Challenges

Insightful alternatives to using your car Sustainability

City of Amsterdam

Background

Car ownership in Amsterdam currently stands at 247 cars per 1000 inhabitants. This is the lowest ownership level within the Netherlands. Nevertheless, the claim that cars have on public space is the biggest of all modes of transport due to small streets and the high density of people within the city. The City of Amsterdam’s ‘Autoluw’ (Car-Free) and ‘Schone Lucht’ (Clean Air) programmes have already put positive restraints on car ownership by removing approximately 11,000 parking spots and establishing zero-emission zones in the city. Furthermore, the City aims for making all transport of people and goods within the city zero emission by 2030. If this goal is to be reached, Amsterdam’s residents need to continue changing their mobility habits.

Amsterdam’s public transport network and cycling infrastructure are already excellent, and there is a relatively extensive ecosystem of shared-mobility and ride-sharing/hailing initiatives. However, many car owners still don’t consider any of these options a worthy alternative to driving, as evidenced by the large number of households still in possession of a car.

It appears that many people are not yet sufficiently informed about the multitude of available alternatives to car ownership or about the difference in cost and ecological footprint.

The City of Amsterdam is working on improving the infrastructure for active modes of mobility (such as e-bikes), installing mobility hubs at strategic locations and local mobility hubs (eBuurthubs) in neighbourhoods. The City is also developing a MaaS platform where all mobility providers can be linked up in one place (this is being developed in cooperation with Amaze).

The assignment for startups

Find a way to give consumers clear insights into the economic and environmental impact of their current mobility habits and from this, provide practical advice and solutions for using alternative forms of mobility to Amsterdam’s residents.

Criteria

  • provide insight into the cost and/or environmental impact of current mobility behaviour;
  • offer personalised advice and tools to nudge/change behaviour;
  • the solution must not be a route planner;
  • the solution must not be a MaaS-like application.

The startup’s founders/employees do not have to speak Dutch. However, since they are going to develop something for Amsterdam’s residents, they must be able to cross the language barrier.

Issued by

CTO Smart Mobility