The Belgian city of Antwerp is a historical city located at the river Scheldt in the north of the country. Due to its port and diamond trade it is the commercial heart of both Belgium and the Flemish region, hosting about 80.000 companies. It is home to 520,000 inhabitants, and boasts one of the most congested ring roads in the TEN-T European network, resulting in a huge impact on the city and its economy.
Antwerp has a radical investment plan to tackle extreme congestion with a masterplan with a dual approach of investing in both infrastructure projects (and one of the most ambitious set of public works Europe has seen in decades) and behaviour change simultaneously.
According to the Vice-Mayor, Koen Kennis, speaking at the Open Mobility Conference event “Antwerp is a ‘living lab’ for smart ideas on mobility of individuals, but also for logistical and maritime challenges. As a city we reach out to all innovators working in this field. We are very excited to support calls for a new Open Ecosystem approach for transportation. This will open up the market for all mobility services all over the world and will break some local monopoly control. This means decoupling services (taxis, scooters, etc.) from their individual apps. It means creating new market opportunities for mobility providers to enter underserved markets.”