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Chalmers campus

It has been a journey of knowledge to collaborate with IVL's experts

Both of Chalmers' campuses in Gothenburg are facing major changes and the real estate company Chalmersfastigheter needed to make a long-term plan for sustainable mobility solutions. The IVL Swedish Environmental Institute found the experts in mobility.

- We chose IVL because we needed a specialist. IVL's experts have a solid reputation in mobility issues and they stand for neutrality. Another reason was that two of the experts worked on the first Green Itinerary for Chalmers that the municipality produced. So they have good local knowledge, says Åsa Östlund at Chalmersfastigheter.

Chalmers' two campuses in Gothenburg, Lindholmen and Johanneberg, are changing and facing densification. With over 4,500 employees and 11,000 students, there will be many trips, both to and from and between the two addresses. Most take place by bicycle or by public transport, only 14 percent of the trips are car-borne.

The challenge for the university's real estate company Chalmersfastigheter is to create conditions for sustainable travel and at the same time maintain a good service to the tenants. Another ambition is to free up valuable plots of land that today are parking lots. How many parking spaces should be planned for new construction? Should they be built down in a garage or take up land? Additional aspects are access to charging posts, bicycle garage, need for new bus and tram stops. It becomes a complicated puzzle where decisions often affect development for a long time to come.

Contacted IVL on recommendation

- We had started a campus plan and looked at the campus areas in the long term, with the stops 2035 and 2050. We had sketched on which land areas we can build on and where we are going to demolish. In that work, we knew that mobility is a big issue. Sustainable mobility is also a priority goal for the development of Chalmers campus, says Åsa Östlund.

Åsa Östlund contacted IVL Swedish Environmental Institute for help with a mobility plan. The choice was made on recommendation. IVL employees Mats-Ola Larsson and Anders Roth are frequently consulted experts in the field. Mats-Ola Larsson led the work on behalf of IVL Swedish Environmental Institute:
- There are not many who have worked with parking and mobility issues in the way we have done.

Åsa Östlund talks about the work with IVL's experts:
- We had a number of meetings but in general they got their hands free. I had a hard time seeing exactly what end product we would get. I thought a little naively that it would be very concrete: we will plan so many parking spaces for 2035.

Instead, she received qualified analyzes of how subsidizing parking spaces affects car travel. How different fees can be used to control travel. How travel can be controlled to a bicycle through own bicycle pools, how to develop electric car pools, how it is possible to think about new means of transport such as electric scooters and how all these mobility functions can be gathered in working hubs.

Pointed out solutions with a palette of actions

- When I read the report today, I see that very many of the points we have already worked into the project plan which is a consequence of the campus plan that was established earlier this year.

The Campus Plan describes Chalmers' long-term strategy for attracting students, researchers and companies. This will be done by developing the university's environments for learning and research and its outdoor environments. There, mobility is an integral part.

- We described what opportunities Chalmersfastigheter has to control travel in collaboration with other players. We pointed out solutions and gave them a range of measures to work with. It turned out to be 40-50 headlines. We also gave tips on how to talk to the city of Gothenburg about public transport, says Mats-Ola Larsson.

Formed a strategic mobility group

Mats-Ola Larsson has special experience of the latter, among other things since he was involved in the City of Gothenburg's project on mobility issues. There he realized that it is seldom an idea to prop up new bus lines or stops, because there is no overview of the public transport network and how to optimize the flows.
- The tip we got was not to go to the municipality or Västtrafik and give ready-made proposals, but instead talk about what our needs are, says Åsa Östlund.

One result of the mobility plan is that Chalmersfastigheter has formed a strategic mobility group that works continuously with the issues. It is about travel, parking, goods reception, noise and other environmental and sustainability issues. This work is supported by the report produced by IVL Swedish Environmental Institute's experts.

Another result was that it was soon realized that a travel habits survey was needed. It became a follow-up assignment and even there Mats-Ola Larsson could use his experience from the public sector. For example, the survey was designed with real scope for free text answers because he knew it was in demand by public actors. And among other things, Västtrafik has shown great interest in the survey and Chalmersfastigheter has had various contacts with the public transport company.
- We have also been able to talk about our needs, says Åsa Östlund.

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