In the HUPMOBILE project, a methodology aimed to be used to document sustainable (environmentally or socially and to at least some degree economically viable – taking into account possible subsidies) transportation solutions is being developed. The focus of the metholodogy is on new policies, technical solutions, or new services that are improving some aspects of sustainability in the transportation of goods or people. 

The approach that is being used in the project is not to replace existing impact assessment methodologies based on rigorous calculations. We are aiming for an easy way to document and search for possible solutions in all kinds of Baltic Sea Region cities. 

For this reason, a set of guiding questions has been developed with a Likert scale helping a small team of stakeholder representatives to assess the impact of a mobility solution within the operating conditions and unique characteristics of their city - however, in a format that is hopefully usable in other conditions as well. Hopefully, this methodology eventually helps city representatives to spread their experiences and good practices to other cities by themselves, but during the HUPMOBILE project, there will be facilitated workshops organised in order to collect and document good practices from our project partners and Follower Cities.

The main source for assessing the importance of different sustainability aspects according to different stakeholders are mainly based on public results of the MaaSiFiE project and the definition of these aspects are mainly based on the public results of SIMPlify project. For this reason, it is important to keep the process transparent and give stakeholders the opportunity to comment on the methodology when it is in its developmental stage.

In the HUPMOBILE workshop, as reported in the document, the FÖLI bikes and ISTmobil descriptions, that were developed by Aalto University researchers, were used. The teams in the workshops were not aiming to come up with a perfect assessment, but to develop this methodology before the project starts to organize workshops in different Baltic Sea Region cities. The document presents every input from the workshop participants grouped to the two cases, alongside with interpretation of the input and suggestion for the modifications needed for the next version of the methodology. As this methodology is aimed to work widely, feel free to share feedback on the current version of the methodology with the HUPMOBILE project team.

Written by:
Teemu Surakka
Project Manager
Aalto University
+358 50 381 9787

Image by:

Kristiina Paju, UBC Sustainable Cities Commission