Keywords

1 Introduction

Digitalization has led to a transformation of the entire sectors. When its potential is realized, it offers several benefits in different industries (Reichstein et al., 2018; Härting et al., 2017). In the mobility sector, there is a high potential for using digitalization to make the sector more sustainable. For example, using digitalization for smart urban mobility strategies with on-demand electrical automotive fleets could help to significantly lower carbon emissions (Bauer et al., 2020). Innovative and sustainable solutions like the aforementioned that reduce carbon emissions by employing newly invented or further developed (digital) technologies are currently high in demand. There is a worldwide growing interest in the transport sector in lowering carbon emissions because of its development in the past years (Condurat et al., 2017). At the same time, the Covid-19 development has brought along significant challenges for public transport (Tirachini and Cats, 2020). If Covid-19 turns out to be a longer-term crisis, it is possible that innovative sustainable solutions for motorized individual traffic will be needed. Within the iCity project at the University of Applied Sciences, Stuttgart, solutions for a sustainable and comfortable transportation in future cities were developed in a living lab environment. One of the foundations in creating this research target was the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This paper aims at providing a conceptual framework for the evaluation of innovative mobility solutions in their potential to drive sustainable development in urban areas. A suitable example to demonstrate the usability of this framework is the concept for a feedback app for cycling infrastructure which resulted from the iCity research project and which will be discussed at the end of this paper.

2 Sustainable Innovation and Mobility

2.1 Need for Sustainable Mobility Against the Background of “Grand Challenges”

Climate change driven by human behavior is the greatest risk to our society and to economic development. The last two issues of the Global Risks Report which is presented annually at the World Economic Forum in Davos state that the greatest risks to the world economy are directly and indirectly related to man-made climate change (World Economic Forum, 2019, 2020).

It is becoming more and more obvious that a fundamental change in the nature of global economic activity in the sense of decoupling economic growth and CO2 emissions is needed. In view of the scope and complexity of major societal challenges such as climate change, the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat) has been speaking of “grand challenges” in this context for some time (Wissenschaftsrat, 2015).

Today, more than 50% of the world’s population are living in urban areas, following a continuous trend of urbanization which is expected to result in roughly 70% living in cities by 2050 (United Nations, 2018). Cities are already consuming over two-thirds of the global energy while being responsible for over 70% of global CO2 emissions (C40 Cities). Furthermore, by 2030, annual passenger traffic is expected to increase by 50% in comparison to 2015 and reach 80 trillion passenger kilometers (Sustainable Mobility for All, 2017, p. 6). These numbers make clear that cities play a major role in driving climate change as well as being able to fuel sustainable development in the long term. Thus, well-managed urbanization could be a key success factor in averting climate change (United Nations, 2018).

Among many other factors, mobility behavior within cities is a major driver of carbon emissions and—if wisely handled—a vital instrument to drive sustainable urbanization. According to Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMU), mobility is responsible for up to 19% of the average carbon footprint (BMU, 2020) and is classified as one out of six consumer sectors with the greatest potential for environmental relief (BMU, 2019). In the attempt to work toward a low-carbon urban development, in 2015, the UN has announced several goals as part of their 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (United Nations, 2015). Among which, many goals focus on sustainable mobility and transport—areas considered as fundamental in realizing the SDGs (Sustainable Mobility for All, 2017, p. 15).

The following illustration (Fig. 1.1) gives an overview of the SDGs related directly and indirectly to sustainable urbanization and especially sustainable mobility.

Fig. 1.1
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Sustainable mobility SDGs (United Nations, 2015)

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Reaching the SDGs relies on innovations and progress in sustainable mobility, since there are various interdependencies between the different goals. For example, reducing the greenhouse gas emissions in order to achieve SDG 13 will not be possible without working on SDG 7—ensuring access to sustainable and modern energy sources. Resilient infrastructure (SDG 9) is needed to provide access to sustainable and safe transport means for people of all ages and backgrounds (SDG 11) (Sustainable Mobility for All, 2017, p. 15). In a nutshell, sustainable development—especially in urban areas—cannot be achieved without shaping the future of mobility in a holistic way that is at the same time equitable (providing universal access), efficient, safe, and climate responsive (Sustainable Mobility for All, 2017, p. 7).

2.2 Transdisciplinary Living Labs as a Basis for Ecosystems for Sustainable Innovation

Transdisciplinary living labs represent an interdisciplinary research design within the scientific system suitable for trying to tackle the grand challenges addressed by the UN SDGs (Popović and Bossert, 2020). Living labs are characterized by involving key stakeholders, going beyond institutional boundaries between research and practice, and being able to address needs or problems originating from the stakeholders’ living environment (e.g., grand challenges) within collaborative and interactive research and development processes. Living labs aim to develop scientifically grounded but also feasible problem solutions in an evolutionary process (Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, 2011; Carayannis et al., 2012; Popović et al., 2020). The key principles of living labs—(1) networking of stakeholders, (2) co-definition of the problem, (3) collaboration, (4) iterative feedback loops, (5) co-creation, and (6) co-production (Popovic and Baumgärtler, 2019; Jahn et al., 2012; Capdevila, 2017; Popović et al., 2020)—suggest that they build a methodological basis for innovation ecosystems. Universities and research institutes can serve as innovation hubs within this network. Through transformative research and education, they can lay the foundation for sustainable innovation and actively contribute to the development of sustainable innovation in response to the grand challenges (Popović and Bossert, 2020, 2–3). The iCity research project represents a living lab format which is laying the ground for a holistic view of challenges in urban areas to enable the development of sustainable and innovative solutions for the city of the future. iCity addresses all areas of sustainable urban and district development, from energy management and innovative buildings to sustainable mobility, thus actively combating climate change and the climate impact of cities. From the very beginning, iCity strives to involve the population (as stakeholders) in all processes in a participatory manner in acceptance research and in the development of new business models (Popovic et al., 2021).

3 Sustainable Mobility and Digitalization

The future of sustainable mobility will most probably be shaped by digital solutions. Over the past years, developments such as carsharing, bike sharing, mobility as a service, or mobility flat rates, which are all enabled through digital services, made clear that digitalization is a major cornerstone on the path to sustainable mobility solutions.

According to Sustainable Mobility for All (an initiative working toward transforming the mobility sector alongside the SDGs), sustainable mobility is being defined by four global objectives (see Fig. 1.2):

Fig. 1.2
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Global objectives of sustainable mobility (Sustainable Mobility for All, 2017, 2019, p. 16)

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Digital services have the potential to enhance the realization of all four objectives. For instance, driver assistance systems, autonomous vehicles, and other data-driven solutions can make future mobility more comfortable and more efficient. At the same time, these digital tools may also significantly improve road safety (Ministry of Transport Baden-Württemberg, 2018, p. 18). They will contribute to the aforementioned objectives as follows:

Universal access

In an urban context, this objective focuses on the possibility to grant access to public transport for everybody and is measured by the percentage of jobs and urban service reachable within 60 min by any transport mode (Sustainable Mobility for All, 2017, p. 45). Mobility services fueled by digital technologies such as mobile apps make these goals more feasible. Thus, a shift from providing access to one specific transportation mode to being a full-service mobility provider focusing on mobility as a service (MaaS) is observable. The idea of MaaS is to integrate different transport services into a platform making each transport mode accessible on demand (MaaS Alliance).

Efficiency

“Efficiency aims to meet the demand for mobility at the least possible cost by 2030” (Sustainable Mobility for All, 2017, p. 58). With regard to the growing urban population (see Chap. 2), mobility systems in urban areas can have a major contribution to this goal. Many technologies focus on efficiency in terms of car transportation or city logistics. However, digital services are also driving the shift to more sustainable mobility forms. A prominent example to describe this shift is the city of Vancouver—a thriving smart and sustainable city known as the third greenest city of the world. Despite the fact that the population is constantly growing, traffic within the city is dominated by pedestrians and cyclists. To achieve this result and driving the trend even further, the city is continuously encouraging walking, cycling, and rolling by building cycling routes accessible for all ages and abilities, enhancing safety for pedestrians, and supporting the transit to these transportation modes. Consequently, Vancouver is focusing on all four objectives of sustainable mobility (City of Vancouver, 2020).

Safety

Safety relates to the prevention of deaths, injuries, and property damage encompassing all transportation modes. Overall road traffic is responsible for 97% of all deaths related to transportation (European Transport Safety Council, 2003). However, the risk varies largely among different types of road users. Whereas a lot of attention is drawn toward safety for motorist and the entire road infrastructures being constructed with their needs in mind, pedestrians and cyclists have a 7–9 times higher fatality risk compared to motorists (Sustainable Mobility for All, 2017, p. 68). Furthermore, 40–50% of traffic fatalities occur in urban areas (Sustainable Mobility for All, 2017, p. 68), making measures to improve road safety for all traffic participants in urban areas even more important. Digitalization has a great potential to improve road safety. By nature, digital services are data-driven. Obtaining accurate data about road traffic, road conditions, user behavior, and legislation can help not only to improve user experience of all traffic participants but also lay the ground for building safer roads and even vehicles (Sustainable Mobility for All, 2017, p. 70).

Green Mobility

Green mobility stands for a broad concept which is aiming to reduce the environmental impact of the transport sector in line with the SDGs (Sustainable Mobility for All, 2017, p. 82) and can be enhanced by digital technologies. Digital technologies can contribute to more climate responsiveness in multiple ways. The main focus lies on reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), enhancing climate resilience of transport infrastructures and systems, and reducing air and noise pollution (Sustainable Mobility for All, 2017, p. 82). For example, an intelligent and digital traffic control system could lead to greater efficiency and lower emissions in road traffic (Ministry of Transport Baden-Württemberg, 2018, p. 15) and consequently improve air quality. Any transportation mode and technology related to sustainable mobility can be related to this objective.

Within the iCity research project, the objectives of sustainable mobility are addressed by setting the focus on transportation modes with a positive environmental balance, such as public transport, cycling, and pedestrian traffic (HFT Stuttgart, 2020) with a special focus on the aspect of safety. As a result, the RouteMeSafe application (see Chap. 4) has been developed at the HFT Stuttgart—an innovative, data-based application which aims toward creating a feeling of safety for cyclists by directly addressing the safety obstacle and consequently encouraging the usage of sustainable transportation modes.

4 Creating a Safer Cycling Infrastructure

Despite the risk of road accidents, subjective safety can have an impact on peoples’ decision to use the bicycle. Many people feel unsafe while cycling (Singleton, 2019), and feeling unsafe represents a barrier to cycling (Rérat, 2019). An aspect that could help to change this feeling while cycling is the infrastructure. It influences cyclists’ feeling of unsafety significantly (Schmidkunz et al., 2019). To reduce this feeling of unsafety while cycling, a prototype of the feedback function of the RouteMeSafe application was developed at the University of Applied Sciences (HFT). This was done in a cooperation of the Departments of Informatics and Business Psychology. A screenshot of the application can be seen in Fig. 1.3.

Fig. 1.3
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Screenshot of the RouteMeSafe feedback tool

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The function is supposed to generate feedback by cyclists for city and municipal administrations. Obtaining and using feedback from cyclists for the design of infrastructure measures could help to create more user-centered and safer cycling infrastructure. To evaluate if there is an interest in this function by potential future employees of city administrations, an online study with 13 urban planning students was conducted at the HFT. This group of students was chosen because city administrations are possible future employers for them. Participants were contacted directly by employees of the urban planning department at the HFT. The questionnaire was designed on the basis of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology by Venkatesh et al. (2003). All answers were given on a scale of 1 (not at all interested) to 5 (very interested). Table 1.1 provides an overview of the answers given in the survey.

Table 1.1 Results of the study with urban planners on the RouteMeSafe feedback tool
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The students indicated a positive intention toward testing (mean = 4) and regularly using the application (mean = 4). They also imagine the application to be useful (mean = 4). Furthermore, they think they would get support in using the application by their possible future organization (mean = 4), as well as their colleagues (mean = 4). The participants were not sure if the application is easy to use (mean = 3). Regarding the sales model of the application, they indicated that they would rather buy a full license once (mean = 4) or a monthly subscription (mean = 4) than a yearly subscription (mean = 3). The study showed that there is generally a positive attitude toward using the application among urban planning students. However, the results have to be replicated based on a larger sample with actual city administration employees. Doing so could help to find out which of the constructs researched has the largest impact on the intention to use the application. This information is essential to determine the focus of user experience research in the further development of the application. Aspects in this matter are, for example, if the focus in the development is on an easy-to-use application or fitting the application to specific work contexts to make it more useful for city administration employees. If there is a comparably positive attitude toward the application in further studies, the high expectations have to be fulfilled by precise user experience testing in the development of the final application.

5 Conclusion

In the attempt of reducing the risks and the impact of climate change and considering the fact that cities are responsible for over 70% of global CO2 emissions (C40 Cities), sustainable urban development plays a major role. Thus, smart cities and projects related to smart cities (such as the iCity research project) focus on creating a more sustainable living environment which benefits everyone regardless of their social background, by following a holistic approach which drives the transformation of the mobility and the energy sector to a large extent. A deep dive into urban mobility has shown how enormous sustainable urban mobility is and how important a framework addressing all challenges in this context (such as the UN SDGs) can be. Sustainable mobility is also a major part of the iCity research project. The project is addressing the manifold aspects of sustainable mobility of which one is safety. To address the safety aspect which is especially high for pedestrians and cyclists and holds back road users from renouncing their cars, the iCity research team has developed a solution which enables urban planners to create safer cycling routes for cyclists.