The discussions showed that participants were generally familiar with the idea of autonomous mobility, although their level of knowledge varied. Previous experience with Barcelona’s automated metro lines helped some participants relate to the concept, while others required a clearer explanation of how autonomous vehicles operate. A common theme was the need for transparent information about how the vehicles function, how routes are managed, and what happens in the event of an incident. Participants highlighted that understanding the technology is an essential first step towards building trust.

Safety emerged as the main factor influencing acceptance. Participants expressed interest in autonomous mobility but emphasised that its deployment should be gradual and supported by extensive testing. Features such as controlled driving speed, smooth vehicle movements, visible safety features, emergency buttons, and the possibility of contacting a remote human operator were considered essential for building confidence. Most participants also indicated that they would feel more comfortable with autonomous buses or minibuses operating on fixed routes before expanding to more flexible services, such as robotaxis.

Accessibility and comfort were also identified as key requirements. Easy boarding and alighting, sufficient space, comfortable seating, good temperature, clear route information, and inclusive design for people with reduced mobility were considered fundamental. While participants were generally open to using digital tools such as mobile applications, they stressed that these should remain intuitive and complemented by alternative forms of assistance to avoid excluding users with lower digital confidence.

Despite expressing understandable caution, participants were generally willing to try autonomous mobility once the technology has been thoroughly tested and demonstrated to be safe and reliable. They recognised potential benefits, including improved access to healthcare and essential services, safer travel, fewer accidents, and greater transport accessibility. Overall, the discussions highlighted that older adults are not resistant to innovation; rather, they expect autonomous mobility services to be introduced in a transparent, inclusive and trustworthy way that responds to their everyday mobility needs.

The post Focus Group with older adults: Understanding the conditions for accepting Autonomous Mobility appeared first on Cultural Road.

The student perspective was chosen deliberately: Karlsruhe is strongly shaped by universities, research institutions and an international student population. More than one in ten residents are students and almost one in five students at Karlsruhe’s higher education institutions are foreign nationals. Accordingly, participants came from different countries and brought experience from different transport systems and mobility cultures. Some also contributed technical perspectives from their studies, particularly on infrastructure, safety and system reliability. Together, these experiences made the group especially valuable for discussing how autonomous mobility may be understood by future users with diverse cultural and educational backgrounds.

Where perceptions of AVs come from

Participants associated Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) with ideas such as “future,” convenience and innovation, but also with uncertainty and lack of control. Their views were shaped by a wide range of influences, including science-fiction films, social media, news coverage and personal experiences with automated transport systems. Some referred to experiences with automated metro systems such as those in Sofia, while others drew on broader media narratives about electric and autonomous vehicles and their common intertwining. This showed clearly that perceptions of autonomous mobility are shaped not only by direct use, but also by cultural narratives, public debate and own studies. Referring back to the blog post title, they all have one thing in common: shaping perceptions of autonomous vehicles.

Why safety remains the key question

For some participants, safety was one of the main arguments in favor of automated mobility; for others, it was the strongest reason for hesitation. Several participants stressed that even a system described as “99.9% safe” would still not feel sufficient when human lives are involved. A recurring point in the discussion was the perceived importance of some form of human backup, whether through remote intervention, emergency systems or an operator who could step in if something went wrong.

Everyday situations, everyday users

At the same time, the discussion showed that acceptance depends on context. Autonomous shuttles were often perceived more positively than robotaxis, particularly in structured, urban or semi-controlled environments. On the other hand, participants noted that robotaxis could feel safer in certain situations, especially at night.

Participants were more open to autonomous mobility when it was discussed in relation to specific, realistic use cases such as commuting, travelling at night with unfamiliar drivers or fellow passengers, parking in tight spaces or getting around without access to a private vehicle. These examples showed that acceptance increased when automated services were seen as a way to address everyday mobility, insecurities or practical driving challenges. Talking about concrete situations made the technology feel more understandable and, for some, more acceptable.

