The European Commission has announced the names of the finalists for the 2015 EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK and SUMP Awards. The awards will be presented to the winners at a ceremony on 20 April 2016 in Brussels (Belgium) with Commissioner Violeta Bulc, responsible for Transport, and Commissioner Karmenu Vella, responsible for the Environment, in attendance.

The EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award honours the local authorities who promote sustainable urban mobility exceptionally well and successfully focus on a shift towards more sustainable means of transport. The finalist cities were recognised as having performed exceptionally well in promoting multimodality, in line with last year’s theme ‘Choose. Change. Combine.' Long-term measures undertaken in the cities were also taken into account. This year’s edition received 53 applications from 19 countries. A shortlist of ten cities was made, with the final three finalists being Lisbon (Portugal), Murcia (Spain), and Palma de Mallorca (Spain).

The award for sustainable urban mobility planning aims to promote the adoption of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) across Europe, and to distinguish the mobility planning champions in line with the annual award theme. This year's edition focuses on multimodality and intermodality in sustainable urban mobility planning, which refers to the combination of various transport modes within one trip or separate trips. The three finalists are Malmö (Sweden), Utrecht (The Netherlands), and Vienna (Austria).

The northern German city of Bremen is the host for this year’s edition of the European Conference on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans. The conference will focus on planning for efficiency, with parallel sessions organised according to four different themes: the overall picture for sustainable urban mobility planning, anticipating future challenges, integrating mobility with other policy areas, and new planning methods and tools.

As the winner of the 2014 SUMP Award, Bremen is making great strides in sustainable mobility. A range of study tours are on offer, showcasing Bremen’s transport improvements such as its car-sharing system and how more sustainable mobility is supporting urban redevelopment. There are also a number of smaller events taking place around the conference, including a CIVITAS training on shared and inclusive mobility, and the launch of the European Urban Transport Roadmaps tool to support better urban mobility planning.

The final event for the EU-funded SWITCH project will also be held in Bremen, taking place the day after the SUMP conference ends. The project worked on promoting travel by active modes such as walking and cycling, and encouraged city residents to do so through personalised travel advice and information technology. Results from the project’s partner cities will also be presented. Among the partner cities are Antwerp (Belgium), Donostia-San Sebastián (Spain), Gdansk (Poland), London (United Kingdom), and Vienna (Austria).

For more information about all the events, visit eltis.org

The theme for the 2016 edition of EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK will be 'Smart and sustainable mobility - an investment for Europe', referring to the close ties between transport and economics. Under the call to action “Smart Mobility. Strong Economy”, this year’s theme points out that smart planning and use of transport will save cities and residents money and support local economic growth.

A greater shift to alternative mobility modes will help to relieve the negative impacts of personal vehicles, and therefore reduce the costs of these problems. Public funds can be spent on improving transport rather than solving problems caused by it, and the benefits of cleaner and safer mobility can support and grow jobs in cities and neighbourhoods.

It is not only public authorities that benefit - private companies whose employees commute by active modes take less sick days due to improved health, and are often more productive at work. Recent research has also shown that trading in local shops increases as it becomes safer and more attractive for shoppers to walk and cycle. Moreover, sustainable mobility also has an impact on personal finances - such as money saved that would otherwise be spent on fuel.

For more information, visit the 2016 theme page.

Montenegro's 29th Critical Mass, #MonteGreen, took place on 30 January 2016 in the capital Podgorica. The event, celebrating the COP21 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, saw more than 150 cyclists journey from the main city square (Trg Republike) to the front of the UN’s Eco House.

The ride was organised by NGO Biciklo.me in cooperation with the UN System in Montenegro and the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration. At the end of the journey, UNDP’s Resident Representative and Coordinator, Fiona McCluney, highlighted the CO2 savings of riding a bicycle in comparison with driving, noting that the Critical Mass cycle would have expended 280 kg of CO2 if driven. Ms McCluney also spoke in favour of an anti-idling campaign, which encourages drivers to turn off their engines when waiting in a car for longer than 20 seconds.

The event took place as part of EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK’s MOBILITYACTIONs series, which offers a platform to NGOs, citizen groups, employers and other organisations to promote their own local MOBILITYACTIONS. The platform offers inspiration to others and provides a basis for collaboration with cities participating in the Week. Actions that generate the greatest impact will be invited to share their experience at the annual workshops for the campaign, which are held in spring.

To register a MOBILITYACTION, click here.

The OPTICITIES project is holding a free study visit on 10 March 2016 in Lyon (France) that will showcase the innovative urban intelligent transport systems that have been developed and tested within the scope of the project. The event is one in an ongoing series.

The study visit will look particularly at the use of traffic prediction models in Lyon's traffic management centre, the OPTICITIES multimodal travel planner, real-time carpooling, continuity between smartphones and in-car navigation systems, and urban network mapping.

The OPTICITIES project is working with six pilot cities - Birmingham (United Kingdom), Gothenburg (Sweden), Lyon (France), Madrid (Spain), Turin (Italy) and Wroclaw (Poland) - to address mobility challenges that occur in urban centres. It is looking at these challenges from five aspects - accessibility, the environment, quality of life, urban freight, and management of public space.

For more information, download the agenda. To register for the event, visit the project website.