Public awareness

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL CINERAIL

European Mobility Week

UITP signed ‘European Mobility Week Pledge’ at a ceremony during the European Commission’s Green Week in April 2002. Since then, the association became an official partner of European Mobility Week and the Car Free Day. These initiatives supported and financed by the European Union offer a unique opportunity to all mobility actors to play a key role in sustainable mobility and enhance their own public image.

European Mobility Week has been running for nine years and aims to influence mobility and urban transport issues for the long-term as well as to improve health and quality of life of European citizens. It is organised each year from 16 to 22 September and represents a perfect opportunity to present sustainable alternatives to European citizens, to explain the challenges that cities and towns are facing in order to induce a change of behaviour and make progress towards a more sustainable transport strategy for Europe. It gives people space to think about what our urban streets are really for and to debate concrete solutions for tackling urban challenges such as air pollution.

EMW 2011: results of the campaign!

The 10th edition of the European Mobility Week took place from 16 to 22 September 2011 in 2,268 towns and cities from 43 countries, achieving a new record number of participants, the sixth consecutive one. Spain, Austria and Poland are the countries where the number of participants was the highest.

Participating cities offered various activities to their citizens in order to promote more sustainable modes of transport and make them change their travel habits. Under the focal theme of Alternative Mobility, the EMW chose to focus on the importance to reduce energy-consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from the transport sector, the largest energy-consuming sector within Europe. In line with the climate and energy targets recently adopted by the European Union and with UITP PTx2 strategy, the campaign is a call to foster a shift towards more sustainable modes of transport, including public transport, cycling and walking.

The European Mobility Week also represents the occasion for cities to establish permanent measures, usually concerning improvements in infrastructure, accessibility and traffic. This year, a total number of 6,821 permanent measures were implemented after the campaign.

The 2011-campaign was also widely covered in the media with hundreds of articles published both in the local and general press across Europe. Next to that press coverage, social media, including You Tube and Twitter, talked massively about the activities carried out during the campaign.

Below you can find a short overview of some successful activities that took place during the EMW:

- In Italy (Province of Rome and Puglia), citizens were sensitised to sustainable mobility in an innovation way: the necessary power to hold concerts, called "Good Bike", were provided by 100 bicycles pedaled by the concert-goers during the show.

- In almost 40 German cities and towns, people took part in the so-called "Stadtradeln" campaign for which members of local parliaments joined forces with citizens to cover as many kilometers as possible by bike instead of car. The kilometers were recorded so that the most active city was rewarded at the end of the initiative.

- In Finland, the start of the EMW was celebrated by the first Teleworking Day: more than 10,000 people followed the trend and worked from home on that day.

More initiatives can be found on http://www.mobilityweek.eu

Local actions:

Local authorities have a crucial role to play in the implementation of national and European legislation. An integrated transport policy and travel plans fostering sustainable mobility are fundamental to protect citizens from harmful air pollution

Local authorities could take the following actions to improve city climates:
- Plan the city so that people do not need to travel so far or so often.
- Develop a sustainable urban mobility plan.
- Restrict car access and parking in certain areas.
- Introduce low emission zones.
- Introduce a standard urban 30kph speed limit.
- Abolish fast multi-lane one-way systems.
- Work with local businesses to help them establish workplace travel plans.
- Work with schools to develop school travel plans.
- Invest in public transport to ensure it is of high quality, frequent, reliable, punctual, safe and clean as well as   affordable.
- Ensure that pedestrians and cyclists can move safely and directly around the city (for example permit cyclists to   use one-way streets in both directions).
- Set a future date for zero road deaths target.  
- Undertake information campaigns to encourage citizens and businesses to reduce their car use.
- Exchange best practice on sustainable mobility with other cities in Europe.
- Monitor air quality and publish results on a regular basis.

UITP fully recognises the importance of raising awareness on the environmental impacts of everyone’s modal choice and encouraging the use of sustainable modes of transport. This is why we invite all our members to participate in this event and take this opportunity to promote public transport.
For plenty of ideas and inspiration to get involved, read our Core Brief on European Mobility Week.
You can also read the Position Paper: Towards low/zero-carbon urban mobility in Europe

Previous campaigns

Following EMW 2002, UITP has compiled a report ‘Public Transport Initiatives for the European Mobility Week’. Click here to read it.

More information

Click here to visit the official European Mobility Week website

For more information, please contact UITP Communications Department:

Géraldine Dumonceau | Communications & Publications Assistant