Jaime Valdés Valverde, Mobility Planner with the City of Lindau, discusses the German city's recent EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award for smaller municipalities victory.
1. What activities did Lindau undertake to help it win the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award?
Lindau City Council unanimously approved the climate-friendly Lindauer Mobility Concept (KLiMo) in 2017, which follows the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) structure. KLiMo aims to facilitate and promote sustainable mobility, making urban traffic more environmentally friendly to achieve the highest possible quality of life. In this context, participation in EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK serves as an awareness-raising measure, one that brings the local population’s attention to the issue of sustainable mobility.
Lindau implemented several mobility measures in 2018, the majority of which promoted multimodality, the theme of EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK 2018. These measures were the key for our application to this award.
At the start of 2018, the City of Lindau and all Public Transport providers entered into the BODO (Bodensee-Oberschwaben-Verkehrsverbund) integrated Public Transport ticketing System. The BODO is a transport ticketing association of bus companies within rural districts of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria that aims to increase the attractiveness of public transport. Through the system, passengers benefit from lower prices. It also has the positive effect of promoting multimodality.
A total of 10 Bike and Ride stations – so-called KLiMo stations – were established, which are intended to link cycling and public transport. The aim of the "Bike and Ride" is to increase the attractiveness of both modes of transport by expanding the catchment areas of stations and bus stops.
The free App "Mobility Choices" shows alternative connections as well as multimodal paths. It analyses each journey according to the criteria of environment, health, costs and time and automatically recognises the means of transport used. Recording and releasing the anonymous travel data helps us to analyse real traffic flows and improve transport infrastructure in Lindau.
2. What does winning the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award for smaller municipalities mean to the city?
The mobility department has been working to improve mobility in Lindau since 2015. Since 2017, we have been working on the implementation of our SUMP measures.
In 2018, Lindau participated in EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK for the second time and was selected by the European Commission for the second year in a row as one of three finalists in the category for municipalities with less than 50,000 inhabitants.
Lindau is a small municipality with a lot of mobility projects going on; as a result of EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK we noticed an increase in awareness of these projects and sustainable mobility more broadly among our citizens. Winning this award will hopefully give us the support to implement all of our ambitious measures and a renewed drive to achieve our climate goals. As a small municipality we are really proud of this achievement. It is not without a reason that Lindau is the first German municipality to win a EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award.
3. What are the benefits of taking part in EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK for smaller cities?
The most important benefit of participating in EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK is raising awareness for sustainable mobility. The week provides us with a great platform to test pilot projects and at the same time works as an awareness-raising measure for sustainable urban mobility in Lindau.
For me as a planner, it is also the perfect opportunity to test some of the measures that are being planned in order to get a better perception of the level of acceptance from citizens.
We have many ambitious measures, such as the implementation of Water-Taxis and the revitalisation of historical plazas. Putting in place these pilot measures during EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK is really helpful for us to achieve our goals.
4. What advice would you give to smaller cities that are looking to follow in your footsteps and take home the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award?
Measures to promote sustainable urban mobility must be well communicated so that they are also accepted by citizens; the promotion of sustainable mobility doesn’t only depend on new infrastructural measures. Communication is the key factor between all stakeholders: politicians, the city administration and the citizens. Sustainable mobility can be achieved through educational, motivational and behavioural communications.
If a city wants to be successful at EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK they first have to concentrate the campaign on the theme of the year. Secondly, they have to involve as many stakeholders as possible. A good communication strategy and marketing campaign for the whole week is also something that the jury pays attentions to.
The main goal for the cities should not be solely wining this award, but rather motivating their citizens to practice sustainable mobility!