At the T2M conference in Eindhoven in early November 2025, a transnational team of mobility experts from North America and Europe will introduce the Digital Alternative Mobility Monitor (DMM), a shared online platform dedicated to capturing and exchanging practical insights into the urban and extra-urban mobility transition. Unlike traditional initiatives that rely solely on quantitative indices, the DMM is designed to collect detailed narrative accounts of innovative practices—stories that illustrate real-world shifts from conventional mobility to more sustainable and socially just alternatives, as well as a limited amount of quantitative indicators of the transformation towards more sustainable and just mobilities. Thus, DMM monitors the pulse of changing mobility cultures.

The platform’s core innovation lies in its open, inclusive structure. It invites a diverse range of stakeholders—from researchers, urban architects, and mobility planners to public administrators, transport managers, and everyday road users and non-users—to contribute their experiences, thus co-constructing a digital imaginary of the transition over the course of many years and in a multitude of countries and regions. By documenting and discussing mobility practices, the DMM aims to showcase a wide spectrum of sustainable mobility solutions, without limiting its focus to any single one. Instead, it welcomes all narratives that illustrate the emergence of a new mobility paradigm that is both ecologically sustainable and socially equitable. The Dutch mobility documentation centre NCAD is the initiator of this project.

At this moment, the preparations for the actual construction of the DMM are in full flow, undertaken by dr.ing. Gijs Mom of NCAD/Eindhoven University of Technologyu and prof.dr. Simone Fari of Granada university. The results of these preparations will be discussed with most members of the network mentioned below, and other interested guests, during a meeting one day before the T2M conference, on 4 November.

First of all, we started to set up a world-wide network, at the moment consisting of the following persons (and still growing): representatives from Belgium (Donald Weber), Bulgaria(Lyubomir Pozharliev), France (Étienne Faugier, Mathieu Flonneau), Italy (Paolo Giardullo), Germany (Hans Liudger Dienel), Greece (Aristotle Tympas), the Netherlands (Fons Alkemade, Jan-Bart Broertjes, Gijs Mom), Portugal (Luísa Coelho Sousa), Spain (Simone Fari), Sweden (Per Lundin) and the United States (Peter Norton).During the coming months we intend to use Spain as a ‘guinea pig’, in order to identify the major problems.

Second, we defined the following functionalities of DMM:

• PULSE: this functionality encompasses an annual survey (quantitative data collection) of national panels. The panels are so-called ‘vanguard panels’: they are not representative of the national population, but are in their structure a reflection of the main stakeholders of the mobility transition: motorists hesitating to change their mobility behaviour, EV drivers, dedicated cyclists and pedestrians, policy makers, representatives of industry and mobility associations.

Questions still to be decided:

-the size of the panels (our suggestion: 2,000 organized locally)

-how to select panel members?

-do we need a proto-survey for the selection process?

-how to arrange the survey results?

-how to organize finance?

-first survey in 2026?

• STORY: narratives, forming a dynamic forum for the exchange of ideas and best practices.Panel members will be invited to share and discuss their innovative practices, creating a dynamic forum for the exchange of ideas and best practices.

Questions still to be decided:

-one language (English), or a language per country, with translation tools?

-define one theme per year? Who does this?

-how to organize? Possibilities: organized like H-Net or run by users themselves?

• BRIDGE: mediation between scholars and practitioners on the basis of research reports. The aim of this functionality is mediation between theory and practice: Serving as a connective hub, the platform and its researchers will bridge the gap between academic research and practical implementation, benefiting both scholars and practitioners by fostering a dialogue that translates theoretical insights into actionable strategies and feeds back such strategies into theory.

Questions still to be decided:

-do we need an archive function? Storing crucial scientific articles with limited access? If so: who manages this?

• NEWS: automated news platform about transition experiences worldwide. The idea here is to provide an automated news service; for this we need a tool that selects items from the web on the basis of keywords.

The coming months will be used to:

• Discuss the above in a wider circle of members of the network willing to become more active;
• Select a platform builder to prepare a ‘demo’ for the meeting on 4 November;
• Prepare a Business Plan and probe the willingness of one or two Dutch targets for sponsoring.