The group also reflected on who might benefit most from autonomous mobility. Participants suggested that the typical user could include commuters, younger people without a driving license, people with physical disabilities and users who are comfortable with technology.

Tension between technological curiosity and practical caution

This led to a broader question of what kind of skills or knowledge future users may actually need. Participants noted that people with driving experience might in fact be more skeptical, because they are more aware of what can go wrong. By contrast, technical confidence and a basic understanding of how such systems work were often seen as more relevant than driving skills themselves.

Another interesting contribution of this group was that participants often approached the issue not only as everyday users, but also through technical or analytical lenses shaped by their studies. This became particularly visible in the discussion about service design and onboard information. Participants did not simply ask for reassurance in general terms; some wanted greater transparency about how the system works in practice. Suggested features included clear status information, visible safety mechanisms, simple manual controls and even troubleshooting insight during the ride, or some kind of status panel showing sensor outputs and system status, allowing users to better understand what the vehicle is “seeing” and whether all systems are functioning normally. This is a remarkable insight, because it suggests that at least some users may feel more comfortable not when technology is hidden in the background, but when relevant system information is made visible and understandable.

These comments underline that acceptance is shaped not only by engineering performance, but also by interface design, communication, privacy, security and the social experience of travel.

Overall, the focus group showed why the perspective of international students matters in Karlsruhe. Their responses combined openness to innovation with careful attention to safety, usability and inclusion.

The post What do science fiction, Tesla and Bulgaria have in common? appeared first on Cultural Road.

CulturalRoad contributed to the programme with three papers, exploring how automated mobility can be deployed in ways that are equitable for all users. The project was also represented at the ERTICO stand, offering attendees a chance to find out more about CulturalRoad’s approach and methodology.

Peyman Hashemi Baragoori (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) presented the paper “Accessibility as the Objective: An Equity-Focused Framework for CCAM Integration in Public Transport Networks“, co-authored with Margarita Martínez-Díaz and Mohamed Abouelela, during Technical session 5. This study presents a proactive, location-based optimisation framework designed to integrate CCAM shuttles (CS) as first-mile and/or last-mile feeders into existing public transport systems, specifically targeting equitable access to essential destinations. It first identifies those areas in which low accessibility by public transport is coupled with sociodemographic characteristics indicative of (mobility) vulnerability, such as low income or education levels, or low rates of car ownership, among others. The novel KPI Accessibility Gain Ratio (AGR) is introduced with the objective of maximising reachable essential opportunities (such as healthcare and education) while minimising total generalised travel costs (incorporating travel time, transfers, and fares, but also value of time). The application of the framework to the city of Barcelona demonstrates that there is no one-size-fits-all solution; the success of CCAM shuttle integration was showed highly dependent on the chosen fare structure. For example, under distance-based pricing schemes, slower automated CCAM shuttles successfully outperformed manual-driven, quicker shuttles, because their lower perceived value of time offset their lower operating speeds. The paper concludes that strategically planned CCAM integration can significantly boost equitable mobility, provided that public planners carefully design and test fare schemes to match local geographic patterns and demands.

“CulturalRoad: A Five-Pillar Framework for Equitable CCAM Implementation Across Europe“, written by Paraskevi Koliou, Margarita Martínez-Díaz, Guido Cantelmo, Mohamed Abouelela, Sarah Stelter, Ramandeep Singh, George Yannis, and Arantxa Carolina De La Hoz Morris, was presented by Margarita Martínez Díaz (UPC) during a poster session. The paper addresses the critical need to ensure that the deployment of CCAM systems is socially equitable and context-sensitive across diverse cultural and geographical regions. In fact, it summarises the quantitative methodology proposed by CulturalRoad with this goal: the Five-Pointed Star Rating System. This is a novel evaluation framework organised around five core pillars: i) Inclusivity, which includes accessibility, affordability and other aspects such as physical or digital accessibility, ii) Network Optimisation, which accounts for the combination of scheduled-based and frequency-based transport solutions, iii) Safety, both for CCAM users and other actors, iv) Acceptance, which includes considerations about the Value of Time, among others, and v) the role of Psychological Factors such as personality attributes of affinity for technology. The methodological framework is reflected in various KPIs that, once estimated, will make it possible to assess the degree of equity in any design or implementation, as well as to compare different CCAM solutions across different geographical and cultural context. Ultimately, the framework underscores that ensuring equitable deployment requires moving beyond traditional operations-related metrics to actively address underlying psychological barriers, user trust, and cultural attitudes.

