Mobility as a service is tested on Campus Johanneberg

Finding ways to use vehicles collectively with the aim of reducing climate impact and better utilize centrally located property, currently used as parking spaces, is a growing trend that urban planners throughout Europe are working to develop. In Gothenburg the concept EC2B has been successfully implemented in the newly built Housing Association Brf Viva, as part of the EU-project IRIS Smart Cities. In the project MoJo the service will be developed further. 

“The experiences from Brf Viva show satisfied users, a greatly reduced number of private cars and a large use of the common vehicles. We hope that our concept will be appreciated by employees as a way to avoid using their private fossil-fueled cars during working hours. We also plan to incorporate administrative functions that handle, for example, travel bills directly in the app,” says Björn Wendle, CEO of EC2B Mobility.

The goal is to demonstrate the concept in close cooperation with service providers, property owners and employers for a year and a half. In a first phase, between 300-500 users will have access to the service, which will include physical resources such as electric bikes and cars (including the already existing electric car-pool Move About) at 4 hubs located on campus, as well as access to public transport. The project will also prepare for a possible commercial procurement of a joint mobility service in the area when the project ends.

“Through the IRIS project and the implementation in Brf Viva near campus Johanneberg, we have gained valuable experiences and a well-established stakeholder network that will be useful in the MoJo project as well. This will enable us to utilize the relatively short project time in an efficient way,” says Per Sunnergren, project manager at Johanneberg Science Park.

Even though digitalisation makes it relatively easy to combine different mobility services in one app, there are many other challenges related to establishing new concepts in the sector known as Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Therefore, there is a need for pilots, tests and demonstrations in order to be able to develop sustainable business models and customer-close offers.

“The challenge is to establish functioning business models and close collaborations between stakeholders who are used to competing for travelers. In this project we also have clients coming from a variety of organisations, such as the University, property owners and companies operating in the area. They need to be coordinated to enable a future solution that benefits everyone,” says Hasse Alfredson, Vice President of Chalmers’ Operations Support.

The project MoJo is a collaboration between EC2B, Chalmers University of Technology, Chalmersfastigheter, Akademiska Hus, HSB, Johanneberg Science Park and Smart Resenär i Sverige. It is coordinated by EC2B and goes on between November 2019 and June 2021. The Swedish Energy Agency is contributing with just over SEK 1.6 million. More information about planned schedule and implementation of the tests will be available in February 2020.

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