European Mobility Week
Moving in the Right Direction – that is the slogan of this year’s European Mobility Week. It took place on September 16-22 in a partnership with the municipalities of 29 Bulgarian cities, the Ministry of Environment and Waters, the BikeEvolution Society and more than 50 civic movements and environmental organizations.
The mobility week in this country was unveiled by HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, who presented here her new book for children: Mr. Finney and The World Turned Upside Down. The princess launched the initiatives from the week in Sofia University’s underpass along with the Dutch ambassador to Bulgaria.
The European Mobility Week is a campaign of the EC that is organized for popularization of sustainable mobility in cities. The message is that citizens should look for alternatives to their cars through the usage of environmentally friendly ways of movement, such as cycling, walking and public transport. On the other hand the campaign aims at encouraging local authorities in the implementation of adequate measures for sustainable transport and those should also create the conditions necessary for it.
Climate changes turn the significant reduction of harmful emissions in all European cities into something quite necessary. A growing number of those cities find the solution into the construction of a system for environmentally friendly public transport. Major European cities have found it difficult to cope with rush hour traffic for a very long time. Traffic jams force municipal authorities to create strategies for organizing of public transport that should ease this traffic. That is why the EC adopted an Action Plan on Urban Mobility with the idea to help local authorities in the development of their own plans of that kind. Those are now being developed in tight cooperation with citizens and business representatives. This will all allow the European cities to support their economic development and to improve their local standard of living.
Source: bnr.bg
(25.09.2012)