22. June 2020 In events, news

Register now for the MAMBA Final Web Conference series!

Due to the latest disruptions caused by the spread of COVID-19, MAMBA project has decided to postpone the Final Conference until September 2020 and change its format into a three-part digital event.

 

We hope you will join us for the “No future for rural Europe? Breaking the vicious circle with successful mobility and accessibility ideas” conference, which we will hold as a series of sessions on the 3, 10 and 17 September 2020, 10:00-11:30 CET.

 

Session #1: Setting the scene, exploring the challenge

3 September, 10:00 CET (click to register)

The first in an instalment of three web conference sessions will focus on setting the scene and exploring what the challenges surrounding rural mobility are. The session will feature presentations from relevant figures within the area of mobility, as well as the possibility to join smaller sessions, with the option of exchanging knowledge about a range of topics, including gender questions, transport poverty and more. Following the keynote of Laurie Pickup, our MAMBA partners will walk through the social, economic, legal and cultural conditions that influence the success and failure of rural mobility innovations.

 

Session #2: Breaking the vicious circle with successful mobility and accessibility solutions – Stories from MAMBA and beyond

10 September, 10:00 CET (click to register)

The second session will bring to your attention several success stories from the area of rural mobility, presented by MAMBA and similar projects and initiatives. Four inspiring stories from different parts of Europe will showcase how they succeeded in making their region a better place. The session will also feature the launch of MAMBA’s brand new publication, “Everybody’s Guide to Collaborative Mobility and Accessibility Solutions in Rural Areas”. If you are a committed citizen or represent an NGO or a local public authority and want to tackle the mobility challenges in your region, then this manual is made for you. Join our web conference for the full story.

 

Session #3: How can mobility policies open the road for better mobility and accessibility in rural areas?

17 September, 10:00 CET (click to register)

During the previous sessions, we developed an understanding of the situation and learned how everyone could make a change on a very practical level. But mobility is not just a local responsibility of practitioners on the ground. Let’s switch one level up: how can decision-makers contribute to better conditions for innovative approaches to mobility and accessibility in rural Europe? We will gather experts from politics, administration and academia to discuss how decision-makers can contribute to tackling these challenges.

 

We promise three web conference sessions full of exciting stories, insightful discussions and inspiring speakers!

 

Look at the agenda of the event for more details on the programme.

 

About the project

“Almost two years ago the bus stopped driving in our area, and since then there are difficulties to get to the county centre.” This quote belongs to a local of the Mazsalaca County, in Latvia, but it might as well belong to any other resident living in one of Europe’s remote, rural areas.

 

With decreasing and ageing populations in many rural areas in the Baltic Sea Region, it is becoming increasingly challenging to keep up public transport and other services that depend on mobility, such as home care or home deliveries. This reduced accessibility of services impacts the life quality of people living outside urban centres. For the past three years, MAMBA project has been trying to meet this challenge by introducing Rural Mobility Solutions in areas that have been affected by the lack of public transport opportunities.

 

During its final web conference series, MAMBA will present the results of the past three years, while also initiating a discussion about the different aspects of rural mobility across Europe, and discussing innovative solutions and successful mobility ideas.

13. March 2020 In events

26 March 2020: 5th Rural Mobility Seminar becomes a webinar!

Due to the latest developments regarding the spread of the COVID-19 virus, we have taken the decision to cancel the physical seminar and we are instead moving it into the digital realm by hosting a webinar.

 

The 5th and last Rural Mobility Seminar organised by the MAMBA consortium will focus on digitalisation and new technology that can improve rural mobility. The event will take take place on 26 March 2020, at 12:30 CET.

 

Discover the agenda of the event.

 

New innovative mobility solutions based on innovative technologies represent a crucial element for the development of rural areas. Also, digitalisation has been more and more present in rural areas, one example being how the agricultural landscape is becoming more autonomous. With agriculture becoming more automatised, could self-driving vehicles and electrical technologies also be part of the solution to challenges connected to mobility and service in rural areas?

 

While some countries of the Baltic Sea Region are more digitally advanced, others still struggle to ensure basic network coverage, threatening the development of their rural areas. The situation begs the question – is it possible for countries who are more developed to inspire and support other regions? And what basic knowledge and governance is necessary for technology to be implemented?

 

To register for the event click here.

30. July 2019 In events

12 November 2019: 4th MAMBA Rural Mobility Seminar (Bielsko, Poland)

The MAMBA consortium kindly invites you to save the date for the fourth international rural mobility seminar, which is scheduled for 12 November 2019 in Bielsko-Biala (Cracow-Katowice-Ostrava Metropolitan Region). The seminar will discuss the role of rural mobility for (social) cohesion and is titled “Rural development and mobility – more than just transportation”.

