Shenzhen and Istanbul welcome new training centres specific to transport

Shenzhen Bus Group and Marmara Municipalities Union have partnered with UITP on two new Regional Training Centres for three years, and will each organise at least four training programmes per year.

The training programmes will be delivered in cooperation with UITP Regional Training Centres and will help people fulfil their career potential in the sector of public transport and sustainable mobility.

The trainings planned for 2019 under the Shenzhen Regional Training Centre include topics such as service excellence; on-demand bus and shared services; bus planning and execution; and electric buses.

For more information click here.

Transport Publics 2018, the European Mobility Exhibition

Users’ expectations of public transport are increasingly stringent – and diverse. Consequently, the challenge is to respond to demand in a variety of ways: innovating in terms of multimodal solutions and promoting complementary offerings, geared to current lifestyles and the requirements of sustainable development.

Global Mobility Report 2017

The Global Mobility Report 2017 evaluates the progress made worldwide in the four areas of universal access, efficiency, safety, and green mobility. The transport sector is, according to the report, still dominated by high fossil fuel use, plagued by pollution & GHG emissions, high numbers of road fatalities and lacks behind in digitization.

CIVITAS Awards 2017 winners revealed

The CIVITAS Awards 2017 were given out in front of a large audience during the second day of the CIVITAS Forum 2017, which took place from 27-29 September in Torres Vedras, Portugal.

Successful school mobility management practices – CIVITAS study visits

The city of Reggio Emilia (Italy) has developed a comprehensive approach to school mobility management. Since 2003, mobility education for students has been regarded as one of the main driving lines of mobility policies and in 2009, Reggio Emilia developed and promoted a manifesto for safe, sustainable and independent mobility on home-to-school routes. This was done with the support of city districts, school boards and managers and a broad range of stakeholder organisations.

The city organizes a CIVITAS study visit on 11-12 October and all interested parties can get involved. Over two days, the visiting cities will learn about Reggio Emilia’s approach to school mobility management; interesting projects like the Bicibus and Pedibus initiatives; and the EU project SCHOOL CHANCE. They will also gain first-hand experience of some of the initiatives being implemented through dedicated site visits.

For more information click here

CIVITAS Awards 2017: applications are now open!

The CIVITAS Awards are an opportunity to highlight the most ambitious, innovative and successful efforts in the field of sustainable urban mobility. Winners are showcased as examples of excellence before the press with the hope that they can guide and stimulate cities throughout Europe in the pursuit of sustainable mobility.

• This year, outstanding CIVITAS Forum member cities can apply to be considered for the following four prestigious titles:
• The "Bold Measure" Award for a daring and innovative approach that has not been widely implemented yet and positions the city as pioneer in certain thematic categories;
• The “Take Up” Award for innovative sustainable urban mobility measures that have been successfully transferred from one city to another;
• The “CIVITAS Legacy” Award for a city that has successfully translated their inspiring and committed involvement in CIVITAS into long-term implementation of innovative measures with a high impact;
• The “Transformations” Award for significant transformation and progress towards a liveable and smarter city through an integrated set of mobility measures.

This call closes on 14th July 2017, while the results will be published in September 2017.

​For more information: click here.

LIFE GreenYourMove and U-MOB LIFE: Joint effort for transport sustainable for the environment

U-MOB LIFE is the acronym for “European Network for Sustainable Mobility at University”, a European 5-year project co-financed by the European Commission under the LIFE Programme.

U-MOB aims at the creation of a network to facilitate the exchange and transfer of knowledge about sustainable mobility best practices among European universities.The project is running since July 2016, and extends until June 2021.

​For more information: click here.

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) beyond borders

The ITS World Congress rotates between Europe, the Asia Pacific region and the Americas, returning to Europe every three years. The ITS European Congress is held in the years when there is not a World Congress taking place in Europe.

The 12th ITS European Congress takes place in June 2017 in Strasbourg, one of the few European cities providing a package of best practices as a pioneer in sustainable mobility. The intersection of multiple transport and communication networks makes the city a wonderful living lab for mobility.

The Congresses provide an opportunity for all stakeholders to come together, discuss and make the necessary contacts to move initiatives forward and to develop their business by exhibiting and demonstrating state of the art ITS solutions. The Congresses also showcase the latest ITS achievements from the city and region hosting the Congress, and can help increase awareness of ITS in the Host region itself.

For more information: click here.

Cities and Regions for Sustainable Transport: Polis network

Polis is a network of European cities and regions working together to develop innovative technologies and policies for local transport. Since 1989, European local and regional authorities have been working together within Polis to promote sustainable mobility through the deployment of innovative transport solutions.

The activities of Polis are organised around four thematic pillars:

• Environment and Health in Transport
• Mobility and Traffic Efficiency
• Transport Safety and Security
• Social and Economic Aspects of Transport

This year's Annual Polis Conference on "Transport innovation for sustainable cities and regions" will take place on 6 and 7 December 2017 in Brussels. The call for speakers will open in March and close in May.

Download POLIS network brochure here:

http://www.polisnetwork.eu/uploads/Modules/PublicDocuments/polis-brochure_2016---web.PDF
For more information: click here.

The first electric bus in Sofia

The city of Sofia is introducing an electric bus in order to test its suitability for a larger-scale roll out. The Chinese-made Yutong bus started on January 15 and will be operating on the city’s No. 84 bus line until May.
The bus will travel between the city and Sofia Airport, one of the most polluted routes in the city. The bus can travel up to 300 km on a single charge, which is enough for its needs when operating in Sofia’s urban areas.
The new bus comes with the installation of a charging point which can fully charge the batteries of the bus in four to five hours.
Following the test, the municipality will come to a final decision on what kind of electric bus to introduce into its public transport fleet.
For more information: click here.

150 Greek cities receive funding for Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) development

150 municipalities of Greece will receive a total of 9M € from Green Fund, organization under the coordination of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, in order to generate their SUMPs.

The SUMPs target improved connectivity of different urban transport modes. They place emphasis to citizens and to promote behavioral changes regarding transport and mobility. The Plans investigate each urban zone as an entity and suggest activities of urban mobility within a sustainable policy. The plans are drafted based on different sectors: they take into account transport, mobility needs, land uses, spatial analysis, environment, socio-economic development, etc. SUMPs finally provide specific action plans to local authorities guiding them to the adoption of sustainable mobility strategies.

The amounts allocated to each Municipality was based on objective criteria such as population, population density, regional level, existence of mass media transport end stops, tourist attraction and seasonal population increase, as well as the maturity level of each Municipality, whether they had traffic studies and data, spatial data etc.

For more information: click here.

4th European Conference on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans

Four years after the publication of the European Commission’s Urban Mobility Package (2013) and related Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans Guidelines (2014), there is now a large and expanding network of cities committed to preparing and implementing Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans through their involvement in various EU projects and initiatives, designed to drive forward mobility planning research, practice and innovation.

Registration opens for European Mobility Week 2016

This year EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK will be held from the 16th to the 22nd of September, 2016 under the banner of 'Smart and sustainable mobility - an investment for Europe', referring to the close ties between transport and economics and encouraging local politicians and the public to look at smart and sustainable mobility as an investment for Europe.