SMART COMMUTING:
1ST PROJECT MEETING AT IUAV
30.11.2017 - 01.12.2017, Venice, Italy
In European cities, the daily commute to and from work is a major energy consumer. SMART COMMUTING encourages coordination between public transport companies, city officials and other stakeholders to develop a holistic approach to planning more energy efficient transportation in urban areas. The project foresees training for public sector workers, expert analyses to promote a smart commuting, 14 pilot actions for a low carbon mobility and the creation of institutional platforms.
To reduce CO2 emissions and air pollution, to mitigate climate change and to improve environmental quality in urban areas: the aims of the Smart Commuting project are many and crucial. The three year Interreg Central Europe project, funded under the priority “Low carbon cities and regions”, involves 9 partners (7 local authorities in Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy and 2 universities - Università Iuav of Venezia and Technische Universität of Vienna), with a total budget of 1.555.000 euro.
On 30th November and 1st December, around 30 representatives of the whole partnership participated to the first SMART COMMUTING project meeting, hosted by Università Iuav of Venezia. The meeting was aimed at taking stock of the activities realised during the first semester and to plan the next steps. In particular, the participants discussed the SWOT analysis conducted by the local authorities, following the common transnational guidelines developed by Università Iuav of Venezia and Technische Universität of Vienna.
According to the analysis, several factors having a strong effect on commuting are not under control of the authorities, which feel ineffectual towards these issues. Thus, the general mission of SMART COMMUTING project will be to bring under the control of local administrations the largest number of factors, currently considered as external and uncontrollable. With this aim, in March 2018 Università Iuav of Venezia and Technische Universität of Vienna will support the organisation of seven local seminars, involving territorial stakeholders (as public transport companies, large employers and schools creating major commuter flows, organisations managing bike-sharing, providers of e-vehicles etc., NGOs active in the field of the environment and sustainable development, and any other relevant regional/local entity), in order to build new networks.
Moreover, the meeting has highlighted the need to conceive a more forward-looking strategy, overtaking the narrow focus on present. “The challenge consist also of moving the attention to new ways, much more lasting and sustainable, that avoid the re-emergence of the same problems in the short term” – declared prof. Silvio Nocera, scientific coordinator of the project for Iuav – “Several strategies aimed at solving the problems of private mobility risk to focus exclusively on present hurdles, without a perspective”.
