Walk21 Tirana 2025
The Walk21 International Conference on Walking and Liveable Communities celebrates 25 years! This year, the global walking summit will take place in Tirana, Albania, from 6 to 10 October 2025.
The Walk21 Conference on Walking and Liveable Communities brings together leaders, practitioners, academics, and advocates from the Balkans, across Europe, and beyond. Its purpose is to explore how walking policies and programmes can be developed and implemented to create streets and public spaces where people genuinely enjoy spending time on foot.
This year’s conference, delivered in partnership with the Walk21 Foundation and with the support of GIZ, is themed ‘Time for Walking’. The theme highlights both the urgency and the opportunity to place walking at the heart of cities, communities, and policies as a central mode of active travel. The focus is on the relationship between walking and community needs, planning decisions, and infrastructure investment.
The rich programme is organised around five key themes:
- Connecting communities: strengthening links within and between urban and rural areas, and ensuring integration with public transport, so that walking becomes the first choice of travel for all.
- Curiosity and culture: encouraging people to explore, enjoy, and take ownership of their streets and public spaces, enriching everyday life at the local level.
- Codifying design: embedding design standards and details into streets and public spaces to make them enjoyable, particularly for children.
- Pathways to better policy: establishing effective processes to mainstream the value of walking, securing political commitment, prioritisation, and investment for everyday pedestrians.
- Capacity and creativity: sharing knowledge and practical examples with peers and professionals to inspire and deliver more walkable communities.
Where to find POLIS
Andréia Lopes Azevedo, Active Travel & Health Cluster Lead, will take part in the session:
- Institutionalising walking: A governance approach to climate and sustainability
- Tuesday, 7 October 2025 | 11:00 – 12:30
- The session will provide gain practical insights into the governance framework needed to make walking a central pillar of urban policy
- Andréia Lopes Azevedo and Sofia Pires Bento (Institute for Mobility and Transport, Lisbon), will contribute to the session by brining the Portuguese experience with their National Strategy for Walking and their Collaborative Network to other cities and practitioners working on increasing and improving walking.
More POLIS members, including CROW, Cerema, Paris, Groningen, UIRS, Ljubljana, Rotterdam, TOI, and KU Leuven, will participate in the conference as speakers.
For more information
Tickets are still available! Register here.
To learn more about the event, visit the official website.
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