End of the Urban Transports project: Feedback on this Mediterranean project

Launched in 2016, the Urban Transports Community (UTC) is one of the eight thematic communities of the Interreg MED Programme  (cofinanced by the FEDER). Created to bring together the stakeholders of the Programme’s urban transport projects, this community now includes more than 120 institutions acting on urban mobility in 12 Euro-Mediterranean countries (local authorities, universities, user representatives, associations of civil and private companies, etc.). These institutions cooperate (or have cooperated) in transnational partnerships to promote sustainable urban mobility by improving mobility planning, implementing pilot projects and promoting knowledge sharing through mentoring and training activities.

CODATU is a member of the partnership leading this Community since its start in 2016 (GoSUMP Project). This partnership was renewed at the end of 2019 with MedCities (Spain) as lead partner, in partnership with Area Science Park (Italy), UNIMED (Italy), Civinet CY-EL (Cyprus-Greece), POLIS (Belgium), the municipality of Durres (Albania) and CODATU. This second phase made it possible to capitalize on the achievements by providing the selected local authorities with tailor-made support to implement pilot projects initially tested by other local authorities who are members of the Urban Transports Community in the Mediterranean.

On October 25 and 26, the final event of the project, the “Mediterranean Mobility Forum“, took place, gathering more than 90 people from the different municipalities and partner organizations. On this occasion, several sessions highlighted the results of the project and allowed the partners to present their feedback on the past years.

During this event, CODATU (represented by Héloïse Chaumier, Project Manager and Noémi Mené, Project Officer) moderated a “Meeting with the Community” session during which stakeholders from the 8 mentorships of the project intervened. The two mentorships supervised by CODATU were represented by the mentors (Theo Stapleton from TTK and Zoi Christoforou from the University of Patras) and the “replicator” cities of Sfax, Tunisia and Larissa, Greece.

A half-day training session on electric mobility was led by Dominique Breuil, member of the CODATU Board. He presented the main issues of governance and implementation of an electric mobility policy for local authorities. He also presented the possible options for building a fleet of electric buses (in terms of charging infrastructure and vehicles).

Another highlight of the event was the official presentation of the Urban Transport Declaration, supported by many municipalities across the Mediterranean.

The Declaration calls for:

• Safe, more inclusive and user-centered cycling policies
• The use of data and the involvement of citizens to facilitate their ownership of the subject and to build appropriate sustainable mobility plans
• A balanced mobility offer for residents and tourists that puts sustainability at the center to reduce pressure on the Mediterranean environment
• Continued and strengthened cooperation of key actors in identifying needs and decision-making, and support for citizen participation to ensure inclusive and relevant policy measures
• The promotion of safety and physical and financial accessibility as founding principles for any urban transport policy in order to foster social cohesion and economic development

Within the framework of the project, four policy briefs have been developed. You can find them in several languages here.
This European project, slightly distant from CODATU’s classical intervention geographies, has contributed to strengthen knowledge sharing and peer-to-peer cooperation on both sides of the Mediterranean.

Learn more:

• Website of the project
• Policy Briefs
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