“Accounting for Vulnerable Users in Public Transport Optimisation“, by Arantxa De La Hoz, Yu Jiang, Jesper Bláfoss Ingvardson and Guido Cantelmo, was presented during a poster session by Guido Cantelmo (Technical University of Denmark). The paper presents an integrated optimisation framework for public transport networks that explicitly accounts for user heterogeneity and mobility-related vulnerabilities. While most existing public transport optimisation approaches treat schedule-based and frequency-based services separately and assume homogeneous demand, this work incorporates the travel Preferences of People with Mobility Disabilities (PwMD), who are often more sensitive to transfers and accessibility constraints. The proposed model jointly optimises service frequencies and timetables while considering both passenger costs and operational costs, realistic capacity constraints, and route choice behaviour through a Multinomial Logit formulation. A case study based on the Copenhagen metropolitan area demonstrates that including vulnerable users in the optimisation process does not significantly increase system costs or reduce efficiency. The results show that operational performance remains comparable to traditional homogeneous-demand scenarios, while producing more equitable solutions. Overall, the framework highlights the importance of integrating equity considerations into transport planning and provides a practical tool for designing more equitable public transport systems.

Participation in TRA 2026 reinforced CulturalRoad’s connections with the broader CCAM research and policy community and provided a valuable opportunity to exchange with researchers, industry representatives, and policymakers on the challenges and opportunities shaping automated mobility deployment across Europe.

The post CulturalRoad at TRA 2026: Putting equity at the heart of automated mobility appeared first on Cultural Road.

The webinar brought together representatives from the project’s five demonstration sites for a roundtable discussion on their experiences with co-creation. Moderated by Guido Cantelmo (Technical University of Denmark – DTU), the panel included Xavier Sanyer (Barcelona Transport Authority – ATM), Dr. Maximilian Schrapel (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology – KIT), Špela Kranjc (Regional Development Agency of Ljubljana Urban Region), Ruth Anderson (Oxfordshire County Council), and Yaniv Shmuel (Eilat Municipality).

The CulturalRoad co-creation framework

CulturalRoad uses a two-step co-creation framework to ensure that Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM) deployment responds to local needs. In the first step, service providers, technology developers, policy makers, and public authorities come together to provide input on effective and equitable CCAM deployment. Then, local citizens are involved to give stakeholders feedback based on their actual needs and concerns.

This approach is being tested in five demonstration sites in Catalonia, Karlsruhe, Eilat, Ljubljana, and the United Kingdom (Oxfordshire and West Midlands), covering urban, suburban, and rural environments, with a particular focus on underserved user groups including older people, people with disabilities, and those with lower incomes.

Learnings from the CulturalRoad demo sites

A consistent message from all demonstration site representatives was that engaging citizens from the start is essential. Understanding citizens’ needs helps ensure higher adoption rates by bringing diverse perspectives and making sure the technology developed matches local needs. For instance, focus groups held in Catalonia with older residents, people with low digital literacy, and non-native speakers helped identify specific needs that would otherwise have been missed. In Karlsruhe, virtual reality was used to make the technology more tangible for participants unfamiliar with it. A recurring and somewhat unexpected finding was that initial scepticism, particularly among elderly users, tends to turn into genuine curiosity and willingness to try new services, once people better understand how the technology works.

