The Mayor of Braga (Portugal) Ricardo Rio understands that transforming shared urban space can elicit strong reactions. However, Braga’s longstanding commitment to advancing sustainable mobility is rooted in its desire to improve residents’ quality of life. As the most recent winner of the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award, this Portuguese city is reducing pollution, improving quality of life, and increasing efficiency by expanding cycling infrastructure, opening streets for pedestrians, collaborating with local businesses, and engaging with community members to achieve these goals. We sat down with Mayor Rio to learn more about Braga’s sustainable mobility work.

Braga has been working to reduce surface parking (there are many underground parking lots) and the number of cars in the city centre to provide more space for cycling and pedestrian use. How did the public receive news of these plans at first? And how are they receiving it now that you have successfully implemented some changes?

Mayor Rio: It's challenging because obviously we are entering what we call the “comfort zone” of citizens. We are reducing the amount of parking spots. We are narrowing some streets and providing space for bike lanes or for buses. And the initial reaction is never good. There's an expression in Portugal that first you feel [something new] is strange and then you integrate it more in your current routines and you adapt, and that's what has been happening. Usually [at first], people complain if you go to neighbourhoods and you are trying to improve, for instance, the public space, which is a major advantage for the citizens that live there because they will have more security for their kids to play, for them to walk around, to promenade. But, at the same time, we are reducing the parking slots and they always complain. It’s a common reaction that we are seeing worldwide and I have been discussing this with a lot of Mayors in Europe actually. It’s quite curious because I've seen a couple of cities in which they had very aggressive mobility policies and they lost elections. So, we need to also be balanced in the way that we do this strategy. We can’t make a revolution from one day to the other, and we have to create this awareness that we are really improving the quality of life. Because when we are reducing pollution, when we are creating more sustainable means of transport, we are providing better quality of life, better public health for our citizens and I think that it's a work in progress. People adapt and people get more conscious. The youngsters obviously become more conscious and that's why we work a lot with kids, with schools, and with universities.

Raising awareness is a big part of change. Speaking of which, last year Braga won the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK award for its sustainable mobility awareness-raising efforts during the main event week (16 - 22 September). What did you learn from the activities organised last year and what did you focus on in 2023?

Mayor Rio: Well, we have been building on the past initiatives that granted us this very important prize. I think that this type of prize is also very important because it shows people that we are aligned. It's not a crazy mayor or counsellor who decides to make this type of revolution. We have a global trend that is being implemented. We have the recognition for the quality of the work that we are doing, and that's also important to create momentum and to strengthen further initiatives that we can develop. And so, this year's programme was mostly aligned with last year. We always bring innovative actions, but the major focus of the Mobility Week here in Braga was always the engagement of the community and to bring all the people, the citizens, and the institutions together, sometimes experimenting with new ways.

For instance, we decided to start creating - and that's an initiative that we have been repeating every single year - a night ride of bikes in the centre of the city. It's a leisure activity, of course, but it's also a way to show that we have the opportunity to do that on a regular basis. When we create, for example, opportunities for the use of public transportat people usually only have this opportunity during big events in the city, like park and ride solutions to leave the cars outside [the city] and then come to the centre by bus. But they don't do it on a regular basis, so it's obviously important to create some habits and to show that it’s a great solution.

During last year’s EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK you also launched a bike sharing scheme and now the European Union has released its own Cycling Declaration. Do you have plans to further expand Braga’s cycling infrastructure?

Mayor Rio: Yes. We are investing a lot in cycling infrastructure. We have the aim of having around 70 kilometres of bike lanes, either dedicated lanes or coexisting lanes in the city. All the new interventions that we made recently...include the creation of bike lanes. For instance, we are now having a huge intervention in the centre of the city, which is creating a lot of traffic constraints right now, but one of the solutions that we are implementing is the creation of a bike lane that will connect to other already existing bike lanes and more leisure bike lanes by the river and then in other zones. We want to create a network of bike lanes in the city that allows anyone to use the bike as a solution for their mobility in the territory.

