Assignment 28: Reflecting - Katariina

1. Where have I succeeded in the project?
- I succeeded to put into practice my knowledge I gained during this semester. Municipality of Alcoy really liked my idea to implement “walking distance maps” I’ve seen in Netherlands to promote walking as a fast way to move in the city. I also succeeded to work in an international group and utilize my knowledge for the team and project.

2. What kind of challenges I have encountered?
- At first biggest challenge was a common language and lack of knowledge. Of course, I couldn’t express myself in English as good as in Finnish but my English improved quickly. In Finland I’ve got used to finish an autumn semester before Christmas so I was lacking of motivation after Christmas holiday. Luckily, I got my motivation back as soon as we arrived to Spain and were in the city we are making the project for.

3. What kind of challenges have you encountered as a group?
- In my opinion we haven’t encountered any big challenges. I think we all were quite busy during the semester so it was hard to find time to have meetings before the project really started. At first we didn’t know group members which was a little challenging but at the same time exciting. Working is easier now when we know how each group member prefer to work. During the field work period, we had some misunderstandings due to a language barrier but they were solved quickly.

4. What would I do differently?
- My pet peeve is postponing things to the last minute. So once again, I would start doing tasks early enough so I don’t need to suffer from last minute panic. Another thing I would do differently is to learn more Spanish. I had no clue that people in Alcoy don’t speak English. I didn’t expect high level English but I assumed that I can do groceries or order food in English but no.

5. Have I done something extra for the project?
- I haven’t done much extra for the project or at least it doesn’t feel like it. I have to admit that I’ve been a little stressed because of the project so maybe I have worked subconsciously on the project much more than I was planning to.

6. What have I learned?
- I learnt way more than I expected. Of course, I learnt a lot about reducing CO2 emissions but much more above that. During three weeks we spent in Spain, I learnt a lot about Spanish culture and mindset and also Spanish language. I faced situations where I wasn’t able to communicate with any language I know but somehow I coped. Working in international group taught me so much about different cultures and about myself as well. After these five months, I also appreciate my home country, Finland, more than before. It may not be the best country in the World but still it is pretty good place to live and love.

Assignment 26: Service Design and Prototyping (BMC)

 Please read through both of our business model canvases. We chose the e-scooter sharing system we would like to implement here in Alcoy and the restructuring of the university parking garage including a costs structure. We look forward to read your feedback.

Assignment 24 - Pitching ten ideas

Here you can see our pitch of our ten most promising ideas. We are looking forward to your feedback!

Assignment 23: Conceptualizing

As soon as we got to know the city of Alcoi by visiting the hotspots of problematic infrastructure, Isabel showed us the problems she is seeing since a long time and together we tried to find single solutions for these problems. We also used the supplies given to us by the Universitat Politècnica de Valéncia, such as an electric scooter as a testing vehicle, for further ideas and inspiration. Many of the ideas are supposed to form a bigger concept in the end. The most promising ten ideas are the following:

