SCALE-UP Consortium Celebrates Project Half-Time In Madrid
The second in-person General Assembly of the SCALE-UP consortium is taking place on 18-20 April 2023 at the Madrid International Lab in Madrid, Spain. It is the second time that all project partners unite in-person in one of the project’s Urban Nodes.
Using the time together effectively, the consortium partners not only updated each other on the current status of the 28 mobility measures, but also contributed actively in engaging debates during adjacent workshops, organised by the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
Going city by city, the Urban Nodes presented shortly an update on all measures. Following this updated input, the participants completed a brief online survey to share their opinions on the touched topics. The data of the survey was then used in real-time to analyse the opinion map of the consortium and comment on their replies.
This iterative and direct way to display the overall picture of opinions of the consortium and discuss it directly lead to interesting and multi-perspective discussions and conversations, such as whether or not MaaS planners can effectively influence the behaviour of citizens, how cities can collect valuable data not only inside the city centre but also on the Functional Urban Area (FUA) level.
To round the meeting off, the partners concluded each day with an on-site visit of the Madrilenian mobility measures, which are either deployed or under construction:
On the first day, the partners visited the city centre of Madrid by foot to see and learn more about the Plaza de España, Puerta del Sol pedestrian area and the Canalejas 360 hub.
On the following day, the consortium will visit brand new cycling lanes on Paseo de la Castellana, the P&R multimodal hub at Fuente de la Mora and the innovative mobile BiciMAD station.
The General Assembly is closed by an Annual Event with speakers and attendees from inside the consortium and selected external ones. The event will consist of two Roundtables, tackling two challenges that all SCALE-UP Urban Nodes are facing: i) multi-level governance and ii) behaviour nudging. The speakers will present lessons learned and share their experience with the consortium and the invited guests.
Author: Friederike L. Kühl (STA)