And one thing that I didn't mention yet, which is really very important and very connected with all the things that we have been doing, is one of the new events that we had in this year's Mobility Week: the creation of what we called the Business Sustainable Mobility Pact, which is an informal network of institutions of business and public institutions that have become supporters of more sustainable mobility. We have worked with the Business Council for Sustainable Development, which is a national institution, and each of the organisations has an inventory of compromises that they can make which are connected to improved sustainable mobility; some cycle to their offices or offer parking lots for bikes, others provide access to public transport. Meanwhile, others create bike-sharing or car-sharing systems for their workers. This is something that is very interesting because we have over 14 institutions right now that are committed and that belong to this Pact, and we are talking about the biggest employers in the city. We are talking about the university, the hospital, et cetera. Altogether we have around twenty-five thousand people who are already covered by this initiative.

One of the reasons Braga’s work on sustainable mobility stands out is because of its successful cooperation with actors from different sectors. Did you feel that the businesses and institutions you approached were receptive to improving sustainable mobility?

Mayor Rio: Yes, definitely. Actually, for many reasons. The way that the city was structured, it's not only a matter of pollution, it's also a matter of efficiency. It's a matter of quality of life. If you are, for instance, the owner of a company and you listen to your workers complaining about the time they spend in traffic, you obviously want to contribute to a better solution and to create these types of initiatives that we provide through the Pact. It's a way for them to help overall. It's like we are not changing the world, but we are changing our own world and we are contributing to a global change, and that's what's happening here. I think that we had very good reception, for instance, when the public transport company developed a lot of initiatives with the local companies and with the main institutions. It's very common to see [the public transport company] in a branch of the hospital trying to convince new people to subscribe to the public transport passes. It's something that we do on a regular basis and that we try to strengthen a little bit throughout the [Mobility] week.

For more information on Braga's award-winning actions, take a look at this short video.
For more information on EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK 2023, check out our participation page.

In 2023, EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK broke its record for campaign participation, with 3,351 towns and cities registering activities to raise awareness about sustainable and active mobility from 16 - 22 September.

Towns and cities from 45 countries in Europe, and beyond, participated during the main event week, including Argentina, Ecuador, Japan, Mexico, Peru, and South Korea. As usual, local authorities used the week to test innovative planning measures, promote new infrastructure and technology, measure air quality and noise pollution, and get feedback from the public. Participating towns and cities - both old and new alike - joined an international community of local and regional authorities, organisations and people committed to encouraging behavioural change in favour of sustainable and active mobility.

Returning cities Dublin and Brussels organised a wide range of activities, such as the “Great Dublin Bike Ride” and “Bike Disco” to encourage Dubliners to travel by bike instead of by car and Car-Free Sunday in Brussels which, according to Mobiel 21, saw an estimated 1.2 million people enjoy the initiative in the capital. A Clean Cities Campaign survey among Brussels residents showed that almost 60% are in favour of having a car-free day once a week.

Alongside returning participants, new towns and cities, like Valença (Portugal) which organised a car-free day featuring activities to raise awareness about emissions and road safety for cyclists, joined the campaign for the first time.

This year, the focus was on saving energy. Energy and mobility poverty levels continue to rise due to high costs for residents and businesses across Europe, while operating public transport remains a large expense for city budgets. Reducing these expenses through energy-efficient transport will support affordable and sustainable transport infrastructures. Following Russia's unwarranted invasion of Ukraine, it is also crucial to reduce dependency on Russian oil and to shift to sustainable energy sources, which will simultaneously move Europe toward a climate-neutral future by 2050.

In addition to EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK’s record-breaking participation, over 860 brand-new MOBILITYACTIONs have been registered so far in 2023. The campaign’s answer to highlighting the growing importance of mobility management, MOBILITYACTIONs promote behavioural shifts toward a sustainable urban mobility culture and can be registered by NGOs, schools, companies, and local authorities. Notable actions from 2023 include a collaboration between Rome, Dublin and Lisbon to engage with children between the ages of 10 - 14 to solve urban mobility challenges related to cycling through the Bicycle Heroes project and the BikeToWork: Paris La Défense initiative, a two-day event organised by the local authorities of Paris La Défense and Mobility Makers targeting 180,000 employees.

For more information on towns’ and cities’ activities visit the Participating towns and cities page.

Learn more about this year’s MOBILITYACTIONs here.

What is mobility management? And how can it help Europe’s towns and cities to reduce traffic, lower pollution and create better environments to live and work in?

