On 5 September 2023, the Mobility Working Group convened for its monthly meeting in Thomas Barra’s office, Head of Infrastructure department (SI). The atmosphere was quite relaxed, but the work was substantial. Virginie Mucciante, President of the staff delegation, Caroline Him, Transport officer, and Laurent Betry, Chief Sustainability Officer, made the most of this hour together to discuss various subjects, ranging from financial supports for public transport usage to the installation of showers around campus.
What is the goal of this working group?
Virginie Mucciante: Since the move to Belval in 2015, a number of issues have arisen, including the fact that parking on the Belval campus is chargeable and access to the campus is difficult by public transport. The issue having caused great frustration amongst the staff, the delegation decided to get involved in ‘mobility’. In 2019, when we learned that public transport in Luxembourg would be free, we asked for a subsidy budget to be granted by the University of Luxembourg to promote the use of public transport to go to work be retained and used for sustainable mobility projects. This is how this working group came into being.
Thomas Barra: I joined the group 3 years ago.
Caroline Him: I’ve been there since November 2022.
Why did you join the group?
Laurent Betry: Laurent Frideres, deputy Head of Administration at that time, connected me to the Group some two years ago. My goal was to push the sustainability topic within the commuting discussion, and expand the scope to soft and active mobilities, even if train commuting was, of course, already on the agenda.
Virginie Mucciante: As the President of the Staff Delegation, it was natural for me to join the group.
Thomas Barra: Mobility is one of the main issues in my department. All kinds of mobility. We thought that the Head of the department would be at the right place in this group.
Caroline Him: As a Transport Officer, mobility is my day-to-day subject.
M: Why a working group?
Thomas Barra: A working group is created in a less formal way. A working group has less of an obligation to achieve specific results.
Virginie Mucciante: Our only obligation is to the employees.
Caroline Him: It allows us to share different points of view. We have a day-to-day life, different tasks that may inspire other ideas.
Virginie Mucciante: We’ve asked Laurent to join us in his new role as a Sustainability Officer.
How do you work?
Virginie Mucciante: We have monthly meetings.
Caroline Him: Ideas are spontaneous. We work on certain subjects, but ideas really come from discussions and exchanges we have.
Thomas Barra: We have objectives because we have a budget. We have concrete projects, and we discuss their relevance. It’s not always easy to know whether a project really serves sustainable mobility or has a counter-effect. Opinions can be divided. If we agree on a project, and if it’s feasible from a budgetary and time point of view, we do it.
Is sustainability a key factor in your decision-making?
Collegial and quick response: Yes.
Which illustrates that it is possible. And decision-making is easy? Do you always manage to assess the impact?
Thomas Barra: I’m not an expert myself. You can’t imagine all the effects. I’m not in a position to assess. Laurent has more expertise in this area and more contacts. A lot of the ideas come from him. I suggest as much as I can, but I don’t want to rule out that some ideas are bad.
Caroline Him: Hence the importance of the working group. Beyond that, Laurent has a wide repertoire, and he can always ask for feedback. For example, we’ve had feedback on car-sharing and the creation of the Belval Map.
Laurent Betry: Yes, I think that decision-making is not difficult. We listen to each other, and we have honest discussions about what we want to achieve. The budget is owned by the Staff Delegation and the Infrastructure department has the experience and human resources to study and launch projects. I am dependent on them and I am doing my best to propose projects and actions in accordance with their objectives and means. I am very glad to have found true partners in pushing sustainability in daily commuting.
What has the group achieved recently? Are you proud of them, or not?
Virginie Mucciante: Well, we can be proud of it.
Thomas Barra: A very concrete project is the bicycle shelter in Kirchberg. We set up a bike shelter because a lot of employees were complaining that there were no places to park their electric bikes. The lack of shelters impacted the willingness of colleagues to cycle. So, as a pilot project, we set up a bike shelter for 16 bikes. It may not sound like much, but it’s a box that needs to be installed. And if it works well, we’ll add a second one. It’s a very concrete achievement in terms of infrastructure. We also took part in a meeting with the “Fond Belval” on the construction of other bicycle shelters for the Belval campus.
Virginie Mucciante: We’ve also put some racks in the Limpertsberg garage to keep the bikes out of harm’s way. This was in response to a request from employees.
Thomas Barra: That’s the concrete part, but there’s also the organisational part, such as the financial contribution.
