Future Blue Zone car parking fees in the Swiss city will depend on vehicle weight, opening up a new benefit for light electric vehicle purchasing and potentially discourage using heavy cars in the region. This is a notable development as the ever-increasing weight of cars is a contentious issue in urban mobility and sustainability.
Recently voters in Zurich approved a new Blue Zone parking permit regulation that will require drivers to pay for their annual pass based on vehicle weight, with 63,763 citizens (52.8%) voting in favour and the remaining 56,948 rejecting it. Whether the vehicle is electric or gasoline will also play a role in determining the required parking payment.
The vote was a result of a civic committee requesting a referendum from the decision of the municipal council.
The weight-based parking permit could drive citizens away from purchasing heavier cars and potentially encourage light electric vehicle adoption, with both weight and electric functionality influencing parking permit costs.
Researchers at the University of Wuppertal have developed a new traffic model for the city distinguishing between conventional and electric bicycles to provide insights into the specific impact of e-bikes on urban mobility.
Electric bicycles not only replace conventional bicycles on some trips but also contribute to increased overall cycling, as their electric assistance enables longer journeys, easier travel in hilly areas, and less physically demanding trips. Wuppertal, located in the narrow valley of the Wupper River in Germany, presents a particularly challenging environment for cyclists, with limited cycling infrastructure and many of its sites being located on surrounding slopes. It makes a valuable case study for assessing the effects of e-bike usage.
Model development
The researchers drew on bicycle counts from 13 locations in Wuppertal and modal split data from a 2020 mobility survey, adjusted to account for changes caused by the coronavirus pandemic. They incorporated scientific findings on differences in route resistance for conventional and electric bicycles, including factors such as slopes, intersections, and traffic conditions. The team also accounted for bicycle ownership, noting that e-bike ownership does not always correlate with regular cycling habits due to the higher cost of electric bicycles. Using this data, they adjusted an existing traffic model for Wuppertal to distinguish between the two types of bicycles.
Key findings
The team tested three scenarios:
Full implementation of planned cycling infrastructure expansions.
Doubling e-bike ownership through targeted policies.
A combination of both infrastructure expansion and increased e-bike ownership.
The results indicate that infrastructure expansion increases overall cycling, primarily benefiting regular bicycles, though the effect was smaller than expected.
Increased e-bike ownership led to a significant rise in e-bike modal share, mainly replacing car trips.
The study also highlighted that whether infrastructure expansion and e-bike promotion interact positively depends on the type of infrastructure implemented. For example, building bridges to reduce gradients primarily benefits regular bicycles, limiting additional gains from e-bike adoption. Conversely, reducing mixed traffic conditions benefits both conventional and electric cyclists, generating a positive interaction.
Implications for traffic modeling
The researchers noted that, overall, distinguishing between conventional and electric bicycles did not improve the predictive accuracy of the traffic model compared with treating cycling as a single mode of transport. However, differentiating e-bikes remains valuable for evaluating specific policies aimed at e-bike adoption.
Dutch collaborative initiative, Leverage, notes that light electric vehicles such as electric scooters, microcars, and cargo bikes are becoming an increasingly visible part of Dutch urban mobility, yet they lack a standardised place on the streets. According to Marith Dieker, associate professor in mobility transition at Arnhem-Nijmegen University of Applied Sciences (HAN), providing dedicated infrastructure and clear guidelines could improve both the frequency and safety of LEV use.
Dieker believes that LEVs have the potential to make a real difference in Dutch cities, especially as urban populations grow, as a more practical alternative to a car. “Cleaner and more accessible cities—that’s what LEVs can definitely contribute to. That’s why it’s important to investigate what’s needed in terms of design, regulations, and amenities to encourage people to use them more,”.
A key concern is the fair allocation of public space for vehicles. Dieker has stated that the disproportionate amount of urban space that cars occupy should be addressed. “Look at the Han campuses, for example, and a very large portion of the space is reserved for a relatively small group of people who come by car. Reserving so much space for parked cars shouldn’t be a given,” Dieker observes.
