Read the Vervoerregio Amsterdam’s insights from the consortium meeting that took place in June 2024
In 2024, the third use-case of the XCARCITY research programme was designed: the Amsterdam Zuidas. An area in full development; how do you keep it liveable and accessible? During a meeting with the consortium, the area was explored during a site tour. At the end of 2024, this use case was further developed during the annual design meeting.
The Zuidas is one of the use cases of the XCARCITY research programme: a programme in which the MRA Smart Mobility Platform also participates. In contrast to Almere Pampus – the area for which a design session was organised in October 2023 – Zuidas is an urban district that is already in full development. While Almere Pampus still needs to be developed from scratch. The difference: at Zuidas, there will have to be a transition from traditional mobility solutions to new ones. The third use case, to be discussed later, concerns Merwehaven in Rotterdam, where an old port site will be given a new residential purpose.
Brainstorm
The XCARCITY consortium – consisting of government, knowledge institutions and market parties working together on the liveable and accessible city of the future – met last summer at the Amsterdam Zuidas to brainstorm possible solutions for a liveable and accessible area. The participants were given an explanation of all the developments currently taking place here and which issues still remain with regard to this liveability and accessibility that can be worked out in the research programme.
Digital twins
Zuidas is now a district that is considered a typical business district with a lot of car traffic and parking spaces. But with the current housing challenge that also applies here, the pressure on the available square metres is increasing. Smart mobility can contribute to the liveability and accessibility of this district. Using digital twins, XCARCITY can determine which mobility solutions are effective.
Two challenges
During a presentation, Barry Ubbels from the City of Amsterdam and our own theme leader Smart Infra Maarten Peters showed what priorities are at the Zuidas. And they showed how the XCARCITY team can create a work plan for these. In doing so, they distinguished two challenges:
How can we support Zuidas in its mobility transition?
What tooling can we develop with XCARCITY to support decision-making?
Maarten: ‘During the afternoon programme, we looked at what possible solutions are already in place. And with which steps we, as a consortium, can connect or deploy these. We also looked at the work packages and which components we can already start with. For instance, we saw that the digital twin for this area probably works better on a different scale: a scale at person level instead of area level.”
Design session
On 19 November 2024, XCARCITY organised a design session at AMS Institute. An important session aimed at promoting digital twins to support smart solutions for car-free neighbourhoods. During that design session, the focus was on the joint design of indicators and digital twins focused on two use cases of the programme: Almere Pampus and Amsterdam Zuidas. This allowed participants to delve into the indicators for each use-case scenario. The Zuidas use-case focused on what value digital twins offer in supporting decisions on the design of public space for cyclists and pedestrians. It was a successful day full of collaboration and insightful discussions in the XCARCITY programme.
Farewell
The results of that design session will later be shared through Transport Region Amsterdam (VRA) channels. Indeed, the VRA will soon take over this project from the MRA Smart Mobility Platform. In 2025, the programme will continue with the first study results from the work packages. Those results will serve as input for digital twins that will then provide insight into, and support in shaping, the mobility transition within the use cases.