City of Madrid elected as Polis 2015 president
“Madrid is proud to be a benchmark in the development of sustainable urban mobility policies”, said Diego Sanjuanbenito Bonal, Madrid’s Deputy Mayor for Transport and Environment at today’s Polis Annual General Assembly. “We are honoured to hold the Polis presidency in 2015 and remain determined to work with all our partners in the Polis network to increase the influence of cities and the local level towards the European Institutions.”
Madrid has been promoting sustainable transport for many years, both locally and through cooperation across borders. Outstanding initiatives in the Spanish capital include the city’s ambitious Air Quality Plan, the promotion of cycling and walking, Madrid’s intelligent on-street parking scheme, its multimodal interchanges, and its pioneering urban consolidation centre for electric freight.
At the General Assembly, Budapest, Pisa and Stuttgart region were also elected to join the Management Committee of Polis for a second term.
Madrid opens 2014 Annual Polis conference
As of 27 November, the Annual Polis Conference “Innovation in Transport for Sustainable Cities and Regions” is taking place for two days in Madrid, gathering around 300 urban mobility professionals from across Europe. Madrid’s Deputy Mayor for Transport and Environment, Diego Sanjuanbenito Bonal, will open the conference and welcome high-level speakers including Madrid’s mayor Ana Botella Serrano, Spain’s Minister for Public Works and Transport Ana Pastor, and Italy’s Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi, who is currently holding the presidency of the Council of the EU.
The Polis Conference is an important annual highlight for urban mobility professionals. It provides an opportunity for cities and regions to showcase their transport achievements to an international audience, and for the wider transport community to engage with representatives of city and regional authorities on innovative transport solutions. The third issue of “Thinking Cities” sees its release on 27 November at the conference, a joint magazine by Polis and H3B media, incl. a feature of Madrid’s smart parking scheme. Following the conference, technical site visits lead delegates to Madrid’s electric urban freight consolidation centre, its bike sharing scheme and a major interchange.