Smart Move
Creating future scenario's for mobility in Waalwijk
Dutch capital Amsterdam is booming. Its economy is set to grow by 2.8% in 2019 and 2.3% the next, boosted by 57,000 new jobs. Meanwhile, smaller Dutch cities, such as Waalwijk, are seeing their working age population shrink as young people move away to start their careers elsewhere.
Since the knowledge economy rushed in to replace industry with high-end services, opportunities have clustered in big cities. Smaller towns, like Waalwijk - a city of 40,000 residents, suffer the back-end. Between 2013 and 2020, Amsterdam and the national government invested €10 billion in public transport for the capital, aiming to eventually make the city car-free. Waalwijk’s only train station closed in 1957. Most trips, short and long distance, are made by car.
Urban transformation at the hands of e-commerce has been particularly acute in the Netherlands. As the country serves as the logistics center of Europe, 420 million parcels were sent in 2017. Waalwijk, conveniently located on junctions of rivers and highways, has been transformed over the past decade by the very physical infrastructure of e-commerce; warehouses, fulfilment centres and a complex network of roads jammed with transport cargo.
Design consultancy
UNSense was asked to develop a smart mobility strategy for the mid-size city of Waalwijk. Data analysis, combined with a participatory design research process, led to four main insights. These where then translated to four future scenario’s and potential interventions. All proposals aim to cultivate expertise from the logistics industry, and require public-private collaboration. Through applying the existing local knowledge to benefit the town, while at the same time giving companies space to experiment in the public realm, we’re turning Waalwijk into an innovation district even bigger cities can learn from.
“In 10 years from now, Amsterdam will receive and process 100.000 packages a day. ”
— Walther Ploos van Amstel, lector city logistics at HvA
“Bol.com starts experiment with 2-hour-deliveries in Amsterdam.”
— Het Parool
Interventions
The ‘Delivery Mile’, as pictured below, brings the town’s expertise into the streetscape, bridging residents and industry, and building a shared identity. Waalwijk suffers from a vacant high street, while the local e-commerce companies test quick delivery methods only in bigger cities. The proposed corridor for drones creates a straight connection from the warehouses to a central pick-up point. By ensuring that residents can pick up their packages quickly, the concept creates new footfall patterns and experiments with new public infrastructures.
In ‘Nu-Bus’, we design a data-driven model for public transport. Incoming commuting patterns are guided by our nationwide online shopping behavior, which varies on the mercy of weather conditions and festivities. With a local on-demand electric bus network, we connect local residents and employees by matching their trips.
The industrial area is growing, and a new adjacent port is currently being developed. This brings the opportunity to integrate automated processes from the beginning, freeing up public space for other activities. In ‘Robothaven’, we are exploring methods to create a green and accessible business park, opening up the area to visitors, start-ups and attracting young talent.
Where, when Waalwijk, 2019 - 2020
While working for UNSense
Team Ren Yee, Tessa Steenkamp, Yuehan Wang, Huey Chan, Lars van Hoften, Alice Haugh
Client Gemeente Waalwijk
Collaborators Bol.com, Lightronics, Van Mossel, Syncreon, MindLabs, VCS, Gemeente Tilburg, Smartways, TU/e Smart Mobility, Aorta Business intelligence