Roermond Peer Review Summary 6&7 July 2016 ROERMOND (NL)

Transcription

1 Summary 6&7 July 2016 ROERMOND (NL) This paper summarises the key points and recommendations made by a panel of experts who analysed the issue of mobility and retailing in Roermond. Their visit was made in the context of the RESOLVE project. The structure is as follows: KEY PRIORITIES MAIN POINTS OF ADVICE THEMATIC ISSUES GOOD PRACTICES RECOMMENDED BY THE EXPERTS FURTHER INFORMATION KEY PRIORITIES GOVERNANCE Are you a city with an outlet centre or are you an outlet centre with a city? What is the existing balance between the city centre and the outlet centre? Are all the stakeholders properly involved in the decision making process? GETTING INFORMATION Who are the people who come to Roermond? You have a lack of critical data. You need to invest in collecting data in order to be able to measure and show concrete results about your achievements facing the fact that in the future not all the people will not came by car to your city.. SOFT MEASURES Focus on communication and marketing: knowing where do the people who visit the outlet centre come from (so prepare specific travel plans marketing campaigns) enforcing the cooperation with the outlet centre in order to promote public transport breaking down all the possible barriers that many foreign visitors have to get a proper access to your city centre. MAIN POINTS OF ADVICE 1. FOCUS YOUR STRATEGY RE-BALANCING THE ROLE OF THE CITY CENTRE You need to focus your city strategy not only on the visitors as customers of the outlet centre but also on the people that can come to Roermond because of its history and Author mg@resolveproject.eu Page 1

2 inner city centre. Take the positive side of the outlet centre: it brings people to Roermond and makes it a dynamic city. What you need now is to rebalance the power of the outlet centre increasing the value of the city centre. This is a role that the Municipality and its partners can play. 2. IMPROVE YOUR COOPERATION STRATEGY WITH THE OUTLET CENTRE The city has already started a cooperative approach with the outlet centre in order to promote the use of sustainable mobility for the visitors; the approach must be enforced with sustainable mobility marketing campaign linked (for example) to the advertisements organized by the outlet centre or thanks to the cooperation with some of its big partners. The city could also suggest the route to go to the outlet centre to the inner city visiting the city centre. 3. BEHAVIOUR CHANGE : GIVE PEOPLE INCENTIVES TO USE PUBLIC TRANSPORT Ie giving them information, training and, above all, giving people the opportunity to try alternative transport models. In England the local authorities experienced a test ticket in order to help people to experience the benefits of public transport. If the people got in a mindset to use only the car then they don t know anything about the quality of the public transport; they don t know the frequency, they don t know the advantages and so on. But when they experience it and have a good experience, they will use it again. For example, you can offer them a free coffee on the train or in the station, free wifi and so on; it might not be every day but a few times they might consider to use the train again instead of the car. 4. MEASURE WHAT YOU ARE DOING IN SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY IN ORDER TO SHOW CONCRETE RESULTS AND DEMONSTRATE THE EFFICIENCY OF YOUR STRATEGY. Data are important. We know that 25% of the outlet centre visitors are also visiting the city centre. You can give to the outlet centre costumers a different picture and show that the people come to Roermond because the city is there and not because of the outlet centre is there. The Resolve project can be a driver to help in collecting these data. 5. TRY TO INFLUENCE BOTH THE BIG BUSINESS PARTNERS THAT ARE INVESTING IN YOUR CITY AND THE LOCAL ENTERPRENEURS. The city centre and the municipality cannot compete with the DOC (you will lose); but a strategy of cooperation will succeed. You should work differentiating the characteristic of each side: the outlet centre represents a retail centre; the inner city is much more than this Even if the outlet centre is managed by ONE BIG COMPANY and, vice versa, in the Author mg@resolveproject.eu Page 2

