What?
What do you want the street of the future to look like? Can we create better conditions for people's lives?
These are the questions we ask ourselves in this pilot project where we test placing modules on selected streets to invite more life and movement in the urban environment.
The mobility hub has come about thanks to a collaboration between the Vinnova project Street Moves, the city of Helsingborg and Arkdes.
Why?
In a denser city, the common areas are becoming increasingly important. Many different needs must be met and varying streets provide space for life and movement and create a safer environment for those who live there.
We are curious to explore how new physical elements, such as mobility hubs, affect how and who uses the urban space. By allowing a temporary installation to take place on the street, we can evaluate how the street is used and use it as a basis for future renovations.
How?
With the help of interactive kits, we can easily test different solutions and transform a street by creating space for, for example, play, outdoor gym or cultivation and enable a social hub or something else that gives the street life. The kit consists of an expandable base plate in light glulam with specially adapted parts that are placed on top. The hub on Södra Storgatan has been designed to create seating and bicycle parking, but also to add greenery and lighting to the place. It creates a new urban space with people in focus.
During the autumn of 2021, the hub will be evaluated, among other things, through comments from citizens. The hub has been given an explanatory sign that is linked to a number of survey questions where our citizens can leave comments and describe how they experience the installation. So far, we have generally received a positive response, where it is generally felt that it helps to reduce speeds on the street and creates a safer and more attractive environment.
We take the experiences from this project into other similar initiatives that the administration is working on.