Learning Centre

Automated? Autonomous? Self-driving? Connected? Cooperative? So many different terms, so many different questions, yet not that many answers. To clarify these and provide a better context to how the topic connected and automated driving (CAD) is shaping around the world, the CIVITAS SATELLITE project in cooperation with the H2020 CoEXist project organised a webinar on automation in cities on Monday, 26 February 2018, at 12:00 – 13:30 CET.

The aim of this webinar was to give an introduction to automation and initiate a dialogue to increase the awareness of local authorities and other urban mobility stakeholders and practitioners. Starting a discussion now will help cities prepare for and understand the issues that arise due to the constant technological development. The webinar particularly focused on the role of automation for public transport and gave a concrete example on how a mid-sized city is preparing for automation.

The recording of the webinar is available at: youtu.be/GkNO0WtFkbY

The compilation of the presentations is available at: https://bit.ly/2FvFmEP

Sharing Cities and CIVITAS TRACE projects have organised a joint webinar on experiences related to mobility. Both projects work with this topic from different angles, providing a good opportunity to share and learn. EUROCITIES hosted the webinar as replication lead of Sharing Cities with speakers from the Energy Agency of Plovdiv (TRACE) and CEiiA (Sharing Cities) on 2 February 2018 from 11:00 to 12:45. The webinar was on behavioural change to ensure a greater effectiveness and acceptance by citizens of new mobility measures.
 

Ina Karova, from the Energy Agency of Plovdiv, presented the TRACE project which develops ICT-based tracking tools to optimise the planning and implementation of walking and cycling policies; all tools are accompanied by campaigns for their procurement. TRACE will end in May 2018 and has therefore already produced some valuable information that will be shared with you.

The lead partner in TRACE is the Technical University of Lisboa, which can also support the city of Lisbon in implementing those new solutions.

Carolina Carli from CEiiA presented the status of mobility measures in Lisbon, one of the lighthouse cities within Sharing Cities, highlighting the use cases which aim to change behaviours.

This is the third webinar of SUMP Learning Programme 1, which took place from September 2017 to March 2018. The webinar focuses on the topic of SUMP as a strategic document.

Main presenters: David Harris and Joe Clarbour, Birmingham City Council, present how the Birmingham Transport Space Allocation policy was developed, which helps shift the spatial balance in the city towards walking, biking and public transport.

Research conducted over the last few decades in many western countries confirms that there is a mutually reinforcing relationship between transport poverty (i.e. lack of access to both private and public mobility resources) and social exclusion (inability to fully participate in life-enhancing activities).

In these contexts, households that do not own cars are overwhelmingly concentrated in the lowest income quintiles, where approximately only half of households own cars. For low income households with cars, mobility is still reduced -- they make significantly fewer trips and travel much shorter distances than their higher-income, car-owning counterparts.

The experience of reduced mobility often means that low income households are unable to fully participate in key activities, such as employment, education, health care and food shopping. It is perhaps for these reasons that car ownership among low-income households in the UK has increased more rapidly year on year than for other income brackets. Yet this statistical trend tells us very little about the actual motivations behind why people living on or near ‘the breadline’ (i.e. in poverty) are willing to commit so much of their limited financial resources to owning and running a private vehicle. They do so even when they find it difficult to afford other basic necessities, such as food, warmth, shelter and clothing. Much of transportation policy is based on the idea that low-income people do not own cars. Yet a growing body of evidence suggests that this is no longer the case.

What does the experience of low-income car ownership mean for our work in transportation, and what lessons learned from other western countries can help guide our efforts here in Canada? Join transportation expert Karen Lucas as she explores these issues and discusses the ‘auto motives’ of low-income populations, by drawing on case study evidence from different geographical and social contexts over the last 20 yrs.

In this webinar, you will learn:

• What social exclusion is and how it relates to transportation;
• The various motivations behind car ownership for low income households and individuals;
• The opportunities and challenges of car ownership for people of limited financial means; and
• Further research and policy measures required to help address these issues.

This webinar will discuss the opportunities and the challenges of urban cycling, such as current approaches on the sustainable implementation of cycling infrastructure and related policy development for urban stakeholders and the future of station based and free-floating bike sharing.

Mr. Daizong Liu, from the World Resources Institute (WRI), will talk about how “Bikes make cities thrive again” and

Mr. Pablo Celis, from the Municipality of Aarhus, Denmark, one of the cycling-friendliest nations in the world, will tell the story of “The rise of a cycling city”.  

Mr. Sebastian Ibold, from GIZ China, will moderate the presentations and discussions.

The planned schedule is as follows:

1. Welcome and introduction (10 minutes)

Moderator: Mr. Sebastian Ibold (GIZ China)

2. Input presentation (20 minutes)

"Bikes makes cities thrive again“

Speaker: Mr. Daizong Liu (World Resources Institute WRI) – 20 minutes presentation

3. Input presentation (20 minutes)

"The rise of a cycling city“

Speaker: Mr. Pablo Celis (Municipality of Aarhus) – 20 minutes presentation

4. Interactive discussion with the audience (30 minutes)

Target Audience

GIZ Transport & Environment (T&E) Working Group Members and other interested “sustainable transport”, “urban” and “climate“ colleagues from GIZ, as well as collaborators and partners from the development community.

This EU-funded mobility project offers training courses to help companies develop innovative solutions that can reduce congestion in cities. The FLOW project aims to tackle urban congestion by developing walking and cycling measures. Its training courses are for companies, such as app developers and consultancies, that provide products and services related to urban transport, urban planning, walking and cycling and/or reducing urban road congestion. The training consists of interactive e-learning modules and webinars that introduce new products developed by FLOW partners, such as software that analyses traffic, provides forecasts, and manages data from geographic information systems. Companies that take part in the training will feature in an online catalogue that FLOW will present to European local authorities - opening doors to new contacts and potential clients.