Eltis

In her bid for reelection, current Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, aims to turn the French capital into a 'city of fifteen minutes' (Ville Du Quart D'Heure).

This aims to transform Paris into a people-friendly city, where everyone can find everything they need 15 minutes from home (and preferably, not by car).

The plans build on Hidalgo’s 'Plan Vélo' transport changes, made during her current term of office. These included removing space for cars and boosting space for cyclists and pedestrians.

Finland has announced that it will support the installation of over 5,000 EV charging points at apartment blocks and detached home complexes, in a bid to contribute to achieving its goal of carbon neutrality by 2035.

FREE NOW - the company dedicated to ride-hailing which was created last February from the mobility joint venture between BMW Group and Daimler AG - integrates Hive within its selection of transport for urban mobility in Turin.

Birmingham has become the latest city in the UK to introduce a series of measures that aim to reduce pollution from road transport. 

Birmingham's measures appeared in a draft transport plan, which included removing through-traffic from the city centre. Only car traffic that had a destination within the city would be able to drive within city. These cars would need to comply with the requirements of the city's Clean Air Zone, meaning that drivers would have to pay a fine if their vehicles did not meet the specified vehicle emission standards.

A recent study funded by the UK's Medical Research Council (MRC) found that particulate pollution from brake wear could have negative effects on respiratory health, such as increased susceptibility to airway infections, inflammation and a reduced ability of immune cells to kill bacteria.

The use of a bicycle is growing in Spain. It is driven by women, especially young women, who are choosing this mode of transport for their daily journeys. In the last two years, bike use by women in Spain has increased by 5% while among men it remains stable, according to the latest bicycle barometer produced by the Network of Cities by Bicycle (Red de Ciudades per la Bicicleta). In this way, the bicycle is more and more present in the streets and the gender gap is reduced.

Municipalities in The Netherlands are to apply harmonised rules for their Low Emission Zone's (LEZ's). From 1 January 2020, national regulation applies to LEZ's, putting an end to the increasing variety in local rules for each individual LEZ. The harmonised rules allow municipalities to instate a LEZ in order to improve air quality while providing motorists with clarification of the access regulations and enforcement that apply to local LEZ's.

Lack of harmonisation

On 10 January 2020, the City Council of the Scottish city of Edinburgh presented its draft plans for the coming 10 years that aim to take the city towards the goal of being a carbon neutral city by 2030.

EUROSTAT has published the latest statistics on household costs in the EU member states. Expenditure on transport took second place out of all household costs with on average 13.2% of all household costs. It is surpassed only by housing costs (24%) and ranks even before average spending for food and non-alcoholic beverages.

The City of Parma, in Italy, has announced that it will provide subsidies worth 30,000 euro to companies that offer home-to-work schemes to their employees. The aim is to reduce the level of polluting emissions, especially particulates (PM10), by persuading commuters to use their car less for their journey to work.

The initiative targets companies, public and private entities, which have either implemented a home-to-work scheme, are about to set up such a scheme or have committed to developing one in the next six months.

The first hydrogen-powered bus rapid transport (BRT) service in the world is to start operating in the southern French city of Pau. It will operate along a 6 kilometre express route using a new fleet of eight 18 metre Van Hool ExquiCity fuel cell buses.

Hydrogen based technology in the electric transport sector is competing with traditional fuels like diesel and gasoline for long distances. It is quiet, needs reasonable time for refuelling and it releases water only.

Transport is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions and a serious contributor to global warming. Road vehicles, in particular, are responsible for a large proportion of urban air pollution. One way to decarbonise mobility could be to replace fossil fuels with hydrogen.

Park4SUMP is an EU-funded Horizon 2020 project, which supports cities to adapt their parking management strategies as part of their Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs). It aims to encourage innovative parking solutions to become part of cities’ SUMP and other city planning processes.

A practitioner brief on Parking and SUMP integration has become a part of the new SUMP guidelines.

The air in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, is one of the most polluted in Europe because of the city’s geographical position and its reliance on fossil fuels. However, over recent years, public protests have pushed policy makers to take action to improve air quality.

In December 2019, the ambassadors of the EU's Member States approved a proposal to make it easier for freight operators to provide information to public authorities in digital form. The vote took place in the EU Council’s Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper).

Towards the end of 2019, the Portuguese Municipality of Braga hosted a session that aimed to present and collect contributions that might be included in the final version of the city’s Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP).

This was the second debate that was open to the public. It launched a period that lasted until the end of 2019 that involved several public discussions that had the goal of collecting further suggestions and insights from residents that might be potentially incorporated into the final version of the SUMP.

For urban mobility planners and policymakers to influence changes in mobility patterns, they need to have a detailed knowledge of the existing situation. Traditionally, gathering information about mobility patterns and in particular, vehicular traffic has required costly traffic surveys which rarely distinguish between vehicle type – and only present a short snapshot of the situation.  

EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK 2019 exceeded all expectations and the 2019 Participation report published in December 2019 found it to be the most successful year, yet.

Towards the end of 2019, the Municipality of Milan decided to take part in a micro-mobility national trial promoted by the Italian Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. The installation of 130 road signs in the inner city centre is complete and shared e-scooters are available for residents and tourists to be used.

During this year’s Amsterdam’s Drone Week, the Metropole of Toulouse has launched the creation of its “B612 Urban Air Mobility Marketplace”. By this initiative, the metropole aims to connect the urban air mobility actors and stakeholders to develop a wide collaborative approach to the role of urban air mobility in sustainable urban mobility planning and delivery.

The B612 marketplace welcomes all stakeholders connected to urban air mobility, including: