Business Route 2018 for metropolitan Brussels

Crowdsourcing Week Europe, Brussels - November 23, 2016

Shifting from the occupation of space to the mastery of timeAlain Deneef, Intendant of Brussels Metropolitan

I. Brussels Metropolitan in a nutshell

IdentityBrussels Metropolitan, also called «Business Route 2018 for Metropolitan Brussels», is a common initiative of inter-branch employers organisations, at regional and federal levels, namely BECI, Voka, UWE and the FEB.

The association has been created in 2008, as a dialog platform for the 3 regions surrounding Brussels, in order to promote the social and economic development of the metropolitan region, thanks to a better co-operation.

The association calls for a mobility shift, an ambitious strategy to revitalize mobility and to re-enforce socio-economic development of the Brussels’ metropolis.• it puts stakeholders around the table, above the linguistic barriers, to create an interregional dialogue,• it proposes solutions, runs 12 projects with a road map, • it raises awareness and informs through lobbying, events and communication.

2008 - 2018

Founding Members and Institutional Partners

Private Partners

II. About space and time in mobility

Introduction

However the perception of space is more direct

In our daily life, we focus on the passage of time rather than on the

measure of distance

1. Mobility is the capacity of crossing the distance between two points

• In mobility, we sometimes consider space in terms of time instead of distance

• But time is both an objective and a subjective reality

Still, in mobility we tend to privilege space over time

2. Shifting from the occupation of space to the mastery of time

• In mobility, we privilege infrastructure over processes• Results : more demand and more competition for space

An effective control of our journey time requires that we

interrogate our true needs

3. The need for mobility

• ‘Need’: it is the necessity to cross a distance between A and B

• A need can be absolute or relative• Is a need sometimes a wish ?

An effective control of our journey time requires that we reformulate

our demand

4. The demand for mobility

• ‘Demand’: it is the expression of the need of going from A to B from

different points of view: time, space and transportation modalities

• If the need is real, the demand can be modulated

A newly formulated demand requires a mental shift

Conclusion:a more intelligent demand

facing a more diversified offer

‘The way we run our road system is the last remnant of the Stalinist state: We ration demand by queueing’

Feargus O’Sullivan, London-based journalist, CityLab – 28 October 2016

Conclusion:from the competition in space

to the collaboration in time

‘One of the faults which we occasionally observe in socio-political activity is that spaces and power are preferred to time and processes.

Giving priority to space means madly attempting to keep everything together in the present, trying to possess all the spaces of power and of self-assertion’.

Giving priority to time means being concerned about initiating processes rather than possessing spaces.

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, #223 – November 2013

CONTACT

BRUSSELS METROPOLITANALAIN DENEEF - INTENDANT

LINKEDIN : BRUSSELS METROPOLITANTWITTER : #BruMETROPOLITANPHONE : (+32) 475 48 48 10alain.deneef@brusselsmetropolitan.eu