2019 has been the year of multimodality in Aarhus. In the pilot area, two mobility points have been constructed and the citizens are eager to start using them. The mobility points are amongst the measures implemented in Aarhus in 2019 that will improve the conditions for living in the city centre without a car. In April, The City of Aarhus made an agreement with a Swedish e-scooter company on a provision of 150 e-scooters in a shared scheme. 14 out of 80 geo fenced hubs for the e-scooters are in the cities.multimodal pilot area.
The e-scooters supplemented a system of 500 privately operated city bikes. It is foreseen to extend the city bike scheme by 100 e-bikes in 2020 as well as looking into testing cargo-bikes. In November 2019, 100 privately operated free-floating, shared electric cars were introduced in Aarhus. Before that, there was only a few shared electric cars available for the public.
Also, the public is involved in the implementation of cities.multimodal related measures. A local, citizen-driven e-bike sharing system is under development in the pilot area and the local community group has as well been offered 10 bike trailers to use in a sharing system. Besides, two Living Street campaigns were organised in the summer by the City of Aarhus in strong co-operation with local stakeholders. In connection to the campaigns the residents of the pilot area dressed the streets with old chairs and flowers.
Text and photos: Gustav Friis, Aarhus Municipality
