NICHES was a project within the 6th Framework Programme (FP6) of the European Commission, which facilitated networking among urban transport stakeholders and promoted the uptake of 12 innovative urban transport concepts throughout Europe. The three year project (2004-2007) was supported by the European Commission's Directorate General for Research.

The aim of NICHES was to help stimulate a wide debate on innovative urban transport and mobility between relevant stakeholders from different sectors and disciplines across the EU and accession countries, in order to promote the most promising new concepts, initiatives and projects from their current "niche" position to a "mainstream" urban transport policy application.

Four working groups covered the following thematic areas:

• New seamless mobility services
• Innovative approaches in city logistics
• New non-polluting and energy efficient vehicles
• Innovative demand management strategies.

The NICHES project objectives were:

• To enhance discussion and knowledge exchange between practitioners, experts and researchers in the field of urban transport in Europe, ensuring that different sectors will be involved (transport authorities, operators, industry, academics, and other researchers as well as users).
• To provide a forum for those involved in European research activities and projects as well as national, local and industrial initiatives in the area of innovative urban transport concepts to share their knowledge and experience.
• To develop an accessible document store and a knowledge base amongst urban transport experts and practitioners on innovative transport concepts as well as integrated urban transport strategies, in which several innovative concepts are implemented in a combined way (OSMOSE).
• To identify future research needs and pave the way for innovative transport concepts, meeting mobility needs in 2020.
• To elaborate recommendations on developing and implementing innovative concepts in the framework of integrated urban transport strategies.

Results

NICHES provided coordination for a wide range of innovative urban transport concepts through a combined programme of stakeholder involvement via targeted in-depth interviews, expert working groups (adopting a successful focus group approach), and validation as well as dissemination workshops, accompanied by desk research and good practice analysis.

NICHES enhanced the discussion on urban transport innovation in Europe and helped to bring together a wide range of relevant stakeholders for a very valuable exchange of information and good practice.

Through the networking activities as well as the provision of recommendations and concrete guidance for the implementation of innovative concepts (see policy notes for download below), NICHES also helped to kick-off the concrete uptake of several innovative urban transport concepts. The NICHES policy notes, which give advice on the implementation process (preparation, actual implementation phase, follow-up/ long term strategy) for all 12 NICHES Concepts proved to be extremely valuable for stakeholders interested in the uptake of the innovative solutions.
Some concepts visibly met with high interest and WG leaders were approached from many sides for more information and advice on implementation. This was for example the case for the concept of public bicycles, which currently is a 'hot topic' in France and Spain. Other concepts were more difficult to "sell" and a direct uptake is difficult to achieve (e.g. more complex concepts such as Transport Management Associations). Nevertheless, the encouragement of discussions on such concepts was also seen as very valuable by experts participating in the WG meetings (e.g. through the exchange with US experts on the topic) with a view to the long term potential.

Overall, the feeling of the Consortium and the majority of the experts who participated in working group meetings was that NICHES filled a gap by promoting innovative urban transport concepts, which still have underused potential and can become important elements of future urban mobility and transport strategies across Europe.
 

Rupprecht Consult had a strong role in NICHES and provided the technical coordination of the project. Rupprecht Consult was also the Working Group leader for the thematic area of "New Seamless Mobility Services" and responsible author of many NICHES publications.
 

Polis - European Cities and Regions Networking for New Transport Solutions

The consortium of the NICHES project is made up of 7 partners coming from the following five European countries: Belgium, France, Poland, Germany, and Sweden.

All the partners are known as experts of innovative urban mobility policies in their countries and at EU level.

In the project consortium, the following types of organisations are represented:

• City networks: Polis, Access, CEMR
• City authorities: Municipality of Stockholm
• Universities: Warsaw University of Technology
• Private research and consultancy companies: Rupprecht Consult Forschung & Beratung GmbH,
• System suppliers for innovative urban transport projects: PTV Planung Transport Verkehr AG

Sebastian Bührmann

Tel. +49-221-6060 5514

NICHES Project Website
http://www.niches-transport.org

OSMOSE website on innovations in urban transport
http://www.osmose-os.org

Publications for download
NICHES developed a range of brochures to enhance the development and uptake of urban transport innovation, which can be downloaded here:

• Innovative Urban Transport Concepts - Overview document
• Encouraging Urban Transport Innovation on the Local Level - Policy Recommendations
• Policy notes on each of the 12 innovative concepts examined (incl. guidance on implementation) - see table:

• Guide to Innovative Urban Transport Strategies (Integrated packages of measures)
• Clean Vehicles and Alternative Fuels - Trends and Visions
• Facilitating Urban Transport Innovation on the European Level - Research and Policy Recommendations