OUR PILOT SITES
AMIGOS will test inclusive, safe, affordable, and sustainable mobility solutions in cities to evaluate their impact and replicability. It therefore relies on the participation of 5 cities as living labs (LLs), 10 urban areas as Safety Improvement Areas (SIAs) and 5 twin cities (TCs) for replicability.
ABOUT OUR 5 LIVING LABS
Istanbul – Turkey
Key word: active mobility
Main characteristics:
- Almost 16 M inhabitant
- Geographically connects The Europe and The Asia continents through the Bosphorus with 3 bridges and one underwater tunnel – 65% of Istanbul’s land area in on Europe and the rest of the 35% is on Asia.
- Has a hilly topography.
- One of the densest vertical urbanisation among the cities of the world.
- Has rich cultural history since it played an important role throughout the centuries. Attracts lots of domestic and foreign tourists.
Challenges to tackle:
- Since İstanbul is so densely populated, transportation of the inhabitants environmentally becomes a great challenge. Amongst 11,6 million trips performed each day, only 28% are made by public transportation and 0,5% by bicycle.
- People are uneducated and confused about how to share lanes with bicycles, and cyclists where to cycle and where not to cycle.
Main goals of the LL:
- Improving the existing bicycle paths, whilst trying to add some new ones.
- Educating people about cycling is not only for recreational use but a mode of transportation.
- Creating the mentality of respecting cyclers in traffic among the inhabitants of city of İstanbul, is a must for the safety of cyclists and pedestrians around them.
Hamburg – Germany
Las Rozas – Spain
Key word: Promotion sustainable urban mobility
Main characteristics:
- Las Rozas is a very dispersed municipality with a considerable extension, it has an area of 58.28 km2.
- Three major highways within the Community of Madrid run through the municipality of Las Rozas such as La Coruña (A-6), the Escorial (M-505), which begins in the municipality of Las Rozas, and the M-50 that great connectivity between Las Rozas with Madrid and other municipalities
- High population increasing that in recent years (since the beginning of this century the population of Las Rozas de Madrid has gone from 50,000 inhabitants in 2000 to almost 100,000 in 2020).
- Las Rozas has an important business network makes Las Rozas an important generating focus and attractor of both internal and external trips to the municipality
Challenges to tackle:
- Municipality dispersion and the existence of three main axes (boteh regional and national roads) poses great challenges for the management of the mobility of the municipality especially for the promotion of active mobility (pedestrians and cyclists)
- Environmental problems generated in recent years in the municipalities by the excessive use of polluting vehicles
Main goals of the LL:
- Improve mobility solutions so that the people who arrive to the city every day, through the train stations, can access the centres of attraction such as the universities or the office and business areas
- Optimise bike and pedestrian routes to schools
- Improve mobility planning process
- Make and inventory of the transport and mobility infrastructure of Las Rozas
- Improving the knowledge of mobility needs of its residents and visitors
Lappeenranta – Finland
Key word: developing sustainable mobility
Main characteristics:
- Population about 73000, growth driver city in southeastern Finland, located by the lake Saimaa the fourth-largest natural freshwater lake in Europe
Challenges to tackle:
- Long shaped city, quite long distances to the city center, limited population
Main goals of the LL:
- Increasing use of public transport, electric traffic, biogas traffic
Gabrovo – Bulgaria
Key word: Promotion sustainable urban mobility
Main characteristics:
- Population about 60000, geo – strategic location in North Central region of Bulgaria, highly industrialized area with a very proactive local government, working on sustainable urban mobility, sustainable climate and energy transition with final goal to achieve carbon neutrality till 2030.
Challenges to tackle:
- Long shaped city, quite long distances to the city center
- Limited population
- Lack of traffic management and traffic control in the city
- Lack of well developed cycling infrastructure
- Risk areas around the schools
Main goals of the LL:
- Cut down emissions from road transport
- Target to be carbon neutral by 2030
- Reducing traffic by improvement of traffic management and control
- Increasing public transport usage and active mobility
- Reduce parental driving to and from public schools
ABOUT OUR LIVING LABS
Living labs are entire cities with different particularities and mobility challenges, that will implement the solutions defined with the stakeholders to increase the inclusivity, safety, affordability, and sustainability of their urban mobility.
ABOUT OUR SAFETY IMPROVEMENT AREAS
AMIGOS aims to solve specific and localised mobility challenges in the hearth of European cities by targeting ten Safety Improvements Areas some of which are areas within the living labs. Safety Improvement Areas (SIAs) are urban or peri-urban areas which are suffering from mobility-caused safety issues due to the conflict between motorised transport and people on foot and cycling.
AMIGOS will develop, pilot and implement mobility solutions with the local people and stakeholders aiming to reduce road safety risks, reducing exposure to air and noise pollution and the perceived feeling of unsafety for pedestrians and cyclists. Some of the SIAs are specific areas of LLs.
Istanbul’s pedestrianized zone in city centre – Turkey
Key word: safety & security
Main characteristics:
- High urban mobility with majority of daily activities carried out on foot.
Challenges to tackle:
- Daytime population density represents 10 times the night-time population.
- Complicated cohabitation between vehicles and pedestrians.
- Due to the usage of fossil fuel-based vehicles, air quality is going worse in most of the areas of the city.
- Due to usage of fossil fuel-based vehicles and the unnecessary usage of their claxons, the noise pollution is going worse in most of the areas of the city, especially in the areas which have heavy traffic.
- Finding the conflicts and risk creating components for the traffic
Main goals of the SIA:
- Measurement of the noise and air quality before and after the pedestrianisation
- Creating cleaner, safer, more accessible and more inclusive areas for the inhabitants, for everyone to have a public place where they can have some social time with the benefits of having better air quality, a safe place away from motored vehicles for their kids and animals, less noise pollution, and better accessibility for fragile groups, such as disabled people, people with the stroller, elderly people, and etc.
