Hi Movita team, thanks for joining us. To set the scene, could you tell us what you’re building and which urban mobility challenge you’re aiming to improve?
Milena Vuckovic: Over the past 20 years of my career, I have seen large companies focus on mobility challenges almost exclusively through the lens of profit, often avoiding solutions that could help far more people in the long term.
In cities like Belgrade, and many others across Eastern and Southeast Europe, public transport users are still surrounded by an overwhelming number of cars. At the same time, cycling remains a marginalized mode of transport, with safety being the main barrier for nearly 90% of potential cyclists.
Our goal is to create space for both groups: public transport users and cyclists, to be heard. At the same time, public transport operators, cycling associations, and urban traffic planners lack access to actionable, user-level data that reflects real-world conditions on the street. Without insights into where risks occur, how often they appear, and how users actually experience the network, it becomes extremely difficult to define priorities, allocate resources, or plan meaningful network improvements.
Citizen-generated data is often the only way to uncover everyday safety risks that never appear in official statistics. Without it, cities remain blind to the lived experiences of cyclists and pedestrians and continue to design systems based on incomplete information.

Let’s zoom in on Movita Ride. What problem does it solve for everyday cyclists and commuters in Southeast European cities?
As cyclists, we initially thought we understood the main problems. However, only after collecting real insights from different types of users across various cities and regions were we able to clearly group and define them.
The core issue is the lack of information about potential risks and incidents on cycling routes. When planning a car trip from A to B, you can see travel time, distance, delays, roadworks, or lane closures. For bike routes, this information simply doesn’t exist.
Cyclists are often left on their own e.g. every trip becomes an uncertainty. Eventually, this pushes people toward what feels like a more predictable option: using a private car. And that is exactly the opposite of what cities aiming for sustainable mobility want to achieve.

How does hazard reporting work in practice, and what motivates people to contribute useful information consistently?
Feedback from cycling NGOs in Belgrade has been very encouraging. They supported the initiative because it raises awareness and helps cyclists navigate the city more safely using existing hazard heatmaps.
At the moment, Movita Ride is still in the pilot phase. Gamification features are designed but not yet fully activated. We strongly believe that gamification will become a key driver for long-term engagement. For now, users are mainly motivated by the desire to contribute to safer cycling infrastructure and to actively participate in improving their city.

You combine cyclist feedback with city data. What has been the biggest challenge in making these two sources work well together in one platform?
Our biggest challenge has been cooperation with city authorities. Most available data focuses exclusively on car traffic and road infrastructure, while cycling and pedestrian networks are often overlooked.
However, the main obstacle is capacity: road maintenance providers often lack both resources and real-time systems to support cycling infrastructure properly.
With user-generated cycling data, we can provide valuable insights to road maintenance authorities.

How have your surveys and early partner conversations shaped the product so far, and what are you most eager to validate in the pilot?
User feedback significantly changed our initial product design. Younger generations, in particular, are very clear about what they want, which makes it easier to listen, adapt, and implement changes quickly.
The key value of our product lies in closing the feedback loop e.g. reported issues of cycling path segment lead to measurable improvements in safety levels. As safety improves, trust grows, and with it, the number of active users.

Could you share a bit about the team behind Movita, how you started working together, and what personal experiences inspired the project?
Milena Vuckovic: I am a traffic and transportation engineer with over 20 years of experience working in mobility and urban transport systems. Throughout my career, I repeatedly encountered a gap between how cities are planned by experts and how people actually move through them in everyday life. This gap became the core inspiration behind Movita.
The team itself came together almost by coincidence. While looking for young developers with experience in building mobile applications, I met Andjela and Filip, students from another city, who had already won prestigious awards for their work during their education.
They currently work remotely while completing their master’s degrees at the Technical University in Belgrade. We are very different in age, I am 45, while they are 22, but this diversity quickly became a strength. It helped us align around a shared goal while also giving us valuable insight into new generations of users and modern ways of working.

What are your main goals for the Danube Digital Accelerator, and what kind of support would be most valuable right now?
Like most startups at this stage, we are seeking investment. But even more importantly, we are looking for official recognition and validation.
Such support can significantly ease access to public enterprises and institutions. Even with good personal connections, endorsement from a respected accelerator often opens doors faster and helps accelerate real-world implementation.

Looking ahead, what are your plans for the future, and what can we look forward to next from Movita?
Our immediate goal is to finalize both civic projects and continue improving public transport and cycling experiences. We started as a non-profit, driven by the desire to solve real problems. Over time, to achieve sustainability and validation, we transitioned into a for-profit startup.
Next steps include strengthening partnerships with key stakeholders, improving our applications, and growing our user base. At the same time, we are involved in several other urban mobility initiatives that help us expand our network and gain valuable experience for our core projects.

Thank you, Movita team, for your time and for taking part in the accelerator and this interview. Your work to bring citizen-generated safety data into urban mobility planning is inspiring, and we wish you continued momentum and success as you scale your pilot and partnerships.