Virginie Mucciante: The contribution for cross-border public transport. Since transport in Luxembourg has been free, it has been important to continue to encourage cross-border commuters to use public transport to get to work. We have a contribution for employees who use public transport. Last year we also ran Klaxit.
Thomas Barra: Which is a success that has yet to be measured. In itself, having set up such a platform is a success. How it works can be improved, of course. It unfortunately doesn’t depend on our group, but more on the performance of Klaxit, which promised us a lot but didn’t deliver.
I met an employee who is using Klaxit.
Virginie Mucciante: There are a handful of them.
He used to carpool before and now he is using Klaxit.
Caroline Him: There was a lot of enthusiasm because the passenger didn’t pay anything, and the driver was well paid. Now conditions have changed and that’s deterred a lot of people from using Klaxit, not from carpooling. It’s quite ingrained in people’s minds in an unofficial way. Klaxit has a technique that isn’t quite up to the expectation.
What about the Belval Map?
Caroline Him: It’s an initiative of Laurent, myself, and the communication department.
Thomas Barra: They asked our opinion on the map.
Laurent Betry: This was a project originating from a remark from Bob Reuter (FHSE) who pointed out that access maps for events often show only routes and parkings for cars. I teamed up with Diana and Anastasia from the Communication department, and of course Caroline as Transport Officer, to expand the idea on creating a nicely designed map that would make the census of all the mobility means from, to and within Belval.
I of course informed the working group and ask for their feedback. I hope now that this map will be used by everybody from the University who needs to use it. For this, the vectorised file is available with Diana, which means that it can be adapted and updated. The map is now on the University’s new website, and it should be on the intranet soon, in the mobility section.
I also hope to get a Kirchberg mobility map done in 2024, if time and budget allow it.
Turning to 2024, what are the projects? We talked about the bike shelters. Do you have any other projects?
Thomas Barra: There’s a mini project. Showers for bikers. It would be a big project if we had to start from scratch. We did a survey which showed us that there was a particular need in the Kirchberg area. We had an idea of creating showers, but there are already quite a few, not all of which are operational. But there’s no need to create an expensive infrastructure. It’s a compliance project for Kirchberg and Limpertsberg for this year.
Virginie Mucciante: We’re going to continue with the cross-border public transport pass and Klaxit.
Laurent Betry: when it comes to commuting, we are pursuing two goals. We are trying to propose actions to develop the portfolio of means of transport to access the campus, such as public transport (train and bus), car-sharing (Klaxit and Moovee), e-car solutions (fleet and charging solution), bikes and related infrastructures. We hope that there will be a suitable, sustainable solution for everyone.
I am personally very interested in multimodal solutions, which could be reaching the nearest train station or bus stop in a fast, secure, and sustainable way. So, the group is exploring the possibility to promote the bike as the 1st transport solution to reach a public transport line, with, for example, the vel’OH! subscription in Luxembourg city or completing the national subsidies for the purchase of a bike. These are ideas that we would like to test in the future.
You’re focusing on commuting. Why is it important?
Virginie Mucciante: Exactly, we’re looking for journeys between home and the university or between campuses.
Laurent Betry: Commuting is at the heart of our discussions, as we are trying to make the best use of the budget resulting from the former M-pass funding, which was earmarked for commuting to and from work. Commuting also accounts for 22% of the University’s greenhouse gas emissions, and 64,5 million km travelled each year (2019 estimate) by staff and students. It is one of the priorities of the University’s operational sustainability initiative. In short, it’s a key area for action.
Do you think that the University has a role to play on the local and national level?
Virginie Mucciante: The University is definitely playing a role, yes. We explained to the ministries that Belval was not well enough served. We carried out a mobility survey in 2020, and twice sent statistics showing where employees and students lived. We don’t know if this has had an impact, but there is now the Belval-Thionville bus service.
Isn’t there a limit to what you can do to encourage people to use public transport?
Caroline Him: It’s difficult to meet the needs and expectations of every individual.
Thomas Barra: To be self-critical, there are always good reasons for taking the car. But if there were stronger pressure, a majority might give up the car.
Laurent Betry: Yes, of course. The University is dependent on infrastructure, the bus network, and the availability of trains, but we can also pass on this information to the relevant administrations, for example when the University was consulted about the high-speed tram project between Luxembourg and Esch.
But raising interest and support for public transport and soft mobility in general through our actions will ultimately enable us to improve the infrastructure. And we mustn’t forget that the parking situation at Belval will not improve.