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Mobility and Transport
  • News article
  • 22 March 2021
  • Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport
  • 4 min read

European Commission announces sustainable mobility award nominees

The finalists of the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Awards, the Award for Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP Award) and the EU Urban Road Safety Award were revealed today.

All awards recognise remarkable activities conducted in 2020. The EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Awards showcase smaller and larger municipalities promoting sustainable urban mobility during the week of 16-22 September; the SUMP Award rewards excellence in sustainable urban mobility planning; and the Road Safety Award celebrates outstanding road safety measures. The annual theme for all awards was ‘Zero-emission mobility for all’.

The shortlisted cities were selected by an independent panel of mobility and transport experts, and the four winners will be announced during an online award ceremony, taking place on 19 April 2021. For more information and to attend the ceremony, visit: mobilityweek.eu/award-ceremony-2021

EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Awards 2020

The finalists for the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award 2020 for larger municipalities (more than 100,000 inhabitants) are:

  • Granada (Spain)
  • Mönchengladbach (Germany)
  • Sofia (Bulgaria)

The jury praised in particular:

  • Granada’s communication activities, including social media, and online conferences to engage local residents in discussions on sustainable mobility. The jury was also impressed by the wide range of permanent sustainable mobility measures implemented during the week;
  • Mönchengladbach’s broad and comprehensive programme of activities and events addressing people of all ages and abilities. They were also impressed by the strong citizen engagement which underpinned activities, with people being able to suggest activities for Car-Free Day 2021;
  • Sofia’s focus on road safety and active mobility, with many interesting events throughout the week highlighting these themes. The diverse activities included a national walking contest, and broad ranging permanent measures such as extending the city’s metro line, all of which impressed the jury.

The finalists for the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award 2020 for smaller municipalities (less than 100,000 inhabitants) are:

  • Bruck an der Leitha (Austria)
  • Lilienthal (Germany)
  • Nea Moudania (Greece)

The jury was impressed by:

  • The strong political support from local government, which underpinned Bruck an der Leitha’s activities. The Mayor and the city councillors led by example, giving up their cars during the week, instead opting to travel by public transport;
  • Lilienthal’s rich programme of events and activities. In particular, its Car-Free School Day, which was organised together with the City of Bremen (Germany) and saw 55 schools and more than 60,000 students participate;
  • The vast array of permanent sustainable mobility measures unveiled in Nea Moudania during the week. In particular, the introduction of new bicycle paths, stands, and stations, and the improvement of footpaths and pedestrian crossings.

9th SUMP Award

The finalists for the Award for Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning are:

  • Belgrade (Serbia)
  • Bilbao (Spain)
  • Greater Grenoble Area Mobility Authority (SMMAG) for Grenoble-Alpes SUMP (France)

The jury was impressed by:

  • Belgrade’s approach to sustainable mobility planning, which provides the city with a clear strategy for achieving shared, integrated, and inclusive mobility, alongside detailed and ambitious targets to reach along the way;
  • Bilbao’s well thought out and detailed approach to sustainable mobility planning, which addresses gender equality issues through a dedicated gender mobility action plan;
  • SMMAG’s integrated and structured approach to sustainable mobility planning, which aims to ensure the mobility needs of all public transport users are met, including socially vulnerable groups.

EU Urban Road Safety Award

The finalists of the second edition of the EU Urban Road Safety Award are:

  • Bilbao (Spain)
  • Heraklion (Greece)
  • Quart de Poblet (Spain)

The jury praised in particular:

  • Bilbao’s efforts to reduce the number of road traffic victims, in line with their urban safety mobility plan. Its steps to reduce speed limits to 30km/h across the city, to reorganise streets, and to include the participation of residents in road safety discussions were also commended;
  • Heraklion’s monitoring and evaluation work around the implementation of speed reduction programmes near schools, which led to other organisations, such as health care centres, asking for the introduction of similar measures;
  • The speed reduction programme introduced near schools in Quart de Poblet. In addition, the jury praised its prioritisation of pedestrians, making traffic lights unnecessary and kick-starting an interesting debate on their effectiveness in protecting pedestrians’ lives.

The juries

EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Awards 2020 jury:

  • Charlotte van Hek, International Association of Public Transport (UITP)
  • Freya de Muynck, Traject mobility management
  • Niccolò Panozzo, European Cyclists' Federation (ECF)
  • Robert Pressl, FGM-AMOR

9th SUMP Award jury:

  • Florinda Boschetti, EIT Urban Mobility
  • Greg Archer, Transport & Environment (T&E)
  • Imre Keserü, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)

EU Urban Road Safety Award Jury:

  • Jeannot Mersch, European Federation of Road Traffic Victims (FEVR)
  • Ellen Townsend, European Transport Safety Council (ETSC)
  • Geert Van Waeg, International Federation of Pedestrians (IFP)

Background

EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK runs from 16-22 September every year, providing towns and cities with an opportunity to try out innovative planning measures, promote new infrastructure and technologies and measure air quality. By encouraging individuals to choose sustainable transport modes such as walking and cycling, we can lower our carbon emissions, improve air quality, and make our urban areas more pleasant places to live and work.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, over 2,900 towns and cities registered their participation in the campaign, marking 2020 as the second most successful year to date.

For more information on the campaign, visit www.mobilityweek.eu

Details

Publication date
22 March 2021
Author
Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport