Development and implementation of business models for residential mobility hubs

How to design cities where citizens do not need to own cars has become key for the planning of new residential areas in Sweden.

Car reduction has many benefits but the substantial reduction of parking spaces it entails needs to be compensated by alternative mobility services, such as vehicle pools.

To make this cost-efficient and convenient, residential planners are increasingly planning mobility hubs, physical facilities that combine services for sustainable mobility.Mobility hubs have complex business models, as they house a range of new services, involving multiple providers, demand behavioral changes from residents and can be costly to build.

For hubs to work, it is not merely a matter of planners deciding on business model design, models need to be accepted by developers, service providers and not least residents.

Thus this 3-year project asks: How are business models for mobility hubs collaboratively developed and implemented in new residential areas? Why is this done in these ways?

And what are the effects of the implemented business models?We address our two first questions via a work package with three qualitative case studies of housing projects and devote a second work package to evaluate and measure effects.

Our intention is to better explain opportunities and barriers with mobility hubs, so that policy makers, developers and entrepreneurs can anticipate and mitigate them, but also to point out how car reduction can be done in an inclusive and lasting way.