EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK:
Leipzig Leads the Way
With EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK participation enjoying record levels for a third straight year, LOW-CARB played its part from September 16th-22nd! All partners, including Koprivnica, Brno, Szeged, Skawina, Parma, undertook specific activities and measures. Leipzig led the way, with employees being engaged at their worksteads in the northern industrial area and beyond, and directly informed about the public transport offer. Being a highly dynamic economic area with many large companies and over 35,000 commuters, demand management has never been more important. Consultations are expected to help identify future public transport investments and improvements that will feed into a forthcoming low-carbon mobility action plan.
During mobility week, citizens learned more about the available connections, destinations and the modes of transport serving them, station locations, service duration and frequency, prices, discounts and so on. A number of free tickets were also distributed during campaign events to attract attention, while postcards were used to collect feedback when commuters head home. There was also a chance to win free weekend public transport tickets for the whole family!
Parma, like Leipzig, is deemed a ‘Golden City’ for undertaking all three pillars of the campaign: a week of activities, car-free day and the implementation of permanent measures. In respect to the latter, which includes a sub-category: ‘Development of travel plans/mobility plans in consultation with local stakeholders,’ on Wednesday September 19th, the city hosted an information point in Piazza Garibaldi, its main square and multi-modal transport hub. There citizens were surveyed to better understand their mobility behavior and their attitudes towards electric mobility. The results fed into the city’s LOW-CARB sponsored action plan for multipurpose charging infrastructure for public transport e-services, since it seeks to increase the use of low-carb solutions, such as electric buses.
Moving to the Czech Republic, Brno not only acknowledged sustainable travel behaviour by distributing small gadgets to public transport users, cyclists and pedestrians, but also used the occasion of the week to share information about the city’s recently adopted Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) and discussed it more widely. This plan references the integration of low-carbon public transport services but also realised dedicated lanes for cyclists. During the week, a bike path stretching some 470 metres along Kolejní and Technická Ulice that was already developed following stakeholder consultation was celebrated, according to the spirit of MOBILITYWEEK. Activities for children on safety, plus collecting feedback on the future locations of two cycle stands rounded out the week’s campaign activities.
Szeged (Hungary), and Skawina (Poland) were similarly busy, their plans and activities being visible via the given links. On Wednesday, September 19th, for instance, Gmina Skawina hosted a discussion on sustainable modes of transport with citizens outside the town hall, and surveyed their importance vis-à-vis quality of life, whilst sharing information about LOW-CARB. Koprivnica in Croatia lent attention to electric vehicles and surveyed citizens' interests vis-a-vis the use of public bicycles, in lieu of its own LOW-CARB plans.
Naturally the whole team is delighted for having given LOW-CARB visibility during the week, and looks ahead to planning for next year's campaign, where who knows, perhaps participation levels will breach 3000 towns and cities!
