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Q-Park and Erasmus University Rotterdam held the 2023 Student Award and Thought Leader Event at the Muziekgieterij in Maastricht today. About 120 guests attended the afternoon event where the theme was Urban Mobility in Transition. The keynote speakers were Derk Loorbach from Drift and Lucas van Schijndel from Louwman BYD.

Q-Park CEO Frank De Moor welcomed all the guests including representatives from the Q-Park country organisations.

Keynote speakers focus on mobility transition

Derk Loorbach is Director of DRIFT and Professor of Socio-economic Transitions at the Faculty of Social Science, both at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Derk is one of the founders of the transition management approach as new form of governance for sustainable development.

He works with government bodies to reduce cars in cities. In his talk he explored what the mobility transition means for organisations such as Q-Park. He explained that to achieve a transition we need to break out of the established regime – the dominant and shared ways of thinking, organising and doing – and that this requires imaginative and innovative thinking. We need to start imagining the future and initiate steps to get there. He also envisages Mobility Hubs as a potential cornerstone to public mobility.

Lucas van Schijndel, is General Manager at Louwman BYD (Build Your Dreams). He talked about how BYD is contributing to the mobility transition and how BYD is different to other car manufacturers.

With its origin as a producer of batteries and electronic components, BYD approaches vehicle design from a new angle: not on existing car design but based on its blade battery technology which is cleaner and safer as the fire risk is lower than traditional EV batteries.

BYD is a disruptor to the status quo and is therefore in a position to help accelerate the mobility transition with its MaaS offering and ‘mobility for life’ philosophy.

Q-Park Student Award 2023

Q-Park initiated the Student Award in 2014 to combine theory and academic knowledge with the practical aspects of parking and mobility. Student research projects make a valuable contribution to bridging the knowledge gap. This award, which is jointly run by Q-Park and Erasmus University Rotterdam, is open to all European universities and colleges. Since its inception in 2014, hundreds of students have participated with their theses.

This year the universities submitted a total of 75 entries, from which a shortlist of 11 was selected. These included work from the UK and Belgium as well as the Netherlands. A jury of Parking & Mobility experts assessed the submissions and selected three finalists. Each of the winning students gave a brief presentation of their research and findings.

The winning students present their work

Giuliano Mingardo, senior researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and specialised in parking policy and mobility management, introduced the students and their research. He praised the high scientific standard of all theses submitted and invited each to give a short presentation about their work.

The winners are:

• Rik van den Bogaerdt, TU Delft: Shared Mobility Hubs in Urban Developments

• Govert van Loon, TU Delft: Residential self-selection and changes in travel behaviour and travel attitudes caused by relocation

• Jolien Meulepas, TU Delft: Mobility injustice: focusing on individuals’ capabilities and everyday mobility experiences

A summary of these three theses and the winning theses from previous years are available on the Q-Park Student Award website.

Following the presentations, Frank De Moor presented each of the winners with a cheque for €1,500.

From left to right: Giuliano Mingardo, Rik van den Bogaerdt, Jolien Meulepas, Govert van Loon, Frank De Moor.

The Student Award event was supported by 8 first year Leisure and Event students from De Rooi Pannen in Tilburg.