More local and regional governments, businesses, universities, and organisations are realising the untapped potential of mobility management as an approach to support the effectiveness of “hard” measures such as permanent infrastructure. Mobility management is “a concept to promote sustainable transport and manage the demand for car use by changing travellers’ attitudes and behaviour, in particular at the level of companies, organisations and institutions” (EU Urban Mobility Framework). Sustainable transport shifts include public transport, local exhaust ventilations (LEVs), cycling, walking, along with clean transport solutions like carpooling, incorporating remote work, and reducing travel needs. The concept revolves around supportive “soft” measures, including information and promotional measures, education and training programmes, organisational-level policy changes, as well as more concrete measures such as assessing public transport accessibility, scheduling and placement.

MOBILITYACTIONs are EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK’s answer to highlighting the growing importance of mobility management. In 2023 over 800 MOBILITYACTIONs have already been registered by NGOs, schools, companies, and local authorities. These actions promote behavioural shifts toward a sustainable urban mobility culture. The MOBILITYACTIONs platform of the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK campaign provides a space to promote and share initiatives, and to learn about local solutions to various mobility challenges.

For example, the City of Rome (Italy) collaborated with Dublin (Ireland) and Lisbon (Portugal) for the Bicycle Heroes project which aims to engage with children between the ages of 10 - 14 to solve urban mobility challenges related to cycling. The MOBILITYACTION identifies barriers for cycling and smart design solutions to overcome these obstacles, which are then shared with the public. The scheme promotes cycling and active mobility from a young age and strives to make cities safe for other vulnerable groups such as the elderly or disabled. By helping road users understand the unique view children have of modern mobility challenges, this mobility management concept increases awareness of sustainable mobility that is accessible to all.

Meanwhile, in France, a MOBILITYACTION registered by the French association Mollow focuses on creating sustainable travel itineraries to encourage people to choose public transport, or active mobility modes, for weekend excursions, holidays, or business trips. Mollow partners with the French railway network (SNCF) to offer discount codes through the platform so that travellers can benefit from their choice to use sustainable transport.

Unlike costly infrastructure solutions, which, while incredibly necessary, are more difficult to plan and implement, mobility management measures do not necessarily require large financial investments.

As part of the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK campaign, innovative MOBILITYACTIONs that demonstrate clear and effective mobility management concepts have a chance to win the coveted MOBILITYACTION award. Applications will be accepted from 1 October 2023 until 31 October 2023.

To learn more about MOBILITYACTIONs and how to register, click here.
To learn more about the MOBILITYACTION award, click here.

With its creative transformation of a local university car-park into a pedestrian-friendly green space, Metropolia GZM snatched the first-ever MOBILITYACTION award title this past spring. The installation, built at the University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland), has converted part of the campus’ car-dominated surroundings into a public space for students, academics and community members to enjoy. The project engaged professionals from the public transport, cycling, social development, sustainable mobility and urban policy sectors, to craft a prototype that would decrease traffic and increase the space’s usability for students. We sat down with Pawel Jaworski and Aleksandra Hantkiewicz-Lejman, the urban designers behind the award-winning MOBILITYACTION, to discuss their experience building the installation and what they learned.

Why did the University of Silesia and the City decide to build this installation? We heard that there was a question from students asking “where can we eat sandwiches?” Was this the idea that sparked this project?

Pawel: Well, I think that there are two important reasons; the first one relates to the European City of Science. Next year, Katowice will receive this title and so examples of cooperation between the University of Silesia and the local government that are trying to transform public spaces in the inner-city area are very important. The second argument for this reconstruction is user experience, and for us it's crucial. The university has been trying to redesign this place as a campus for years and they have prepared several projects, but nothing has happened in reality. The students told us that they have basic problems with using this space. Perhaps it sounds funny, but the lack of space for meeting and eating together is a real issue. All departments have a break at the same time, which is around 1:00 PM. During this break, all the young people go out and try to find a place for themselves. If they fail to find one, they occupy benches in front of housing blocks. This shouldn't happen, it's a campus, and the concept of a campus is to provide all functionalities of an academic district on-site. When we were conducting the first interviews last year, everyone was telling us about those sandwiches and about this break. We were laughing at the beginning, but we realized pretty quickly that we should try to solve this problem.

Aleksandra: Students come here to have their lectures, laboratories, activities and then go somewhere else to work, go home, or simply go into the city. Now remote working is much more popular all over the world, so people are more flexible regarding everyday habits. This space unfortunately did not have the identity or character of something dedicated to students and academic life, so people were not spending quality time here. Students would only take care of the necessary stuff here and would then go somewhere else, somewhere nicer. The third thing was that, and it's still visible, this space is basically a big parking lot.