Creating more space for LEVs in public areas, however, is not straightforward. Dieker emphasises that systemic change is required: “Many different cogs must move simultaneously.” As a researcher focused on the mobility transition, she collaborates with Leverage, a partnership of knowledge institutions, network organizations, businesses, and government agencies that aims to translate research into actionable municipal policy.
Municipalities play a pivotal role in integrating LEVs effectively. While some cities have experienced cluttered streets following the introduction of shared scooters, others in Europe have successfully implemented well-organized parking and charging solutions for both tourists and residents. Dieker highlights the challenge: “The question for many municipalities is: how do you create space for shared LEVs on the cycle path and in public spaces and prevent it from becoming a mess?”
In response to these challenges, HAN engineering students recently designed a mobile charging station for LEVs with an independent energy system. “This solves two problems,” Dieker notes, “LEV batteries can be charged more safely and sustainably because they don’t have to be removed from the LEV to charge them indoors or in the shed. And the LEVs get a logical, dedicated place in the public space.”
The upcoming Experience Day on October 28, co-organized by the Leverage project, will provide a platform to discuss these issues and explore practical solutions. At the event, Dieker and colleagues will present findings from an initiative in which four HAN professorships investigated opportunities and barriers to the mobility transition. The Arnhem and Nijmegen campuses served as “living laboratories,” where participants reflected on their own mobility choices. Attendees will also have the opportunity to test electric cargo bikes, scooters, and microcars. Those interested in attending can register here.
The Finnish capital city of Helsinki has launched a three-month pilot project to improve the organisation of shared e-scooters, using centimetre-level precise parking technology. The initiative forms part of Forum Virium Helsinki’s ELABORATOR project and is being implemented in partnership with Norwegian technology company Sparkpark AS.
The rapid growth of e-scooters as a sustainable last-mile transport option has brought noticeable benefits, but it has also raised challenges. Sidewalk clutter, improper parking, and accessibility issues for pedestrians and cyclists remain pressing concerns in urban spaces. Helsinki has already responded to these issues by designating specific parking areas for e-scooters, and this latest pilot seeks to refine these measures further through the application of innovative technology.
Four districts to test smart parking solutions
Since mid-August, Sparkpark’s system has been deployed across four districts in central Helsinki: Pasila, Kalasatama, Kallio, and Esplanadi, with approximately twenty sensors being installed near key parking zones, including at Tripla and Redi shopping centers.
Unlike conventional GPS-based systems, which often struggle in dense urban environments or underground locations, Sparkpark’s patented Bluetooth positioning technology delivers centimetre-level accuracy. This ensures that scooters are placed within their designated zones, even in areas where GPS signals are unreliable.
Benefits for pedestrians and urban accessibility
The technology is designed not only to improve operational efficiency but also to enhance urban safety and accessibility. By preventing scooters from spilling beyond capacity in parking areas, the system reduces clutter on sidewalks and cycle paths. This contributes to a safer environment for pedestrians and a more orderly urban landscape overall.
“Prioritizing the perspective of non-riders by introducing proactive parking solutions – rather than reacting with punitive parking fees for the riders and operators – will be a game-changer for the future of micromobility,” said Sparkpark co-founders Igor Pancevski and Thomas Bråten.
A step towards smarter, safer mobility
According to Project Manager Noora Reittu of Forum Virium Helsinki, the pilot highlights the city’s commitment to addressing mobility challenges with forward-looking solutions. “Through this pilot, we aim to assist the City of Helsinki in developing future traffic safety measures. We also seek to test the technology’s functionality in challenging locations, such as areas with a weak GPS signal or other zones where e-scooters accumulate in large numbers,” she explained.
The project will provide Helsinki with valuable insights into the feasibility of centimetre-precise parking systems in a real-world environment. If successful, the pilot could pave the way for broader adoption of smart parking technologies by improver safe e-scooter usage in other cities across the world.
EIT Urban Mobility is inviting Europe’s innovators to submit proposals to its Strategic Innovation Open Call, with the aim of accelerating the implementation of impactful solutions which address urban mobility’s most pressing challenges.
Through this call, EIT Urban Mobility seeks to support innovative, ambitious and market-critical projects which address key problems faced by cities, public authorities and mobility providers, stating “We aim to de-risk development and enable large-scale deployment by backing solutions with a clear path to market and the potential to scale across Europe.”
