SCALE-UP Urban Node Antwerp Kick-Off Meeting
Copyright: François De Heel
A final Urban Node kick-off day took place on 03 December 2021, consisting of several presentations and discussions addressing all of the planned tasks as well as challenges and knowledge needs. The Antwerp Urban Node consists of several partners including the City of Antwerp, Port of Antwerp, Flanders Transport Region, Flemish Region (Department of Mobility and Public Works), Province of Antwerp, Be-Mobile and Traject.
The Urban Node focuses on vertical and horizontal upscaling of urban mobility measures in order to accelerate the shift towards smart, clean and inclusive mobility. All measures are related with the five key topics of governance, multimodality, data, clean and safe transport, and behaviour change.
A total of 10 measures are going to be implemented in and around Antwerp:
Improved cooperation between governance levels;
MaaS governance framework for optimised collaboration;
Multimodal mobility hubs for network optimisations;
NxT mobility data strategy & management tool;
Data-driven intraport freight flow management;
The Ring Road as a highway for green energy;
Regional e-bike sharing scheme;
Optimal routing & tracking for freight transport;
Incentivising sustainable modes of transport;
Encouraging active mobility through campaigns and events.
The meeting gave all Antwerp partners the opportunity to give an update on the work that has been done already, better connect and align the different tasks ahead, discuss shared responsibilities, identify the challenges, needs and next steps. Also, opportunities for knowledge exchange with the Urban Nodes Madrid and Turku were discussed.