Pawel: Yeah! It’s one of the biggest parking lots in the inner-city. You can park here for free - because it’s not a public road and in Poland only public roads can be part of paid parking zones. It’s a real issue that gives rise to an urban and mobility problem.

Aleksandra: The problem is that when you are a pedestrian in this public space on campus, you have to watch out because you can be hit by a car very easily. It was really an issue for us and that’s why we decided to make a change here on this small section.

What was your experience with reducing the number of parking spots? Was it difficult to convince people that this space should be used for something besides parking?

Pawel: Yeah! Katowice is quite car oriented. We have a highway in the city centre, and many students often use cars because they cannot get here using public transport. What’s unique about this university is that a lot of attending students don’t live in Katowice, but rather in the surrounding areas and cities. They arrive by train, by car, by bus and so on, but mostly by car because it is still the cheapest form of transportation.

Aleksandra: It's kind of funny because arriving here by car for roughly three days a week, as many students do, is still cheaper than the public transportation.

What have you noticed from people that were initially opposed to the transformation? How do people perceive this space?

Aleksandra: It was completed last November. Usually, people say they prefer it to [what was there] before because they have more greenery and places to sit, stay for a meeting or just wait for classes. [Some say] they would have built it with different materials with some changes. Regardless, I think that in this budget and in this time, it's a very good and genuine design. It was oriented like a minimum viable product (MVP). From the very beginning of this process, we were saying that it's only temporary and it's only for tests, so please don't expect that it will be state of the art.

Pawel: It’s all a part of the process. When considering complex changes, we cannot concentrate on the small details right now, especially since we have a limited amount of money. The university, along with its partners, is still searching for larger EU funding for the target transformation. Once they secure a bigger budget, they will be able to make significant improvements. But at this stage, it's only an MVP.

What are the next steps in this process? How long will the prototype be there? If you receive more funding, what will happen?

Pawel: It started as a temporary change, but we noticed that it works well. Therefore, it will remain in place until the target transformation, although we’re uncertain when that will happen due to unclear funding possibilities. The university staff have submitted applications for various grant contests, aiming to secure funding for the next phase of the design work. I believe it will take years to prepare it properly, given the complexity of the area.

What were the main successes of this project? Do you wish to see similar projects implemented in the future?

Aleksandra: We had two real successes: the first success is that people are using it often, which was what we were dreaming of. The next success is that people engaged in university issues said they are encouraged with our work and the MOBILITYACTION Award. They want to make these types of prototypes in more locations around this campus. If we have managed to teach them how to do it without our support, then it would be a big success.

Pawel: We work across different countries. I do my design work in Poland and conduct most of my research in Germany. It's been great to observe the experiments and temporary solutions in Berlin over the years, and I hope we can implement similar processes at the municipal level. Currently, we are trying to improve our prototyping model, recognising that there are numerous obstacles to overcome.

Perhaps the most significant success is that this small area has evolved from a mere parking lot into a semi-permanent greenfield. While the architectural shape can still be improved, the new function is undeniable and unquestionable. Just last summer, we were sketching out new traffic schemes and designing furniture. Today, after several months have passed, nobody wants to entertain the idea of reverting to the initial state, removing the installation, and returning it to a parking space. This, in my opinion, is the most rewarding outcome of our efforts.

Managing this project was a huge challenge, perhaps the greatest of our professional lives. We believe that now is the time to approach officials for a more substantial change. We've taken the first step, and we're ready for the second and third ones.

To learn more about MOBILITYACTIONS and how to register, click here.

Svetlana Sekulic worked on behalf of the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure as the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK National Coordinator for the Republic of Serbia, where, alongside her colleague Klara Danilovic who works for the Standing Conference of Towns and Cities, she was actively engaged in finding new ways for Serbian municipalities to adopt clean mobility focused transport solutions. We spoke to Svetlana about the Ministry's plans for the main event week from 16 - 22 September. Don’t forget to register your town or city’s participation here!

In less than one month, EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK launches. What plans are in store for this year’s campaign?

