
The annual POLIS conference took place in Leuven (Belgium) on 29 and 30 November. The POLIS conference is Europe’s leading event on sustainable urban mobility and offers cities and regions the opportunity to present their transport policy achievements to a large audience of mobility experts, practitioners, and decision-makers from the public and private sectors.
, with the City of Oslo, Bologna and Rome speaking in two sessions.
Tiina Ruohonen from the City of Oslo highlighted the central role of MOVE21 in developing cities into climate-neutral multimodal urban hubs. In addition, she presented the newly set-up Scan-Med Observatory as a concrete attempt to bridge the gap between TEN-T corridors and urban hubs. As the revision of the TEN-T Directive is at the final stage and will be published by the end of the year, a set of requirements for newly selected urban nodes will enter into force. The Scan-Med Observatory aims to be a collaborative platform to support urban nodes along the Scan-Med TEN-T corridor in this transition period, to better understand what this means for cities and regions. Local authorities attending the session were invited to participate in future discussions with the Scan-Med Observatory.
Andrea Pasotto from the Mobility Agency of Rome presented Rome’s exemplary activities within MOVE21 and explained the strategies to develop mobility and logistics hubs in the metropolitan area, included in its SULP. Rome’s initiatives included the establishment of logistics living labs, multimodal hubs at key railway stations and the introduction of bicycle minihubs, demonstrating the city’s commitment to improving multimodal transport, logistics and connectivity of urban nodes.
Mauro Borioni (Metropolitan city of Bologna) reported on the replication strategies implemented within the project. They are focusing on (i) a circular approach to the management of waste materials from bicycle repairs, (ii) supervised parking for bicycles and cargo bikes at major events to strategically reduce traffic congestion and pollution on these occasions, (iii) enhance user experience at the premises of two railways stations (and related mobility hubs) in the metropolitan area to promote multimodal travel and establish a sense of place identity, as more than 60% of commuters are using daily pollutant vehicles to reach the capital city of Bologna.