The draft programme for the CIVITAS Forum 2019 is now available to read and download!
Spanning three days from 2-4 October, the 2019 edition of Europe's top transport event will be held in Graz (Austria).
The UK capital London has announced its plans to continue to develop London to make it one of the world’s leading electric vehicle (EV) cities, which incorporates an extension to the city's EV charging network.
The London EV Infrastructure Delivery Plan is a result of the Mayor’s implementation of the world’s first EV Infrastructure Taskforce last year, to which approximately 140 organisations have contributed so far. The Taskforce brings together representatives of the London boroughs, national government, business, energy and infrastructure.
The new Finnish Government plans to introduce legislation to allow its cities to introduce road tolls or congestion charges. Until now, cities have not been allowed to apply such charges in Finland, but the new Government's commitments to exploring emission reduction charges, as well as the fact that between 2011-2018 new car registrations in Finland increased by more than the population did, has led to a change in the previous view.
Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia, is currently exploring how to use low-emission zones to tackle air pollution from transport.
Creation of the low-emission zones is part of an addendum to the city’s statute, which councillors approved on 27 June 2019.
The city council has stressed that Bratislava's seventeen individual boroughs will have the authority to introduce low-emission zones according to local needs - as well as determining the size of the zones.
Ireland is intending to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. This is one of the 180 measures published in the Irish government’s Climate Action Plan.
The Finnish capital Helsinki aims to be carbon neutral by 2035 and is implementing and trialling a range of diverse actions on its road to this ambitious goal. One of the areas of action is clearly traffic and Helsinki is determined to exploit new technologies to ensure that its urban transport services are carbon neutral within 20 years.
Rotterdam's efforts to encourage people to use off-street parking is mainly achieved through pricing policies. The city is also reducing the number of on-street parking places allowing more public space to be used for people rather than parked cars. By 2020, 3,000 parking spaces should be removed from the inner city within the Park4SUMP project. Many of these spaces will be replaced with green spaces, walking areas, bike lanes and bicycle parking garages.
Watch the video and transfer this approach to your city.
E-mobility company 1GE opened its first e-mobility shop in Tbilisi, Georgia. The company aim to highlight the importance of “green” energy to residents of Georgia and surrounding areas by promoting electromobility. Various events are planned with the aim of increasing awareness about e-mobility and its positive consequences for urban life, the 1GE team intend to organise gatherings at popular resting sites in Tbilisi (Lisi Lake, Turtle Lake etc.) where people will have the opportunity to ride on e-bikes and e-scooters and learn more about electromobility in general.
Tackling urban road safety must be a key priority for the European Union and European countries over the next decade, according to the European Transport Safety Council, authors of a new report.
According to the data revealed on 11 June 2019, road deaths on urban roads decreased at around half the rate of those on rural roads over the period 2010-2017. (1) Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists – the three most vulnerable road user groups – represent 70% of those killed and seriously injured on urban roads. (2)
The call for applications for the 8th EU SUMP Award was officially launched during the 6th SUMP Conference, in Groningen, on 17 June 2019. For this award edition, the theme of the SUMP Award is "Safe Walking and Cycling". Applications should be submitted by 31 October 2019.
In the framework of EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK, the European Commission annually presents the European SUMP Award to a planning authority which demonstrated excellence in sustainable urban mobility planning.
Portsmouth City Council in the UK has launched a new app designed to improve the travel conditions for persons with reduced mobility in the city.
The French city of Angers is refunding residents that buy an e-bike in a bid to promote active mobility in the area.
The programme will refund 25% of the price as a subsidy for electric bikes bought between 17 June 2019 and 31 December 2020. The subsidy covers electric bicycles and e-cargo bikes and is limited to 200 euro for an e-bike and 400 euro for a e-cargo bike.
The Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) and the Traffic Improvement Plan of the city of Algeciras were approved last week by the Municipal Council of the city. The documents will come into force once they are published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Cadiz. The SUMP has been developed with the involvement of local political parties, neighbourhood associations, social groups and residents.
Vienna's SUMP and its principles are considered a great example for other European cities.
One of the areas of action for mobility in Vienna is public space: 'sharing streets in a fair way'. In the past, the design of streets have been oriented towards cars and now more than 65% of the city’s street area is used for moving and parked motor vehicles, even though only 28% of all trips are made by car.
Hungary’s two biggest tourism destinations – Budapest and Lake Balaton – will soon be linked by a new dedicated bicycle route. The project could provide a major boost for tourism and for cycling in Hungary in general. The start of the project was confirmed by Péter Cseresnyés, State Secretary in the Ministry for Innovation and Technology (ITM), in a recent press conference in Sofiok that marked the start of another major cycle project; the reconstruction of the ‘Balaton Bringakör’ (Balaton Cycling Circle).
In June, the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) released a report on the Future of Cities, which considers how cities can address future mobility challenges. The report highlights the factors which are contributing to change in urban areas, brings attention to future challenges and sets out how cities can adopt solutions to develop cities of the future.
The Italian city of Genoa has announced that it will introduce a scheme to ensure that deliveries in its old town are undertaken using environmentally-friendly vehicles.
The initiative, called “INVIA”, aims to respond to the need to reduce the polluting emissions associated with the deliveries of goods in the city and contributes to the creation of CO2-free city logistics, as envisaged by the European Commission.
