The Vox Pop Project Journal No 3

VoxPop was created to facilitate the digital transformation of the mobility system of Lisbon, aiming at mobilising the various stakeholders of the local innovation ecosystem to collectively provide a response to a set of non-technological challenges of digital innovation in urban mobility.

The ambition is to accelerate the digital transition of the Lisbon’s mobility system by developing a data-sharing model where multi-party data are translated into actionable intelligence to enable the creation of enhanced user-centred mobility solutions, and unlock more efficient methods of planning, operating and maintaining transport assets.

The project motivation was the need identified by local actors to improve collaboration by sharing data and thus unlocking efficiency in the asset management of the mobility sector of the Portuguese capital. The focus is on the non-technological challenges, including governance, business models, user focus and unwanted consequences of digital innovation.

Through a process of change based on the three main vectors of digital transformation: People, Processes and Technology, the project was designed to ensure the active participation of citizens, the people who will benefit from the solutions developed.

The project is led by the Lisbon City Council with the support of various public and private actors of the mobility eco-system of the city, among them civil society, from which active citizen participation is expected. It is aligned with the vision and priorities of the Municipality and it is composed of the following innovations that will become a key structure for managing mobility in Lisbon:

• An Innovators Alliance, a forum to foster dialogue between the mobility actors of the city, aimed at creating sustainable and responsible public and private data-sharing ecosystem with a focus on how to overcome the existing non-technological barriers to urban mobility data-sharing, and ensure both public and private entities generate value from these data.
• The Urban Access Point has been replaced by the new and enhanced Open Data Portal for EMEL, which facilitates access to open data and open-source tools as well as to the visualization of maps and graphics while it allows to share “closed” data to validated profiles.An Open Call aimed at mobilizing the European innovation community, allocating 1 million euros to the development of 18 digital solutions for improving accessibility and security of the most vulnerable city users.
• Definition of the functional requirements of the navigation support tool for vulnerable city users, in particular, people with reduced mobility.
• Definition of the functional requirements of the client-observer app that will facilitate the provision of feedback from users about the Public Transport system of the city.
• Urban mobility observatory of Lisbon, to facilitate the access of external entities to information concerning urban mobility measures and support the impact evaluation of the project.

Additional outputs have been developed during the project execution following the mobility needs of the city and the citizens:

• Asset management tool by EMEL able to convert automatically CAD drawings to GIS files conserving all attributes. It has been applied to cycle paths and will be extended to sidewalks in the future.
• Deloitte tool for assessing micromobility regulation in terms of access, parking and speed limit.
• Enclosed parking facilities for bicycles in Lisbon (13 in total).
• Pricing strategy for car parks based on rotation and offer packages.
• A new mobility application integrating two existing apps (parking and bike-sharing) and other EMEL services, scalable to other stakeholders in the future.

The partners of the project include the Lisbon City Council (project leader), EMEL, CARRIS, the Metropolitano de Lisboa and Transportes Metropolitanos de Lisboa. This consortium also has the participation of three companies for key project activities: ARMIS, Beta-i and Deloitte Portugal.

The Lisbon City Council (CML) leaded The VoxPop Project. In addition to ensuring that the project is aligned with the vision and current priorities for the city, CML leaded the activities of the Data Sharing Business Model and by the Observatory of Urban Mobility in Lisbon, which will become a key structure for measuring the impacts of the project.

The EMEL (Lisbon Municipal Mobility and Parking Company's) mission is the development, management, and operation of urban mobility solutions, integrated in Lisbon's global mobility and accessibility system. As the operational arm of CML for urban mobility, EMEL has a very active role in the implementation of the project. It will be responsible for the operational management of the project, sharing the responsibility for communication activities with CML.  EMEL also leaded several activities in the Data Sharing and Urban Data Integration Business Model.

CARRIS is a key player of the urban mobility ecosystem in Lisbon, being the main surface Public Transport Operator in the city. As an operator, CARRIS has access to a set of relevant data and a vast experience in being part of different organisations that share databases and information. It was responsible for leading the Urban Data Integration.

Metropolitano de Lisboa (ML) is a public company responsible for the metro system in the Lisbon area and is one of the main players in the city's urban mobility ecosystem.  Its participation in the project involved contributing to the reflections on the data sharing model and business models. ML also participated in the development activities of new and improved mobility services complementary to its current offer.

Transportes Metropolitanos de Lisboa (TML) is the entity responsible for the management of the technological platform that integrates the ticketing system and public information and for the development of studies, plans and implementation of accessibility, mobility and transport policies of the 18 municipalities that integrate the metropolitan area of Lisbon. It is also the entity responsible for the management of AML's public road transport service. It was a key-player in the discussion around the data-sharing model including roles and business models.