The discussion also addressed where CCAM can add the most value. All speakers agreed that CCAM services should not aim to replace conventional public transport but rather complement it through flexible services where public transport is difficult to operate efficiently. CCAM could help address first- and last-mile connections, support people that don’t have a driving licence, help manage shortage of drivers, and operate in rural and low-density areas not suited for traditional, larger vehicles.

Enabling CCAM deployment

Another point raised was that successful deployment requires more than technology. A shared strategic vision and the right business models are needed to ensure these new services are implemented in an equitable way. For instance, CCAM services can contribute to greater equity by reaching more rural, underserved areas, and deliberate choices about where and how services are introduced can help ensure they deliver broader benefits to users. A shared vision adopted by all relevant stakeholders would also enable the implementation of the physical and digital infrastructure required.

On regulation, speakers emphasised the need for a harmonised regulatory framework to enable deployment beyond local pilots. This includes clear rules on safety, liability, and data exchange, among others. Regulation should enable new services, not act as a barrier to their deployment.

Missed the webinar? The recording is available below.

The post Webinar recap: insights from CulturalRoad’s demonstration sites on engaging local communities appeared first on Cultural Road.

Throughout the congress, CulturalRoad was represented at the ERTICO stand, where attendees had the opportunity to learn more about the project and its approach to ensuring that connected, cooperative and automated mobility (CCAM) solutions are deployed in an equitable way.

Training Session: Practically Considering Diversity and Inclusion for Future Automated Public Transport Services

CulturalRoad co-organised a dedicated training session titled “Practically Considering Diversity and Inclusion for Future Automated Public Transport Services”, together with sister project Diversify-CCAM and SINFONICA. The session aimed to offer congress participants a practical, hands-on training addressing one of the more often underestimated challenges in the transition to automated mobility: ensuring that future transport services are genuinely accessible and equitable. Drawing from examples from the three projects and their methodologies to address user needs and concerns regarding the deployment of new CCAM services, the session represented a unique opportunity for participants to get practical guidance and recommendations and exchange with other participants based on their own experiences. The session was moderated by Miranda Quijano Monzón and Andrew Winder (ERTICO – ITS Europe), and Victor Ferran (Bax).

Discussions explored a range of practical considerations for inclusive service planning. Participants highlighted the potential of CCAM to fill genuine mobility gaps by enabling entirely new services that did not previously exist. However, these services should be equivalent to existing public transport in terms of frequency, speed, and ability to attract different users. Regarding fares and ticketing, the conversation stressed the need to offer different payment methods that do not exclude people with vulnerabilities, non-smartphone users, or occasional travellers. Similarly, where hailing or booking is required, alternatives must be available that do not require a smartphone. In cases of on-demand services, participants agreed that it remains difficult to decide which users or situations to prioritise. Linked to this, participants stressed the importance of carefully selecting the use cases that automated mobility services are designed to address, ensuring they respond to real needs rather than adding vehicles to already congested roads. Ensuring that the voices of relevant stakeholders and users are heard throughout the design and implementation process of CCAM services is therefore essential. CulturalRoad adopts a co-creation participatory framework, organising workshops with stakeholders and focus groups with diverse user groups, including vulnerable users, to ensure their needs are taken into account.

SIS 52: CCAM readiness: empowering cities, implementers and citizens

CulturalRoad was also represented in Special Interest Session (SIS) 52, which focused on how cities and mobility stakeholders can assess and build their readiness level for CCAM deployment. Matthew Shelton (Transport for West Midlands) presented CulturalRoad as part of ongoing CCAM projects in the West Midlands. He highlighted the project’s Five-Pointed Star Rating System, a practical tool designed to help evaluate the level of equity of CCAM systems within their specific contexts and environments, based on the five pillars of safety, inclusivity, user acceptance, network optimisation, and psychological factors.

The session brought together speakers from EU-funded projects CCAMbassador and RESKILLING, exploring how capacity-building activities and readiness assessments can be combined to help cities and regions move toward responsible and scalable CCAM deployment.