Scope of the call
The call will focus on five sectors in which EIT Urban Mobility believes Europe has the potential to innovate and create impact:
Urban logistics
Public transport
Mobility data management
Electrification of transport and alternative fuels
Health and mobility
The call may, in the future, include specific topic scopes to address key opportunities or failures in the market, which could benefit from funding support.
EIT funding allocation
The total estimated funding allocated to this call is €60 million for the period 2026-2028, and has multiple cut-off dates The indicative funding for the first submission cut-off is €9 million.
Each project may receive up to €2 million of EIT funding. EIT Urban Mobility will reimburse up to 65% of the eligible project costs, while the minimum co-funding rate for all proposals is 35%.
Who can apply?
This is a multi-beneficiary call for proposals; there must be a minimum of two independent legal entities, working together. These entities must be established in two different European Member States, and/or Third countries associated with Horizon Europe.
For information on special cases, including Switzerland and Hungarian universities please refer to the Call Manual.
Application process
The Strategic Innovation Open Call is open from 2026-2028 with several cut-off dates, outlined below.
The assessment of the proposals involves two stages:
Recently, the Technical University of Dresden published findings from the 2023 “Mobility in Cities” study (SrV), offering in-depth insights into the everyday mobility patterns of urban residents across Germany.
In the research, nearly 900,000 daily travel routes were analyzed across 134 study areas, including around 500 cities and towns, plus 12 broader regions.
Overview of mobility trends
Compared to 2013 and 2018, mobility among older age groups has increased, while it has decreased among younger and middle-aged individuals.
Cycling is making gains, increasing its share in the modal split.
The more frequently people work from home, the less they rely on their cars.
E-bikes: A game changer in rural areas
A standout insight from the study is the growing impact of electric bicycles (e-bikes), especially in rural areas:
E-bike availability is higher in rural regions: up to 24% in flat areas and 28% in hilly areas of respondents always have access to an e-bike.
E-bike users travel significantly longer distances than conventional cyclists:
Urban areas (metropolitan, regional centers): 5.5 km (vs. 3.4 km for regular bikes)
Medium-sized cities: 7.4 km (vs. 2.8 km)
Rural/small-town areas: 11.5 km (vs. 3.1 km)
Older adults are especially likely to use e-bikes.
These findings confirm that e-bikes are expanding the practical reach of cycling, particularly where distances are greater and traditional cycling is less convenient.
Conclusion
The study reaffirms the importance of cycling in Germany’s transport landscape. Many of the elevated usage levels observed during the unusually favorable weather of 2018 were matched or even exceeded in 2023, indicating sustained interest and growth in bike use, including e-bikes.
The City of Stockholm has released its Climate Action Plan 2030, detailing measures to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, lower carbon emissions, and support climate equity. One of the central components of the plan is the transition toward sustainable, fossil-free urban transportation.
The plan envisions a transport system in which public transit, walking, and cycling are the primary modes of travel. It sets a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport by 80% by 2030 compared to 2010 levels, with the additional aim of making the inner city entirely emission-free.
Achieving these goals involves both infrastructure development and changes in travel behavior. The city aims to reduce car traffic by 30% compared to 2017 levels through more efficient land use that prioritises pedestrians and public spaces. To facilitate this shift, Stockholm is investing in improvements to public transportation, pedestrian networks, and cycling infrastructure.
Electrification plays a key role in the city’s strategy. By 2030, up to 80% of passenger vehicles are expected to be electric, with similar progress anticipated for freight transport. To support this, the city is introducing measures such as the Class 3 Clean Air Zone and expanding the electric vehicle charging network. Additionally, the plan includes transitioning freight movement from road to waterways, electrifying local maritime transport, and providing shore power for docked vessels, along with encouraging the use of renewable fuels in commuter and leisure boats.
The municipality is also updating procurement practices to support the use of fossil-free vehicles and equipment in its own operations. It is testing new technologies for traffic management and data-driven mobility solutions as part of its efforts to modernize the transport system.
Through these initiatives, Stockholm aims to demonstrate how urban areas can implement cleaner, more sustainable, and accessible transportation systems.
