European Mobility Week provides hope for Better Mobility

Another successful edition of EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK has come to a close! Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 2,937 towns and cities participated this year with over 867 registered MOBILITYACTIONS—an excellent turn out in support of sustainable mobility!

Under the theme ‘Zero-emission mobility for all’, this week (16-22 September 2020), we have turned our focus on how to reach the ambitious targets of a carbon neutral Europe by 2050, as laid out by the European Commission and the European Green Deal.

At the start of this week, we took the opportunity to stress that by strengthening the role of public transport as the backbone of urban mobility in cities, not only will we reach carbon neutrality targets, but we will make a significant impact in the global fight against the climate crisis.

Especially, as we begin to shift focus away from dealing with short-term emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, we are presented with the unique opportunity to build our cities back better than before, with better mobility at the forefront.

Many of this week’s activities have inspired us, giving us hope for a better future with better mobility…

Here are some highlights!

Through this new social media campaign, cities from all over Europe have been sharing stories of how they move with sustainable mobility. From more cycling lanes in the UK, to an increase in electric buses in Helsinki, Hamburg and Valencia, everyone is making sustainable mobility commitments and showing them off with this excellent awareness raising campaign.

We’ve seen improvements being made to cycling lanes to improve safety and visibility, but also innovations to bus stations and the launch of several new mobility apps so that citizens can easily find their best route to go about their daily activities.

Follow the campaign here and get inspired!

In the Netherlands, a national campaign has been launched in support of public transport: “Public transport is OK” (‘OV-OK’). The idea is to remind passengers that public transport operators have been taking every possible precaution to keep their systems safe and to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 in vehicles or in stations.

The campaign website also provides detailed information for passengers so they can take responsibility for their own health and safety, noting in particular that they should not travel if they feel at all ill. The campaign aims to restore trust in public transport, while also invoking the “we will get through this if we work together” communal spirit that we’ve seen, in many places, in the face of this crisis period.

Element Energy and Hydrogen Europe (our partners in the JIVE projects) launched a series of free webinars that cover key elements of the transition to zero emissions for the bus sector.

The first ZEBinar (held on 22 September) provided an overview of the policy framework for zero emission buses, where we were pleased to present our latest work through the Clean Bus Europe Platform.

Keep up to date with the zero emission bus sector here!

Congratulations to all involved cities and towns for their commendable activities! This week has been a pivotal moment for mobility in 2020… let’s not lose this momentum.

We must continue to follow through on our commitments to better mobility and a better future for all.

Our future is in your hands!

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09 Jul. 20