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Learning by traveling – to Beijing

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In spring 2024, a sizeable delegation from The Future Mobility Network (FMN) travelled to China. To be there at Intertraffic, but mainly to see how mobility development is going. Because to innovate, you also have to dare to cross borders. Besides learning by doing, we are also into learning by travelling. Iris Ruysch, Alwin Bakker, Tim Klein, Ilse van Zeumeren and Martine Leijs describe what they learned and noticed there. In six general lessons and some personal quotes (unrelated to the lessons learned).

壹. Mature autonomous mobility

It is one of the spearheads for which FMN was founded: speeding up the process of getting autonomous vehicles on the road. It is whispered about, dreamed about, but not much is getting off the ground (or better: on the road) in Europe yet despite successful pilots and projects we did in recent years. That’s why it was quite an exciting experience to live in the future for a while on the other side of the world. We were invited to take a ride in Pony.ai’s autonomous robot taxi and were quite tense for the first few minutes. Filtering in, busy traffic lights, oncoming traffic, overtaking. It all seemed a bit much to ask of an autonomous driving car. We almost felt like driving examiners who already know when the driving student starts up that they are not going to pass. An expectation befitting an experience still unthinkable in the Netherlands.

Because all road and car systems are integrated, the process there is as safe as possible. Cars, for example, know even before our own visual red or green recognition whether a traffic light is changing lights. Which is also made visible on the car’s dashboard. Think of bicycle stoplights in the Netherlands counting down to crossing, but linked to the cars themselves! Perhaps most telling of how far along they are is that our habituation quickly crept in. After a good 15 minutes of gazing out of the windows with open mouths and making excited videos, we suddenly realised that everyone was already carelessly busy on their phones again. As if we were on a bus or train. System interaction also has a lot of potential in our country. If clear agreements are made, autonomous transport in our country could gain momentum.

“Where control fails, you see a lot of insubordination” – Martine Leijs

貳. Innovative ant nest

Besides having the same fine ride with Baidu’s autonomous car as Pony.ai’s, the former also allowed us a small peek behind the scenes. The Baidu Apollo Platform is a vast ecosystem from taxis to delivery robots. A giant interactive screen hangs in the operating room, which comes across as a huge field lab testing the future. Different colours show very clearly which delivery robot or car is doing which task: are they free, occupied or already being called? A silent, apparent chaos, but orchestrated to perfection.

An open-source approach encourages innovation and collaboration on a global scale. What if we collectively with companies in the Netherlands adopted such an inclusive model?

“Experiencing Level 4 autonomous systems in the built environment feels unreal, yet very reliable and safe as a user” – Tim Klein

. Pitstops for eletrical cars

Is it still responsible for Formula 1 to run on petrol cars? You hear the question passed from time to time. In China, at least, they are well advanced in facilitating possible pit stops for electric speed monsters. The company Nio has developed a technology where, instead of long charging, electric cars can swap batteries in 2-3 minutes. This marks a huge step in the user-friendliness of electric transport.

It doesn’t stop there, however, as they have also already looked at how to shape the environment of those stops. With Nio House centres, they have developed a vibrant community where, as a battery-changer, you do not feel like you are visiting a car dealership (or petrol station), but are really part of a vibrant hub where there are all kinds of facilities. It also brought a boot full of questions for us. Is the Netherlands ready for a company like Nio? In the future, could it be possible for Nio to open up this technology to other electric car manufacturers? How might this development translate to the digital infrastructure of the Netherlands? And could we also apply the concept of Nio House centres to Dutch mobility hubs?

The smart traffic management systems and autonomous public transport solutions that I experienced could be game changers” – Alwin Bakker

. You can hide, but (then) you can’t run

The bullet train and metro are two examples of super tightly organised public transport connections in Beijing. They have the potential to transport large numbers of people. There are also (in the near) future large green districts being built where there is seemingly no place for the car. Ostensibly. Because under the image of a modern, green living environment, huge underground car parks are hidden. Car use thus continues to be facilitated and the gigantic traffic jams in and around the city remain. We were even stunned when we mentioned that there is already a high-density development here with parking standards of (against) 0. It may not have been a revelation, but it was a good reminder that removing the car from the streetscape is not enough. The car has to be taken out of the city altogether and, above all, its perception as a valuable possession or status symbol has to disappear.

Moreover, four-wheelers are also made available relatively cheaply, which does not exactly lessen the problem. Cigarette prices are currently skyrocketing, is a hefty car tax also possible in the future? Besides, the fact that mass adoption of electric driving is something good in principle, but that only solves something for the environment. Not for the quality of life. If we continue like this in the Netherlands, we will soon all be stuck too.

We’ve been hold a mirror what happens if we keep obfuscating the car – Iris Ruysch

伍. Monitor beaten values on new paths

Culture and tradition need not come at the expense of forward-looking technologies or visions. We saw with our own eyes that they can go hand in hand. At Beijing University, for instance, we saw that precisely through innovations, they are trying to maintain traditions. One example is that they are using social media to better reach out to the youth to take up traditional calligraphy again. This was a valuable lesson for us because we deal with it on a daily basis. For instance, all municipalities in the Netherlands are currently working on the Environment Act and additional visions for mobility. When designing those visions, it is important to keep central what the interests of residents are and what the initial look of the city has always been. And then not letting that get lost in the veins of the new trajectory towards the city’s future image.

For example, the original idea of cauliflower neighbourhoods in the Netherlands has been lost. Intended as car-free neighbourhoods with space for children and a vibrant community, many are now car parks with some houses next to them. What did we want to achieve 200 years ago, 50 years ago? Especially for future visions, it is important to keep looking back and guarding the core values of residents, to keep them involved in the future of the city as well.

You don’t go there to negotiate, but to meet – Ilse van Zeumeren

陸. Follow the streams, not the local brooks

Visiting BAM, they confronted us with designs at larger levels. Already congested roads force them to think further ahead. All urbanisation grows together and a mobility plan in a new neighbourhood also affects a neighbourhood 10 kilometres away. And what do those flows in turn do to public transport, hubs and roads further afield? It’s a big network of larger flows and looking only at the small movements may again require more adjustments in the near future.

At FMN, we would also like to look as far ahead as possible, to make a mobility plan that works well now also be durable for 50 years from now. In this, data specialists also have an important role to play. By combining all the facets in a wider environment, they can pick up even more essential variables for determining a parking standard, for instance.

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