On June 9, a new European project was launched: SCALE-UP. Over the next four years, 23 partners from all over Europe will together implement 28 measures for better mobility in their cities and regions. The project is supported by the European Union and coordinated by the City of Antwerp.

In SCALE-UP, three advanced urban nodes - Antwerp, Madrid and Turku - are working together around one main goal: to develop data-driven and usage-oriented strategies to accelerate smart, clean and inclusive mobility. To do so, there will be focus on:

• Improving the coordination of mobility measures between policy levels. The expansion of cooperation within the Antwerp Transport Region is part of this, including the improvement of MaaS (Mobility as a Service) services.
• Developing multimodal hubs for passenger and freight traffic, not only in the city but throughout the entire Antwerp Transport Region. In addition, the optimization of freight traffic with the help of smart data will be investigated.
• Providing access to inclusive and safe mobility solutions. The roadworks on the Ring Road are of course an important part of this, as is the rollout of an electric shared bike system in the Transport Region.
• Changing travel behavior with a focus on clean, active and healthy modes of transportation. In this way, Smart Ways to Antwerp continues to focus on campaigns, nudging and incentivization.

Within the Antwerp local consortium, the following partners are involved in the project: city of Antwerp, Port of Antwerp, Province of Antwerp, Transport Region Antwerp/Lantis, Department of Mobility and Public Works, Be-Mobile and Traject. Europe is financing 100% of the project budget of more than 10 million euros, of which the city will receive more than 1 million euros.

Kick-off meeting

From June 9 to 11, the online kick-off meeting took place where Antwerp, Madrid and Turku introduced the other partners to their city, mobility policies and expectations of the project. They also went into more detail about the different components of the project.

Be-Mobile's contribution spreads over two pilot actions in Antwerp.

On the one hand, motorists on their way to the Antwerp city center are offered an alternative route via a multimodal hub under certain circumstances. This means monitoring the traffic situation in real time and identifying the circumstances under which this scenario could take effect. This action also includes the development of a multimodal navigation functionality in the Flitsmeister app.

On the other hand, Be-Mobile will make the parameters for safe route guidance of freight traffic machine-readable and develop a real time route planning API that provides navigation advice based on those parameters. Relevant data, such as Floating Car Data or parking data from Be-Mobile's parking payment app 4411, will only strengthen this use case.

European Green Deal

In the coming years, Europe will focus strongly on supporting cities on their way to climate neutrality. Not only through the Horizon program in which SCALE-UP fits, but also in other European subsidy programs where the innovation threshold is lower, such as Interreg. In addition to the sustainable mobility challenges, the focus is on the transition to a circular economy, the integration of renewable energy, the renovation of buildings, and all of this in an inclusive and participatory way.