Urban mobility

Smart mobility hubs, car-free neighbourhoods, zero-emission zones and one day maybe even self-driving cars. The city is full of opportunities to improve accessibility, liveability and safety.

The matter is urgent, as cities in Europe are becoming increasingly crowded with more residents, more visitors and more logistics. We are stuck in traffic jams, we emit a lot of CO2, we make accidents and parking is difficult. In our cities there is an ungoing battle for scarce space: do we prioritise green streets or parking spaces in front of our homes?

Delft urban mobility scientists are developing much-needed knowledge and solutions to make our busy cities smart, clean and safe for everyone. We are building bikes that won't topple over and autonomous boats to deliver packages over water. We develop apps to make shared transport user-friendly. We are tinkering with algorithms for self-driving, electric vehicles. And we implement car-free neighbourhoods and green corridors for pedestrians. With our tools, data visualizations, digital twins and serious games, we help municipalities in the Netherlands and Europe with their mobility issues.

We accelerate the mobility transition and make cities smart, clean and safe for everyone.

Millions of people are on the move in a city at the same time: an interesting puzzle.’
Researcher Maaike Snelder

Read the story ‘The accessible city’

Inclusiveness and accessibility for all people, not just a certain social class.
Researcher Achilleas Psyllidis

Read the story ‘The accessible city’

Demand-driven public transportation will be the breakthrough of the near future.
Researcher Niels van Oort

Read the story ‘The accessible city’

The city is full of opportunities for smart mobility. Our mission is an accessible, green city for all.

Student Story

Causing near collisions with cyclists to improve traffic models

It’s surprising, but in the Netherlands – a nation of cyclists – there’s very little data on how cyclists respond to each other in traffic. Yet this data is essential for creating more realistic traffic models, which in turn are key to designing better cycling infrastructure across the Netherlands. Anna Marbus, a master’s student in robotics, wants to change that by causing near collisions with cyclists.

Read the story of Anna

| In our labs

SenseBike

This is TU Delft's SenseBike - a bicycle equipped with the same advanced sensors used in autonomous vehicles. While cycling through the city, the SenseBike creates a detailed map of the urban environment in real-time and collects valuable close-up data on cyclists' behaviour. This helps improve algorithms of automated cars and design safer intersections for cyclists.

| Watchtime: 28 sec.

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Remote control of automated cars

What if an automated car has trouble? Georgios Papaioannou and his team work on improving a remote operators’ driving performance, using visual and haptic feedback.

Platooning by little robots

Automated vehicles can drive in groups close to each other in a coordinated manner. At TU Delft’s robotics lab Laura Ferranti and Lorenzo Lyons use little car-like robots to test platooning strategies using little car-like robots.

Experiencing autonomous cars

How do passengers experience a self driving vehicle? Our Mobility Innovation Centre is researching just that, in a lab on wheels. This car is operated by a human driver, but the passenger doesn’t see that. Sensors, eye trackers and microphones measure all responses to define stressful situations.