In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I have a great conversation with Marco Maréchal, the Strategic Advisor of Communication and Innovation for Smart City and Smart Mobility to the Netherlands. He is also the author of the book “Mobility in the Future 2030: Finally the people have the say” so I felt he was a great guest to round out our month here focusing on #mobiliitymarch.

In this episode, Marco tells us about the project on cooperative vehicles that sparked his interest in Smart Communities 6 years ago and why Smart Communities with humans at the centre are so important to him. We talk about how the Netherlands have embraced Smart concepts, and the Mobility as a Service project Marco is working on reduce congestion and incentivise people to use alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles when commuting to work. Marco shares the biggest benefits he sees in Mobility as a Service and ways the business model of MaaS is still changing and evolving. We discuss ways to better integrate with all stakeholders and how we need to have private cars being a part of the equation in order to start the MaaS conversation. He also tells us about some interesting lessons from an Intelligent Road project in the Netherlands that, in Marco’s words, failed. Plus we finish our chat discussing emerging trends, including air transit and autonomous drones, sustainable mobility movements and how better accessibility and mobility services can enable people to live where they want to live and reduce the need for supercities. As always we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.

Listen here:

What we cover in this episode:

• Marco’s background in Communication and Strategic Innovation in Smart Cities, Mobility and Water
• What a Smart Community means to Marco
• The need for Smart Mobility for different target groups
• How a project on cooperative vehicles in the Netherlands sparked Marco’s interest in the Smart space
• Why Smart Communities with humans at the centre are so important for Marco
• How the Netherlands is embracing Smart Community concepts
• The Mobility as a Service project Marco is working on to reduce congestion and incentivise people to use alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles when commuting to work
• The biggest benefits of MaaS and the different business models that drive interest from different stakeholders
• The power of learning from other countries to make sure we’re integrating in the best way across different MaaS stakeholders for the public good 
• Ways to have private cars being a part of MaaS equation in order to start the mobility conversation
• Some lessons the Netherlands learned from an Intelligent Road project that failed 
• The emerging trends of air transit, autonomous drones and sustainability movements
• How better accessibility and mobility services can enable people to live where they want to live and reduce the need for supercities 
• Marco’s favourite resources for learning more about Smart Communities 

Quotes:

“What I really really want to tap into is the human behaviour of people and see if we can work out something to make the life of people better and more sustainable than it is today.”

“[We need to] combine different kinds of transport and mobility together to build up that community with incentives and gamification. Because to get people on board there always has to be a fun factor or reduction C02 or other stuff that people really are interested in, to [get them to] adapt to that area.”

“[It’s important to] learn from other countries and see what they are doing right or doing wrong, and then adapt it and translate that to the Australian way of living…Learn from other countries, other cities, especially in your neighbourhood, also.”

“[We need] marketing with the different kinds of target groups, because every target group wants a slightly different thing [from] Smart Community and Smart Mobility. So when you’re building up those kind of communities, it also has to come [from] within the people of the communities, otherwise it won’t work.

And that will be a pity.”

“It all starts locally with local people in local neighbourhoods. It’s not about cities and big scales or whatever…It really starts with the local people who have their own initiatives in different areas, and different neighbourhoods already, and combining them, helping them or facilitating them to get to the next step.”

Links: 

Marco’s Book: Mobility in the Future 2030: Finally the people have the say

Connect:

Connect with Marco on LinkedIn or via his website www.toconnect.nl/en

Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

Podcast Production by Perk Digital