- “Mobility Observation Box (MOB)” will be used to analyse and overcome the risks and conflicts in the pilot abovementioned area.
Ankara’s junction point– Turkey
Hamburg’s district of Bergedorf – Germany
Bologna’s touristic routes – Italy
Key word: safety, security and inclusion
Main characteristics:
- Improve accessibility and safety of touristic itineraries for all
Challenges to tackle:
- raising awareness among stakeholders
- boosting skills and competences
- adapting existing info package and signals
Main goals of the SIA:
- boost competencies, improve accessibility and promote route’s safety for all.
City of Reykjavik, inner city ‘Hlemmur’ mobility hub – Iceland
Key word: safety, security and inclusion
Main characteristics:
- Hlemmur square is an historical mobility hub, undergoing major transformation 2022-2025. Over time it has been a bus hub with roads on two sides to serve heavy car traffic. It has completely lacked appeal to pedestrians or other modes of transport than cars/buses coming through, regardless e.g., of the number of people on foot in the area. Hlemmur is undergoing major transformation where private cars will not be allowed to pass through, and more space dedicated to cyclists and pedestrians.
Challenges to tackle:
- Creating a successful co-existing of pedastrians, cyclist and commuters by other means. to the city center
Main goals of the SIA:
-
Complete redesign, reallocating much of the land around the square, will combine a key hub on a new carbon-neutral Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line – coming through on a single dedicated lane – and green, inclusive and lively environment for residents and tourists, extending bars/restaurants, performance and play areas over a significantly enlarged square to encourage community feel. The design of the hub is key in routing all private cars to nearby carparks and accommodating for safe transition between different modes of transport with easy access for bikes and small e-vehicles (rentals/charging), pedestrians and other microflows. The goal is to create an inclusive area for everyone to enjoy and move through safely.
We aim for better air quality, less noise pollution and better accessibility for groups, such as children, disabled people, people with the stroller, older people.
Two “Mobility Observation Box (MOB)” will be used to analyse and overcome the risks and conflicts in the area.
Las Rozas’ routes from commuter stations to universities and business hubs – Spain
Key word: safety & security
Main characteristics:
- Las Rozas is well connected to the capital, Madrid, through highways
- Existence og bus lanes and commuter trains that connect the capital and other municipalities with Las Rozas
Challenges to tackle:
- Traffic jams that increase pollution
- Bus routes partially suffer the traffic problem by having a specific bus lane
- Commuter stations are located at the far side of the city, and people must cross the major highways to access the business centres and universities
- Pedestrian walkways are not as safe routes as needed for citizens to take personal mobility vehicles to access their work or study centres safely
Main goals of the SIA:
- Establish sustainable and attractive access routes to the city for citizens, but also safe intra-mobility routes within the city
- implementing large centres of concentration of personal mobility vehicles
- Create multimodal mobility areas
- Look for new mobility solutions for employes
Nazareth’s traffic intersection near Mary’sn– Israel
Key word: safety & accessibility
Main characteristics:
- Highly trafficked intersection with much tourist activity in a historic district of the town near the “old city”. In addition to Mary’s Well (located on-site) and the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation (not far away), there are also several local schools and hotels nearby, attracting more vulnerable pedestrian groups.
Challenges to tackle:
- Space is at a premium, and invasive interventions discouraged, in this historic locale. Additionally, the intersection is located on an urban artery, which is crucial for the large flows of vehicular traffic passing through the city each day.
Main goals of the SIA:
- Improving pedestrian accessibility to the proximate land usages and tourist sites while simultaneously increasing safety and maintaining an appropriate level of service for vehicular thru traffic.
Lappeenranta’s public high school in the city centre – Finland
Jurmala’s school district – Latvia
Key word: safety & security
Main characteristics:
- School district area that includes 2 schools, 2 kindergartens, music school, art school, library, public space, and public transportation stops. Streets with poorly coordinated traffic flow can be observed in the area. Residents and students use the streets for their daily activities. The area is considered unsafe due to lack of traffic organization and sidewalks.
Challenges to tackle:
- change of resident’s behaviour about mobility, designing and implementing effective traffic reorganization that arranges safe and comfortable movement of all road users, especially in the morning hours
Main goals of the SIA:
- Effective traffic reorganization, increased usage of other mobility modes (bicycles, public transportation, etc.)
Gabrovo’s public school in the city centre – Bulgaria
About our twin cities (TCs)
Twin cities (TCs) are cities that will implement one or more solutions previously tested by the living labs and safety improvement areas, and thus test their replicability.
GOZO – MALTA
Key word: active mobility
Main characteristics: When taking into account Gozo’s geographical characteristics, and population, it is clear that the number of registered vehicles per capita is high. Local people consider owning a vehicle as a necessity. What is striking is that during the past decade, the number of registered vehicles has doubled when the population did not.
Challenges to tackle: changing mentality; steep topography; public transport network
Main goals of the TC: increase the usage of other mobility modes (like bicycles or electric powered ones and public transport), increase the usage of public transport; adopting a more friendly usage public transport network.
Umm al-Fahm – Israel
Key word: Safety & Accessibility
Main characteristics: 3rd largest predominantly Arab city in Israel, with 59,000 residents of whom 99.9% are Muslim Arabs
Challenges to tackle: Steep topography, narrow street rights-of-way, and poor network connectivity
Main goals of the LL: Transferring the lessons learned from the SIA’s and implementing them in a new context, in the process giving new tools to local officials which will enable them to greater serve the urban denizens.
Wiesbaden – Germany
Frankfurt – Germany
