Using digitalisation for more human(e) mobility

Here’s a summary of the conversation I had with Malin Gibrand about digitalisation in human(e) mobility…

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At the heart of the business area lies a people-centric approach to planning. Digitalisation in the business area focuses on understanding how people interact with tech but also how we can collect and analyse the right data so that we really understand how people are interacting in the built environment.

Malin Gibrand is my colleague working in the Stockholm office. When she’s not working hard to make cities better more liveable places, she’s out running marathons across Europe at a competitive level. She’s also the Head of the Board of our company Trivector Traffic (which by the way is 100 % employee owned), and she’s probably the busiest most high performing person I have ever met (and also extremely nice).

Hi Malin! You are in charge of the Business Area called “human mobilitet”. What is this about?

The business area is about how we create movement and transport in a city where people are in the centre. We have many focus areas in the business area, areas we have worked a long time at Trivector Traffic including: walking, cycling, travel surveys, mobility management, active mobility, traffic safety, trygghet (ed: no equivalent in English, but relates to perceived safety) and accessibility. Within all of these areas, the focus is on the person travelling – moving within and being in the transport system. We want to identify the best ways to design our cities and transport solutions considering the human perspective and peoples’ experiences by understanding people and their behaviour.

What applications/possibilities do you see that digitalisation can bring within this business area?

There’s a lot we can do to understand travel behaviour but also to influence / nudge people. I can imagine collaborating with different organisations for example in developing new apps and solutions that support walking and cycling. For cycling, for example, there are many analysis possibilities that are not fully explored including different types of geographic / GIS and network analyses.

?We work increasingly with developers and the building sector, and there are possibilities here in collecting data in digital ways to understand travel behaviour, this could be as simple as collecting data via digital surveys. This data could be extremely useful for new developments, and requirements could in future be made to collect such data in order to support the development of more sustainable mobility in connection with new builds.

?There is particularly a lack of data on walking and cycling that can help support planning better, and here there are several technologies that should be able to help: app-collected data with GPS tracks (TravelVu app), camera tracking, tracking wifi signals etc. It is worthwhile to note that not all data is suitable however: to understand how we best plan for people means really understanding people and different groups – this requires quite high granularity of data and also preferably information on who is travelling and why.

?This is not to mention new data sources to better understand traffic safety, health benefits, perceived safety…

Do you have any examples of how this has been applied?

We have some experience with different apps, both with collecting data (with the TravelVu app) and for offering new services to support more people-centred mobility, e.g. through the bicycle-train app. We have also developed a cycling model which helps especially regional planners understand where the potential for cycling can be (and to help identify where infrastructure can be built). On that topic, we have also done a cycling potential study specifically for the Stockholm region.

?In Sundbyberg we have an example of using advanced GIS and network analysis to understand the current state but also potential for walking and cycling in the network. This type of analysis allows an understanding of how well connected the walking / cycling network is, where barriers are and the potential for e.g. new infrastructure such as bridges.

Any last thoughts?

There’s a lot more to be done! New data sources – especially GPS data on cycling and walking via smartphones – really opens up new possibilities for analysis, and further understanding and quantifying impacts e.g. on health and traffic safety. We already have a lot of data collected with TravelVu, and we should be doing more analyses of this data.

There’s a real imbalance as to our understanding of pedestrians and cyclists in the transport system compared to other mode users, and we need to make a concerted effort that the modes don’t get “left behind” in a digitally connected world. There are plenty of data providers out there that we are happy to collaborate with to support analyses.

Links

• Cycle potential in Region Stockholm: https://arcg.is/0DWCX9
• Walking and cycling analysis in Sunbyberg: https://www.sundbyberg.se/download/18.5cfe10e51817fd01e4c40d/1655974140234/Gang-cykelanalys_Trivector_2020-10-22.pdf
• Bicyle-train app: https://www.bikeablecity.se/skola/
• TravelVU: https://www.travelvu.app/