The European Commission today launches the 15th annual EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK, with activities taking place across Europe from 16 to 22 September. The theme of this year is 'Smart and sustainable mobility – an investment for Europe’.

The main aim is to promote awareness of the economic benefits of investing in safe, clean transport for people and companies. Making energy and transport more affordable and sustainable is also one of the priorities of the Juncker Commission. Action in cities is particularly important as urban transport is responsible for 23 percent of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions.

As in previous years, local authorities and individuals across the continent are encouraged to think about what they can do locally, to make an impact globally.

Speaking at the launch of EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK 2016, Violeta Bulc, European Commissioner for Transport said: "This week is about getting individuals and local authorities big and small - on board. We are moving towards smart mobility, by integrating technology into transport. Smart mobility can reduce traffic jams in European cities and help cut the €100 billion congestion price-tag, making our cities more liveable!"

Getting out of the car and walking, cycling or taking the bus can have benefits such as improving our health. But research shows that smarter mobility can also make the public finances healthier. The Commission estimates* that road congestion costs 1 percent of the EU’s GDP per year – that's €100 billion euro last year, this year and every year. Smarter mobility can reduce traffic jams in European cities and help cut that 100 billion euro congestion price-tag.

The culmination of the week is the Car-Free Day, during which designated areas of towns and cities are closed to car traffic and open only for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport.

EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK is a highlight in a year-round drive for more sustainable mobility. The campaign serves to encourage and inspire those involved, to think about more long-term, permanent changes that could be made to improve transport.

For example, since April 2016 the University of Aveiro, Portugal has been recording large amounts of data on transport habits to help policy makers’ work towards a low carbon economy; in the Spanish city of Albacete a group of people have created a company called Urbanciclo to transport goods by cargo-bike; in the Italian town of Casalmaggiore, the NGO Slow Town presented in May 2016 a 2km children’s ring road along the bank of the river Po, creating a safe route closed to road traffic to get to school, the library, the gym and downtown; campaigners from Spain, Sweden and the UK joined forces to ride 2000km from Stockholm to Brussels last summer to advocate for safer cycling; between March and October 2016 Natuur & Milieu organised the ‘car sharing award for Dutch municipalities’ to stimulate the use of this transport method in the Netherlands.

These are but a few examples. All of the registered MOBILITYACTIONS are displayed on the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK website.

The call for applications to the fifth edition of the SUMP Award is now open. This year's award will recognise the local or regional government that has done most to integrate urban freight with their Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, or SUMP.

The focus on urban freight ties into this year's EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK theme of how smart and sustainable mobility can support a stronger economy. Urban freight is a challenging topic for urban and transport planners, as businesses in urban centres need reliable access to goods delivery. However, the presence of delivery vehicles often worsens problems such as traffic congestion and pollution.

Urban freight can be made more sustainable in a number of ways. Consolidating freight in a logistics centre and using a smaller number of vehicles to deliver to more addresses is one example. Using vehicles powered by hybrid or electric engines is also a good way to cut emissions from delivery fleets. Even zero-emissions vehicles such as cargo bikes have been shown to be reliable for the last step in delivery for most goods.

The SUMP Award is presented together with the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK award, and honours local authorities that have developed a Mobility Plan that satisfies the diverse transport needs of people and businesses, whilst improving quality of life. Each year, the award highlights a different aspect of mobility planning. Past editions of the award have focused on successful territorial and policy integration, monitoring implementation, and providing for multimodality and intermodality.

For more information about this year's edition of the award and how to apply, click here.

The 2016 edition of the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Best Practice Guide features the outstanding achievements of the ten shortlisted cities for the 2015 EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award.

Murcia (Spain), the eventual winner of the Award, installed bike racks and allowed foldable bicycles on buses, and also placed a strong emphasis on developing electric mobility in the city in the form of electric bicycles and scooters. The other two finalists, Lisbon (Portugal) and Palma de Mallorca (Spain), also showed great initiative. Lisbon organised two separate Car-Free Day events in different locations, and implemented new infrastructure to increase accessibility and cycling. Palma de Mallorca implemented new cycling infrastructure and parking facilities, surveyed residents on their mobility practices and offered free public transport tickets.

