Mobility & City

In the track City and Mobility we are taking a look at the impact digitalization has on cities. What does the increasing interconnectedness of urban space mean for the inhabitants of a city? Do sensor-equipped, self-regulated street lamps imply an increase in sustainability or rather a loss of anonymous urban space? We will discuss whether the rejection of a Google campus in Berlin-Kreuzberg or the Amazon headquarters in New York imply a growing global rejection of platform capitalism and urban planning by private hands, or whether these are merely local blips. We will debate whether a smart city is better designed by local governments and citizens or whether it is more efficiently controlled by international tech companies. And we're considering what analogue urban spaces we need in a digital society and what they look like. And we're trying to find out: what comes after the smart city?

Smart mobility not only stands for autonomous driving cars or even air taxis, but also includes how public (urban) space can be shared fairly with all road users. What changes are necessary in public road traffic - which is also the public space of all citizens - in the city of the future? How can we ensure that pedestrians and cyclists have enough space for safe movement despite Car-Sharing and autonomous cars? And what new opportunities are created by the increasing digitalisation of transport, which can be implemented in a way that is both as resource-efficient and emission-free as possible?
We want to investigate: are roads and motorways still the way forward in the future,  and if not, what alternatives are there? Will my digitally-shopped parcel soon be delivered by drone or by cargo bike? How do we deal with the masses of rental bikes that have recently clogged street corners, and does car-sharing really lead to a decrease in unused cars in the city? How effective are first/last mile app connections, and what options are there in public transport to ensure more mobility-on-demand services? What effects do these have on traditional public transport?

And what about the numerous commuters who live outside the cities in the countryside and only have limited access to public transport and few alternatives to their own cars?

These debates are not only discussed in niches by techies, mobility researchers or urban planners, but with a broad participation: because we can learn from almost all disciplines when analysing mobility and the city. We are looking forward to the critical, creative, scientific or artistic contributions of this track. City life and the mobility of the future concern us all - whether cyclists, motorists, city dweller or country mouse.