Winner city: Bologna
In the second category of Public Participation, the winning streak went south to Bologna, Italy, to award the city for its novel use of online applications in order to assess user needs. This innovative solution involved as many as 46,000 cyclists in May 2016. It also completely did away with lengthy interview processes to track public feedback and metrics, thanks to developing and spreading the gamification biking app mentioned above in the Gdansk case. Each of the 52 cities from 17 different countries found a way to benefit from the large amount of data collected.
The runner-up and the 2nd runner-up in this category are respectively the cities of Porto and Joinville.
CIVITAS Awards 2016 - Public Participation Winner: Bologna and the ECC cities
Winner city: Kraków
Attractive new pedestrian streets, fabulous new biking lanes, great new public transport routes, and an overall transformation around the city’s UNESCO-designated old town: these are just some of the impressive changes characterising the CIVITAS Transformations award, launched this year for the first time, and proudly received by Poland’s historic second-largest city, Krakow. With one of the longest car-free street networks in the world and large scale reallocation of road space, along with significant improvements in limiting greenhouse emissions, Krakow has shined this year above the other contestants in this category.
The runner-up in this category are the cities of Palma (Spain), Odense (Denmark) and Gothenburg (Sweden), while the second runner-up is the city of Parma (Italy).
Winner city: Malaga
Having conducted an intensive analysis of sustainable transport requirements and user needs, Malaga has proudly implemented brave public transport measures throughout the year to improve the public bicycle system, electric car infrastructure, city centre access, logistics, metro, regulated parking, safer routes to schools and much more. An active member of CIVITAS 2MOVE2 among other enterprising transport projects and organiser of CIVITAS summer courses, the city recently committed itself to implementing UN Climate Change Summit recommendations, reduce emissions and monitor air quality. Its dedication, innovations and successes have very deservingly earned it the title of CIVITAS City of the Year.
Winner city: Rzeszow
The ceremony unveiled in the first main category of Technical Innovation a Polish winner, the city of Rzeszów, considered the largest city in south-eastern Poland. Rzeszów successfully launched two new prototype heated bus shelters for its citizens, complete with energy saving technology and a modern design, impressing judges with the idea of going beyond vehicle technology to address the waiting area for citizens as well. More such shelters are now planned for the city and beyond!
As a runner-up for the CIVITAS award in this category, the European Commission acknowledged the city of Aachen (Germany).
