Under the motto “Clean, shared, and intelligent mobility,” the European Mobility Week is celebrated from 16-22 September in Serbia with a view to influencing reductions in GHG emissions caused by traffic in towns across the country.
The EU Delegation to Serbia, the EU Info Centre and the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM) seized this opportunity to organise a conference “Sharing gets you further – Examples of good practice and benefits brought to Serbian towns and municipalities through participation in the European Mobility Week” at the EU Info Centre premises.
Head of Information, Communication and Media at the EU Delegation to Serbia Paul-Henri Presset said in his opening remarks that “by driving our cars less and walking or cycling more, we protect our environment and promote our health at the same time. Furthermore, a change like this could bring numerous economic benefits: according to data published by the European Cyclists’ Federation in December 2016, the so-called cycling economy is worth as much as EUR513 billion and employs 650,000 people. This brings benefits to many sectors of the economy and the society: environment, energy, technology, design, healthcare, etc.,” Presset said.
He greeted representatives of innovative start-ups, including the Onobikes start-up, a company engaged in bicycle design and production. “Serbian-made Onobikes bicycles have been named the most beautiful in Europe and the company won EU sustainable energy award. It is initiatives like this that we should support because they create new jobs.”
Secretary General of the SCTM Djordje Stanicic said that urban areas account for 70 per cent of the population. Those local self-governments, he said, will have to do most of the work as they are at the same time the ones causing 70 per cent of traffic pollution.
“In order to carry out that work, LSG representatives should be trained,” Stanicic said and added that such a situation could open up opportunities for the development of economy and job creation.
UNDP Representative Zarko Petrovic said that the international organisation would support local projects and ideas dealing with environmental protection. As he put it, supporting such project and ideas would be beneficial for LSG representatives and for the people and business communities in those areas.
A representative of the Transport Secretariat of the City of Belgrade, Ognjen Todorovic, said that cyclists accounted for one per cent of all vehicles in Belgrade. He said that was due to lack of public bicycle rental stations.
He said that the goal was to increase the share of cyclists to five per cent in next two years, that is to achieve the 10 per cent share over the next decade.
The European Mobility Week is an annual campaign on sustainable urban mobility, which has been taking place both across Europe and beyond the borders of the Old Continent since 2002. From the outset, towns and municipalities in Serbia have been taking part in the campaign by organising various activities aimed at promoting alternative modes of transport, with a particular emphasis on cycling, development of infrastructure that favours cyclists and pedestrians as well as promotion of healthier life styles.
This year, the campaign runs from 16-22 September under the slogan “Clean, shared, and intelligent mobility” in order to inspire common solutions for sustainable mobility and eco-friendly modes of transport. Activities will be implemented under the motto “Sharing gets you further” with a view to encouraging local authorities to partner up with public transport companies, associations, entrepreneurs and media, using intermediate systems – IT platforms – to make those solutions available to the wider public. At the same time, citizens are encouraged to use available modes of urban and intercity transport.
