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Q-Park and Erasmus University Rotterdam held its annual Student Award and Thought Leader Event at Canteen Walhalla in Rotterdam today. The theme for this tenth edition was Mobility transition for communities. Q-Park selected the Rotterdam Katendrecht-Wilhelminapier area where this mobility transition is an essential part of urban development.

Programme in two parts

Walking Tour

In the morning, about 80 guests including representatives from the Q-Park country organisations, joined the morning programme which was dedicated to a walking tour of the impressive Wilhelminapier and Katendrecht urban developments. Armed with a complimentary mobility mug full of hot coffee, guests embarked on the tour in five groups, each with a Q-Park guide.

The guides gave a brief history of the area and explained how the City of Rotterdam encourages multifunctional developments on this south side of the river Meuse which is linked to the city centre of Rotterdam by the iconic Erasmus bridge.

Q-Park was involved with Wilhelminapier and Katendrecht peninsular developments from the outset, advising developers and the municipality on mobility and parking matters. This has resulted in four new multifunctional parking facilities, with a total capacity of 1,575 spaces.

On Wilhelminapier:

• Q-Park De Rotterdam

• Q-Park Boston & Seattle

On Katendrecht:

• Q-Park Fenix

• Q-Park Rijnhaven

Student Award and Thought Leader Event

The afternoon programme took place in the Walhalla theatre: a fun location with tiered seating and ample space for about 140 guests attending. In his word of welcome, Q-Park CEO Frank De Moor said that this is perhaps the most important event in the Q-Park calendar. “We’re making a mark” he said, “it’s easy to devise theoretical solutions to mobility problems, but putting them into practice is a different matter.” This event seeks to combine them.

Keynote speakers focus on mobility transition for communities

For the past 20 years Rogier André de la Porte, Director of City Development (Municipality of Rotterdam), played a crucial role in shaping the city’s mobility and strategic plans in previous roles. In his current role, he is responsible for creating an attractive city and a pleasant living environment for all residents of Rotterdam.

Rogier explained that Rotterdam’s biggest challenge is maintaining mobility in the urban area while building some 50 thousand homes before 2040. Rotterdam’s residents have to move around the city for work, schools, shopping and leisure and excluding private cars from the equation simply would not work.

Public transport and shared mobility are also an essential element in the new urban mobility landscape as more multifunctional residential blocks are being built with limited parking spaces.

Director PON Mobility, Raymond Gense explained how PON started as a family-owned company and is now operating on a global scale with the motto: We move you to a better world. PON has no shortage of innovative mobility ideas and has established many shared mobility services, the most successful being:

• Greenwheels shared cars;

• Swapfiets, an all-inclusive bicycle subscription.

Raymond explained that an ecosystem of connected and electrified shared mobility solutions will create smart travel options. Now that market parties have joined the collaboration platform Natuurlijk!Deelmobiliteit, which loosely translated means ‘Shared mobility, of course’, Raymond expects this to make positive advances in the mobility transition. He also emphasised that these parties must align policies and market expectations, and allocate resources so the mobility transition for communities actually happens.

Q-Park Student Award 2024

This is the tenth edition of the Student Award, initiated in 2014 by Q-Park and Erasmus University Rotterdam 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 is open to all European universities and colleges. Since its inception in 2014, more than 80 theses and projects have been considered for the award.

This year, projects were submitted from universities in Belgium and the Netherlands, from which a shortlist of eight was selected based on their scientific quality. A panel 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 praised the high scientific standard of their research. He emphasised that AI might be able to help generate ideas, but it’s not capable of implementing solutions.

The winners are:

• Agata Oskroba, Maastricht University: Parking Demand Prediction: time series forecast for subscription and reservation customers with event-correction framework.

• Evi Rombouts, University of Antwerp: Finding suitable drop zone locations for free-floating forms of micromobility.

• Laura Drechsel, TU Delft: Stories of Aging and Access - Exploring capabilities and challenges of accessibility for urban elderly through microstories.

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.

Back row, from left to right: Giuliano Mingardo, Frank De Moor, Theo ThuisFront row, from left to right: Laura Drechsel, Evi Rombouts, Agata Oskroba

Q-Park looks back on a successful day of learning and networking.