The Antwerp Marketplace for Mobility: partnering with private mobility service providers as a strategy to keep the region accessible

Antwerp is located in the northern part of Belgium. It is the second largest Belgian city (with approximately 524,000 inhabitants) and has Europe's second largest port. Just like other European port cities, the Antwerp urban and port areas are confronted with a complex mobility situation and major road congestion. Namely, port cities face the challenge of reconciling freight and logistic transport with major flows of commuter, citizens and visitors in and around the city. Therefore, the mobility objective of the city of Antwerp is to tackle this port-city challenge, reduce motorized road movements and keep the Antwerp region accessible and liveable. To achieve this, the city, port and its stakeholders, together with support from the European-funded project CIVITAS FORTIS, are implementing a wide range of measures to improve transport infrastructure and to stimulate a modal shift. Not only passenger transport is targeted, but also freight transport and the logistic sector. An important element in the city's strategy towards sustainable mobility is the establishment of Smart Ways to Antwerp, aimed at informing, creating awareness and achieving behavioural change. For this, Smart Ways to Antwerp has a broad range of projects targeting different stakeholders and target groups (citizens, visitors, commuters, companies, entrepreneurs, service providers). One of these programmes is the Antwerp Marketplace for mobility, a platform for partnerships with private mobility service providers. The Marketplace for mobility was launched in September 2016. Two project calls, a European tender call and a constant flow of partnership applications later, this cooperation platform has led to concrete results, interesting insights and fruitful partnerships. Thanks to a close cooperation with the sector, transparency and mutual learning, the city of Antwerp has become a reliable and trustworthy partner in the mobility sector. Firstly, this paper will describe the overall mobility challenge in Antwerp. Then, it will shortly give an idea on how this challenge is tackled in general and what objective there is for the coming years. The EU-funded CIVITAS PORTIS project where Antwerp functions as a living labaratory implementing 'Smart Ways to Antwerp'as a strategy for behavioural change will be discussed. Furthermore, it will zoom in on one specific programme of Smart Ways to Antwerp, namely the Marketplace for mobility, a cooperation platform for partnerships with private mobility service providers. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.