The Transumo mission is:

to accelerate/encourage the transition to sustainable mobility. This will be achieved by initiating, and establishing for the long term, a transition process that leads to the replacement of the current, supply driven, mono-disciplinary technology and knowledge infrastructure, with a demand driven, multidisciplinary and trans-disciplinary, participative knowledge infrastructure.

The transition to the new knowledge infrastructure leads to advances that help to strengthen the competitiveness of the Dutch transport sector (‘Profit’) and to preserve and improve spatial and ecological (‘Planet’), and social (‘People’) aspects of mobility.

Transumo in itself cannot directly establish the aspired transition in the way that management takes place in the field of mobility, in the political decision-making processes, and the investment decisions; however, Transumo does provide a significant contribution in the available knowledge that enables the development of sustainable mobility. The mission of Transumo is considered successful when at the end of the knowledge project (January 2010) a tripartite, that is, involving private parties, government, and scientific institutes, knowledge infrastructure has been achieved that enables the actual realization of innovations for effective management, solid performance of trade and industry, innovative investments and a strong position of research and development centres.

Mobility is one of the cornerstones of our modern economy. While the Dutch traffic and transport system used to be among the best worldwide, currently it is at a crisis point. Consequences of this crisis are the potential loss of its previously strong international position, a decrease in the competitive strength of the Dutch economy, but also an increase in proposals to invest in measures that in fact are not sustainable for mankind and nature. An important cause of the current harmful situation can be found in the perseverance for far too long of existing practice in the field of traffic and transport, that, in fact, is not suitable anymore nowadays. Consequently, to relief the crisis, it is essential to encourage innovative approaches in traffic and transport. This is the central theme addressed by Transumo.

Transumo identifies three causes behind the existing lack of innovation:

1. Insufficient generation of new, innovative ideas for sustainable mobility (Contents: what is the innovation?)
2. The complexity of the implementation of innovative approaches. Innovations that are technically and economically feasible are not always practicable, acceptable or manageable, as a result of which the implementation fails and the conceptual development stage is not passed. (Process: how to implement the innovation?)
3. The multi-actor (and multi-objective) context in which the innovations are developed, on which no single actor seems to have sufficient decisive power (Context: who plays which part?).

Most important questions

The following central, and coherent, questions that Transumo addresses result from the problem analysis:

1. What is needed to realize sustainable mobility? Which innovations are required in the fields of management, governance, and technology to accomplish the transition to a traffic and transport system that is sustainable? In this sense, sustainable means durable, and in compliance with the responsibility indebted to economical, social and environmental issues (in order to sever the common correlation between mobility growth and negative environmental impacts). Innovations as considered in Transumo comprise the generation of new ideas, the design of concepts, the development of such concepts in products for practical application, the implementation and application of the products, and the acceptance of the products in practice. The stress on innovation in Transumo is based on conventional practice in which most developments are strongly related to ad-hoc problem solving, which rarely leads to sustainable solutions. However, experiences also show that it is not feasible to fully specify beforehand the aims and final results that are aspired. For these reasons, Transumo seeks a compromise in which user orientation (and, thus, support from users) comes first. As such, it is expected that the most durable developments result.
2. How to accommodate a transition to sustainable mobility?
   Transitions can be considered fundamental system innovations that generally appear rather coincidental, and not so much directed, and that have important impacts on the existing structures. The issue is if and how a transition to sustainable mobility can be pursued more purposefully and can take place while avoiding unacceptable negative consequences for involved actors (see below). ¡¥Accommodation¡¦ of a transition encompasses the development of processes, procedures, and models to direct transition in the aspired direction, and also the gain in experiences in the actual feasibility of influencing such a process.
   After all, there is a general agreement that traffic and transport should become more sustainable, however, there does not exist a sufficient sense of urgency, nor a compelling external condition, that requires the transition to sustainable mobility now.
3. Who should be involved in a transition to sustainable mobility?
   A real transition requires breaking through the existing structures in which the involved actors are positioned, and sometimes a radical change of position of present actors and the introduction of new actors. Specifically because Transumo pursues to accommodate transition, it actively seeks combinations of present as well as new actors and stakeholders to work towards a transition to sustainable mobility.

Transumo aims to strengthen the knowledge infrastructure for sustainable mobility because achieving this is essential for the success of the programme. An effective knowledge infrastructure:

• enables innovation (‘what’) and provides insights in the way innovations should be implemented in practice (‘how’ and ‘who’), and,
• consequently, concerns both the subject matter and the process involved in innovations,
  needs to be acknowledged internationally (The Netherlands as the leading nation in knowledge on sustainable mobility) and must be self-sufficient when the subsidies from the Bsik-impuls end.

Transumo has successfully fulfilled its task if at the end of the term (January 2010) it can be demonstrated that the pursued new knowledge infrastructure has been effected, that it supports the process of transition and that it generates solutions for the problems at hand, or leads to more successful innovations in the traffic and transport system.

Instruments used in Transumo

Transition management is applied to accomplish a new knowledge infrastructure, to generate knowledge within this infrastructure, and to reach breakthroughs (innovations),

• Knowledge development is applied with respect to the ‘what’ (what is the innovation about?), the ‘how’ (how to bring innovation in mobility?) and the ‘who’ (who are bringing the innovations and in what context?). This development takes place in ‘cluster projects’ and ‘on site experimentation projects':
    cluster projects concern the development of cluster specific knowledge on certain subject matters,
    on site experimentation projects concern the solution of mobility issues in current practice, and are aimed to develop strategies to design and implement system innovations. Such projects are planned for three sites.
  Both types of projects also provide understanding on the organization of knowledge development infrastructure,  knowledge exchange is effectuated and durable networks and new competences are established,  co-operation in other, related projects, KSI and TransForum, is established:

• TransForum focuses mainly on process innovations in the area of goods transport,
• KSI imports transition knowledge into Transumo (mainly in the on site experimental projects)
• several on site experimental projects are carried out by Transumo, TransForum and KSI together.

Operational goals

2004

• The ‘infrastructure’ (processes, organisation, conditions, etcetera) for project development, evaluation and execution is completed.

2006 (after Phase 1)

• All projects and test sites are operational.
• The five recommendations from the advisory committee for the BSIK subsidy progamme(‘Commissie van Wijzen’) have been met, as these were specified at the argumentation for the division in the project time line.
• The Transumo program has been reassessed (review of transition issues formulations, setting the focus based on the experiences so far, input from processes in which the issues are expressed).
• The co-operation with KSI and TransForum is established.
• On the basis of the first experiences in the initiated projects the problem definition of Transumo is evaluated.
• A verifiable model on knowledge infrastructure has been developed.
• Cluster projects and on site experimental projects have produced knowledge on ‘What’, ‘How’ and ‘Who’.

2010 (after Phase 2)

• The main aim has been realized: there is a new knowledge infrastructure.
• Cluster projects and on site experimental projects show that system innovations have taken place.
• A validation of the approach has taken place.

The model ‘Acceleration of the transition to sustainable mobility’ is available in Dutch