How can you improve your city's transport policy? - QUEST project kicks off.

QUEST is building on experiences with existing quality management tools for urban transport and environment, like BYPAD, MEDIATE, EMAS, and recognises the existing EU-guidance on sustainable urban transport planning. QUEST also foresees an exchange of knowledge between ongoing EU-projects related to the implementation of sustainable urban mobility plans like ELTIS Plus, ECOMOBILITY SHIFT and ADVANCE.

QUEST is however more than giving a certificate to cities. The main aim is to support cities in actually making progress toward a more sustainable urban transport system. Depending on the present quality level of the urban mobility policies of a city (= QUEST AUDIT) a tailor made improvement program is set up (= QUEST ACTION PLAN).

QUEST distinguishes three types of improvement programs: starters, climbers and champions. The intensity of the improvement program is directly linked to the present quality level of the urban mobility policy. Within QUEST the champions act as an inspiration and a role model for other cities.The more than 50 cities from all over Europe who want to implement the QUEST audit demonstrate that there is a high demand of direct advice on urban mobility planning by many EU cities.

In the preparation phase of the project, several Polis cities have expressed interested to use the QUEST methodology. These will be contacted over the coming months. Polis associate member CDV is a partner in the project, as well as Polis who is leading the project's dissemination activities.

QUEST is funded through the Intelligent Energy for Europe programme and will run until November 2013. For further information, you can contact icre@polisnetwork.eu.