The DREAMS Project

14 February 2024ContactDany Nguyen-Luong, Élie Guitton

The DREAMS Project (Driving Equitable and Accessible 15-Minute Neighbourhood Transformations) is a Driving Urban Transitions (DUT) partnership from the Horizon Europe programme. DREAMS brings together around thirty European partners, it will be running for three years, from January 2024 to December 2026.

The DREAMS project aims to examine how co-created and user-centric mobility services, mobility and flexible activity hubs can contribute to accessible, sustainable and inclusive 15-minute City (15mC) neighbourhoods in urban outskirts in European cities and regions. DREAMS will conduct research in six living labs across Europe: Budapest, Brussels, Munich, Paris, Utrecht and Vienna. DREAMS will firstly provide a comprehensive and comparative analysis of 15mC lifestyles in a variety of low- to mid-density suburban and urban outskirts in the six regions. Secondly, DREAMS will develop and test new business models and governance frameworks for new shared mobility services and flexible activity hubs in low/medium density areas. Thirdly, DREAMS will develop and apply a decision support tool for the co-creation and impact assessment of mobility services, mobility hubs and flexible activity hubs in the DREAMS living labs. Fourthly, DREAMS will examine the mobility, accessibility and wider societal impacts of the mobility services, mobility hubs and flexible activity hubs services. Finally, the last aim is to give policy recommendations on pathways towards creating sustainable and inclusive urban mobility in 15mC neighbourhoods in urban outskirts through the utilisation of co-created and user-centric mobility services, mobility and flexible activity hubs and new governance-business models.

The Île-de-France region and the Essonne département are one of the six DREAMS living labs. The Île-de-France region has adapted the 15-minute city concept to the regional scale, putting forward the "20-minute region" concept. "I want to build a 20-minute region where all amenities are accessible in less than 20 minutes by public transport", declared Valérie Pécresse, President of the Île-de-France region and President of the Institut Paris Region, in the 2024 Regional Master Plan.

The Institut Paris Region is working along with three other French partners (Université Gustave Eiffel, Île-de-France region, Essonne département) to map the existing planning and governance practices and business framework. This includes examining the various strategies of different cities to address the 15mC goals in different planning processes, hierarchies, and functions within the built environment. In the Île-de-France region and the Essonne département, (multimodal) mobility hubs emerge due to the upscaling of a network of car-pooling parking infrastructures connected to feeder modes – walking and (shared) cycling, car-pooling lines services – and to public transport, including new Bus Rapid Transit lines. The Paris Living Lab will examine the potential of mobility hubs on accessibility, mobility behaviours, and urban development of this region and envisage further development of these hubs.

THE 6 DREAMS LIVING LABS

Six DREAMS living labs sites have been selected to complement each other, addressing different challenges, urban mobility contexts and different social and geographical contexts.

Budapest
Brussels
Munich
Paris
Utrecht
Vienna

The Île-de-France region (1,267 cities and 12,300,000 inhabitants) has a vast transport network with 14 suburban train lines, 16 metro lines and 14 tramway lines. BRT and car-pool lines connected to multimodal mobility hubs are to be implemented in the near future.

The Essonne département (194 cities and 1,300,000 inhabitants) is made of diversity of low- to mid-density suburban and urban outskirts in the South of Paris. It is home for the Paris-Saclay research-intensive and business cluster (10,500 professors/researchers and 60,000 students).