Svetlana: Yes, we are less than one month away from EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK. Over the past few years, we recognised that timely preparation is the key to a successful implementation of the campaign. For this period, we organised an informative workshop. We organise this workshop once each year in the beginning of July for our local authorities that are interested in participating in the campaign. In this informative workshop, we provide them with information about the current topic of the campaign - Save Energy - as well as the support they can expect from us as National Coordinators.

This year there were about 40 participants, from 18 local authorities. During the workshop, we had the opportunity to hear from the Ministry of Mining and Energy about the preparation of an “Integrated Plan for energy and climate,” which contains a number of measures that affect the reduction of energy consumption in the transport sector. We also heard from the Ministry of Environmental Protection about relevant EU climate framework focusing on the transport sector's contribution to total greenhouse gas emissions.

Finally, the City of Zagreb introduced us to projects that it implements in the field of sustainable urban mobility.

In terms of preparing and implementing the programme of activities during EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK, along with the workshop, we organise some panels where participating towns and cities have the opportunity to exchange their experiences and present examples of good practice. This is all part of the successful organisation of EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK.

What lessons were learned from last year’s campaign? Any best practices or experience that can be used moving forward?

Svetlana: Well, last year’s topic - Better Connections - was very interesting for us and our local authorities. It gave us an opportunity to implement many different and innovative activities in order to promote urban mobility. What we as National Coordinators have learnt is that better connections can lead us to better results and more knowledge.

We took advantage of the 2022 theme to organise activities with different stakeholders, including children from primary schools, students from universities, our colleagues from Serbia’s big National Rail Company, and some participants from local governments.

The organisation and activities related to better connections between the biggest cities in Serbia, Belgrade and Novi Sad, were great because we could promote that connection through sustainable forms of transport such as high-speed trains. The high-speed train between Belgrade and Novi Sad was put into use last year. It was really an excellent example of how, through connecting, we can learn from each other and have benefits from that.

Regarding best practices, a very good example for us is the cooperation between the Ministry and Standing Conference of Towns and Cities: this is because, on one side, we have the Ministry supporting our local authorities on the national level in terms of allocating incentive funds to support them to improve sustainable urban mobility in their municipalities. On the other side, we have a Standing Conference of Towns and Cities, the organisation that supports and closely works with local governments to help them reform and strengthen that process. I think that is such a good example that can bring good results and we can see that, in the last few years, we have growing interest from towns and cities to participate in the organisation of EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK.

It is great to see how successful cooperation impacts the campaign! 2023 is all about saving energy through sustainable urban mobility. Why is it important to save energy and to help people accomplish this through transport?

Svetlana: Let's start with the fact that energy is needed for all of us to perform daily activities like talk, eat, drink and more. In order to spend it evenly and for energy to be sustainable, we should adopt some healthy lifestyle habits. By lifestyle habits, I mean that people should start to use some alternative transport modes, such as cycling or walking, to save energy, in addition to using public transport or any other shared transport mode.

I think that we as individuals can easily take small steps in order to have much greater positive effects on our health, environment and quality life in urban areas.

I come from Belgrade, a city with around 50% public transport use compared to other modes of transport. It is very important that we continue to follow this trend. Additional energy savings can also be achieved by introducing clean public transport vehicles, which are energy efficient, as well as achieving the ambitious goal of the city of Belgrade, namely the construction of its first metro lines. This will reduce traffic congestion, reduce harmful impacts on the environment in terms of air and noise, and improve traffic safety.

What could sustainable mobility look like in Serbia in 10 years?

Svetlana: Very soon, Serbia will begin with the implementation of an important project – the Local Infrastructure and Institutional Development Project –, which will be finished in a few years. One of the aims of the project is to improve the capacity of local governments to manage sustainable infrastructure and improve access to economic and social opportunities.

In one of the components of this project, there will be Climate Smart Mobility, which should improve mobility within local governments by strengthening the system for the provision of transport infrastructure services and also by renovating and reconstructing transport infrastructure. The results will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These components also include both the development and the adoption of 25 Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans. We currently have nine SUMPs in Serbia, of which four are in place and five are still under development.

In 2021, the Ministry launched an annual national award for urban mobility. Through the evaluation of the award applications, I  have seen that my country has improved its way of planning in favour of active and sustainable mobility, public transport and other clean, intelligent solutions, and I hope to see this trend continue in the next ten years. Each year, more Serbian cities join the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK campaign. We plan to continue this tradition and support them in promoting sustainable mobility.

Make sure to register your town or city’s participation in EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK here.