Cities in the global South are rapidly growing in size, but many marginalised and vulnerable residents (such as lower-income households, older adults, women and people with disabilities) do not have affordable, safe and accessible public transport, which reduces their ability to have decent work, healthcare and social life. Transport planning largely ignores access inequalities but prioritises efficiency and economic benefits. This project will go beyond traditional engineering approaches by taking a novel, user-centred intersectional approach that recognises how multiple forms of discrimination (e.g. classism, sexism, ageism and ableism) intersect to produce urban mobility inequalities for marginalised groups. The central objective is to develop evidence-based insights for affordable, safe and accessible urban mobility. More specifically, we aim to: 1) explore how physical and social barriers to urban transport are widened by the existing systems and the social and economic implications of such barriers (SDG-11&9), 2) develop and contextualise measures to improve access to work (SDG-8), healthcare (SDG-3) and social life (SDG-10) through improvements in the public transport system, and 3) co-design an inclusive urban mobility evaluative framework that can provide guidelines for inclusive cities. We will apply an innovative multi-sited mixed-methods approach combining visual surveys, GPS-led-geo-narratives and multi-stakeholder hackathons. Inequalities of urban mobility will be studied in Delhi, Bengaluru and Dhaka, as these cities are experiencing major infrastructural changes and have populations with multiple access disparities. Inclusive cities with affordable, safe and accessible low-carbon public transport lead to a reduction of emissions and improvements in public health and wellbeing.

• dr. Marco Helbich
• prof. dr. Annelies Zoomers
• prof. dr. Ajay Bailey
• Seama Mowri

• Dr Sobin George
• Prof. Sangamitra Roy
• Dr Anindita Datta
• Dr Md. Musleh Uddin Hasan
• Dr Shanawez Hossain

Nederland heeft een uitstekende bereikbaarheid. Toch geldt dit niet voor iedereen in dezelfde mate. Een beperkt aanbod van transportmiddelen in combinatie met sociaaleconomische achterstand en/of gezondheidsbeperkingen en een grote afstand tot voorzieningen kunnen leiden tot een verhoogd risico op vervoersarmoede, leidend tot sociale uitsluiting en uiteindelijk een lager welzijn. Er ontbreekt echter nog inzicht in:

1. hoe en in welke mate kwalitatieve factoren (bijvoorbeeld onveiligheid, culturele factoren of gebrek aan vaardigheden) in combinatie met objectieve factoren voor specifieke groepen bijdragen aan vervoersarmoede;
2. in welke mate vervoersarmoede optreedt wat hiervan de sociale en welzijnseffecten zijn.

Dit project (Mobimon) beoogt daarom een meer volledig inzicht te genereren in de determinanten en gevolgen van vervoersarmoede in Nederland, om zo een meer gedifferentieerde benadering in het oplossen van vervoersarmoede mogelijk te maken. De doelstelling van dit project is een kwantitatieve meetmethode voor vervoersarmoede te ontwikkelen die in staat is om kwalitatieve factoren te meten die de ervaren transportarmoede bepalen en de effecten op participatie, eenzaamheid en welzijn te meten. Deze meetmethode zal gebaseerd worden op een literatuurstudie en focus groepen met experts. Vervolgens zal de meetmethode gevalideerd worden door middel van een survey. Analyse van de verzamelde surveydata zal eerste inzichten geven in de mate van vervoersarmoede van verschillende groepen mensen.

• dr. Dea van Lierop

• TU Eindhoven

The ZonMw research programme "Sport en Bewegen" has awarded a subsidy of 750,000 euros to the research project Calibrating Inclusive Sporting Encounters. Under the leadership of Dr. Maikel Waardenburg, a consortium consisting of universities, colleges and social partners will investigate the crucial role that organisation networks and first-line professionals, such as community sports coaches and social workers, play in guiding people in vulnerable positions to sporting encounters and how to organise them.

Through two "living labs" in Utrecht and Eindhoven, the research project generates more insight into the design and organisation of sporting encounters. First-line professionals work on the basis of various routines on which the exchange of knowledge is limited. Practical tools are developed together with professionals and residents in vulnerable positions. The aim is to achieve better guidance and more structural participation in sports.  This contributes to a more inclusive society for everyone. The tools to be developed will be made available to other locations and practitioners after the project has ended.

• dr. Gideon Bolt

• TU/e (Industrial Design)
• Fontys Sports College (research group Move to Be)

The Urban Mobility Observatory (UMO) project has been awarded €1,950,000 from the NWO Large programme, aimed at the construction of large scientific support facilities. UMO will spend years collecting extensive data on mobility in cities in the Netherlands.

Urban Mobility

The Urban Mobility Observatory (UMO) is an extensive system of sensors and IT infrastructure for observing mobility and travel behaviour and combining data from different kinds of measurements (cameras, mobile phone, surveys). UMO will collect and save all manner of traffic, transport and mobility data and make it available for research into mobility and transport in urban areas. This is pressing, because understanding and managing the rapid developments in transport in these areas calls for new observations.

Collaboration

The grant of 1.95 million euros (for a period of five years) will be topped up by the eight participating parties to 3.25 million euros. ‘We are very happy with this extensive collaboration’, Daamen adds. ‘The large number of partners and generous individual contributions show the will to work together. This will allow us to involve all kinds of researchers with different perspectives. UMO makes ground-breaking scientific research possible in the area of traffic, transport and mobility. Researchers are welcome to submit plans for the collection of new data. We will work with existing data as well (including data from external parties). The effective filtering of that data is one of the main tasks.’

Sensors and apps
UMO's network of sensors will contain instruments for monitoring real-life situations in six regions (including cameras, radar, LIDARs, BT/Wi-Fi trackers and mobile apps). There is also a moving network of sensors via vehicles and moveable devices for additional observations. Certain data on travel behaviour and travel preferences will be collected via a panel survey and social media. Data will be continuously collected on a representative average of the Dutch population. This will also include tracking the same people for several years and watching how their mobility and travel behaviour changes. The data collected by UMO will be made accessible to the public as much as possible, with the necessary privacy safeguards, of course.

• dr. Anae Sobhani

• TU Delft
• Vrije Universiteit
• TU Eindhoven
• Universiteit Twente
• AMS
• CWI