Mobility Planet

Delivering goods in Zaragoza’s historic city centre is not always straightforward. Narrow streets, pedestrianised areas and limited space for loading and unloading make everyday deliveries a challenge. But what if goods could be brought closer to their destinations without relying on conventional delivery vans? Zaragoza is exploring exactly that, turning an underused municipal market into a neighbourhood logistics hub and introducing small electrically assisted carts to navigate the city’s historic streets.   In this episode, Katy and Thato take listeners inside the Zaragoza Living Lab to explore the proximity logistic solutions. Together with Alfonso Molina from CityLogin and Konstantina Katsela from the University of Gothenburg, they discuss how an underused municipal market was adapted as a neighbourhood logistics hub and how electrically assisted carts were introduced for deliveries in Zaragoza’s historic centre.  Beyond Zaragoza, the discussion opens up wider questions about transferability and scalability. What makes a microhub economically and operationally viable? How can municipalities and logistics operators work together? And how can solutions developed for one neighbourhood be adapted to different urban environments without losing their effectiveness?  At the heart of the episode is a broader question: is transforming last-mile delivery mainly about introducing new vehicles and infrastructure? Or is it about creating the right regulatory, operational and collaborative conditions for innovative solutions to succeed and grow?  If you would like to find out mo...

Barcelona’s dense, mixed-use neighbourhoods create intense competition for limited kerbside space. Delivery vehicles must share the street with residents, taxis, ride-hailing services, micromobility and other users, while static loading and unloading zones often struggle to respond to changing demand. Unauthorised parking, unpredictable stopping times and double-parking further reduce the effective capacity available for urban freight.   In this episode, Katy and Thato take listeners inside the Barcelona Living Lab, where DISCO is testing new approaches to curbside management and urban freight data sharing. Together with Ramon Morros Rubió and Hugo Martínez from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Panos Protopapas from INLECOM and Andreas Nettsträter from the Open Logistics Foundation, they explore what happens when digital tools meet the everyday realities of city streets.  The conversation looks at how better information can help cities understand what is really happening at the curb, why data sharing is often more difficult than expected, and what cities need to move from promising pilots to solutions that can work at scale.  Barcelona’s experience also opens up a wider discussion about interoperability, standardisation and the role of open approaches in urban logistics. How much digital infrastructure do cities really need? What makes stakeholders willing to share data? And how can solutions be designed so they respond to local realities without becoming impossible to replicate elsewhere?  At the heart of the episode is a broader question: is the main challenge...

When a crisis disrupts roads, communications and essential services, urban logistics becomes much more than a question of efficiency or cost. It becomes essential to getting food, equipment and other critical supplies to the people who need them most.  Welcome to the second episode of the DISCO Podcast Series! In this episode, Katy and Thato look at the logistics response to the DANA floods that affected the Valencia region in October 2024. At the centre of the discussion is the experience of T-Box, which adapted its planned logistics activities to support the emergency response through temporary distribution hubs, changing last-mile delivery methods and close coordination with public authorities, emergency services and volunteers. The episode explores what the Valencia experience can teach us about crisis preparedness, leadership, communication and collaboration. It also looks at how lessons from major disruptions, including the COVID-19 pandemic, can help cities strengthen supply-chain resilience and how sustainability can remain part of the discussion even under acute pressure. The guests also reflect on how these lessons can be transferred into everyday urban logistics planning, including through Sustainable Urban Logistics Plans and stronger public-private cooperation. If you would like to find out more about this episode, check the links below. And of course, subscribe to our podcast to keep up with new episodes and hear more about the future of urban mobility. Links for this episode: SSPH+ | Devastating “DANA” Floods in Valencia: Insights on Resilience, C...

Making Space for Deliveries: Rethinking the Curb in Padua   Loading and unloading areas are essential for urban logistics, but they compete with many other uses of public space. In dense and historic cities, finding suitable space for deliveries is becoming increasingly difficult. Welcome to the first episode of the DISCO Podcast Series! As part of the DISCO project, this series shares practical experiences from the project´s Living Labs, lessons and insights from cities testing innovative urban logistics solutions. In this episode, we look at the experience of the Padua Living Lab, where the city tested new approaches to managing loading and unloading areas. We discuss how the original proximity logistics concept had to be adapted to local regulatory conditions, what the demonstration revealed about flexible curbside management, and the practical challenges related to regulation, enforcement and digitalisation. Katy Huaylla and Thato Motloung speak with Dr Luca Braidotti from the University of Trieste, who introduces the Padua Living Lab and shares lessons from its implementation. They are joined by Laurence Bannerman from the European Parking Association and Anne Goodchild from the Urban Freight Lab, who bring wider perspectives on parking regulation, digital enforcement, standardisation and how cities can introduce more effective curbside management. The discussion raises a simple but important question: how can cities move towards smarter curbside management without needing to digitalise everything from the start? If you would like to find out more about this epi...

