INFOPOLIS Newsletter

Editorial

Dear members,

On 8 March, Polis organised a successful event in cooperation with CEMR and EUROCITIES on "Long-term investments: barriers and opportunities for regional and local authorities", which was hosted by the Urban and the Long-term Investment and Reindustrialisation Intergroup at the European Parliament. Aim was to flag the challenges that municipalities, cities, regions and the private sector face when making long-term investments. The event attracted a wide range of stakeholders and featured high-level speakers from the European institutions. Polis was represented by Pascal Smet, Minister of mobility and public works of Brussels Capital Region and Françoise Guaspare from the Ile-de-France region. We invite you to read the joint Polis, CEMR and EUROCITIES press release and learn more about the key solutions identified.

Polis would also like to remind you that The CIVITAS SUMPs-Up project is launching two Calls for Applications for local and regional public planning authorities on 21 March, to join its Innovation Pilot Pool (IPP) of mobility experts. Please, read more in this newsletter to discover how to apply.

Worth mentioning is also our support to the US initiative to build up a map of urban automated vehicles pilots, policies and plans from cities across the globe. The purpose of this initiative is to create a centralised resource for local leaders who want to learn how other cities are preparing for or experiencing automated vehicles. As part of the initiative, a survey is being carried out which you are encouraged to respond to if you are involved in any automated vehicles activities. You can access to the survey here http://bit.ly/2my0qRv.

Please, mark your calendar and join us for one or more of the upcoming Working Group meetings, notably the Road Safety Working Group workshop on safer trucks on 21 March 2017 in Brussels, the Working Group meeting on Active Travel and Road Safety on 20-21 April 2017 Paris, the Polis Working Group on Bike Sharing Schemes on 26-27 April 2017 in Madrid, the Polis-EPA parking working group meeting on 27 April in Brussels.

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For now, I wish you a pleasant read!

Kind regards,

Karen Vancluysen
Secretary General

QUICK NEWS

Smart cities and transport infrastructures (European Transport Research Review) Call for Papers extended: 1 June 2017

More info here.

Polis gave insight to potential threats and opportunities of automated vehicles for urban mobility at Scout workshop on 22 February

Click here for the presentation.

Polis member Barcelona to ban old cars from roads to reduce emissions by 10%

More info here.

Polis member London launches the city's first ever Low Emission Bus Zone

More info here.

Registrations open for the European Mobility Conference, Maastricht 31 May – 2 June 2017

More info here.

Karen Vancluysen gave a plenary speech on 14 March at the European Electric Vehicle Congress at the Geneva Motor show about the role of cities in the deployment of electromobility

More info here.

Calendar

Click here to view a list of all upcoming events.

Polis Network News

Pascal Smet and Jan Olbrycht on long-term investments for cities and regions

The minister of mobility and public works of Brussels Capital Region (Polis member) Pascal Smet, and the Member of the European Parliament Jan Olbrycht, President of the URBAN Intergroup, discuss challenges and opportunities for cities and regions towards long-term investments.

How can cities and regions turn barriers in long-term investments into future opportunities?

Cities and regions call the EU institutions for flexibility when making long-term public investments in strategic public sectors. On 8 march 2017 the Urban Intergroup and the Long-term Investment and Reindustrialisation Intergroup hosted a joint workshop led by Polis and co-organised by CEMR and EUROCITIES at the European Parliament in Brussels entitled "Long-term investments: barriers and opportunities for regional and local authorities".

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New speakers confirmed - Polis-EPA parking working group meeting 27 April - registrations open

Polis and EPA join forces to discuss parking issues in cities. The joint working group will meet on the 27th of April in Brussels. On the agenda: parking and urban planning, enforcement and the role of parking apps. Registrations are open!

Members in action

Polis member STIF to test a new 100%-electric mobility solution

Polis member STIF (the public transport authority for the Île-de-France Region) will launch through RATP two trials for Aptis, a new 100%-electric mobility solution that offers all the advantages of the tram in a bus. The test phase will start in the second half of 2017 in Paris and in the Ile-de-France region.

“Ping if you care”: Identifying safety hotspots for cycling in Brussels

The Brussels Capital Region, in cooperation with Mobiel21 and BikeCitizens has just launched the 'Ping if you care' project, to identify major safety bottlenecks for cyclists in the region.

European projects

Polis active on C-ITS, automation and MaaS

Polis is organising a series of events in May in Brussels addressing respectively the topical themes of C-ITS, automation and MaaS: the CIMEC final conference on C-ITS will be held on 18 May and the Polis TE&M WG meeting on automation and MaaS will take place the day after.

Successful launch of REFORM in Thessaloniki

The REFORM project kicked-off in Thessaloniki on the first week of March 2017 with a REFORM consortium meeting, the local Roudtable and Technical Workshop.

StratoClim Stakeholder Workshop on the socio-economic effects of wintertime cold-spells in European cities, Brussels 23 March

On 23rd of March The Wuppertal Institute will hold a workshop in Brussels on the socio-economic effects of wintertime cold-spells in Europe. This workshop is part of StratoClim, a collaborative EU research project.

If you are working on smart grids and renewable energy, this event may be of interest to you! Second "Vehicle 2 Grid" conference & SEEV4-City launch event, 11-12 May in Amsterdam

Electric vehicles, local renewable energy & smart ICT systems enable the city’s transition towards sustainability. The conference aims to provide solutions to advance the transition, focusing on possibilities emerging in city life.

Stay tuned! We're launching soon the first Call for cities and regions working in Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning to join the SUMPs-Up Innovation Pilot Pool of mobility experts

The CIVITAS SUMPs-Up project is launching soon two Calls for Applications for local and regional public planning authorities to join its Innovation Pilot Pool (IPP) of mobility experts. The IPP is a select group of transport and urban mobility planning practitioners who will test and assess innovative tools and services to help Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) development in European cities.

Ravenna Showcase on innovative bus fleet maintenance tools - 13 April

The EBSF_2 project has regular event showcasing bus innovations. The Ravenna Demonstration team is glad to invite you to its Demonstration Event on Thursday 13 April 2017 in Ravenna, Italy. The event aims at discussing the potential of predictive maintenance and intelligent garage in improving the efficiency of bus fleets by presenting the solutions under test in the EBSF_2 site of Ravenna.

Growsmarter Project - Latest news

Webinar presentation, press attention to Lighthouse Cities, next steps and General Assembly

News from the institutions

Kick-off meeting of the Urban Mobility Partnership, Prague

Polis participated in the kick off meeting of the Urban Mobility Partnership, 23 and 24 February in Prague. This is one of 10 partnerships launched in the framework of the European Urban Agenda. Polis is one of three external stakeholders that will support the process towards recommendations on better regulation, better funding and better knowledge exchange for urban mobility.

Around Europe and beyond

Mapping of automated vehicle activities involving cities

Polis is supporting a US initiative to build up a map of urban automated vehicles pilots, policies and plans from cities across the globe. The purpose of this initiative, led by The Bloomberg/Aspen Initiative on Cities and Autonomous Vehicles, is to create a centralised resource for local leaders who want to learn how other cities are preparing for or experiencing automated vehicles.

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