In January 2023, we met with societal partners at ProRail in Rotterdam. Dr. Gerdien de Vries presented a psychological view on the (un)willingness of individuals to change behavior: what helps to make changes, and what not? She aimed to deeply explore the complexities regarding the relationship between change in mobility behavior and mobility system transition. Transparency, avoidance of fuss, inclusivity, and reliability of alternatives for the car, are some of the important aspects to focus on when creating changes in the mobility system. This is e.g. related to the capabilities to deal with the increasing digitalization of PT or shared mobility services. These behavioral-psychological insights are notably relevant for the subprojects Yellow and Blue, which aim to better understand the preferences, opinions, and behavior of travelers and the public about system changes.
The second part of the meeting was organized as a role play with two groups: one focusing on increasing accessibility problems in rural areas (notably due to the reduction of PT services) and one on changing mobility services in cities (introduction of MaaS, shared mobility, pressure on reducing car use, etc.). The workshop contained elements of the visioning approach performed with the Haugue as mentioned earlier. Both groups had to formulate actions and measures to deal with uncertainties presented to them so that the common goal was still achieved. By taking different roles and discussing interests and possibilities, interesting differences were identified: the group in the rural area tended to be significantly more inclined to collaborate to find creative practical solutions to tackle accessibility issues; the group in the city operated more defensively regarding individual interests. The session confirmed the difference in the challenges for mobility transition between typical rural areas and (inner-) city areas. System change needs to take account of these different contexts.
In a follow-up discussion, a further nuance was emphasized: a very large part of the Dutch population lives in suburban neighborhoods, literally somewhere between the typical city and typical rural. One answer suggested in the debate on the question of how to make these suburban population’s mobility behavior more sustainable, is to introduce a network of mobility hubs linking shared services, PT services, and offering a high level of digital connectivity services. This further supports the earlier mentioned intended start of the additional Ph.D. to study the functionality and implementation of a network of mobility hubs.