Das Horizont-2020-Projekt ReVeAL (2019-2022) - Regulating Vehicle Access for Improved Liveability - wurde initiiert, um UVARs (Urban Vehicle Access Regulations) in die Standardpalette der städtischen Mobilitätskonzepte in europäischen Städten aufzunehmen. ReVeAL kombinierte Fallstudienforschung mit praktischer UVAR-Umsetzung in sechs Pilotstädten und erstellte ein Toolkit und Empfehlungen zur Unterstützung anderer Städte.  Bielefeld war eine ReVeAL-Pilotstadt und daher eine ausgezeichnete Informationsquelle nicht nur für die individuellen Erfahrungen und Lehren aus der Umsetzung, sondern auch für den deutschsprachigen Kontext. Olaf Lewald und Dominik Brand vom Bielefelder Verkehrsamt diskutieren mit Bonnie Fenton von Rupprecht Consult darüber, wie Bielefeld im Rahmen von ReVeAL eine Reihe von UVAR-Maßnahmen kombiniert hat, um die Machbarkeit und Akzeptanz einer autoreduzierten Innenstadt zu testen, und welche Erkenntnisse dabei gewonnen werden konnten. Die ReVeAL-Empfehlungen und Städteberichte sind auf der Website in deutscher Sprache verfügbar oder können direkt hier heruntergeladen werden.  ReVeAL Toolkit verfügbar   Das Tool bietet Unterstützung von Behörden und lokalen Entscheidungsträger*innen, die Zufahrtsregulierungen wie z.B. Parkraumregulierungen, Niedrigemissionszonen, Superblocks u.a. erwägen. Diese Gruppe von Maßnahmentypen ist international bekannt als „UVAR“ (Urban Vehicle Access Regulation).    Das ReVeAL-Toolkit unterstützt Städte bei der Entwicklung von UVARs, die den komplexen stadtspezifischen Kontexten gerecht werden. Es wurde zusammen mit sech...

Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning, or SUMP in short, helps to shape cities today for the mobility trends of tomorrow. What sounds great for large cities can easily be dismissed for small ones or towns. That's where the SUMP Guidelines for Small Cities come into play.

Bonnie and Anouchka are currently working on a project for urban vehicle access regulations. Basically, that means ways to reduce car access to parts of cities to make them cleaner, safer and more attractive for people. But how do we make sure that hybrid cars are is in electric mode inside the zero-emission zone? That’s when geofencing comes into play.

Bringing together the two very different scales – the city-wide level needed for integrated planning and the people-oriented on-the-ground neighbourhood level – is a tricky balance of communication, trust and expectation management. Let's discuss!

In the final episode of the GECKO project, we're talking about the possible conflicts between sectors in the context of regulating new mobility, especially the private and the public sector.

With all the technology involved in new mobility, data plays a big role. In fact, data has been referred to as “the new oil”. But while oil resources are running out, the amount of data is increasing exponentially. The question is, what can we do with it? How do we make good use of it? And how can we protect our personal data? Let's find out in this month's episode of Mobility Planet.

In our first episode, we discussed the difficulties that decision makers encounter when trying to regulate new mobility. In this episode, we’re talking about how much regulation is actually needed. Who’s responsible for setting the rules? What kind of rules should they be? To what extent can we let the market set its own rules? And what about enforcing the rules? Do we need the “new mobility police”? 

This is the first in a series of four podcasts looking at various aspects of new mobility and how to regulate it.  What are the main challenges from a policymaker’s perspective? How can the public sector ensure that regulations are flexible enough to take in new forms of mobility? How can a company whose business models depends on certain regulations future-proof themselves to potential changes?

Cars have occupied public space for a long time, benefitting only the owners. But public space should be for everyone, right?