PostCarWorld: A Trans-Disciplinary Multi-Dimensional Simulation

The goal of this project is to explore the future of mobility through the role of the car. The main originality of this research is to raise the following problem: ‘What, if the world were a post-car world’. The basic idea is to define  a hypothetical  situation  where  the place  of the car would  have been dramatically  reduced  and to use qualitative and quantitative simulation methods to examine the consequences of this initial hypothesis.

To formalize our approach, we will design a counterfactual world in which the car has no use: a Post Car World. The objective is to conceive a world without cars (with four variants) in order to help us appraising the current role  of  automobile,  to  highlight  its  meaning  in  our  modern  societies  and  to  envision  new  possibilities  for mobility and spatial development. In order to understand the nature of this potential deep mutation and analyse the complexity  of the current  ‘car-society’,  a comprehensive  and synergistic  approach  will be carried out. In brief, this project is based on the idea that by simulating  the future through scenarios  we can understand  the present better.

This research project is by no means an ideological project; it is not guided by an ecological advocacy approach or by a possible  agenda  of sustainable  policies.  Right  to the  contrary,  the  approach  chosen  emphasizes  the observation of the present-day’s society, including the diversity of its orientations or attitudes towards future.

Switzerland  as a whole and in some of its parts will be used as the main geographical  reference in the overall project.

This  project  is  fully  interdisciplinary  and  trans-disciplinary.  It  brings  together  social  sciences,  engineering sciences, urban planning and urban design.