Two-wheeled Tunnel Vision

Storebrand Asset Management's risk and ownership team represented by Victoria Lidén, and team Solutions represented by yours truly, whizzed through an exciting experience commuting through "Fyllingsdalstunnelen", the world's longest dedicated cycle and pedestrian tunnel this past week.

The three-kilometre-long "Fyllingsdalstunnelen" opened on April 15^th 2023. It's a carefully-designed tunnel, with much attention paid to how aesthetic choices, such as coloured lights and artwork, can make the journey pleasant. Time files quickly in there!

Urban planners, psychologists and designers have collaborated to make cycling and walking both faster and more attractive, enabling residential areas outside the city centre to commute quicker than before to the centre of Bergen. The ride from Kristianborg to Fyllingsdalen takes micromobility enthusiasts right through Løvstakken, one of Bergen's famous city mountains. With a constant temperature of seven degrees Celsius all year, protection from rain and wind could be welcome.   

Micromobility refers to transport options for shorter commutes typically within a 10 km radius and less than 25 kilometres per hour of speed. Human powered mobility is included. Dedicated micromobility space away from car traffic means that both air quality and road safety improves drastically, compared to infrastructure beside a heavily trafficked road.

Micromobility is one of the fastest growing investment themes within the mobility segment. According to the advisory firm Allied Market Research, the global micromobility market had a value of USD 44.12 billion in 2020. The market is forecasted to grow to USD 214.57 billion by 2030, which entails a CAGR of 17.4 percent from 2021 to 2030 [1].

The opening of the tunnel complements the Bybanen light rail line, the backbone of Bergen's electric public transport, a stretch of which runs in a twin tunnel parallel to the "Fyllingsdalstunnelen".

Signing off with a fun fact: Bybanen is manufactured by the solution company Stadler Rail, a Swiss company which produces trams and electric railway carriages. At the time of writing Stadler Rail is a holding in the Storebrand Smart Cities portfolio.