Port cities deal with some unique challenges, from getting cruise ship passengers to the city center, to routing truck traffic, to docking ships. Given their multi-modal nature – road, air, rail and sea – they are the perfect place to try out new solutions encompassing all aspects of mobility.
CIVITAS PORTIS – "Innovative and sustainable urban mobility solutions for European port cities" is implementing a number of initiatives in five geographically, culturally and climatically diverse port cities in Europe, located on the North Sea (Aberdeen and Antwerp), the Mediterranean Sea (Trieste), the Black Sea (Constanta), and the Baltic Sea (Klaipeda), as well as in a follower port city in China (Ningbo).
The five living laboratories are testing 49 innovative mobility solutions ranging from newly-emerging technologies to policy-based and soft measures in four areas: better city-port cooperation; healthier and more sustainable port cities; integrated, clean mobility systems; and more efficient freight transport.
But the living laboratories are not the only ones who will benefit from these measures: CIVITAS PORTIS helps cities work together to generate and build innovation, while assessing how effective their efforts are. It transfers the most useful innovations to other port cities and marketplaces. The brand new second edition of the CIVITAS PORTIS innovation brochure is available for download at the CIVITAS PORTIS webpage.
CIVITAS PORTIS has already brought about some significant changes with consistent gains for public transport, walking and cycling in all cities' living laboratories.
The umbrella brand, “Smart Ways to Antwerp”, involves a huge number of partners and stakeholders working together to create a shift towards sustainable mobility, aimed at informing, raising awareness, supporting the development of innovative mobility solutions and achieving behavioural change. In Aberdeen, the way people approach travelling in and around the city has been re-defined and road space for collective and active travel modes has been recovered. Trieste is developing a sustainable urban mobility plan, centered on new opportunities arising from the recent incorporation of the “Porto Vecchio” area, a city within the city. Real civic involvement and participation in the field of sustainable mobility has been set up in Constanta, while in Klaipeda, the transport system has been improved and alternative transport modes have been promoted. All of the measures implemented thus far are already having positive effects on the modal split of the cities involved.
Thanks to improved mobility and the re-development of public spaces, CIVITAS PORTIS will also contribute significantly to employment and economic growth in the ports and their surrounding areas. The living laboratory areas are expected to attract more than 300 new businesses and at least 3,300 new jobs.
For further information, please have a look at https://civitas.eu/portis
Or contact:
Project Coordinator, Marijke De Roeck at: Marijke.DeRoeck@stad.Antwerpen.be
Project Manager, Siliva Gaggi at: sgaggi@isinnova.org
Dissemination Manager, Ingrid Briesner at: briesner@fgm.at