News
How Cities across Europe Beat Road Congestion
14 March 2018PRESS RELEASE: Over 200 urban transport professionals gather in Brussels for two days to discuss how walking and cycling can help reduce congestion on urban roads.The EU co-funded CIVITAS TRACE and FLOW projects have brought data from tracking trips and transport modelling up to a 21st century level.
The joint final conference on 13 and 14 March is titled "Decongesting Europe: New approaches to freeing our cities". The event concludes three years of research and includes an award as well as a declaration signed by decision makers.
#MakeAllModesCount:
Ciarán Cuffe, Councillor of Dublin was first to sign the #MakeAllModesCount declaration at the conference, stating: "We believe in making all modes count in urban transport. Let's put walking and cycling on an equal footing with other modes to reduce the impacts of congestion!"
"We have to make the best use of our road space. Pedestrians and cyclists use space more efficiently than private cars. The future of cities is about walkability, bikeability and liveability", said Dublin's Councillor Ciarán Cuffe.
Other conference panelists included political decision makers from the cities of Belgrade, SRM Bologna, Jerusalem, Transport for Greater Manchester and Valencia.
Congestion reduction award for Goudappel Coffeng:
The consultancy Goudappel Coffeng was awarded the FLOW Congestion Reduction Award. Goudappel Coffeng developed a new multi-modal traffic model that even differentiates between regular bicycles and e-bikes, uses the FLOW tools in a very creative way and thereby contributes to put walking and cycling on equal footing in the transport planning process of their client cities.
About the projects:
- The FLOW Project developed transport analysis tools designed to better assess the impacts of walking and cycling improvements on transport system performance. The project hypothesis was that existing tools do not accurately evaluate walking and cycling, and therefore walking and cycling improvements are generally not implemented, or even considered, as measures for improving transport system performance. http://h2020-flow.eu/
- The TRACE project developed ICT based tracking services. The tools gather travel data which helps understand behaviour and route choice, and can thus be used for mobility planning and for promoting walking and cycling. Issues such as data privacy, cost, interoperability, financial/tax incentives, infrastructure planning and service concepts were addressed. http://h2020-trace.eu
- The CIVITAS FLOW and TRACE projects have received funding from the European Union's Horizon2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement numbers 635998 and 635266.
More information:
Contact:
Dagmar Köhler, Polis Communication Manager, dkoehler@polisnetwork.eu
Polis is the network of cities and regions working together to achieve more sustainable urban mobility. Currently, 69 cities and regions are members of the network and Manchester is the current Polis president. Polis has a permanent secretariat located in Brussels.