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World Urban Forum focussing on urban mobility

Bernd Decker from Rupprecht Consult participated at the Sixth Session of UN-HABITAT's World Urban Forum (WUF6) which was held in Naples from 1-7 September 2012. The World Urban Forum is a biennial expert forum established by the United Nations General Assembly to address the pressing challenge of rapid urbanisation and its impacts on communities, cities, economies and the environment. Under the overarching theme "The Urban Future" the Dialogue Session on urban mobility, energy and environment brought together experiences and knowledge gained in addressing the urban mobility challenge. The Future City calls for a new paradigm which embraces new approaches to urban planning and design such as "giving the street back to citizens", creating public spaces, establishing more robust public transport systems and promoting active modes of transport such as walking and cycling as feeders to public transport systems. In a special event on Sustainable Transport following Rio+20 participants discussed the role of UN Organisations, International Development Organisations and city and national government agencies with activities on sustainable transport in the promotion and implementation of more sustainable transport over the next 10 years. The European Commission's initiatives on promoting sustainable urban mobility planning will  complement UN-HABITAT's strengthened role on urban transport and the SUMP brochures were well acknowledged by transport and planning professionals. www.unhabitat.org/wuf