What are the key success factors for Smart Mobility in Amsterdam ?

Whether from a technological, ecological or economic point of view, the smart city has become a very interesting city model for the future. Smart cities have been developed with the aim of analyzing and managing a large number of aspects of a city in order to respond to important issues. A smart city includes mobility, business innovation, education, administration for citizens, employment, power plants, waste, public services (hospitals, schools, justice, etc.), integration of direct and participatory democracy, quality of life, environmental protection, security. This thesis will focus on the aspect of mobility: smart mobility. Since 1930, the population living in urban areas has doubled, bringing many new and complex challenges for cities (Fernandez-Redondo, n.d.). Since the industrial period, economic life has been developing in cities, leading more people to work and live in urban areas. This urbanization creates many challenges for city managers. Mobility within cities is becoming an important concern (Sharma, 2022). Mobility is an important aspect of living in a city, as it determines how easily people can move around and access various facilities and services. Good mobility allows people to easily get to work, school, access health care, and participate in social and cultural activities. It also enables the efficient movement of goods and services, which is essential for the functioning of a city's economy. In addition, mobility can have an impact on the environment, as the way people travel can contribute to air pollution and traffic congestion. It is therefore important for cities to have a well-designed, efficient, accessible and sustainable transportation system. Thus, mobility must satisfy environmental, economic and social issues. Many challenges must be considered to satisfy the greatest number of people. It is becoming increasingly difficult for mobility actors to find solutions to improve mobility and reduce car congestion in cities. Making this means of transport as unattractive as possible has become a major challenge. Environmental, economic and social problems must be addressed simultaneously. We need to rethink public transport, city plans and solutions to ease mobility. The main challenge for cities such as European capitals is to build an intelligent mobility while keeping a historical center. By adding some innovations, changing some mobility plans, having a better organization, it could improve mobility in general. Moreover, at the moment, global warming is a worrying issue. Indeed, it is an important phenomenon that has consequences on the whole planet. It is caused by the increase in the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which causes an increase in the average temperature of the Earth. If global warming is not addressed and greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, it could have serious consequences for the environment (Zhang and al., 2022). This work will focus on smart mobility which is part of the smart city concept. The latter can be divided into 6 different themes: governance, economy, environment, housing, society and mobility (Smart City Institute, n.d.). Of course, this work will focus on the last theme, but the other five will be mentioned because they are all related to each other. When we talk about smart mobility it is very difficult to focus on one aspect only because the very principle of a smart city is not to think about something in particular but it is a set of parameters to be taken into consideration. This work will mainly study the city plans, the problem of car congestion and how to make cars as unattractive as possible. However, smart mobility also includes: public transport, trucks, cabs, bikes, scooters, pedestrians, shared mobility, etc. All these elements will be discussed because they are also closely related when talking about car mobility. Indeed, to dissuade citizens from using the car, it is essential to talk about other means of transport to find an alternative to adopt. Amsterdam is a city with a long history of transportation innovation. It was one of the first cities to adopt bike-sharing programs and has a strong network of canals and waterways used for transportation. The city is also known for its sustainability efforts, and studying mobility in this city could uncover innovative transportation approaches to reduce the environmental impact of moving people and goods. The capital of the Netherlands is a dynamic and diverse city with a rich culture. The city is home to many world-class universities and research institutions that focus on transportation and mobility issues. The city is known for its sustainability efforts, and mobility research in Amsterdam can contribute to the development of more environmentally friendly transportation solutions. Amsterdam is a diverse and multicultural city, and conducting mobility research there is an opportunity to gain a broad perspective on transportation issues (Werkman and al., n.d.). After the literature review, the following practical analysis of the research question will follow: "What are the key success factors for smart mobility in Amsterdam?" A qualitative analysis was conducted through qualitative research. I conducted semi-structured interviews in order to be able to gather the key answers to my research question. The difficulties encountered during this work were mainly contacting mobility actors in Amsterdam. A second difficulty was to create a framework for my topic and not to spill over into too many closely related topics.