Smart mobility projects: Towards the formalization of a policy-making lifecycle

Smart mobility, one of the key smart city application areas, has been increasingly important in the daily management of cities. Smart mobility can improve citizens’ well-being and reach sustainability objectives by establishing an appropriate mobility system. However, despite the availability of research about practical smart mobility cases, the required smart mobility building blocks, and the technical requirements of smart mobility systems, a formal policy-making lifecycle to guide the execution of smart mobility projects is missing. The goal of this paper is to distill a policy-making lifecycle of smart mobility projects by investigating how these are commonly executed. To reach this goal, sixteen interviews with stakeholders from diverse Belgian and Dutch cities are conducted and eight documents related to smart mobility are analyzed. These data sources allowed to design and validate a holistic smart mobility framework. The framework includes seven phases (idea, analysis, agenda-setting, preparation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation) and links each phase with the stakeholders involved (public agents, citizen, companies, and researchers) and related challenges. The key challenging aspect in the execution of smart mobility projects relates to the need for balancing many factors such as capacity or procedures. This paper is relevant to local governments of medium and large cities to help them approach smart mobility projects in a more holistic manner. Furthermore, this paper is relevant for researchers as it provides an analytical lens to examine smart mobility projects in smart cities.