1.4 Challenges for a Sustainable Mobility

Design Challenges for a sustainable mobility

The future system and the current sub-system do contrast. As it was mentioned above, the predictions show that the number of tourists going to Texel will keep growing. At the moment, the island gets considerably packed during the summer and it is noticed by the difficulty of finding car parking lots. Having more cars in the island increases noise, fumes and visual pollution making it seem less atractive to visitors and affecting the liveability of the local inhabitants.

The main challenge that Texel faces in the mobility is how to keep exploding tourism without affecting the natural surroundings and the quality of life of the local people. The right direction seems to be to encourage the visitors leave their cars behind in the mainland and to use more sustainable vehicles within the island. But how to do that without decreasing the easy reachability of the island? Certainly, Texel must provide a viable alternative to the car and this is what is going to be studied in the following chapters.

The General Design Goals for 2065

 The general goal for the sustainable vision of Texel in 2065 is to be 100% self-sufficient in terms of energy and resources. The vision is very difficult to imagine from today’s perspective, since the island is still relying heavily on the support form the land: imported energy, food and commodities are crucial for the island’s survival, while it could neither be independent on education, health-care and transportation. However, this projects aims for the gradual transformation of Texel’s socio-technical circle into a much more self-sustaining entity, the task could not be done without a brand new system of transportation.  A new sustainable mobility system in Texel not only will contribute to decrease the impact of the cars in its environment but also will help to bring a new kind of tourism that will have a better interaction with the local people.

Therefore, our design goal for the mobility system on Texel island in 2065 is to achieve a 100% non-pullution and environmental-friendly transportation scheme, with which both locals and tourist could experience a better traveling experience than what they are offered today. Briefly, the goal for the future mobility system on Texel island could be categorized as the following sub-goals:

• Sub-goal 1: Transport System to go Zero-carbon

With the development of electricle vehicles, renewable energy and other types to technologies, it is obvious achievable to develop a mobility system that runs fully on green power. The Texel island shall also aim for a system that provides mobility while leaving no carbon footprint.

• Sub-goal 2: Better Social Integraty with the transport system

The users of the mobility system in Texel now are largely isolated groups. Not to mention that most tourists and locals travel with private vehicles, the public transport system on the island merely give any more social coherence beyond carrying different groups of people. In the coming decades, changes should definetely be made to fit the system to the needs of different groups.

• Sub-goal 3: Better travel experience

The system should be shifted into a sustainable one without compromizing the traveller’s sensitivity. The requirements such as getting to destination in acceptable amount of time shall be fulfilled in a better degee. Moreover, the comfort and ammuzement in travel shall also be considered as important factors in the design process.

• Sub-goal 4: Better integration with nature

As nowadays, the mobility system on Texel island is not designed with enough consideration to its influence on nature and landscape; in the future, the strategy should be more shifted to an integrated system with natural characters. The new transportation system should have a lower profile as correlating to the island’s landscape features.