3 inner city there are more than 500 entrepreneurs, the Municipality needs to work with and promote both of them. Moreover there is a difference between functional shopping and fun-shopping. Fun shopping people don t care. If the service is good they are happy to stay in the inner city. Functional shopping is, instead, dedicated to specific purposes and parking the car as closer as possible to the place to reach is essential. The suggestion is anyway to keep parking at minimum and give max to pedestrians, space and invest in public transport measures. 6. THINK DIFFERENTLY! Are your entrepreneurs asking about more or not too far new parking spaces to build?? Well, if you want to be a lively city forget completely about parking: give people other reasons to come to your city. Parking spaces don t make the success of your city; it is the attractiveness of the city itself that makes its success. THEMATIC ISSUES A. URBAN LOGISTICS High potential of urban logistic to reduce CO2 emissions Residents vs Shop owners vs fleet operators From home delivery to pick up points Smart distribution Urban logistic will have an huge impact in the future of the cities. It will be also a legal requirement in around 10/20 years. Reducing CO2 thought urban logistic will be a very important priority in the EU. All these subjects have different views. You need to find solution in the management of different interests in the city centre more than in the outlet centre (that is mainly a stand alone area. You need to consider new forms of shopping as well, as e-shopping and so on. Therefore thinking about specific pick up points more then home is crucial. e.g. Urban Consolidation Centres; cargobike, etc B PEOPLE: RESIDENTS AND VISITORS MOBILITY Image of a congested city The fact that the city is considered small is NOT a justification of few investments in smart mobility because you give a negative perception of your city anyway Author mg@resolveproject.eu Page 3

4 Vulnerability of the transportation system Investment in Railway station area vs enlargement of OUTLET CENTRE New parking OUTLET CENTRE vs road capacity? Why max. 1 hour parking? Influencing behaviour through information How to communicate in the right way? The traffic congestion can change in relation to weather conditions or other variable factors. This means your traffic system isn t robust enough. Railway station and Outlet centre are located in different places. Do you have a mobility plan to connect these two place for example by public transport? The Designer Outlet is going to build the largest park garage of the NL new parking spaces. What did you undertake to persuade visitors to travel by sustainable modes of transport? The communication is essential, so why max 1h parking in the city centre? Why do you want only the very short-term parking? If people want to stay 2-3 hours they probably should go to a parking garage, but do they know that? And do retailers know that as well?. What are you going to tell to people? Do you want to say stay home when you foresee a congested day? Or do you want to give them another message? Communication is a key issue in Mobility. Don t forget about the complete picture of your city. On one side, are you sure that your road capacity will be enough? (You are planning to be the largest parking garage of the NL, planning 4500 parking places...). On the other side, everything will be concentrated in the movement of the Outlet centre and less in other parts of the city. The outlet centre is planning to increase the number of visitors as well. (Around 10 mil visitors by 2020). Do you really want that 4/5 mil cars come to Roermond every year? The planning regulation followed in the UK is that in order to build such big mobility projects you have to ask the permission to the city (as in any other city); BUT then the city will ask the company who is making such investment to come up with a travel plan; it means that you can build the biggest parking space in the world but you have to show to the city how to convince the people to come using sustainable transports. This is not compulsory in the NL but at least you can ask it! C RETAIL AND LEISURE Interaction with OUTLET CENTRE? Do you want more visitors from the OUTLET CENTRE coming to the city centre? Do you want them to spend more time and money in the city centre? Author mg@resolveproject.eu Page 4

5 Do you have the right shops and the right activities (also for children, elderly people,...)? Branding and city marketing of the city centre The retail is essential in this presentation because the project is focused on the link between retail and mobility. What is the interaction between the OUTLET CENTRE and the city centre? Do you want more visitors coming to the city centre? And where do you want the people coming spend their time? Do you have the right shops in the city centre? What about language problems? In the outlet centre you find a lot of communication messages in different languages. Instead in the city centre everything is in Dutch. This is a possible barriers for many foreign visitors to get a proper access to your city centre. Where do you want the people spend their money? Do you know who are these people? So, branding the city market is essential as well. Consider also the demographic trend. Again, what is the target do you want to address. GOOD PRACTICES RECOMMENDED BY THE EXPERTS SWEDEN City of VÄXJÖ: Växjö is named Europe s greenest city : up to 2008 fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions had been reduced by 35% per inhabitant compared to At the same time, economic growth had increased by 69%. This is a great example of sustainable, low carbon dioxide and resource-effective economy based on sustainable production (this city is partner of the RESOLVE project!!!) Environmental-Objectives/ UK 1) A project to improve the use of Sustainable Transport n the Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet Centre 2) A parking project developed in the city of Nottingham where with some money paid for parking has been invested in public transport building a new new tramline nowadays very well used. It is an example of mechanism that can be used or other ways of funding combined with measurement of incentives in order to discourage parking THE NETHERLANDS Amsterdam: it is a big city experimenting different solutions: Urban solutions Energy, waste and water solutions Sustainable mobility Sustainable finance and public private partnerships It s an example of mixed solutions!!! Author mg@resolveproject.eu Page 5

