In Amsterdam, the eHUBs project will establish a total of 10 to 15 so-called ‘BuurtHubs’ (neighbourhood hubs) in 2022. The first hubs for shared and electric mobility deployed in the Dutch city are located in the neighbourhood Buiksloterham (City District of Noord) and the neighbourhood Frans Hals (City District of Zuid) and these 2 hubs have 8 cars, 5 electric cargo-bikes and 16 electric bikes on offer for use by the residents. Even though the first impressions regarding the uptake of these hubs are limited, an increase in the use of the vehicles is visible since past summer. This applies especially for the cargobikes offered by Cargoroo. In the coming weeks a few more hubs will be launched: 2 in Elzenhagen (Noord), 3 in Zuidas (Zuid), 1 in Osdorp (City District of Nieuw-West) and 1 in Marineterrein (Centre District). Furthermore, the smart mobility team is currently working on new hub locations: de Hallen (West), Science Park Campus (City District of Oost), Chassébuurt/Baarsjes (West), Watergraafsmeer (Oost) and Centrumeiland (Oost). The coming months it will be more clear how the uptake of the BuurtHubs is and whether there are visible differences between BuurtHubs in different city districts.
The deployment of eHUBS in Amsterdam follows a bottom-up approach, through a participatory process. This process allows the citizens of the neighbourhoods to decide together with the municipality what the BuurtHub will look like and what the mobility offer will be. For example: shared cars, electric cargo bikes, e-bikes, scooters, etc. The first experiences show that the implementation of this approach takes a lot of effort and time and works out differently in each neighbourhood. The higher the interest and investment of the neighbourhood to participate and co-create, the more the BuurtHub is tailored to the mobility needs of a neighbourhood. To experiment further with this notion, next year cooperative BuurtHubs will be introduced. A cooperative BuurtHub refers to a hub whereby a group of citizens manages and maintains a fleet of shared vehicles. With regard to preferences for certain mobility providers, the first results show that price rates and familiarity with the provider tend to be the main reasons for people to choose a certain provider. For example, during a try-out day, people tended to vote for the same providers that were present during the day.
The BuurtHubs can be located using apps like MaaS (Hely) or the providers own apps. These apps are also used to book the electric means of transport. These means of transport and providers are: e-bikes (Deelfiets Nederland and Bondi), e-cargo bikes (Cargoroo), electric cars (Amber, Share Now, We drive solar), LEVs (Biro), and electric mopeds (Felyx, Check). If the trials with the neighbourhood eHUBs are successful, the municipality will make plans , together with the residents for new and permanent BuurtHubs.
