Tanja Manders

The mobility system faces several problems, which are especially caused by automobility. Facing the numerous immediate and grand sustainability challenges, the mobility system is under great pressure and a more fundamental change is needed in the way mobility is provided for. So far, the automobility system has been impervious to change, but Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) currently evoke high expectations. Captured in the concept of ‘smart mobility’, the ICT-related mobility innovations are expected to address automobility issues and possibly also trigger fundamental change. The promises and transformative potential led to much enthusiasm in practice and materialized in the form of various experiments that are being conducted.

Also in the Netherlands, the concept triggered the emergence of many experiments. Since approximately 2013, the Dutch national government has been actively promoting smart mobility innovations and initiatives. In addition to the national government’s attention for smart mobility, also other type of actors started to mobilize the concept for their own purposes, resulting in a large number of pilots, projects, and initiatives. To facilitate these experiments, but also to mediate between the multiple actors and interests, specific types of intermediary organizations were furthermore established.

The field of Sustainability Transitions can help to understand the promised transformative potential of smart mobility experiments for the Dutch mobility system. Strategic Niche Management thereby pays particular attention to experiments and niches as loci for possible fundamental change, where niches provide protective spaces for alternatives to develop and eventually scale-up to create a wider impact. A specific strand within transition studies furthermore focuses on the role of intermediary organizations as crucial actors that can support these experimental processes.

However, despite triggering a variety of experiments and involving transition intermediaries, much remains unclear about the transformative potential of smart mobility for the Dutch mobility system. The meaning of the concept and the type of experiments that evolve remain rather unspecified. It is furthermore unclear how the variety of experiments relate to one another and what promising niches emerge from them. Additionally, it is unclear what role the intermediary organizations can play to stimulate the successful emergence of these niches.

Hence, to understand how smart mobility experiments unfold in the context of the Dutch mobility transition, this thesis focuses on unpacking the smart mobility concept, identifying