European Mobility Week 2014
From the last 16th September we are celebrating the 13th edition of the European Mobility Week. With the slogan "Our streets, our choice", over 2000 towns and cities across Europe are setting up different initiatives to promote sustainable mobility alternatives to citizens.
The European Mobility Week is organised since 2002 with the support of the Directorates-General for the Environment and Transport of the European Commission.
Initiatives like sustainable commuting challenges, teleworking campaigns, flash mobs, car free day events, creative competitions and festivals are being celebrating to promote the reclamation of urban spaces by citizens in order to create pleasant cities combining quality of life and sustainable resources.
Some of the activities are focused on children, to awareness new generations about the importance of decision in which kind of city they want to live and take care of it, for instance, using ecological transports instead of conventional cars.
As Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for the Environment, said: "Mobility Week reminds us that when it comes to personal mobility, we really do have a choice, and a good choice makes a tangible difference to our health and our quality of life. So let's make a stand for cleaner air, and for urban spaces that are built for people. Cities are for citizens – let's keep them that way!"
Those activities end up on 22nd September but hopefully they will be part of futures actions and permanent measures to create a more sustainable transport strategy for Europe.
An independent panel of transport experts will choose the winner of the European Mobility Week, which will have a free promotional video to show its compromise with sustainable urban transport. The ceremony will take place in Brussels in March 2015. Previous award winners have been Ljubljana (Slovenia), Zagreb (Croatia), Bologna (Italy) and Gävle (Sweden).
At the same time, an as part of the 'Do the Right Mix' campaign, the European Union has submitted the 3rd edition of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) Award, which recognises with a prize of € 10,000 the efforts of Europeans cities and local authorities to meet the transport needs of their communities in an effective and sustainable way.
The theme of this year is 'monitoring implementation to improve the SUMP’ and the applications will be accepted until the 3rd November 2014 on the 'Do the Right Mix' website. In 2013, the SUMP award went to the city of Rivas Vaciamadrid (Spain). Here you can see its promotional video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaBHI-x0gl8
More information about the European Mobility Week and the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) Award in: http://www.mobilityweek.eu/
Isabel Barragan Vera
