Public awareness

European Mobility Week

UITP signed the 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 since 2002 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 in 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.

European Mobility Week 2012: some highlights of the campaign!
The 11th edition of the European Mobility Week took place from 16 to 22 September 2012 in 2158 towns and cities, mostly in Europe. Spain and Austria were the countries where the number of participating cities was the highest.

Cities organised a wide range of activities in order to promote more sustainable modes of transport, including public transport, walking and cycling. Under the focal theme of Moving in the right direction, the 2012-campaign wanted to demonstrate how sustainable urban mobility could be reached through an integrated planning approach considering all modes of transport in a city.

The campaign was also a valuable opportunity for local authorities to implement permanent measures, including related to improvements in infrastructure, accessibility and traffic.

The 2012-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.

Applications for the EMW Award are now open to the 2158 municipalities that took part in the campaign and have signed the EMW Charter. The Award ceremony will take place next March in Brussels.
More information can be found on http://www.mobilityweek.ue

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

More information

For more information, please contact UITP Communications Department:

Géraldine Dumonceau | Communications Officer