Accessibility and Proximity

A dense and accessible part of the city is being created in Stockholm Royal Seaport with close access to services and parks. Planning prioritises walking and cycling, followed by public transport to reduce climate impact.

Pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users prioritised

Urban mobility is a key issue in transitioning to a more sustainable society. A reverse traffic hierarchy was adopted at an early stage of planning for Stockholm Royal Seaport. This priorities walking, cycling and public transport, making these the obvious ways to get around. It reduces climate impact, improves health outcomes, and creates opportunities to move around the area more affordably and equally in terms of gender and different age groups.

To encourage walking, there should be convenient and connected walkways on all streets. Good lighting and design improves the increase of safety. Street access should be for non-vehicular traffic as well as vehicles, for example with attractive quay-side walkways and main streets designed for pedestrians. Bicycle lanes should be separate from other modes of transport so that young and old, accustomed and unaccustomed cyclists can move around safely. Bicycle parking on properties is supplemented with street bicycle parking to make it easier to choose to walk and cycle.

Stockholm Royal Seaport is already served by the metro, several bus lines and an electric ferry service connecting the area with Nacka, Lidingö, central Stockholm and Storholmen.

To create living street spaces, stationary vehicles need to be moved from the streets. In the first stages of the project, car parks were built under buildings. In 2018, a survey was conducted on the use of these car parks. Results show that the occupancy rate is high. 12 out of 15 car parks have an occupancy rate of more than 95 per cent.

In the coming stages, car parking will be made available in a common external multistorey car park where developers will buy spaces. Hjorthagsgaraget, with about 1,300 parking spaces, is under construction in a cavern previously used for fuel storage. Locating car parking at a distance from dwellings makes it easier for residents to take public transport rather than the car. In Värtahamnen and Loudden, the opportunity to convert existing caverns for car parking, amongst other uses, is being investigated.

The number of bicycle spaces has increased for each project stage – from 1.9 per dwelling in the first phase without requirements for bicycle spaces to 2.8 per dwelling in Brofästet. The requirement for bicycle spaces is reached or exceeded.

Five-minute city

The concept of the 15-minute city was implemented in Paris by Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo. It means that it should only take 15 minutes to get from home to the most important everyday services on foot or by bicycle. Stockholm Royal Seaport was inspired by this and developed the 5-minute city concept, which requires an integrated approach that links urban planning and public space design to urban mobility systems. Everyday services such as grocery stores, pre-schools, schools and public transport must be available within a radius of five minutes walking distance from the home – which corresponds to a distance of 400 metres. It is important that quality services such as grocery stores and communications are available from an early development stage.

All residents also have access to parks or green areas within 200 metres of their home, but do not have a neighbourhood park. This is in line with the planning conducted early on in the project based on a larger number of smaller parks. The ambition is to encourage everyday mobility, increase the use of parks, and strengthen ecological connections, for example with oak trees, through dispersal zones. This is partly compensated for by the fact that measures have been taken to improve access to the Royal National City Park with bridges and walkways, etc. Proximity to the park contributes to increased equality because women’s and men’s mobility habits and the everyday lives of children and the elderly differ. For parks and green areas to be perceived as close and used often by children and the elderly, they should be within 200 metres of the home. If they are close to schools, children are encouraged to walk. Due to construction continuing in the area for some time, considerable emphasis is placed on safe walkways to and from school. One way is to minimize the number of heavy transports in and through the area.

Interactive map - Five-minute city ›

Efficient and sustainable freight transport

Evaluation of Hammarby Sjöstad’s Construction Consolidation Centre (CCC) demonstrated the considerable potential of logistics solutions. As this was still at the concept stage, a dialogue-based procurement was conducted. Interested suppliers were invited to describe how a CCC could be designed. In conjunction with the procurement, it became clear that a CCC could also use industry thinking and contribute with benefits such as a safer working environment and more efficient construction processes. The Stockholm Royal Seaport CCC opened in 2013, and all developers and contractors are involved. The project is part of several academic studies and collects data for several research and development projects. The innovation for the City of Stockholm is to co-ordinate all construction actors and jointly work towards established goals, requirements and processes and, through various technical solutions, direct transports to the site in the most efficient ways possible.

A large proportion of the materials transported through Stockholm are gravel, sand, stone and soil. The handling of these materials was reviewed within the framework of Stockholm Royal Seaport and led to the establishment of a in 2018. The MCC handles excavated materials from the urban development project. Sorting and reusing excavated materials locally substantially reduces the number of heavy transports. The MCC and the development work done with crushing and excavated material handling close to urban areas have reduced excavated material transports by 69 per cent. The MCC contributes to increase the reuse of materials, which saves heavy transports on the city’s road network.

Key events in 2021:

• The walkway between Gasverket and Hjorthagen was opened. It is partly provisionally designed until it can connect the site where the previous Gasklocka 4 once stood and where a new residential building is to be built.
• A new playground was completed in the woods next to the old Gasklocka 3 and 4. The playground is next door to the Anna pre-school, and it is also close to other new and planned pre-schools.
• The Boathouse park and the streets in the Brofästet stage are completed. The beach promenade along Husarviken was extended and it is possible to walk all the way to the bridge.
• The work of rebuilding Gasverksvägen continues. The section from Rådjursstigen to Ropsten was widened and pedestrian and bicycle lanes will be added.
• The reconstruction of the south side of Bobergsgatan by the Gasverket continued. The street will be completed with a cycle path, walkway and tree planting.
• Planning for the new pedestrian and bicycle ramp started in the southern parts of Värtahamnen.
• In 2019, the City of Lidingö began building a new pedestrian, bicycle and tram bridge that will be completed in 2022/2023. This replaces the old bridge and meets both the traffic goal that more road users should be able to cycle, walk or choose public transport to improve safety and accessibility. Work on the bridge foundations is underway in Ropsten.
• The contributed to a reduction of approximately 700 truck transports during 2021.
• A new environmental permit makes it possible to transport excavated materials by barge, which reduces the number of heavy transports.