From Amsterdam to Paris: 8 Mobility Visions across Europe
A few weeks ago, “Back 2 Tape” celebrates its world premiere on Porsche Newsroom. It’s a documentary about the roots of hip-hop in Europe. My name is Niko Hüls, a music journalist from Hamburg and Head of the German hip-hop magazine “Backspin”. Together with Porsche, I explored this fascinating global youth culture and the influence of rap, graffiti, DJing and breakdancing in cities across our beautiful continent.
But my journey with the Porsche Cayenne S Coupé focuses not only on hip-hop as a lifestyle. The road trip with various artists from Amsterdam, Barcelona Berlin, Copenhagen, London and Paris illustrates the diversity of Europe — and emphasizes the values of hip-hop across borders: tolerance, integration, respect.
Create urban space for people — different mobility visions across Europe
During our road trip, we also wanted to find out how cities embrace the future of urban space. Because the steady growth in metropolises will fundamentally change how we design and construct cities. And it becomes even more important to create urban spaces where people feel safe and happy. So our challenge was to combine the influences of hip-hop on cities with the ideas of the metropolises for a better, more sustainable future. By the way — if you want to dive deep in the topic of the future of cities, I can highly recommend this interesting Next Visions podcast with conscious-city pioneer Itai Palti and the founder of Secret City Trails Kristina Palovicova.
Combining the basic elements of hip-hop with future visions of cities in Europe
In the past few weeks, we have connected the release of “Back 2 Tape” with interesting insights into the future visions of the cities. Maybe you have already read some of the Next Visions x Mobility articles written by blogger Markus Herrmann.
Today I would like to present you eight interesting examples and learnings of European cities that have impressed me during the “Back 2 Tape” road trip:
1. Transferring urban traffic to the air in Toulouse
Dreaming of the future of mobility is not limited to road, rail and cycle paths. One focus point is also aviation, seen at Airbus’ headquarter in Toulouse. Currently, they are researching how to transfer urban traffic from roads to the air. What sounds like a Science Fiction movie plot is surprisingly close to reality. In the near future, you’ll be able to book inner-city flights with electrically-powered helicopters via an app called Voom. Learn more about mobility in Toulouse.
2. Innovation hub Paris
Paris is the so-called “City of Love”. But also home for a new generation of young entrepreneurs. Since 2017, the start-up campus STATION F is located in the huge Hall F of the former Paris freight station. It’s now home to over 1,000 start-ups and numerous innovation departments of various well-known companies such as Facebook, Google, and Adidas. Where once containers were loaded, the world’s largest start-up hub is now located. More than 11,000 start-ups apply every year to get one of the coveted places in this unique project. Learn more about innovation in Paris.
3. Ride a bicycle in Copenhagen
When it comes to urban mobility, Copenhagen is immediately mentioned as a prime example. After all, the Danish capital is considered the European capital of cycling. If you take a look at the figures on bicycles, Copenhagen’s special position quickly becomes clear. An impressive 45 percent of the inhabitants commute to work, school or university by bike, covering around 1.4 million kilometers every day. According to a study, even more people in the Greater Copenhagen area bike to work every day than in the entire USA. More about Copenhagen as a blueprint for sustainable cities in Europe.
4. All you need is the number 2 line in Amsterdam
The most important part of public transport in Amsterdam is not only about bikes. For me, it’s about the tram, which runs through the city on 14 lines and a total of 200 kilometers of track. The number 2 line, which has been described by National Geographic as one of the most beautiful tram lines in the world, has recently gained particular prominence. For more than 110 years, the tram has been running along the main artery of the city, connecting the top sights of Amsterdam. If at some point you get aching muscles after extensive testing of the cycle paths, you only need a day ticket and you can treat yourself to the full Amsterdam experience. More about this beautiful tram in the Dutch capital.
5. Electrified streets in London
Following Amsterdam’s example, London also wants to increase its share of electric vehicles. In order to meet the requirements, more than 1,000 new charging stations were built recently throughout the city. In the course of the upgrade, even classic London landmarks were given an upgrade: among the world-famous black cabbies, there are now over 1,700 electric taxis. In addition, the London Transport already has the largest electric bus fleet in Europe. Learn more about electrifying London’s streets.
6. Green Berlin
In Berlin, you don’t need to travel outside the city gates for a trip into the countryside. No other European metropolis offers more inner-city forests, parks and lawns. The figures are impressive: around a third of Berlin’s total area is green and wooded, the streets are lined with around 440,000 trees, and there are 2,500 parks and green spaces where you can relax. And, incidentally, the “Gardens of the World” park in the Marzahn district also has the largest Chinese garden in Europe. More about the Berlin countryside.
7. Putting people first in Barcelona’s Superblocks
Barcelona unites tradition with future-proof concepts. The world’s best-known example is the Superblocks, a concept from the Urban Mobility Plan of Barcelona. The Superblocks (“Superilles” in Catalan) are the combination of different apartment blocks that are connected to form a traffic-calmed area. Only delivery traffic and residents are allowed to drive on the streets within the blocks at walking speed. The result is much more liveable streets where pedestrians have priority and on top of that, a new sense of community is created among the residents. The current five superblocks will one day become as many as 500, which would mean that almost 70 percent of Barcelona’s streets would be used by a mixture of people. More about city planning for the future in Barcelona.
8. Copenhagen’s big vision of becoming Europe’s first CO2-neutral capital
Last but not least, one big vision: the city of Copenhagen wants to become climate neutral by 2025. If it succeeds, Copenhagen would be the world’s first CO2-neutral capital. Since 2009, a multi-faceted plan has been underway to achieve this goal. What starts with rather obvious measures such as solar panels on public buildings extends to the optimization of menus in canteens. So as you can see, Copenhagen is on its way to becoming a sustainable model for the whole world — not only on the cycle path. More about the Danish capital and downhill skiing in the city.
Enjoy “Back 2 Tape” and beautiful European cities across different channels
If you want to explore more about cities and hip-hop as global youth culture, the content for “Back 2 Tape” is shared digitally across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter and Spotify while the Porsche Newsroom — the center of online storytelling for Porsche — carries the full story. Here you can watch the full documentary:
Last but not least one important note. We produced our “Back 2 Tape” road trip before the outbreak of Covid-19. Porsche, Backspin and the artists involved are aware of their social responsibilities and are advising against recreating such a trip until it is safe and travel is permitted. But with our content about these cities, we want to share with you interesting insights and learnings — and take you on a virtual trip across our beautiful continent. Stay safe and healthy!
Niko Hüls aka Niko Backspin is music journalist and Head of Backspin. The project “Back 2 Tape” is a cooperation between the Porsche Newsroom and the german music journalist. It follows the tracks of hip-hop in Europe. All further information on this project can be found in the Porsche Newsroom.
About this publication: Where innovation meets tradition. There’s more to Porsche than sports cars — we’re tackling new challenges, develop digital products and think digital with a focus on the customer. On our Medium blog, we tell these stories. It’s about our #nextvisions, smart technologies and the people that drive our digital journey. Please follow us on Twitter (Porsche Digital, Next Visions), Instagram (Porsche Digital, Next Visions, Porsche Newsroom) and LinkedIn (Porsche AG, Porsche Digital) for more.
