Lohmar | Digital | For Everyone

(a) Situation faced: As a city of generations and living actively in the countryside, Lohmar is a rural municipality on the outskirts of Cologne and Bonn in Germany. According to Lohmar’s slogan “Lohmar | Digital | For everyone”, Lohmar aims to actively shape its digital future. This paper is not only focusing on the development of a digital transformation strategy but also on the challenges Lohmar faces in the field of mobility. Lohmar is facing a high level of commuter traffic with only a low utilization of 1.2 persons per car, due to the car as the main transportation vehicle. (b) Action taken: To face its challenges, the city of Lohmar began developing a digital transformation strategy. With the involvement of various stakeholders, Lohmar developed its own online platform where citizens could share ideas on the digital transformation strategy and its projects. Thus, the fields of action administration, education, mobility, and entrepreneurship occurred. In the field of mobility, ideas emerged for organizing commuter traffic, with a focus on the idea of a dedicated smart mobility hub that combines multimodal mobility systems. With this idea, Lohmar responded to the smart cities call by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Construction and Home Affairs (BMI). (c) Results achieved: By developing a digital transformation strategy in Lohmar, the city prioritized the topic of digital transformation in all areas of its municipality. With the engagement of different stakeholders and various citizens, Lohmar succeeded to make digital transformation processes omnipresent, through implementing a change management process. In different workshops, Lohmar encouraged its citizens and employees to rethink digital transformation processes supporting ideas, especially regarding commuters’ challenges. Based on this, Lohmar was able to submit the project proposal of RBS.Mobil, multimodal mobility concept in the affluent suburbs of Cologne and Bonn creating a network for mobility, which is now being funded. (d) Lessons learned: In its process of developing an own digital transformation strategy and submitting a project proposal for a smart multimodal mobility hub with the focus on commuters’ traffic, Lohmar achieved six lessons learned, which can help municipalities facing comparable challenges (e.g., a strategic roadmap into a digital future, commuter traffic in a rural area). Lohmar’s six lessons learned are described as followed: First, digital transformation is a joint task! Second, digital transformation processes need competences! Third, digital transformation processes need responsibilities! Fourth, learn from other municipalities! Fifth, there is always more than one solution! Sixth, asking for help improves your actions!