What is it: A tool that helps to collect and structure data on three levels.

THE MICRO LEVEL: focuses on citizens in general and specifically on the vulnerable-to-exclusion user groups, focusing on their digital skills, potential mobility poverty and the role that digitalization of mobility products and services plays in it.
THE MESO LEVEL: focuses on the market side of digital mobility products and services and involves mobility services providers, aiming to get a clear picture of the digital transportation technologies that best meet users’ needs of vulnerable-to-exclusion groups.
THE MACRO LEVEL: includes the perspective of national, regional, and local public authorities, specifically looking at provision of inclusive and accessible mobility to all citizen groups.

This data can help cities to indicate priority policy areas to focus on.

When to use it: This tool can be used if local authority would like to have a clear picture of the digital gap in mobility in their region with more knowledge regarding one or more of the follow aspects:

• Characteristics of the population, digital ability and mobility barriers that people face.
• Regional stakeholder, current digital mobility provision and potential gaps in this.
• Governance structure, policy and budget allocation regarding inclusive (digital) mobility.

Flexibility: Three-level structure makes it possible to focus on one of the levels in case this seems the most valuable one for a region.

QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE

Time / Duration: Preparation for collecting new data (meso and macro level): A few weeks depending on the availability of stakeholders.
Collecting and restructuring available data, and finishing self-assessment: A few days.

Cost: Personal resources (hours of staff from public authorities).

Materials: Excel-file to structure in data.
OPTIONAL to organize a cross-department workshop within local government: small materials might be needed for this such as flip-overs, sticky notes, etc.

Expertise: DIFFICULT LEVEL: MODERATE
Basic skills to work with Excel are needed to complete the self-assessment.
Some knowledge about available national and regional population data could be helpful.

Stakeholders involved: Policy makers from several departments (mobility, social, urban planning). Information from mobility providers is needed to complete a part (meso-level) of the self-assessment.

1. Read through the guidelines and Excel-file to see what data need to be collected
2. Fill in available data directly in the Excel-file
3. Decide how to collect other information by using suggestions and templates in the guidelines (additional survey, cross-department workshop, interviews, etc).
4. Complete the self-assessment using the Excel-file.
5. Derive potential gaps in the region using the analysis sheet that is part of the Excel-file.

Main outcomes: Results from the framework give an overall understanding of the size of the digital gap in mobility, allowing to zoom into the different assessment levels and getting a more in-depth knowledge about each.
The main outcome is an Excel-file with data on three levels: micro, meso and macro. It will also show the data gaps in a region and this could raise awareness of useful data that is currently missing.

Tips / Remarks / Suggestions: See this tool as a way to structure and collect data regarding the digital gap in mobility in order to understand the potential problem even better. When data is not available or not specific enough it is still useful for the overall understanding of the potential gaps.

Limitations of the method: This tool is developed to help cities in a structured way to get an understanding of the digital gap in mobility in their region in three levels. This means that the Excel-file is very specific and structured to help with collecting this information and it therefore leaves less space for additional information and written reports. Furthermore it might occur that some specific information is not (yet) available in a region. This is also a valuable insight.