1. Xkuty - electric scooter sharing
• What: Creating a concept for sharing electric scooters city wide for an affordable price.
• Why: Many people do not use bikes or do not even own one, part of the reason for that are the steep hills and hot weather. Driving electric scooter is much more convenient and will help to reduce the amount of cars.
• How: Using the local company Xkuty, which builds e-scooters, will be very beneficial for the economy of the area and the acceptance of the program
2. Less and more expensive parking spots
• What: We would like to reduce the number of parking spots on the streets and make the remaining ones more expensive or ban them to the outskirts.
• Why: On the one hand it will simply make driving less attractive, but more importantly on the other hand will create space for bike lanes.
• How: By reducing the total amount of spots and creating central parking points instead of on-street-parking.
3. Bike escalator
• What: There is only one real bike escalator which is operating in Norway. We would like to see that also in Alcoi.
• Why: Alcoi is located in a mountain area, which makes many streets very steep and unattractive to ride up. Especially in the summer when it is up to 45°C it is very unlikely for people to ride a bike uphill. On the other side it is totally fine to go downhill.
• How: By exploring the city more we will find a street which is very steep and very busy at the same time. Finding the most adequate street guarantees that people will try it out and might use it frequently.
4. Pedestrian boulevards in cooperation with art students
• What: Many streets also in the city center are open for cars and have very narrow sidewalks.
• Why: We want to slowly step-by-step push the cars out of the city center to make walking and biking more attractive.
• How: By addressing art/design students and creating a project for them we could pick a certain road that should be closed first. The art students can find a way to make the street more beautiful e.g. colorful umbrellas as shade providers.
5. “Welcome package” for new students or staff
• What: Giving “sustainable” gifts to new students and staff
• Why: This can raise awareness and gives people the opportunity to try out new and more sustainable things
• How: We can find sponsors for a gift bag, these could include free trial month tickets for public transportation, sustainable toothbrushes made from bamboo or discounts for green energy contracts in case students move into a new apartment.
6. Different traffic flow
• What: We find the existing traffic flow not very suitable for an environment in which people would like to walk or bike.
• Why: The major roads are only one way streets which leads to many detours if you want to go somewhere, which can be very exhausting while biking. Also it makes people drive much faster than allowed making bikers uncomfortable to drive on the street.
• How: By changing to two way streets all points in the city should be easier accessable. Furthermore, we would like to restructure the green waves, we find they are too long in terms of length which will support the speeding.
7. City Bikes
• What: Introduce a city bike service
• Why: Thereby people would not need to buy/ possess bikes but could still use them. To increase the inner city mobility.
• How: Provide a city bike service with stations at strategic points. The first twenty minutes would be free of charge which should be enough in a small city like Alcoi. If you would like to take a longer ride or make an excursion there could be an attractive fee system.
8. Walking distance maps
• What: Visualise that the distances within the city are short.
• Why: To promote walking for short distances
• How: Installing walking maps for example at bus stations or strategic spots which show how many minutes it takes you to get from your current location to your destination.
9. Safer road crossing for pedestrians
• What: Provide secure street crossings.
• Why: The majority of drivers does not respect crosswalks and  traffic lights take to long to switch lights.
• How: Installing green light on demand for traffic lights at busy areas or schools.
10. Increase amount of people who bike-to-work
• What: Facilitate the bike ride to work or university.
• Why: To raise its attractiveness.
• How: Providing showers, changing rooms and lockers e.g. promote the gym showers.

Wolta - The Spanish Electric Minibus

This morning we had the possibility to visit a presentation of a new micro bus which is manufactured in Spain close to Barcelona. The presented bus was a Wolta, engineered and designed by the electric mobility company CAR-BUS.net. With a length of only six meters it is the smallest brother of a whole family of three different sustainable buses. We were able to talk to one of the technicians who could tell us a lot about this new product.

It fits up to eleven people seating and up to 24 standing up, with its electric ramp the bus is very user friendly especially for old and disabled people. Not only is the bus shorter than common buses but it also has less width. The size of the bus is its biggest advantage, because it can drive into many narrow roads where a normal sized bus could not. This is very useful for Alcoi because a larger spread of bus lines which can cover the small streets is necessary. 

Talking about the technical details, the bus can drive up to 50 km/h, which is quite enough for narrow streets in small towns. Furthermore, it can drive, depending on the road, up to 150 km in a 15 hour shift. An outstanding feature, especially in hilly areas like Alcoi, is the regenerative braking system, which allows the vehicle to charge back energy not only while braking but also while going down one of the many hills.

Finally, we hopped on for a test drive. Comfortably seated we went off for a small city tour on which Wolta could prove its climbing abilities on Alcoi's steepest hills. It drives very quietly and offers enough space despite the size. We are looking forward to seeing Wolta reguraly in Alcoi and many cities more.

After the test drive our Spanish member, Isabel, gave a short interview about our team and we made it to the news! You can found the article (in Valenciano) here.

Assignment 22: Reflecting on Skype meeting with Turku group

Today we held a skype meeting with the Turku group according to assignment 22. The meeting was lead by Lennart and Katariina from our side and they were talking with Seren and Erik. After a little small talk we started by presenting our early concepts. While doing this, we got some useful tips and insights from the Turku group. We already knew before, that our ideas are quite disorganised and we still need to sort them and prove their feasibility. Seren proposed to use the MoSCoW-method. This method gives a structure to sort our ideas into MUST haves, SHOULD haves, COULD haves and WON’T haves. In addition, we should have a clear vision or goal for every concept. Because trying to make all steps at once would be too much change at one time, we will try to make smaller steps, so people can get used to it. Also for this we could use some literature like for example the 8-step change model by Kotter, that is often used by companies.

The Turku group really liked our first concept with ideas to reorganise the overall infrastructure in Alcoi. Especially, they were in favor of creative ideas like the bike escalator. Furthermore, Erik and Seren were interested in our second concept. This concept was about creating a sharing system with bikes, that can be used for free the first 20 minutes and scooters produced by a local company around Alcoi. This would require a little fee to drive them. Later on, this sharing system could be expanded by offering small electric cars. Here we got the hint to have a look at the electric cars used by LomboxNet, a company from Utrecht, that also gave a presentation to us during the first courses.

The third concept was about an action plan for the university, which includes several steps to reduce the use of cars and increase the usage of more sustainable transport methods. Later on, this action plan could be adapted to be used by companies. Overall the Turku group gave us good feedback and proposed to base our ideas and concepts on theory and literature.

After this first part the Turku group explained us, what they have been doing so far. At first they came up with 150-200 ideas for shared spaces. Their table was covered by a lot of sticky notes. After coming up with so many ideas, there was the need to sort them by importance and feasibility. Furthermore, they categorised them by the type of building, they could be used for. At the moment they have six basic concepts for shared spaces and in the end they try to have ten of them. From our team, there was the idea by Lennart to write e-mails to co-working spaces all around the world to get different insights and more special and already working concepts. Katariina proposed to get in contact with another co-working space, that is called Turku Boost and is also located in Turku.

The client of the Turku group basically wants some creative ideas for shared spaces so the team decided to make unique concepts for different target groups.

All in all, the meeting gave us some new fresh insights and a good feedback by the other group. Also, it was nice to talk to our friends located on the other side of europe.

Arrival in Alcoi

After a weekend of individual arrivals in Spain, on Monday finally the complete group was in Alcoi. We all looked forward to our project here and now it shall start. On Monday morning we were greeted nicely by the staff of the UPV. Together we learned about Campus Alcoi, what kind of studies are taught here and had a tour around the very modern facilities. We were shown our two Labs were we can work freely and independent since we are the only ones using it. This will help us because we can spread every idea all over the walls and whiteboard.

A nice extra for us was the electric scooter manufactured by a local company called Xkuty. It is a light weight vehicle for one person which we could try out shortly on the campus plaza and furthermore during the next weeks all over Alcoi. The range and power is quite enough to drive around this beautiful town with its steep heels. Being battery powered the acceleration is one of the best features about it and makes it a lot of fun to cruise around. We will give it a good test and give feedback and tips for improvement to the UPV at the end of our stay.


After a small lunch break we, together with our partners at UPV, walked over to the town hall to be welcomed by the municipality. We got some insight of the traditions of the city of Alcoi and met more important partners that will support us if we need help. Those are for example the head of the local police and members of the city council responsible for the infrastructure.


In the afternoon we got a long city tour from Isabel, our local team member who lives in Aloci, to get to know the city. She has prepared a nice walking tour for us in which she addressed some problems with the infrastructure which bother her since a while. The rest of us listened carefully, asked questions and discussed certain topics right on the spot to get a quick feeling about the city and its mobility issues. We were also happy about the nice scenery which surrounds the city with its many mountains and blue skies.

Through this long city walk we had a very fast overview of some of the problems the town is facing and we already had productive sessions in which we created early concepts and appreciate the feedback we received via Skype from the group working in Turku.
We look forward to the next days and hope to make life in this area a little better than it is already is.