Urban Mobility Days 2022

Urban Mobility Days took place successfully in Brno (Czech Republic) and virtually! 526 participants attended on-site and 907 participants streamed the sessions via the event website. Across three days, the event tackled the key aspects of sustainable urban mobility, examining the biggest challenges and solutions.

Streaming, photos and slides of Urban Mobility Days 2022 are archived on the Eltis website!

Following in the footsteps of previous successful conferences, this year’s theme was “Moving people and goods more sustainably”. More than 70% of Europeans live in cities, and urban areas account for around 23% of the EU’s GHG transport emissions. If we are to achieve ambitious climate targets, transforming urban mobility will be critical.

Across three days, policymakers, local authorities, academics, NGOs, urban transport practitioners, and urban planners convened to traverse the length and depth of sustainable urban mobility, examining the challenges and solutions at hand.

POLIS' members have played a leading role in the Urban Mobility Days over the last several years. In 2019, Groningen hosted the event, while POLIS colleagues and our member cities including Barcelona, Leuven, Helmond, and Madrid have taken to the stage to share their approaches to road safety, citizen engagement, mobility as a service, and other key sustainable transport issues.

The conference was organised together with the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU and took place in Brno. This is the second largest city of the Czech Republic, and a pioneer of many cutting-edge mobility initiatives. Five site visits organised by Brno Municipality invited the participants to explore urban mobility initiatives in the city.

Urban Mobility Days takes place every two years and combines the CIVITAS Forum Conference and European Conference on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs). This year’s event coincided with European Mobility Week taking place every year from 16-22 September.

This year’s event also placed youth participation front and centre on the path to sustainable mobility. Young people are not only victims of climate change, they are also valuable contributors to climate action. And as 2022 is the European Year of Youth, Urban Mobility Days elevated young voices and views, exploring how Europe’s young people can be part of the path towards climate resilience.

POLIS at the Urban Mobility Days

POLIS is one of the organising partners of Urban Mobility Days, and many of our members and projects were featured across the programme. POLIS Secretary General Karen Vancluysen was the Master of Ceremony at the conference.

Sessions

POLIS and our members were involved in the following sessions:

Plenary Session 2 'TEN-T urban nodes' (20 September 2022, 16h30 - 18h00) will see Françoise Guaspare of POLIS member Île de France region intervene.
Breakout Session 3B on UVARs (21 September, 14h15 - 15h30) will be moderated by the POLIS Coordinator for the working group on Access, Ivo Cré.

Exhibition
As a member of Eltis, POLIS showcased some of the EU projects it is currently working on. The following projects will be represented at the Eltis stand of the exhibition:

UVAR Box
UVAR Exchange
ReVeAL
MOBI-MIX
PAV
INDIMO
MOVE21
CMO ClearMobilEnergy
ISA-FIT
DYNAXIBILITY

Pitches
Exhibitors, and thus projects, also had the opportunity to hold short pitches about the achievements of their project in the two plenary pitch sessions:

20 September 2022 - 15h30 to 16h00
22 September 2022 - 11h00 to 11h30

General Coordination of the Urban Mobility Days

POLIS was actively involved in the overall coordination of the Urban Mobility Days 2022. In collaboration with the European Commission, POLIS set up the event website, registration platform, coordinated the institutional partners, suppliers and speakers and helped giving shape to the programme. POLIS colleagues will also be on-site to ensure a successful and interesting three days for all participants.

POLIS Team
Aside from Karen Vancluysen and Ivo Cré, POLIS was represented on-site in Brno by its team, including Pedro Homem de Gouveia, Niklas Schmalholz, Raffaele Vergnani, Antonios Tsiligiannis, Laura Babío, Sebastien Nolens, Isobel Duxfield, Alexia Collignon.