6 FURTHER INFORMATION Is provided in the Annex 1 Author mg@resolveproject.eu Page 6

7 ANNEX 1 a) SUMP state of play in Roermond The city of Roermond represents an interesting case study in relation to the retail sector: in this city the mobility circumstances are special because retail-related traffic has a huge impact on the mobility situation of the city. The Designer Outlet Centre (OUTLET CENTRE) which is linked to the Inner City attracts around 6 million visitors per year. As a result of this, the road network is busier in weekends than during workday peak hours. In the 2 nd half of 2015 the city of Roermond started its SUMP; the process that has been implemented in 2016 setting out, beside the general themes of traffic safety and accessibility, five priority themes: Smart Mobility, to ensure that travellers are well informed, so that they make smart decisions. In addition, the infrastructure handles new technological developments in a flexible and smart way. Optimising Use (Beter Benutten), to ensure that the infrastructure can process more movements, for example on peak days. The city is doing this by optimising the traffic system and by stimulating road users to travel by other modes of transport or at other times (outside the peak hours). This ensures that the traffic system continues to function optimally. Influencing Behaviour, where we focus on the road user s own responsibility. People influence their own traffic behaviour and that of others. Improving the possibilities of chain mobility increases Walking and Cycling in the city. Residents are encouraged to walk and cycle within the city. Roermond Station is a Regional Mobility Hub that forms a business card for the city and the region. b) The Peer Review process in Roermond The RESOLVE project has set up a programme of Peer Reviews where one or more sustainable urban mobility planners, or other experts in the field, are invited to review the situation in each partner region before it prepares its (latest) Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan. The experts will assess partners intentions and help them to identify what good practices they should seek out. As LP, the city of Roermond hosted the first Peer Review involving the local team and selecting the following 7 experts 1 on the basis of the CVs sent by the partners by the end June: Giuliano Mingardo, Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL) Robert Stüssi, Perform Energia (PT) Mike Bérénos, Transition Team Traffic & Mobility (NL) Lucy Low, AECOM (UK) Fiona Simon, Transport for Greater Manchester (UK) Tony Wijntuin, WYNE Strategy & Innovation (NL) Fredrik Mårdh, Energy Agency for Southeast Sweden (SE). The programme of the Peer Review has been: 1 See attachment N. 1 for more details. Author mg@resolveproject.eu Page 7

8 Day 1 6 July 2016 Start End Item Spokesperson 11:00 12:00 Briefing expert team Giuliano Mingardo, EUR 12:00 13:00 Lunch - 13:00 13:15 Word of welcome Raja Fick, board member Roermond 13:15 13:30 Program of the Peer Review Jan Waalen, Roermond 13:30 14:00 General introduction of Roermond Joost Engels, Roermond 14:00 15:00 Mobility policy and SUMP process Roermond Jan Waalen, Roermond 15:00 15:15 Coffee - 15:15 15:45 Meeting with SUMP Steering Group Raja Fick, board member Roermond 15:45 16:45 Site visit Designer Outlet Centre Judith Boonen, Desginer Outlet 16:45 17:45 Site visit City Centre Rens Hendrikx, City Manager 17:45 19:00 Light dinner buffet - 19:00 21:00 Meeting with SUMP Stakeholder Group Jan Waalen, Roermond 21:00 22:00 Informal evaluation of day one - Day 2 7 July 2016 Start End Item Spokesperson 8:30 9:00 Reception with coffee and tea - 9:00 9:30 Review day one and Program day two Giuliano Mingardo, EUR 9:30 11:30 Drafting advise to Roermond (Part 1) Giuliano Mingardo, EUR 11:30 12:30 Meeting with SUMP Project Group Jan Waalen, Roermond 12:30 13:00 Lunch Buffet Jan Waalen, Roermond 13:00 15:00 Drafting advise to Roermond (Part 2) Giuliano Mingardo, EUR 15:00 15:15 Coffee - 15:15 16:45 Presentation of the Peer Review advise Experts 16:45 17:00 Conclusion of the meeting Raja Fick, board member Roermond c) Key elements of the presentations and advice given by the experts The first day, after a general introduction of the programme, has been dedicated to the visit of strategic points of the city centre and the outlet centre This gave the possibility to the experts to: have a concrete idea about the material they knew in advance about the topics and the issues to discuss with the others the day after. meet and discuss with the local stakeholders and key decision makers in order to address the mobility problems and challenges the city of Roermond is facing. The second day has been dedicated to: i. presentations concerning a first feedback from the experts and ii. a series of advices given to the city from the experts prospective. Author mg@resolveproject.eu Page 8