Mobility

Public services

16 different pilot projects were conducted curing the STOR-collaboration.

Mobility and transport services are often complex as many different stakeholders and providers are involved. Three of the main actors for mobility and transport in the Oslo Region; Oslo Municipality’s Urban Environment Agency, Ruter and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, joined forces and established the STOR project. The aim was to explore new user-centric, cost-effective and sustainable solutions for transport of people and goods. 

To succeed, they involved service designers from EGGS, Part of Sopra Steria, to help them work towards the following overarching objectives:

Collaboration and innovation to solve mobility challenges

Support Norway's fulfilment of international climate goals

Support the Norwegian Public Roads Administration’s zero vision for the number of people killed or seriously injured in traffic every year

Furthermore, the collaboration also aimed to learn how to:

Offer more seamless mobility solutions and services

Improve collaboration between the parties involved

Make use of user-centric design and early user engagement

Continous user testing was an important part of autonomous vehicles pilot. Image credit: Ruter

The STOR project ran over a total of six years and encompassed no less than 16 pilot projects, where services designers from EGGS were involved in the majority of these. The pilots approached topics such as disabled parking, Mobility as a service (MaaS), smart speed reduction, electric scooters, autonomous vehicles in public transport services and delivery of goods. 

Through a design-driven approach, we involved end users, service providers and other relevant stakeholders, to explore needs, pain points, technology and possible service solutions. Apart from exploring new solutions, an essential part of the process was to transfer the design-driven way of working to the stakeholders and drive collaboration.




Two pilot examples from the STOR-collaboration:

1. Autonomous vehicles in public transport services (Ski and Groruddalen pilots)

A pilot project spanning several years exploring how the technology of self-driving cars could become an integral part of the public transport services in the Oslo region. This can reduce the use of private cars and accompanying congestion (ref: “The Oslo Study”, 2019) and provide a better and more tailored public transport experience.

2. Delivery of goods in the city centre

Exploring how to improve delivery of large goods in city centres, where there is limited parking and curb side available. Amongst other topics, the project explored the potential of flexible curb side management and how different traffic signs are understood.

16 explorative pilot projects and ways of working for continued innovation

Image credit: STOR / Ingeborg Himle Matland

The pilot projects have delivered concrete results through the testing and exploration of new technology and solutions. In addition, one of the main takeaways from the STOR project are new ways of working together, across different organisations, with design-driven innovation. 

Thanks to the thorough involvement and co-creation with the different stakeholders, we have transferred essential innovation capabilities, methodologies and user-centric approaches to Oslo Municipality, Ruter and Statens vegvesen. This value will live on in other projects and enable them to continue collaborating for a smarter transport system in the Oslo region.

Moreover, an essential win from the project has been the agile way of working, daring to test and fail early. Early testing and evidence-based insight has allowed the stakeholders to stop and change direction of the pilots when the hypothesized value failed to materialise. This has saved both time and resources for the stakeholders, while building a culture for exploration.

Improved collaboration and an effective rig for future innovation

While always taking a design driven approach, our service designers aim to tailor the design process to the individual needs of the project. This can be particularly important for innovation projects and working with new technologies. For example, ‘Delivery of goods in the city centre’ was an explorative project where the problems were loosely defined and potential solutions unknown. We relied heavily on observation and early guerrilla concept testing to guide the direction the project should take, in order to create a solution with real impact in everyday life.  Image credit: STOR / Ingeborg Himle Matland

The ‘Autonomous vehicles in public transport services’ pilot worked with a new defined technology, that was quickly changing. The classic design thinking approach determines the need (the why) before the how (technologies etc). For this project, we favoured a dual approach where the project simultaneously explored the capabilities and limitations of the chosen technology and then matched it with users’ mobility needs to create a feasible pilot. Image credit: Ruter

STOR – exploring Smarter Transport in the Oslo Region