ARMIS is a technology-based company focused on providing IT services in a wide range of areas, including transport and ITS. It supported in the enhancement of the EMEL Open Data portal, promoting and facilitating the access to open data and open source tools.

Beta-i is a collaborative innovation consultancy with a global reach. It will lead the work of the Open Call, contributing with its experience in open innovation programmes. In particular, Beta-i mobilized a group of NGOs to identify the main challenges to be solved and will accompany the development of the solutions selected, and for seeking ways to promote their transferability to wider markets.

Deloitte Portugal is a leading global provider of audit & assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax and related services. Deloitte Portugal coordinates the Smart City Solutions Center, a centre that brings together diverse expertise in the areas of Smart Cities and Future of Mobility globally. Deloitte Portugal was responsible for the development of a regulation and control tool, which supports the municipality of Lisbon and the micro mobility operators in the use of public space.

This is the third edition of the VoxPop journal and aims at providing an updated overview of the faced challenges during the execution of the whole project. It also includes the follow up actions based on the challenges identified by the VoxPop project.

Between March 2023 and August 2023, the project partners have concluded the implementation of the project activities, delivering digital tools and solutions for the city of Lisbon to improve the quality of life of their citizens and paving the way for follow up actions to consolidate and improve these changes.

The VoxPop project partnership has finalized most of the planned activities, overcoming all the issues faced during the project execution. More concretely, during the project period the partners have managed to achieve the following:

Innovators Alliance - IA

Rules for sharing data between the public partners of the consortium were drafted, ending up in 13 city challenges that can be solved using data.

Open call for European Innovators

The 18 selected companies deployed mobility tools in the city and wider area, covering all the challenges set up for the Open Call.

Lisbon Urban Mobility Observatory – LUMO

The Observatory is ready and composed of aggregate data and mobility indicators and it feeds the observatory of the city of Lisboa with mobility indicators.

Urban access point – UAP > EMEL upgraded open data portal

In the previous period, the user needs and system requirements had been collected, but the lack of a data sharing model didn’t allow for the finalization of the technical requirements. Therefore, the consortium decided to upgrade the EMEL open data portal, adding on the one side open source visualization tools and on the other side the capability of sharing private data sets to validated users.

Promotional and dissemination activities

• The project website https://www.voxpoplisboa.pt/.
• The open data portal www.zzz.pt
• The public observatory https://observatorios-lisboa.pt/en/
• The project partners have successfully submitted and presented scientific papers to POLIS Annual Conference 2022 – Bélgica, Bruxelas and 10º Congresso Rodoferroviário Português – Lisboa, Portugal.

Successfully handling key challenges

Vox Pop managed well the foreseen (and unforeseen) challenges. Details are provided in the respective section of this journal.

In the first journal the expectations from the consortium members participating in the project were collected. In the second journal these expectations were discussed with the partners in order to assess at what degree these are being met by the project outputs. In this third journal, the fulfilment of the partners expectations right after the end of the project were assessed.

Significant improvement of accessibility for people with reduced mobility aiming at a higher quality of life.

Needs of people with disabilities should be defined and analyzed towards higher accessibility (e.g. indicating which are the accessible vehicles) and security (reporting tools to alert about potential dangerous points).

Update: Often in Lisbon, shared mobility vehicles are poorly parked, cluttering sidewalks and pedestrian areas, thus creating unsafe environments for people with reduced mobility, such as people in wheelchair and visually impaired. A smoother and ordered operation of e-scooters and e-bikes in the city is needed. Deloitte is helping Lisbon municipality on the design of a regulation model and tool for shared mobility management, more specifically e-scooters and e-bikes. With this new regulation model and management tool, among other things Lisbon Municipality will be able enforce e-scooter parking and act on poorly parked vehicles, ensuring a proper an efficient management of shared mobility, which is key for improving accessibility for people with reduced mobility.

CARRIS operates an on-call DRT-type service for people with wheelchairs and has a strong interest on improving the service for people with disabilities. With regards to innovative mobility services, CARRIS is currently establishing a DRT service, as part of a pilot project with CEF funding, which may be extended to lines with suitable characteristics (e.g. night services). For this purpose, data from the other mobility service providers should be utilized.

Additionally, this challenge is included in the ones identified by the Innovators Alliance. Challenge 3: Mapping accessibility for persons with reduced mobility (PRM) of journeys on public transport.

Finally, it is also supported by the Open Call by 1 out of 4 of the selected proposals.

End of the project update: The project delivered an important output, a mapping tool presenting the side walk's gross width which covers the entire city.