SIS 59: Virtual vs real: harmonising safety validation for automated vehicles

In SIS 59, Ruth Anderson (Oxfordshire County Council) focused on how to ensure automated vehicles are both safe and equitable for all users, presenting the CulturalRoad methodology and participatory framework to ensure that CCAM deployment reflects the diverse needs of its users for more social acceptance. She also emphasised the importance of V2X resilience as key for road safety and discussed infrastructure needs and the risks of excluding certain groups from access to automated services, highlighting the need to design services that are safe, accessible, reliable and affordable from the start.

The session also featured insights from the CERTAIN and PoDIUM projects.

The ITS European Congress 2026 provided a valuable opportunity for CulturalRoad to engage with the wider CCAM and ITS community, share insights from its initial results, and contribute to conversations to help ensure that the future of mobility works for all users.

The post CulturalRoad at the ITS European Congress 2026: Making automated mobility work for everyone appeared first on Cultural Road.

On 23 April, CulturalRoad was represented at the panel discussion “Automated Vehicles: Myths, Reality and Europe’s Road Ahead“, held at the European Commission stand in Hall 12. This interactive session examined the current state of automated vehicle technologies, separated common misconceptions from industrial reality, and explored how EU regulation supports their safe and responsible deployment.

Maria Alonso Raposo from CulturalRoad coordinator ERTICO took part in the discussion, addressing the question of public readiness for autonomous vehicles. Her contribution drew on CulturalRoad’s co-creation activities with stakeholders and users, as well as related projects ERTICO is involved in, illustrating the role of citizen engagement and user acceptance in shaping the future of automated mobility.

The session also featured contributions from Akos Kriston (European Commission Joint Research Centre), who addressed the role of artificial intelligence in automated vehicles, and Michael Wolfert (Volkswagen/ACEA), who discussed Europe’s industrial positioning in the global race towards driving automation. The discussion was moderated by Maria Cristina Galassi from the European Commission’s DG GROW.

The post CulturalRoad at Hannover Messe 2026 appeared first on Cultural Road.

For the global CCAM (Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility) community, this isn’t just about getting from point A to point B, it’s a sophisticated, real-world experiment in bringing maritime assets into a digital, carbon-neutral urban grid. Imagine hopping onto a 100% full-electric vessel that glides silently across the water, powered by high-density lithium-ion batteries and supported by “Smart Piers” that double as high-power energy nodes. These terminals aren’t just docks, they are tech hubs featuring DC fast-charging (up to 180kW) that syncs perfectly with the city’s electric bus fleet.

But the real magic happens behind the scenes with the exploration of CCAM integration. Through advanced digital connectivity, these shuttles stay in constant dialogue with the city’s traffic management systems in real-time. This digital conversation allows for smarter navigation and shared data, making the journey safer and more energy-efficient while paving the way for future automated maritime adventures. Stretching 11 km from the northern border to the south, this maritime “express lane” is the heart of Eilat’s MaaS (Mobility as a Service) vision. It’s all about a seamless, breezy transfer between sea breeze and a quiet electric bus, all while keeping the Red Sea’s famous coral reefs safe from acoustic pollution.

Integrating the human dimension: the CulturalRoad co-creation journey

What makes Eilat’s maritime transformation truly unique is its role within the CulturalRoad project. While the engineering focuses on batteries and hulls, CulturalRoad focuses on the people through a structured co-creation framework. This partnership ensures that CCAM deployment isn’t just a “top-down” technical installation, but a collaborative process where the service is designed with the community, not just for them. By mapping the social and cultural nuances of Eilat, we are ensuring that our autonomous future is inherently equitable, inclusive, and built on public trust.

From stakeholder insights to community action

This journey is already in motion. Our demonstration site in Eilat has concluded a deep-dive round of stakeholder interviews with city leaders and industry experts, and has already hosted a first co-creation focus group workshop. In this session, local residents and potential users became active partners in the design process, sharing real-world expectations that will shape how the sea shuttle operates. This participatory approach ensures that the “Cultural Road” to innovation is grounded in the actual needs of Eilat’s diverse population.

