Project Details

Project goal

The Mayors of the four cities fixed the mission to all active partners and local stakeholders: "We commit our cities to establish a new culture for a clean urban mobility balancing sustainable development, citizens well being and safe access to all transport modes."

The objectives of CARAVEL reflected the priorities of most medium-sized cities in Europe for an integrated transport policy and respond to major urban policy challenges:

• To base energy consumption in transport increasingly on renewable resources.
• To minimise traffic-related air and noise pollution and other negative environmental impacts, thus to improve the health and well being of all citizens.
• To change transport behaviours and patterns of man and goods
• To promote and set-up new forms of vehicle use and ownership including bicycles, car sharing, car pooling.
• To improve the service quality of public transport through seamless transport modes and new service offers.
• To optimise the distribution of goods in inner city areas.
• To ensure safe and equitable access to working and cultural places.
• To care especially for the needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged citizens.
• To establish a broad social consensus for a clean urban mobility.

Mobility plays a crucial role in the urban policy agenda of the four CARAVEL cities. While developing and providing attractive incentives for clean and efficient public transport and restricting unacceptable personal mobility patterns, Burgos, Genoa, Krakow and Stuttgart use a "carrot and stick" policy for stabilising positive trends and developing vital cities.

CARAVEL focused on holistic and integrated approaches for sustainable urban transport, extensive awareness campaigns towards politicians, professionals, civil servants and citizens, test and implementation of alternative transport modes and innovative transport services.

 

Implementation - Lighthouse Measures

During the 1st project year the main workload concerned preparation and management issues:

• Set-up of efficient local and project wide working teams and establishment of tangible partnerships
• Preparation of a detailed 4 year work plan for each of the 54 measures
• Launch of 46 measures: information and awareness campaigns, round-table-discussions with all local and regional stakeholders concerned by the measures; development of new mobility services and concepts; tenders for construction work and service contracts
• Definition of internal and external reporting processes.
• For all the measures, evaluation plans and criteria have been agreed in order to verify the expected results.
• Signature of the <link http: www.civitas-initiative.org>CARAVEL Accord on 6 June 2006 in Krakow: The Mayors of the four CARAVEL cities jointly reconfirmed their commitment to the project.

The 2nd and 3rd project year concentrated on the service and technological developments and the first actual implementations and field operations:

• Gas-fuelling station, testing of CNG buses and bio-diesel buses, collection of used oils
• Installation of traffic management centres
• Introduction of access restriction and traffic bans
• Development and establishment of high mobility corridors
• Extended round-table discussions and exchanges with all stakeholders concerned by the measures to be realised
• Mobility Marketing campaigns such as open forums, Internet sites, information centres (fixed and mobile), banner and poster campaigns, workshops with pupils and students, incentive initiatives
• Innovative alternative transport modes : car sharing, van sharing, car pooling, mobility plans for large organisations and large public events, bicycle renting, demand responsive transports (DRINBUS, DRINTAXI)
• Large participation of project partners at the major CiViTAS events (CiViTAS Forum 2006 in Burgos and 2007 in Kaunas) as well as in other major conference on the national and international level

At the same time, the collaboration and exchange between the cities and their measures was intensified, leading to tangible know-how transfer and increased mutual understanding.

On the project level, the Project Managers, the Evaluation Manager and the Dissemination Managers worked closely together with the three other CiViTAS projects (MOBILIS, SMILE, SUCCESS) in order to share experiences and to mutualise and strengthen the evaluation and dissemination efforts.

The 3rd project year also saw the mid-term review when all measures were put to test in order to identify particularly positive results and issues which requested readaptions in the implementation processes. The good results were appreciated by the European Commission and as all modifications were accepted.

The 4th year which started in February 2008 focused on the evaluation of all measures and the preparation of lessons learnt in order to provide best practice examples to other cities in the world interested in the establishment of clean urban transport.

Results

The main expected result of CARAVEL was the broader use of cleaner, resource-efficient urban transport systems based on innovative instruments and large scale demonstrations.

CARAVEL contributed significantly to a healthier and more enjoyable life in urban areas. The absence of cars or a strong reduction in their number in certain areas also led to a re-definition of public spaces as meeting points for people.

Project partners

• Comune di Genova - Municipality of Genoa (CDG), Genoa, Italy
• Azienda Mobilità e Trasporti S.p.A. (AMT), Genoa, Italy
• Azienda Mobilità e Infrastruttura S.p.A. (AMI), Genoa, Italy
• Softeco Sismat SRL (SOFTECO), Genoa, Italy
• Rina Consulting S.P.A., formerly D'Appolonia, Genova, Italy
• Istituto Internazionale Delle Comunicazioni - International Institute of Communications (IIC), Genoa, Italy
• University of Genoa, Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods (DIEM), Genoa, Italy
• Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell' Ambiente Ligure, Environmental Protection Agency of the Regione Liguria (ARPAL), Genoa, Italy
• Agenzia Regionale per l'Energia della Liguria S.p.A., Liguria Regional Energy Agency (ARE), Genoa, Italy
• QN Financial Services S.p.A. (QN), Genoa, Italy
• City of Krakow (UMK), Krakow, Poland
• Miejskie Przedsiebiorstwo Komunikacyjne SA w Krakowie (MPK), Krakow, Poland
• Technical University of Krakow (PK), Politechnika Krakowska im.Tadeusza Kosciuszki, Krakow, Poland
• FORMS Group, Krakow, Poland
• City of Burgos, AYTOBU, Burgos, Spain
• Strategic Bureau for Burgos (APEBU), Burgos, Spain
• Castilla-Leon Institute of Technology (ITCL), Burgos, Spain
• City of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
• SSP Consult Beratende Ingenieure GmbH (SSP), Stuttgart, Germany
• University of Stuttgart, Department for Transportation Planning and Traffic Engineering of the Institute for Road and Transportation Science (VuV), Stuttgart, Germany
• Verband Region Stuttgart (VRS), Stuttgart, Germany
• Rupprecht Consult GmbH, Cologne, Germany