The City of Antwerp keeps parks and squares clean with LEVA-EU member EVPro’s Stuyf pickups.
After a successful test phase, the electric Stuyf pickup has become a permanent solution for the Antwerp City Cleaning Service to help keep public spaces clean. These silent, environmentally friendly vehicles that are driven while standing are 100% electric and offer an efficient and ergonomic solution for city employees. The EVPro Stuyf pickups are used to remove litter and empty waste bins in parks, shopping, and walking areas, and busy places.
These innovative vehicles offer numerous advantages. They improve the park experience for visitors because they are silent and thus maintain the peace and atmosphere in public areas. They are also efficient, as these electric handcarts can reach places that are more difficult to reach for larger vehicles. The use of these handcarts also avoids possible conflicts between vulnerable road users and larger collection vehicles in busy places.
Alderman for urban cleaning and waste, Ken Casier, stated: “As a city, we are committed to a smart greening of our urban cleaning vehicles. For example, we now have electric handcarts to keep our parks clean. Nice and quiet so that they do not disturb anyone and ergonomic for our highly valued employees. With the help of all residents and visitors who deposit waste correctly and with the extra manpower that we deploy during the ‘park season’, we can rightly say of every park: clean, huh!”
This success is part of a wider rollout of Stuyf pickups across Belgium. In addition to the fleet of 21 handcarts now in use in Antwerp, EVPro has vehicles in use in Bruges, Brussels, Schaerbeek, Ghent, and growing.
In addition to the rollout of electric trolleys, the city of Antwerp continues to focus on greening vehicles at the City Cleaning Department. Since the start of the park season, from April 1 to October 1, 45 additional staff members have been deployed to keep parks as clean as possible. The City of Antwerp continues to work towards a clean city, and calls on its residents and all visitors to dispose of waste correctly.
Oslo achieves an EU first in the Mobility as a Service (Maas) sector, integrating bike sharing into its official public transport app as part of the MOVE21 project.
The Norwegian capital’s achievement comes thanks to a unique collaboration between Oslo’s public transport authority Ruter and global micromobility software platform Urban Sharing. With the Ruter app you are now able to locate your nearest bike share station in real time, check bike availability, hire with in-app payment, and unlock and start riding immediately.
How was integration achieved?
Urban Sharing onboarded the Oslo City Bike scheme onto its platform back in 2018. During a three-year development period, Ruter managed the front-end design of the app whilst Urban Sharing developed the unique Application Programming Interface (API) with all the necessary endpoints to make the app run smoothly. In 2023, the first of three roll-out phases began, with Ruter first testing the app to see if the integrated bike share offering worked for 500 users, eventually rolling out to 10,000 users, before updating the public transport app for its entire customer base.
What is MOVE21?
MOVE21 is an EU-funded innovation project that aims for participating cities to achieve a 30% reduction in transport-related emissions by 2030. The project supports cities to become zero-emission nodes for mobility and logistics through 15 unique initiatives. These initiatives are tried and tested on the ground in three Living Labs that are central to the project: Oslo, Gothenburg, and Hamburg. Three replicator cities – Munich, Rome, and Bologna – then copy the concepts before further ‘cascading cities’ review the findings in the context of their own streets. The initiatives span a huge range of innovations that look beyond transport as an individual sector.
The results?
Since the first pilot phase began in 2023, more than 11,000 people have hired out an Oslo City Bike through the Ruter app, tapping into a unique demographic of riders separate to those that hire through the long established Oslo City Bike app. Urban Sharing CEO Kristian Brink cites the potential of the service to grow in Oslo, with these recorded trips making up less than 1% of the 1.1 million journeys that Oslo City Bike recorded in 2024.
“It’s no easy feat integrating a brand new mode of transportation into a public transport app,” Brink told Zag Daily. “They can book the train. They can book the bike. They can pay, receive their ticket, unlock the bike all on one app. This is pure, seamless, European integration.”
MOVE21 hope to use the success of Maas intergration in Oslo as a case study and blueprint for the rest of Europe. Brink concludes: “Slowly but steadily, we are rewriting the travel experience for commuters. And this is something that Europe has achieved on its own.”