ODRAZ at the Urban Mobility Days in Brno
Representatives of ODRAZ, the secretariat of the CIVINET Slovenia-Croatia-SEE network, participated in the “Urban Mobility Days” conference, which took place from September 20 to 22, 2022 in Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic and a pioneer of many innovative initiatives for mobility, especially recognized for its high-quality public transport system, whose modal share is 53%. The conference was organized in cooperation with the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU.
Moving people and goods more sustainably was the main topic of the conference, and as 2022 is the European Year of Youth, this year’s event also focused on the participation of young people on the way to sustainable mobility. The conference was also an opportunity to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of the CIVITAS Initiative, which aims to promote and implement sustainable, cleaner and more energy-efficient measures in urban transport, implement integrated measures based on new, innovative technologies and public policies that meet the needs of citizens.
During the three days, numerous interesting sessions and panel discussions were held, and the conference provided an ideal opportunity for networking, discussing key topics and exchanging ideas about new traffic trends and technologies, the latest achievements in sustainable urban mobility planning and solutions that mobility in cities and towns can make it more sustainable.
In addition to ODRAZ, the conference was attended by some of the members of the Network – representatives of the City of Ljubljana, the City of Koprivnica, the Faculty of Transport Sciences Zagreb, the Urban Institute of the Republic of Slovenia and the Faculty of Technical Sciences Novi Sad.
Workshop on the exchange of regional experiences between cities
The day before the conference, representatives of the Network Secretariat and the City of Koprivnica participated in the last of three CIVITAS Regional City Exchange Workshops organized by CIVITAS Elevate in cooperation with the CIVINET Czech-Slovak network and the City of Brno. At this year’s third workshop led by Fred Dotter from the Belgian organization Mobiel 21, representatives of the cities of Koprivnica, Brno and Aachen presented their success related to the financing of urban, rural and regional mobility projects.
The representative of the CIVINET Czech-Slovak network talked about connecting the city and the region and presented the financing framework in the Czech Republic. Goran Lampelj from ODRAZ talked about the development of sustainable urban mobility solutions in Croatia with a special emphasis on how to speed up that process. Both presentations referred to the role and support provided by CIVINET local networks.
After interesting presentations and speakers, the participants worked together on three key questions through a structured conversation, using the World Cafe method:
1. Should there be sustainable mobility plans for metropolitan areas and what should be the role of the region in this?
2. How to get public support for the implementation of urban / regional sustainable mobility solutions?
3. How to strengthen the engagement of people in the mobility transition in a broad and cost-effective way?
One of the World Cafe moderators was Magdalena Makar from the Network Secretariat.
After the workshop, a ride through the city on an old tram was organized for all participants.
For more information on the activities of the CIVINET Slovenia-Croatia-SEE network, follow the Network’s website and Facebook and Instagram profile Sustainable Mobility in Cities.