Laboratoria Mobiele Alternatievenves (LaMA) –participative approaches to improving regional mobility

In this project, both inhabitants, users, policy makers and mobility experts get together to provide – based on a bottom-up approach – creative and bold solutions to solve mobility problems in a specific problem zone in the municipality. Throughout this process, an external expert in the participatory approach is involved.

In the selected municipality, the focus lies on one particular problem zone in the municipality. All relevant stakeholders that live, work or use this specific problem zone can be involved in the brainstorming process to improve this zone.

The process includes four steps and takes one year:

1. The first step in the process is to identify, via interviews, the exact traffic bottlenecks and opportunities to improve them;
2. The second step is the co-creation process that brings together the policy makers with the relevant stakeholders to find creative solutions with public support;
3. The third step is to try out the new ideas during the week of the mobility, so that the solutions are implemented in the problem zone during that week;
4. The fourth step is the evaluation of the implemented solutions in the problem zone.

In 2016, the ‘LaMA’ project was conducted in three municipalities. The project was well received in all municipalities by all stakeholders, as it created positive changes in the mobility of the municipality and increased the cohesion between the policy makers, inhabitants and other relevant stakeholders.