Since September 2020, SMARTEES started the implementation of five “policy scenarios development workshops”, one for each of its 5 reference clusters (Holistic mobility plans; Islands and renewable energy; District regeneration; Mobility in superblocks; Energy efficiency against fuel poverty – see https://local-social-innovation.eu/ ). The first of these workshops, titled “Restricting movement with a use of a certain modality”, was held remotely from September 21st to September 24th. It was organized jointly by RUG, ICLEI, and K&I involving local stakeholders of the cities of Groningen and Zurich. The workshop was based on two cases related to the mobility policy in Groningen and Zurich during the last decades: Noorderplantsoen park in Groningen and Limmatquai in Zurich (both relating to the closure of roads to car traffic as a result of a popular referendum). Starting from these cases and from the participants’ expertise, drivers and barriers to a mobility project’s success were discussed the first day (September 21st) trying to see how to mitigate certain risks and stimulate resident involvement. The second day of the workshop (September 24th) was focused on a computer simulation model presentation of the Groningen Noorderplantsoen case (that should inspire, later, a simulation model of the Zurich Limmatquai case) in a “Sandbox” tool that will allow to virtually play different scenarios and see what possible social outcomes of those scenarios would be.