The Rural Mobility Seminar Series has been developed by MAMBA as an event series that reflects current trends and challenges of rural mobility. Each seminar is dedicated to one specific topic and is open for researchers, local decision-makers, transport and mobility professionals interested in exchange, networking and new perspectives on rural mobility. With the seminar series, we aim at combining the broad knowledge and experience that exists within the MAMBA partnership with outside views and input. Rural Mobility Seminars are seminars in the best sense. They offer vast space for discussions among practitioners and professionals, framed by different keynote speakers who help to seize and understand mobility challenges and provide inspiration and potential solutions in the form of Good Practices.

Download the agenda of the seminar here.

29. July 2019 In events

2 – 4 October 2019: CIVITAS Forum Graz (Austria)

MAMBA is glad to announce that the project will co-present a session on rural and peri-urban mobility at the 17th CIVITAS Forum Conference 2019 in Graz (Austria) from 2 – 4 October 2019. CIVITAS is a network of cities for cities dedicated to cleaner, better transport in Europe and beyond. While the main scope of CIVITAS is on urban [sic] mobility issues, MAMBA will bring in its “rural experiences” to discuss what cities can learn from rural mobility and vice versa. The 90-minutes session is titled “Transport for all: challenges, opportunities and new tools to improve mobility in rural and peri-urban areas” and will be co-hosted by the projects INCLUSION, SMARTA, HiReach and input on the La Paz and El Alto cable car system in Bolivia.

MAMBA’s contribution to the session will focus on lessons learnt in the implementation of its various pilot actions. Based on these experiences, MAMBA’s input to the forum will call for genuine rural-specific strategies to rural mobility innovations that reflect the specific demand patterns of rural communities and consider socio-cultural and socio-economic specificities.

Please find more information, a detailed agenda and the registration form at www.civitas.eu/forum2019

21. May 2019 In events

29 May 2019: Innovative business models for rural mobility: MAMBA Webinar #1

Lack of transportation options and poor provision of services is an everyday reality in many rural areas. We often hear that there is ‘no business case’ and ‘no market potential’ for mobility solutions in rural areas. Indeed, few private companies dare to enter this market, and even less make it into viable businesses. But those who do, what is the secret behind their success and how do they overcome the challenges?

In this webinar we will hear stories from two private companies on how they managed to turn mobility challenges in rural areas into economic opportunities. They will also share the struggles and challenges they’ve encountered along the way. We will also meet the municipality of Vejle, a representative from the public sector, who will share their perspective on alternative mobility solutions for rural areas, as well as the potentials and challenges for collaboration with private actors in this regard.

Freelway is a company that offers a combined goods and transport service in rural areas in Sweden. Freelway is a relatively new business, established in 2014 and has several fields of activity. Freelway cooperates with village communities, country shop owners, municipalities, contracted carriers, taxis, the Swedish church etc. by using them as sources of transport in delivery of goods. Private companies are also among the key customers of Freelway. The Freelway service allows employees, partners and customers of participating companies to share free seats in booked taxis, rental cars, car pools, as well as private vehicles.Freelway has recently initiated a collaboration among farmers in co-transportation of goods to local shops/restaurants and service places, as well as a ride sharing service in Skattungbyn, promoting the use of shared taxis and private cars. Read more about Freelway at www.freelway.com.

NABOGO ApS is a company that offers different peer-to-peer services specifically designed to improve mobility in rural areas. The company’s product portfolio contains a ride sharing platform, a peer-to-peer freight platform and a trailer share platform. The NABOGO ride sharing platform uses virtual and physical meeting points and it is able to automatically organize trips based on parts of the selected route from the ride provider. The peer-to-peer freight platform is designed to make it easy for people in smaller communities to help each other with different tasks such as removal of garden waste or bringing home items bought in stores etc. Finally, the trailer sharing platform aims at utilizing the many trailers driving the roads already. The platform offers a sharing platform with full insurance for all types of trailers and caravans.

This webinar is organised by the Interreg BSR MAMBA project in collaboration with Nordregio.

The webinar will take place on 29 May at 12-13 (CEST).

Road in Finland
27. March 2019 In events

5 June 2019: 3rd MAMBA Rural Mobility Seminar (Seinäjoki, Finland)

We are glad to announce that the registration for the third Rural Mobility Seminar of MAMBA is now open! The seminar is scheduled for 05 June 2019 in Seinäjoki (Finland). The seminar will be opened by Merja Kyllönen, Member of the European Parliament and former Minister of Transportation of Finland, followed by input from mobility researchers and practitioners from both public and private sector. At the same time, as with our previous seminars, MAMBA aims at providing a platform for exchange and networking for stakeholders from rural mobility and related topics from the Baltic Sea Region and beyond.

The seminar aims at taking a closer look at questions of responsibility in the context of rural mobility as an area of tension between public and private interests. Parting from the notion of mobility as a basic human right, the broad landscape of privately- and publicly-supplied mobility in Europe will be examined more closely in order to identify overarching structural mechanisms leading to exclusion and marginalisation of certain population segments. How MAMBA can tackle these issues on a local scale will be exemplified on some of the project’s preliminary results.

The event takes place in Kirkonkranni, Ala-Kuljun katu 1, 60100 Seinäjoki (Finland) on 5 June.

MAMBA organises a series of altogether six Rural Mobility Seminars, each dedicated to one specific challenge in rural mobility. The previous seminar in February was a great success in discussing current Transport-On-Demand mobility solutions and fostering further exchange and cooperation between relevant stakeholders. Hosted by the MAMBA partners from Vejle (Denmark), the event presented best practices and strategies and allowed for intense exchange of the participants. Highlights presented and discussed during the seminar included the Danish model for demand-controlled driving, the community-based app Nabogo (offering small scale ride-, freight- and trailer-sharing on a neighbourhood scale) and finally the “Asset Based Community Development”, providing insights how to best activate and involve the local community for more viable results.

A more detailed summary of the seminar can be found here.

Preliminary agenda

20. December 2018 In events

21 February 2019: 2nd MAMBA Rural Mobility Seminar (Vejle, Denmark)

On the 21st of February 2019, MAMBA project will organise its 2nd “Rural mobility seminar”. The event will take place in Vejle, Denmark and will be the second in a series of six seminars. The thematic focus will be on grassroots initiatives, the challenges they face and the opportunities they bring. Particular emphasis will be set on practical insights from successful projects and initiatives, and we will provide ample space to network and mingle with other mobility stakeholders from the Baltic Sea Region and beyond.
The agenda can be found here.

 

18. September 2018 In events

27 September 2018: 1st MAMBA Rural Mobility Seminar (Riga, Latvia)

INNOVATION: Mobility innovations – only for cities?

Drivers of mobility innovations are often large private companies. Naturally, such companies invest where they see the biggest market potential, which is usually in cities. Rural mobility innovations, on the other hand, are rather an offspring of local, sometimes noncommercial initiatives and satisfy different demand patterns. Rural mobility innovations are possible, yet they are hampered by various obstacles. Many of them are structural or legal constraints (just think of the legal barriers to non-commercial car-sharing or combining people-to-service and service-to-people). Another major issue is that too often, innovations tried and tested in the urban context get applied one-on-one to rural regions (where they do not reach their full potential) instead of developing genuine rural approaches.

About the Rural Mobility Seminars

The Rural Mobility Seminar Series has been developed by MAMBA as an event series that reflects current trends and challenges of rural mobility. Each seminar is dedicated to one specific topic and is open for researchers, local decision makers, transport and mobility professionals interested in exchange, networking and new perspectives on rural mobility. With the seminar series, we aim at combining the broad knowledge and experience that exists within the MAMBA partnership with outside views and input. Rural Mobility Seminars are seminars in the best sense. They offer vast space for discussions among practitioners and professionals, framed by different keynote speakers who help to seize and understand mobility challenges and provide inspiration and potential solutions in the form of Good Practices.

The final programme can be found here (pdf): MAMBA_Agenda_Rural Mobility Seminar.

 

18. September 2018 In events

29 November 2018: Nordregio Forum

MAMBA has been invited to host a parallel session at Nordregio Forum, an annual event that gathers 150 policy makers, politicians and others working with regional development in the Nordic and Baltic Sea Regions. This year’s main topic is “Changing Ruralities” and sessions will touch upon attractiveness, youth, tourism and cross-border collaboration amongst other things. MAMBA will host one of the parallel sessions “Innovative rural mobility solutions – how to make them flourish?” and partners and others interested in the MAMBA project are welcome to register for the Forum. The session is lead by Anna Berlina and Julien Grunfelder.

 

More information about the parallel session

Rural areas are characterised by long distances and a low population density that makes transport provision challenging and expensive. While mobility initiatives in urban areas are largely focused on reducing congestion and responding to environmental concerns, rural initiatives tend to be motivated by the need to increase accessibility. The key question for rural areas is thus how to increase the mobility of all residents, regardless of their socioeconomic status, age, gender or health, in a cost-effective way. Designing mobility solutions that work requires a thorough understanding of the factors that influence transport preferences and travel behaviour. It also relies on intimate knowledge of the specific context where the solution is to be applied and the different actors who will play a role in making the idea a reality.

This parallel session will provide an overview of the current and future trends in innovative rural mobility solutions in the Nordics. The mobility business models that have the biggest potential in rural areas will be explored and the key opportunities and challenges for rural mobility will be discussed. This parallel session draws upon the findings from the Interreg BSR MAMBA project, the research results from the VTI (Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute) and good practice examples from Sweden and Denmark.

25. May 2018 In events

31 May 2018: ECOMM 2018: European Conference on Mobility Management, Uppsala (Sweden)

ECOMM is an annual, three day event which hosts some 50- 80 lectures, an exhibition and around 350 participants from all over.

Nordregio will represent Mamba during one of the days with the aim of meeting stakeholders and others that would like to learn more about the project or contribute in different ways. Would you like to meet Mamba partners at this event? Get in touch through our contact page!

More information about the event can be found here.