MUV (Mobility Urban Values) levers behaviour change in local communities in an entirely novel approach to reducing urban traffic. Rather than focus on infrastructure, it raises citizen awareness on the quality of the urban environment to promote a shift towards more sustainable and healthy mobility choices. MUV solutions are co-created and validated with learning communities in six diverse urban neighbourhoods – Buitenveldert in Amsterdam (NL), Sant Andreu in Barcelona (ES), Muide/Meulested in the harbour of Ghent (BE), the historic district of Fundao (PT), Jätkäsaari in Helsinki (FI) and the “Centro Storico” of Palermo (IT) – and extended to additional communities through open calls to join the network and adopt the MUV approach.

MUV’s technological ecosystem integrates three components: a mobile and wearable app, a distributed network of environmental monitoring stations (co-designed with local maker communities) and a scalable cloud platform to collect, aggregate and analyse data. The massive amount of data collected
throughout MUV communities feeds local planning and policy-making processes to develop frugal and effective urban mobility solutions. Creativity and artistic design maximize local impact and the diffusion of project results beyond the communities directly involved.

MUV’s ground-breaking approach thus achieves sustainable mobility through a blend of methods: co-creation, awareness raising, gamification, reward systems, new forms of communication, artistic design, ICT and data science, additive manufacturing, and open governance. Rather than embark in investments with long and uncertain paybacks, MUV empowers communities to better translate citizen needs into new solutions, engaging end-users throughout the process to prevent the risk of low take-up. Real impact is measured with an evidence-based approach to maximize economic viability and Social Return On Investment (SROI) and drive replicability and the scaling up and out of MUV solutions.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.