Professor Laurie Pickup and Alexandra Kershaw of Vectos South Ltd, Silvia Gaggi of ISINNOVA, and Radu Gaspar of EIP have been busy spreading the word about the MIND-SETS project. Laurie recently presented the upcoming results of the project to the European Commission in Brussels and to city authorities and policy makers at the European Mobility Week, while Alexandra and Silvia spoke before a number of academics and researchers in Bolzano, at the EURAC conference. Radu Gașpar, meanwhile, participated in the Annual Orașe Energie România (OER) Conference, where he presented MIND-SETS to an audience representing municipal and national authorities, companies and academics. They introduced their audiences to the MIND-SETS tool, designed to help decision makers gain a better understanding of how Europeans may respond to new mobility policies, products and services. This tool will soon be available on the MIND-SETS Knowledge Centre.

In their presentations, Laurie, Alexandra, Silvia, and Radu explained how current trends in mobility and transport policy in Europe are set against rapid social and lifestyle changes where mobility plays an ever-increasing role. They also highlighted how the appetite for mobility continues to grow, and how this is exacerbating the gap between those who have it and those who lack it. High mobility is increasingly a label of social success and low mobility one of social failure. New forms of mobility such as sharing and renting were emphasised as ‘flagships’ for sustainability. Are these new mobility modes reaching their peak – a feature of a younger millennial generation that will fade as they acquire wealth into their middle age – or do they represent the start of a new wave of future mobility? The growth of ‘new mobility’ as a mix of both the physical and the virtual was also explored – virtual travel alternatives and in-street, in-vehicle texting – is this a pandemic of addiction or a mobility stairway to heaven? Finally, they looked at how ‘new mobility’ trends relate to social well–being – why is it that we have never had it so good and yet never felt so bad?

For a more in-depth understanding of MIND-SETS and its findings regarding mobility trends, register for the final conference in Brussels on May 22-23.

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