Find out how other cities have implemented best environmental management practices for mobility and what they have achieved.
One of the great challenges of local administrations is to prevent pollution and improve conditions that affect air quality and the health of citizens while ensuring agile management of the often increasing flows of people and goods.
Measures related to mobility must take into account the needs of the city as a whole and the context in which it must act. For this reason, the first action needed is developing and enacting a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan. Such a plan provides a coherent framework in which appropriate measures can be defined and developed using an integrated approach.
Within this plan, fostering cycling and walking, although not seeming very innovative, is one of the most important measures to consider. These soft modes of transport provide many benefits for the city as a whole (decreased pollution and noise, use of space) and for the user (improved health, reduced transport costs, opportunity to socialise and enjoy the city at another pace and from a closer perspective). The development of these non-motorised modes of transport requires appropriate policies, quality infrastructure and funding. Some measures, such as the adoption of bike-sharing schemes, can also be a way to enact the principles of the circular economy in the day-to-day life of citizens.
Speaking of sharing resources, implementing a large-scale car-sharing scheme, can also be an action in favour of more sustainable mobility. Car sharing provides its users with access to a car without the need to own one. This results in reduced parking pressure in the neighbourhoods and reduced carbon emissions as users select the vehicles that better fit their needs (usually compact cars) and generally reduce the distance travelled annually.
The public transport network is the circulatory system of a city and, besides good, user-friendly and modern infrastructures, it also needs agile functioning. The easier and more convenient the experience for the passengers, the more successful it will be among citizens and visitors, including tourists, and the higher the share of transport needs that will be met by public transport. Integrated ticketing for public transport makes a paramount contribution to improving the user experience. This smart tool allows the identification of and charging for trips that use multiple modes of transport and works with different technological options, from cards to mobile phones.
To cater for those citizens and visitors that cannot rely on public transport alone, it is important to foster passenger intermodality. The convenience of combining multiple modes of transport could allow people who typically use their private car from origin to destination to discover that a clever combination of more energy and space efficient modes can also meet their transport needs. Is there good interconnection and coordination between the various modes of transport and their different operators? All cities can benefit from intermodality. Public bodies must focus on priorities according to their own context and make all parties converge to ensure the best coordination.
Make e-mobility go from being just a trending topic in social networks to a reality in your city. See how other cities have improved the uptake of electric vehicles by purchasing them for the public administration body’s own fleet (leading by example), introducing schemes that support the purchase of e-vehicles by residents, allowing their circulation in restricted traffic areas, increasing the number of public charging points or reducing taxation, among others.
Too many cars in the city? Implementing a congestion charge and limiting free parking spaces in cities may not seem very popular at first, but they can contribute to reducing air and noise pollution while increasing the attractiveness of the city centre if they are implemented as part of a package of sustainable transport measures that provide a valid alternative to the use of private cars.
Finally, but no less important, is to take care of the transport of goods. The implementation of logistic service centres is an effective way to optimise freight transport flows in the city. With the right physical and economic configuration, logistic service centres make the first and last mile for deliveries within a dense urban area more efficient and less intrusive environmentally and socially. Conducting a pilot study or simulation is a key step to avoid a bad configuration of the centre in terms of location, scope and organisation.
Have a look at mobility from a pragmatic perspective and learn from the examples of other cities that are already taking replicable steps towards more sustainable mobility schemes.