Press release from Drive Sweden about the Digital Infrastructure project:

Suddenly the electric scooters come to town. Many are embracing the new mode of transport with glee, while discontent grows over scooters littering the sidewalks and bike lanes. However, municipalities may sometimes lack the practical and legal tools to work proactively to guide development and it is unclear how they will cooperate with different actors. These kinds of obstacles and challenges are to be identified in a new Drive Sweden project in which the Swedish Transport Administration and the municipalities of Linköping, Lund, Stockholm and Gothenburg cooperate.

“We have a great expectation that we will offer a digital infrastructure that enables new types of transport solutions. At the same time, it is very unclear what our responsibilities look like in relation to other actors, both public and commercial, and which investments are the most important to make. With this cooperation, we want to jointly find answers and solutions,” says Sandra Viktor, project coordinator for mobility Linköping Municipality.

“Interesting with a project that focuses on obstacles and challenges identified by municipalities linked to digital infrastructure. The role of state and municipal road managers in the future transport system requires cooperation both nationally and internationally. This project contributes to that,” says Jonna Bäckström, investigator at the Swedish Transport Administration.

“This project is a good example of how we at Drive Sweden together develop and create conditions for modern transport that is sustainable, safe and accessible to all. Moving from technical pilots to implementation requires new types of collaboration. So far, there has been a lack of a forum that focuses on implementation from an authority perspective,” says Sofie Vennersten, Program Manager at Drive Sweden.

About Digital Infrastructure

Digital infrastructure can be divided into hard and soft infrastructure. The hard part is physical infrastructure such as masts, cables, wires and sensors. Soft infrastructure deals with laws, standards and the use of concepts and is what allows data to be shared and used to improve services and functions in the transport system. For example, if traffic signals are connected, traffic in cities could be controlled more intelligently and in real time to avoid unnecessary queues. However, the development is slowed down, among other things, by the lack of standard technology and clear regulations for how the collected data should be categorised and how it can be shared between different actors.

“Power gathering around cities' digital mobility infrastructure” is a strategic project within the framework of Drive Sweden. Partners and co-financiers are Trafikverket, Lund, Linköping, Stockholm and Gothenburg. The hope of the project is to lay the foundation for continued cooperation and that more actors will want to join.

Drive Sweden is one of the government's 17 strategic innovation programmes (SIPs). The strategic innovation programmes are financed through Vinnova, Formas and the Swedish Energy Agency. Lindholmen Science Park AB is the host organization.

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DigInFrom

Financier: Drive Sweden

Project grants: 1,228,348 kronor

Time period: November 2020 - December 2021

Project Management: Lindholmen Science Park

Project partners: City of Gothenburg, Linköping Municipality, Lund Municipality, City of Stockholm, Swedish Transport Administration

Read the final report here

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Photo: Diginfra