The other seven shortlisted cities are also featured in the guide, and details of their excellent activities are given. They include Bacau (Romania), Larnaka (Cyprus), Miskolc (Hungary), Nottingham (United Kingdom), Sofia (Bulgaria), Trikala (Greece), and Vienna (Austria). A number of inspiring MOBILITYACTIONs are also included from countries such as Croatia, Monaco, Portugal and Sweden.

For the first time good examples of activities from small municipalities in Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania and Serbia are profiled, as well as best practice by the National Coordination teams in a number of countries. The guide also features activities from the South Korean cities of Busan, Seoul, and Wonju, the first time that activities outside of Europe have been profiled. Campaigners can consult the guide to take inspiration from others and ensure that they have exciting and innovative EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK celebrations in their own cities and communities.

To download and read the Best Practice Guide, visit the Campaign Materials page.

As the summer break begins, here is an update on some of the recent EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK changes and developments across the region.

Since the start of 2016 Belarus, Ireland, Moldova, Montenegro and the Netherlands have all appointed new coordinators while in Denmark the campaign has a ‘national reference point’ for the first time, represented by Camilla Rosenhagen at Local Government Denmark. There have also been changes in national coordinators in Austria, Estonia, Hungary and Poland.

The campaign is especially happy to welcome UNDP's support as national coordinators in Belarus and Montenegro and to congratulate UNDP Russia on the success it has already seen in 2016, with 44 cities registering. Dmitry Beschetny explains: "I believe this result has been achieved mostly due to successful promotion of EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK in Russia by the Ministry of Transport. To make the event more attractive, the Ministry provides an award for participating cities." Other national coordinators have also been working to make the campaign visible in their countries. Germany has launched a EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK webpage as well as a Facebook page, while the development of a webpage for Bosnia-Herzegovina is underway.

Registration is also now available in almost all official EU languages and in a number of languages from non-EU countries. New additions include Belarusian, Croatian, Danish, Montenegrin, Norwegian, Polish, Slovenian. There is also a registration option for Bosnia-Herzegovina. Of the official EU languages, the only registration languages that are not currently offered are Gaelic and Maltese. Moreover, cities in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan can opt to register in commonly-used languages in those countries, such as English, German, Russian, or Turkish.

Registration ahead of the week in September is surging forward and it is exciting to see over 400 towns and cities from 26 countries having signed up, including over 100 communities in Spain. Especially noteworthy is the fact that Ireland has already doubled last year’s participation, while the Netherlands too has eclipsed its 2015 performance. In a typical year around 2000 towns and cities participate from around 45 countries.

To register your Car-Free Day, permanent measure and campaign activities, click here

A new campaign supported by the European Commission aims to make progress on reducing deaths and injuries on the road, after statistics show two successive years with little improvement.

The campaign, European Day Without A Road Death (EDWARD), asks all in Europe from individuals to national governments, charities, and private organisations to make a pledge, to organise awareness-raising activities and register them to make Europe's roads free of road deaths on Wednesday 21 September, which takes place during EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK. The campaign is led by the European Traffic Police Network, or TISPOL and supported by the European Commission.

TISPOL says that driver behaviour remains the biggest barrier to progress on the EU's target of a 50 percent reduction in road deaths and injuries by 2020 compared to 2010 figures. Drivers can help improve safety on the road by ensuring they are not distracted while driving, keeping their vehicles in good condition, and respecting infrastructure designed for other road users.

However, cyclists and pedestrians also make unsafe decisions, such as by ignoring the rules of the road or taking risky shortcuts. Organisers hope that in the lead up to EDWARD on 21 September, all road users take some time to think about the risks they face and the risks they may pose to others, and what they can do to reduce these dangers.

For more information and to make a pledge or to register an event, visit roadsafetydays.eu and tispol.org