Shared Mobility Rocks 2022 – what a show it was!

Less car ownership, more sustainable mobility, less emissions, and more urban space. What is the link between these? Exactly: shared mobility! Queen, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. What kind of music is this? Exactly: rock! Shared mobility, transnational cooperation, innovation, and Interreg North Sea Region. What do you get when you mix these together? Exactly: SHARE-North. What event do you get when you combine all these elements? Exactly: Shared Mobility Rocks 2022!

On May 25, 2022, Autodelen.net, Mpact and the City of Bremen hosted the fourth edition of Shared Mobility Rocks in Bremen. Shared Mobility Rocks is an unconventional international symposium on shared mobility for planners, operators and research institutions. This year, it was also the final conference of the SHARE-North project, an EU-funded Interreg North Sea Region project comprising of shared mobility experts from the public and private sectors, NGOs and research field. The project ran from 2016 until 2022.

Shared Mobility Rocks 2022 took place at Schuppen Eins, the Centre for Mobility and Automobile Culture. By organising the event there, however, we turned it into the centre for a new mobility and automobile culture: sharing! We welcomed over 200 participants from all across Europe (and even Japan, Mexico and Uganda), enjoying the presentations from 50 speakers and moderators.

The evening before, on May 24, 100 lucky participants got the chance to go on a boat trip with the SHARE-North consortium and to taste the Shared Mobility Rocks beer. That’s what Shared Mobility Rock is all about: networking, vibes, knowledge exchange and impact!

Rebecca Karbaumer (City of Bremen), Jeffrey Matthijs (Autodelen.net) and Angelo Meuleman (Mpact) kicked off this edition of Shared Mobility Rocks on the mainstage. Next, the headliners inspired the participants: Maike Schaefer, the Bremer Transport Minister, and Filip Watteeuw, Deputy Mayor of Ghent. They all were joined then by Arnd Bätzner and Sandra Phillips for the uncomfortable session. The audience and the speakers had to give their opinion on four boldy formulated statements about shared mobility related to its potential and inclusiveness. The crowd cheered, booed and stood up!

After these initial acts, the participants joined a thematic session in English (mobihubs, shared mobility impact and shared mobility policies) or German (legal framework for shared mobility). After all this intellectual food it was time for some real food: a tasty and healthy lunch to catch up with each other after two years of online events! After lunch, it was time for some movement and interaction for a better digestion. The crowd could choose an excursion to a site in the surroundings of the venue (mobihubs, housing development and repurposing space) or an interactive jam session (data standardisation, creating inclusive hubs and inclusive digital mobility services).

In the afternoon, the participants attended another session in English (autonomous mobility, a dialogue between operators and municipalities, or mobility management for businesses and employees) or German (mobihubs). The last part of the official programme of Shared Mobility Rocks took place on the mainstage. Friso Metz (Advier) and Rebecca Karbaumer (City of Bremen) presented the ‘Planner’s Guide to the Shared Mobility Galaxy’, a guide created by the SHARE-North consortium specifically for planners and municipal decision makers to make the galaxy of shared mobility a bit easier to understand. Next, Esther De Reys (Autodelen.net) and Arne Stoffels (Mpact) honoured the first cities participating in the European Shared Mobility Accelerator programme, a tool for local governments to assess their position on the shared mobility track. After that, Bart Somers – Vice-Minister President of the Government of Flanders – motivated the crowd to keep rocking in a free and shared world. Lastly, the whole SHARE-North consortium came on stage to celebrate the end of the project.

What a show it was! In 2023, Shared Mobility Rocks will cross the ocean to be organised in Vancouver, Canada. Michael Glotz-Richter handed the official ticket to Sandra Phillips from movmi at the very end of the event. Of course, the official programme switched seamlessly to the afterparty with DJs Tjalle Groen (Mpact) and Bram Seeuws (Autodelen.net).

This was Shared Mobility Rocks 2022. We had a blast and we hope you did too! Special thanks to all our performers and everyone who rocked with us. See you next year!

