduce emissions from transport. The sustainable mobility planning strategy emphasises facilitating walking, cycling and public transport. Shared mobility and cooperation with developers and mobility service providers is a soft part of the strategy. Since 2009, the City requires mobility plans for new real-estate developments at different stages in the planning process. The mobility plans merge hard and soft measures. The City is responsible for creating and implementing sustainable planning policies as well as guiding real-estate developers on the need to plan more resource and space efficiently. Stavanger is also a "smart city" and was the first municipality in Norway to adopt a local road map for the smart City of Stavanger in 2016.
The City of Stavanger carries out one of the living lab sites in the project. A particular focus lies on one development area where houses, streets and infrastructure are built next to the future third largest mobility hub in the region. The area is called Jåtun. Stavanger shares its challenges with the project partners with the aim for developing better solutions for the City. The City collaborates with and exchanges experience with relevant stakeholders such as planners, developers and research institutes. Stavanger has a special interest in exploring how to increase the proportion of shared transport and works on solutions regarding "Living as a Service", a holistic approach in housing developments that focuses on mobility as well as other shared residential services (tool, appliances, shared infrastructure).
Kolumbus is the public transport provider in Rogaland County and the City of Stavanger. Kolumbus is also described as being one of the most innovative public transport authorities in the world with their approach as a holistic mobility service provider. They provide services with city e-bikes, carsharing, e-scooters, autonomous buses, electric boats, in addition to more traditional services like bus, boat and train. Kolumbus also has a strong focus on B2B (Business-to-Business services) with their own B2B-concept called "HomeWorkHome". Kolumbus also plays a role in many of the City of Stavanger's development projects and mobility concepts for new real-estate sites.
Kolumbus is the mobility provider in the living labs that are implemented in Stavanger during the project. Kolumbus brings the unique insights of a (shared) mobility service provider into the project, not only from a sense of how to implement municipal policies in a practical setting but also in order to provide insights into the business case needed for shared mobility services such shared (e-)bikes, carsharing, e-scooters, particularly in connection with more traditional services like bus, boat and train.
In January 2022, the l'Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée UPEM) and the l’ Institut français des sciences et technologies des transports, de l'aménagement et des réseaux (IFSTTAR) merged under the new entity University Gustave Eiffel (UGE) which is located in the North Sea Region near Lille, France. The institutions are sharing teaching and research activities. UPEM is an interdisciplinary university with 12 faculties and 15 research centres. In particular, the department for Cities, Mobility and Transport (LVMT) addresses areas such as urban multimodal transport or the interactions between city residents and transportation. IFSTTAR is a major player in European research on cities and territories, transport and civil engineering. The researchers contribute to the emergence of energy-efficient, safe and reasoned solutions to meet society's expectations by participating in the design of reliable transport systems adapted to all people and goods.
Together with Lund University, UGE is of valuable assistance in understanding city policies that link parking, shared modes and housing. UGE
participates in bibliographic research, in the analysis of other cities' experiences and in the establishment of states of the art, particularly
with respect to parking standards for housing developments in cities across Europe. This is a comparison that cities are frequently seeking
but that does not exist to date. UGE also works together with Lund University to develop methods of impact assessment (find relevant
indicators, monitoring them) of the pilots and living labs implemented in the project. It also suggests improvements and
recommendations to help partner cities achieve better results in line with their objectives. UGE helps to disseminate the project by
participating in seminars, conferences and congresses and by publishing reports and academic papers and integrating lessons learned
into its own teaching curriculum.
The City of Mechelen’s Strategy and Development department is responsible for a wide range of topics, from Mobility and Transport to Sustainability and Urban Development. The City’s Mobility Plan pays particular attention to cycling and shared mobility. By actively boosting sharing systems and expanding both supply and quality, also in areas that are commercially less interesting for providers, shared mobility becomes a high-performance system that can compete with other means of transport. The City already provides a clear framework for shared mobility in the public domain and has quite an innovative approach to shared mobility integration into real-estate developments: the parking standards for new buildings are lowered when developers invest in shared mobility. The City serves as a lighthouse example on how to strategically promote and integrate shared mobility into a variety of settings and a variety of modes, including carsharing, bikesharing and shared cargo bikes.
Together with Woonpunt, the City implements pilots in three areas and assesses the impact of shared mobility management measures targeting social housing in particular. In general, this target group has less access to shared mobility due to financial or other barriers such as lack of awareness, lack of knowledge, language problems, etc. Mechelen aims to raise awareness among this target group, develop tailored support measures and test them in living labs, the results of which will be transferable to other cities. In collaboration with housing developers, Mechelen develops new housing mobility management concepts facilitating shared mobility, reducing car parks and implementing shared mobility services.
Woonland is a public social housing company in the Flemish region of Mechelen. Woonland rents and sells sustainable and affordable housing to the most vulnerable people and has 3000 homes in its jurisdiction. Woonland has an excellent network and can act as a link to the target group. Through this project, Woonland wishes to strengthen its objective of corporate social responsibility and find innovative ways of incorporating shared mobility into its development sites to make it more accessible to vulnerable citizens as well use it to reduce car dependency and space consumption.
Together with the City of Mechelen, Woonland implements pilots in three areas and assesses the impact of shared mobility management measures targeting social housing in particular. In general, this target group has less access to shared mobility due to financial or other barriers such as lack of awareness, lack of knowledge, language problems or many other. Woonland aims to raise awareness among this target group, develop and test tailored support measures in living labs.
Housing Europe is the European Federation of Public, Cooperative and Social Housing. Established in 1988, it is a network of 46 national and regional federations, which together gather about 43,000 public, social and cooperative housing providers in 25 countries. Altogether, they manage around 25 million homes. Housing Europe and its network of housing providers have a vision of a Europe, which provides access to decent and affordable housing for all in communities which are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable and where everyone is enabled to reach their full potential.
The main role of Housing Europe in this project is wide-scale knowledge transfer from the mobility field to the social housing sector and it members across Europe. The dissemination of lessons learned on mobility and parking policies as well as shared mobility services to and through the engagement with social housing providers is Housing Europe’s mission in the project. Housing Europe also develops policy recommendations for this target group, assists in the testing and validation of approaches and ideas that will be developed in the living labs and fosters the replication of innovative approaches in additional social housing districts.