Eilat’s initiative, powered by the CulturalRoad participatory assessment, positions the city as a premier Living Lab for maritime CCAM. By synthesising global innovation from leaders like Candela and Hyke with local stakeholder insights, Eilat is bridging the gap between European technology and urban implementation. We aren’t just solving a local transportation problem, we are creating a scalable, human-centric blueprint for coastal cities across Europe and the Mediterranean.

While these shuttles will initially operate with crew assistance, the smart energy and connectivity foundations being laid today represent a bold cross-border cooperation model for the future of automated transit. Eilat is no longer just a vacation destination, it is a global benchmark for how smart, connected, and sustainable coastal mobility can truly shine.

Image has been generated by AI.

The post Navigating the future: Eilat’s electric sea shuttle as a testbed for CCAM in maritime environments appeared first on Cultural Road.

Why inclusivity matters

Sergio Fernandes, Head of Office at the CCAM Association, opened with a keynote highlighting the broader societal transformation that automated mobility represents. Mobility underpins access to employment, education, healthcare, and social participation, which brings the question of who benefits from new technologies. Inclusivity should be embedded from the start to ensure these new technologies don’t reinforce inequalities. He therefore highlighted the importance of engaging communities early in the development of CCAM services and adapt them to local contexts.

CulturalRoad’s approach

Miranda Quijano Monzón (ERTICO – ITS Europe) presented the CulturalRoad methodology for more equitable CCAM deployment, which uses participatory planning to incorporate cultural and geographical diversity into CCAM deployment strategies. The project develops a Five-Pointed Star Rating System to assess transport equity across five pillars of mobility equity, and uses a two-step co-creation framework to engage local stakeholders and citizen groups in five demonstration sites in Catalonia, Karlsruhe, Ljubljana, Eilat, and the United Kingdom (West Midlands and Oxfordshire).

Diversify-CCAM’s perspective

Dr Anna Anund (Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute – VTI), Diversify-CCAM Project Coordinator, presented the project’s ambition to develop methods and tools that support CCAM developers, planners, and policymakers in integrating social diversity into the design and implementation of shared autonomous mobility. The project is collecting data in 12 diverse pilot sites in six European countries, covering a wide range of user segments, with a methodology that keeps user needs at the centre of the process.

What’s next

The collaboration between CulturalRoad and Diversify-CCAM will continue throughout 2026. Both projects are organising a training session with the SINFONICA project at the ITS European Congress in Istanbul, taking place from 27 to 29 April. The training session, “Practically Considering Diversity and Inclusion for Future Automated Public Transport Services“, will take place on Tuesday 28 April from 10:30 to 12:00 in Room 3B/11. More details can be found here.

CulturalRoad will host a second webinar on 13 May 2026 from 14:00 to 15:00 CEST, titled “Co-Creating Mobility Solutions with Local Communities – Insights from the CulturalRoad Demo Sites“. This webinar will provide more details about the project’s co-creation methodology and how it is being applied in its five demonstration sites and share early findings from local stakeholder workshops. More details and registration can be found here.

Watch the recording

The post Key takeaways from the CulturalRoad and Diversify-CCAM joint webinar on inclusive automated mobility appeared first on Cultural Road.

This webinar will explore how CulturalRoad is working with local stakeholders across its five demonstration sites — in Catalonia, Karlsruhe, Eilat, Ljubljana and the United Kingdom (West Midlands and Oxfordshire) — to better understand expectations, challenges and opportunities related to automated mobility. 

The session will introduce the project’s co-creation approach and provide early insights from workshops carried out with citizens, local authorities, and other stakeholders. Through a roundtable discussion with representatives from the demo sites, the webinar will highlight practical experiences from different contexts, including what has worked, what has been challenging, and what has been learned so far.

