For the first time, a city government, a mobility operator, and a leading research university have combined their datasets to produce actionable urban transport recommendations. The results show what cities are missing.

In Hannover, simulation modelling shows that universal first- and last-mile connections would reduce car trips by 14% and increase public transport use by nearly 20%, with the highest impact in mobility hub locations, almost all on the periphery rather than the centre.

In Seville, route choice modelling of 90,000 e-bike trips confirms that the availability of infrastructure is the strongest predictor of where people cycle. Both findings point to the same conclusion: cities making billion-euro transport decisions without operator data are working from an incomplete picture.

The findings were published today by Sustainable Urban Transitions (SUT) Lab, a partnership between ETH Zürich and the Bolt Urban Fund, in two comprehensive reports from its first pilot projects with the cities of Hannover and Seville.

The reports pioneer a new approach to the planning process by integrating proprietary datasets from Bolt, city datasets, in-app Bolt user surveys, ETH Zurich advanced data science, and simulation models.

The SUT Lab was founded in 2025 with a vision to bridge the science-policy gap in urban planning and to collaborate directly with city planning teams to optimise and accelerate their Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs), thereby accelerating their shift towards better-integrated multimodal mobility systems.

Its first pilots were launched in Seville and Hannover in April 2025, with the SUT Lab team from ETH Zurich subsequently analysing millions of Bolt journeys, city mobility data, telemetry data, and GPS-linked surveys, and building MATSim agent-based simulation models to enable practical, actionable recommendations for both cities.

Hannover: connecting micromobility and public transport

In Hannover, the SUT Lab worked with the city planning team on five sub-studies to improve shared e-scooter use, parking regulation, micromobility safety, and first- and last-mile public transport connections; identify optimal mobility hub locations; and, overall, to integrate micromobility and public transport into a multimodal system.

Research showed that 56% of all shared micromobility journeys connect to public transport, and only 2.5% of trips compete with it. Further simulation modelling showed that universal first- and last-mile connections would reduce car trips by 14% and increase public transport use by nearly 20%.

Crucially, the SUT Lab’s analysis and simulations show that the highest-impact new mobility hub locations are in peripheral areas rather than the city centre, recommending locations in Großer Hillen, Misburger Straße, Fasanenkrug, Nordhafen, Ahlem and Anderten-Misburg.

Seville: improving cycling infrastructure and Metro integration

In Seville, the SUT Lab worked with the city on four sub-studies focusing on how cycling, shared mobility, and public transport can work better together; recommending where to improve cycling infrastructure, identifying safety hotspots, pinpointing when and where traffic bottlenecks occur, and analysing how the new Metro expansion can be better integrated with walking, cycling and shared mobility.

Research supported the City’s PMUS 2030 target of expanding the cycling network to 400 km, using route-choice modelling of 90,000 e-bike trips to confirm that bicycle-lane availability is the strongest predictor of where people cycle.

The SUT Lab also conducted the most detailed district-level impact assessment of the planned Metro Lines 2 and 3, identifying car-to-public-transport shifts of up to 18%.

More importantly, it demonstrated that the Metro expansion should not be understood as a standalone intervention; in some areas outside the corridor, public transport service can improve if access and feeder connections are strengthened through walking, cycling, and other first- and last-mile options.

Using data to identify safety hotspots

In both cities, the SUT Lab conducted an innovative safety evaluation study using telemetry analysis of millions of micromobility trips.

The analysis identified specific risk hotspots that add a new, complementary layer to official accident data, allowing cities to enact and prioritise proactive interventions.

Travel behaviour and demographic analysis also provided both cities with a wealth of information on how micromobility is used, when and by whom, with analysis revealing sharp divergences in gender and age usage across time and location, and identifying interventions (e.g. lighting, perceived safety, route comfort) that can make active modes more inclusive and attractive to all.

Insights for European cities

The SUT Lab’s data-driven methodology and hands-on recommendations have transferable value for other European cities aiming to improve their SUMPs and overall urban livability.

The SUT Lab will now continue the collaboration with Seville, whilst a new project with the city of Lisbon was recently launched, focusing on SUMP-related city-centre street interventions.

What the partners said

Professor Bryan Adey, ETH Zürich, said: "The SUT Lab is showing how vast amounts of data can be converted into insights for planning teams. From travel behaviour to safety analyses, and from parking policies to large Metro expansions, our findings in Hannover and Seville provide a new perspective that can better shape how urban transitions are planned”.

Eirini Zafeiratou, VP Policy and Regulatory at Bolt, said: “Shared mobility is becoming a genuine part of how people move around European cities every day. That gives us a responsibility to do more than just operate; it means putting our data to work alongside city planners and world-class researchers to help build transport systems that actually function for everyone. Our partnership with ETH Zürich and our collaborations in Hannover and Seville is exactly what that looks like in practice."

Read the full findings from each city:

Seville

Hannover

Transforming mobility data into urban insights

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