The CIVITAS Forum Conference, one of Europe’s top sustainable mobility event, took place last month from 19-21 September in Umea, Sweden. It is the network’s annual flagship event and brought together more than 300 mobility experts, including policymakers, city representatives, academics, and practitioners.
Under the topic of “Mobility for U and Me”, this year’s conference focused on multimodality, its replicability, economic viability and social dimension.
Shared mobility, which is the heart of LGI’s work, was indeed a significant topic for discussion at the conference. The growing use of digital platforms and willingness of consumers to use mobile apps, together with the sharing economy that is growing into a cultural consumption approach, were highlighted at the base of this development. Moreover, smart technology is helping to improve the experience of car sharing, booking a car, accessing it and using shared transport easier.
LGI, together with other partners of the STARS project (Horizon 2020 no. 69513), contributed to this event by conducting a mobility workshop. This work session aimed at exploring and debating the poignant question, ‘Is car sharing crucial to the future of sustainable urban mobility in Europe?’. A number of high profile speakers and participants also joined in. The panel included, among others, Sergio Fernandez Balaguer (Head of Communication and Consultancy Directorate at EMT Madrid, Spain), László Sándor Kerényi (Head of Mobility Strategy at the Centre for Budapest Transport, Hungary) and Michael Glotz-Richter (Tranportation Planner at the City of Bremen, Germany).
This workshop represented a unique opportunity to stimulate interesting discussions with mobility practitioners from across Europe and beyond and allowed us to continue our research on how mobility sharing practices are influenced by the arrival of digital technologies, automotive advances, the emergence of social innovation patterns and mobility behaviour and choices.
Contact:
Esti Sanvicente
Innovation Strategist