MCube: Transformative Mobility Experiments (TrEx)
The MCube lighthouse project “Transformative Mobility Experiments (TrEx)” aimed to systematically understand experiments for sustainable and scalable mobility transformations, to further develop them in a participatory manner, to test them in practice and to strengthen them with new tools and perspectives. Such experiments are becoming increasingly popular - in the course of the project, TrEx took a transdisciplinary approach to three types of experiment relevant to mobility transformations:
- TrEx focused on the investigation of natural experiments and crisis experiences. Based on a comprehensive comparison of European metropolitan areas, the project analyzed transformation potentials for sustainable mobility in the context of uncertainty, crises and resilience.
- In the course of the project, TrEx focused on the area of everyday (social) experiments in which future-oriented alternative everyday worlds were developed as models for a long-term socio-ecological transformation. Focus groups were used to tap into specialist knowledge, and experimental everyday worlds were developed co-creatively with local residents on the basis of citizensurveys, making everyday experiences accessible.
- In the area of innovation experiments and real-world laboratories, we pursued a case study-based approach in which the investigation of specific, suitable entrepreneurial real-world laboratories and MCube test trials, combined with expert interviews, participant observations and workshops. These were reflected back in order to develop standardized processes for the economically viable, responsible and safe implementation of experimental approaches.
The lighthouse project “Transformative Mobility Experiments (TrEx)” was part of the innovation field “Developing and Integrating Mobility Options” of the first funding phase of the “Munich Cluster for Mobility in Metropolitan Regions (MCube)”, which ran from November 2021 to October 2024. The project was supported by the Professorship of Innovation Research and the Professorship of Urban Design at the Technical University of Munich, the Digital Hub Mobility by UnternehmerTUM, SAP, the City of Munich and other associated partner institutions.
Experiments and real-world laboratories are becoming increasingly important in the planning and design of urban and mobility futures. They can be implemented quickly and cost-effectively, easily adapted to new findings and changing circumstances, and offer many opportunities to test visions of the future and develop them further together with different stakeholders and population groups. More and more cities are therefore relying on experimental approaches and real-world laboratories in the design of new mobility options and infrastructures: Technological innovations such as self-driving cars are tested on the streets, neighborhoods are first redesigned with temporary measures before structural interventions are made, or cycle paths are first painted before they are made permanent. Experiments are also being used to overcome crises and their effects on mobility: This was recently demonstrated by the coronavirus pandemic, during which cities all around the world created new places to stay in the neighborhood and expanded the infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists.
The aim of the TrEx project was to understand the role of experimentation in the design and implementation of the urban mobility transition in a context of multiple crises and different mobility needs and requirements, and to work with city and business stakeholders to develop the cornerstones of responsible experimentation for and with the population. To achieve this goal, we explored the following questions in four parallel project strands:
- How does the population envision the future of mobility, and how open are they to experimental changes in this area?
- What ideas of the future of mobility and of change do different types of real-world laboratories in the mobility sector pursue, and what contribution can and do they want to make to the realization of these futures?
- What role do mobility experiments play in overcoming disruptive crises, and to what extent can experiments contribute to greater resilience in the urban mobility transition?
- How can mobility experiments be used in corporate mobility management, and what contribution can they make to improving and making employees' mobility more sustainable?
As part of the MCube application and research cluster, we not only answered these questions conceptually, but also developed recommendations for the experimentation practices of cities, companies and research institutions so that they can contribute as effectively as possible to the design and implementation of sustainable and socially just mobility futures. We also tested the applicability of these recommendations in workshops and pilot projects.
The Professorship of Urban Design was the sub-project leader for work package 2 (WP 2) on everyday life experiments. In this work package, we rethought and reorganized mobility from the perspective of the crisis. Using scenario techniques, we worked with local residents to tap into and use their everyday knowledge about mobility and crises in order to think about the future of mobility and make alternative everyday worlds conceivable. The question therefore was what the mobility of the future could look like in Munich. The strong involvement of citizens not only ensured the construction of plausible and credible scenarios, but also had a communicative-discursive effect and promoted ownership of these transformative scenarios among the population. At the end of the work package, visualizations were created to illustrate the possible futures developed.
Timeline: November 2021 - October 2024
Funding: BMBF - Clusters for Future; MCube: Munich Cluster for the Future of Mobility in Metropolitan Regions
Sub project lead WP 2: Professorshop of Urban Design, Dr. Daniel Zwangsleitner and Dr. Stefanie Ruf
Contact: stefanie.ruf(at)tum.de
Partners involved:
TUM Professorship for Innovation, Society and Public Policy (Lead of the whole project)
TUM Professorship of Urban Design
Associated partners:
Landeshauptstadt München (LHM)
Münchner Verkehrs- und Tarifverbund (MVV)
Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrradclub e.V. (ADFC)
TUM Chair of Urban Structure and Transport Planning
In preparatory interviews, we defined when our work package and the research project as a whole were successful. What criteria do we use to measure success? We assume that different people and institutions have different definitions of success and success criteria. Who should be involved in developing our definition(s) of success? Based on these interviews, we then held focus group discussions with experts on the topics of mobility, futures and participation in order to plan our futures workshops with Munich citizens in the best possible way. We explored the question of how we can involve citizens as much as possible in our planned scenario process, which space we want to examine and on which scale we want to develop the scenarios. In a street, a neighborhood, the whole of Munich? In the next 10, 20, 30 years? The results were published in the project report.
Let's assume that fewer cars are normal...
What will change if we create more space for people in the city and reduce car traffic? And what will that look like in the future?
Only if we know where we want to go in the future we can act accordingly and enable co-design. In the of summer 2023 and spring of 2024, workshops were therefore held over two days with citizens of the Südliche Au and Untersendling neighborhoods. After an introduction to what the future is (not), the first day was spent discussing the assumption that fewer cars are normal. How would this affect our errands, leisure time, health, social life, profession and education? Three illustrators helped the workshop teams to develop visions of the future of Munich in 2035. On the second day, we asked ourselves what would be desirable in the jointly developed scenarios and what would not. What future stories from people's everyday lives are told in the scenarios?
The scenarios and stories were clustered, actors were developed and turned into visions of the future, which were presented at the Futures Forum in the fall of 2023 and summer of 2024. Neighborhood dialogues took place in this context. Residents were invited to be part of these dialogs and take on their role in the year 2035.
This work package is part of the MCube aqt and TrEx research projects
Marco Kellhammer and Dr. Stefanie Ruf, Professorship of Urban Design at the Technical University of Munich
in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Eileen Mandir, Faculty of Design at Munich University of Applied Sciences
Visualizations:
Alicia V. Hergerdt and Viktor Späth
The findings from the focus groups and futures workshops were supplemented by a detailed survey in which around 1,700 Munich residents were asked about their attitudes and behavior in relation to mobility and futures in April and May 2023. The results of these survey waves were scientifically evaluated and will soon be published. In addition, the results will then be shared with the urban community in a suitable form.