What you will learn

• How co-creation is applied in different local contexts
• What challenges arise when engaging communities in mobility planning
• What early insights are emerging from workshops across Europe
• How local perspectives can inform future deployment strategies

City representatives, mobility planners, public authorities and stakeholders from the sector are welcome to join the discussion and contribute with their perspectives.

Register now to hear directly from our demonstration sites representatives.

REGISTER HERE

Events details

• Date: Wednesday 13 May 2026
• Time: 14:00 – 15:00 CEST
• Format: Online (Teams)

Agenda

• Welcome and Introduction – Guido Cantelmo (Technical University of Denmark – DTU)
• Roundtable Discussion with the CulturalRoad Demo Sites – Guido Cantelmo (DTU), Xavier Sanyer (Barcelona Transport Authority – ATM), Dr. Maximilian Schrapel (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology – KIT), Špela Kranjc (Regional Development Agency of Ljubljana urban region), Paul Mullins (Oxfordshire City Council), and Yaniv Shmuel (Eilat Municipality)
  
• Q&A with the audience and next milestones

The post New Webinar: Co-Creating Mobility Solutions with Local Communities appeared first on Cultural Road.

Why Oxfordshire?

Oxfordshire brings together a historic city, rapidly growing science and innovation clusters, and extensive rural areas where access to transport remains a significant challenge. While the county is at the forefront of mobility innovation, with autonomous vehicle trials, advanced research institutions and real‑world testbeds, many residents still rely heavily on private cars, especially outside the main urban centres.

Oxfordshire has hosted a number of Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) trials, such as DRIVEN, ENDEAVOUR, MultiCAV, and OmniCAV, providing valuable experience and insight to inform current discussions on future mobility.

Building on this experience, within CulturalRoad, Oxfordshire’s focus is on understanding real mobility needs rather than promoting technology for its own sake. The aim is to ensure that future automated mobility solutions are shaped by people, places and policy priorities.

A co‑creation approach

CulturalRoad uses a two‑step participatory co‑creation framework that brings together public authorities, experts and communities.

In Oxfordshire, OCC led the first step through a series of internal stakeholder workshops. These sessions brought together colleagues from transport planning, service delivery, place shaping, innovation and policy teams to explore:

• Current mobility challenges across urban and rural Oxfordshire
• Opportunities for CCAM to complement public transport rather than replace it
• Barriers related to accessibility, affordability, governance and public trust
• Infrastructure and policy considerations for future deployment

The workshops were delivered online to maximise participation and were supported by follow‑up surveys, helping to capture a broad range of perspectives.

Key insights from Oxfordshire

Discussions highlighted that CCAM in Oxfordshire is seen primarily as a system and policy challenge, rather than a purely technological one. Stakeholders emphasised that:

• Automated mobility should strengthen public transport and shared services, not undermine them
• Equity and accessibility must be core design principles, particularly for older people, people with disabilities (physical, cognitive or mental health‑related access needs), neurodivergent residents and rural communities
• Clear governance, safety assurance and demonstrable public value are essential for building trust
• Use cases need to be specific and locally relevant, rather than driven by generic technology narratives

There was cautious optimism about the potential of CCAM to improve first‑ and last‑mile connectivity and reduce car dependency, with a clear recognition of the risks associated with poorly coordinated or overly market-led deployment.

What’s next

Insights from Oxfordshire’s stakeholder workshops will feed into the next stage of the CulturalRoad process: end‑user focus groups. At this stage, the work is planned to focus on engaging teachers and parents from SEND schools in Oxfordshire, who will be invited to share their lived experiences, expectations and concerns around future mobility.

Together, these findings will inform local transport planning and delivery, contribute to national discussions on CCAM policy and standards, and support CulturalRoad’s wider work on equitable and inclusive mobility across Europe.

By placing co‑creation at the heart of innovation, Oxfordshire is helping to ensure that future mobility solutions are not only smart, but also fair, trusted and grounded in real community needs.

The post From local insight to shared futures: co creating equitable mobility in Oxfordshire appeared first on Cultural Road.