View the presentations

Previous editions

The Shared Mobility Rocks adventure started in 2018 with the first edition in Aalst (Belgium). The second edition took place in 2019 in Brussels. Due to Covid-19, the third edition was postponed. Instead, we organised a student challenge to imagine the mobihub of the future. In 2021 we went on a 24 hour online tour around the world connecting with different studios from our home studio in Ghent (Belgium).

March 2021
ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK

December 2020
MOBIHUB STUDENT CHALLENGE

October 2019
BRUSSELS EVENT BREWERY

March 2018
KAAI 17, AALST

The third and special Covid-19 edition of this unconventional symposium took place all over the world on March 3 & 4, 2021 and it was a 24h marathon edition.

During 24 hours Autodelen.net and Mpact locked themselves up in a Belgian studio. From there we virtually travelled across the globe. We started in Ghent and then went to Brussels, Leeds, Lima, Chicago, Melbourne, Phnom Penh, Tokyo, Kampala and out last stop was Lviv.

High-level speakers from different backgrounds shone their light on the (local) challenges and opportunities of shared mobility, micro mobility, mobility hubs, shared mobility in relation to other transport modes, the integration in urban planning … Shared Mobility Rocks 2021 taught us how mobility is a universal challenge and how shared mobility can contribute to more liveable and more accessible regions.

Our international partners were CoMoUK, BUSUP Peru, SUMC, CUR – RMIT Centre for Uran Research, SMMR project, GFA Consulting Group, GIZ, Cities Forum, Mirai Share, WRI, TUMI, GIZ and City of Lviv.

Take a look at the recordings of this legendary global edition.

How do we make the mobihub of the future attractive, accessible, safe, (socially, ecologically and economically) sustainable and able to thrive within a (post-)corona reality? Can a mobihub be more than just functional? What innovative business models can make mobihubs flourish? How can neighbours participate in the creation of their mobihub? Could coworking places be included? And how can mobihubs foster social cohesion? We challenged students from the Belgian universities and colleges to answer these questions, at least partially!

THE FINAL OF THE MOBIHUB STUDENT CHALLENGE

The selected students participated in the final of the Mobihub Student Challenge on December 8, 2020 and pitched their ideas to an international jury and the present audience. The jury members also gave a presentation from their perspective on the mobihub of the future.

  • The winner of the public award was the project ‘Frictionless Infinite Mobility’ (UGent)
  • The third jury award was for the project ‘Flexihub’ (UHasselt)
  • The second jury award was for the project ‘New Energy Logistics’ (VUB)
  • The first jury award was for the project ‘Participative Mobility’ (VUB)

Many congratulations to the participants, the finalists and the winners!

Find here all the presentations

The 8th of October, Autodelen.net, Taxistop and Taxistop ASBL organized the international symposium Shared Mobility Rocks in the Brussels Event Brewery.  This characteristic location gave the perfect look and feel to the second edition of this rocking event. The concept stayed the same, but this year we did it even bigger. More than 50 (!) mobility experts shared their insights and passion with the 300 visitors. Many people joined from our very own Belgium. But they also came from the Netherlands, Germany, France and beyond.

Download the program

Find here all the presentations

More than 25 (inter)national speakers, 200 visitors and a rocking venue (Aalst, Belgium) have given good vibes to make shared mobility the rocking thing for the years to come. They gave new insights on current topics about shared mobility: about urban design, smart cities, accessibility, impact, social inclusion, MaaS, rural areas, self-driving car and technology, block chain … This first edition also brought together five European projects on shared mobility.

  • G-Patra – green mobility in rural areas
  • STARS – impact of carsharing
  • INCLUSION – accessibilty for vulnerable users’ communities
  • SocialCar –  EU Horizon 2020: open source multimodal routeplanning: carpool + public transport
  • and SHARE-North – living labs, awareness and sharing knowledge in North Sea Region