CIVITAS Award winners revealed
Three European cities were crowned the winners of the 2009 CITIVAS Awards at the CIVITAS Forum Conference in Krakow, Poland, on 20 October. Gent, Belgium, London Borough of Sutton, UK, and Nantes, France, were recognised for their sustainable urban mobility activities and programmes, and described as the most outstanding, ambitious and innovative cities of 2009, by the CIVITAS Political Advisory Committee.
The city of Gent came out on top in the Future of Urban Mobility for a CIVITAS demonstration city category, which any of the 58 CIVITAS demonstration cities were eligible to apply for. Gent has proven its dedication to urban mobility by creating a large pedestrian area in the city centre, developing a primary cycle network, a student-friendly bicycle rental system, and by working on plans to build a garage for more than 10,000 bicycles. The Future of Urban Mobility for a CIVITAS non-demonstration city Award, went to the London Borough of Sutton. Since 2006, Sutton Council has actively made contact with every household in the borough (population 185,000) in an attempt to encourage them to complete a personal travel planning project. All schools in Sutton have a School Travel Plan and more than 100 businesses have a Workplace Travel Plan. The £5 million campaign is the largest campaign of its kind undertaken in Europe.Finally, the city of Nantes was announced as the winner of the CIVITAS City of the Year Award. Nantes’ winning entry focused on four action areas. These include the development of a clean bus fleet and the design of a new Chronobus, quality and performance mark for bus lines within the city. The city also constructed secure bike parking spaces, extended rent-a-bike service, and experimented with the use of foldable bicycles. The three winners receive a trophy and certificate, and most importantly, recognition and visibility for the hard work they have put into developing sustainable urban mobility in their city. The CIVITAS Awards were first given in 2004, and each year the programme attracts more competitive and impressive entries in each of the three award categories. (Photo: Mirjam Logonder)
