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.