Involvement of employees from public bodies / administrations

03.04.2023 | Interreg - MOVECIT

The MOVECIT project, which has the longer title Involvement of employees from public bodies / administrations in establishing sustainable mobility and mobility planning, is co-financed by the European Fund for Regional Development, within the framework of the INTERREG Central Europe program. The project lasts 36 months and was launched in June 2016. The MOVECIT project will contribute to ensuring more sustainable transport at a time of growing individual motorized mobility in Central Europe. Representatives of cities and municipalities, sustainable mobility experts, environmental and regional agencies, as well as non-governmental organizations will participate in the project. City / municipal administrations will develop and adopt mobility plans for their institutions, with the aim of changing the travel habits of their employees regarding transportation to and from work and business trips. Campaigns will be organized for the greater popularization of cycling, walking/hiking and the use of public transport. At the same time, measures such as car sharing, bicycle sharing, e-mobility and improved sharing of city administration fleets will be introduced in selected cities. The main project objective is to improve the capacity and change the behavior of the staff employed in the municipalities when they travel to their jobs. For this purpose, the municipalities (from 7 Central European countries) will prepare mobility plans, with which they will strategically outline and promote the travel habits and patterns of municipal employees.

Specific objectives of the project:

• Raising awareness among municipal employees, influencing their behavior and motivating and achieving changes in mobility behavior.
• The introduction of mobility plans as a strategic document of the city in the daily work program and to adopt it also at the municipal / city council to obtain a wider consensus.
• Reducing CO2 emissions by up to 20% per year among municipal staff in connection with the implementation of mobility plans and by changing the mode of transport in a more sustainable way.

The purpose of the project is to reach a wide range of participants in the municipalities of the Central European region, to create an extensive effect in the field of long-term continuous training for the development of mobility plans. To achieve this, the MOVECIT project will prepare and implement trainings that will be transferred to national settings and two study visits, which will bring a long-term impact. Through the MOVECIT project, selected cities will benefit from mobility plans created for city administrations. Project partners appointed as providers of knowledge and experience will work intensively with municipalities appointed as recipients of knowledge and experience. In the process of cooperation with interested parties, several events will be organized with the aim of achieving the widest possible acceptance of the plans. Pilot measures and pilot investments will be implemented with the aim of checking the commitment of employees in municipal administrations to mobility plans. Communication and promotional activities will be directed more or less at the staff working in municipal administrations. A trendy campaign will affect target groups emotionally and rationally.

Partners in the project:

Lead partner: Development Agency Sinergija, Slovenia.

Project partners: PP2 Nadace Partnerství, Czech Republic; PP3 – Klimabündnis Österreich, Austria; PP4 – Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudomanyi Egyetem, Hungary; PP5 – Ekopolis Foundation, Slovakia; PP6 – Stadtverwaltung Leipzig, Germany; PP7 – Comune di Modena, Italy; PP8 – Municipality of Ljutomer, Slovenia; PP9 – Město Litoměřice, Czech Republic; PP10 – City of Banská Bystrica, Slovakia.

The key results of the project are:

• Development and implementation of mobility plans for institutions – a process
• Overview of good practices in the field of urban initiatives for sustainable measures in the field of mobility – analysis
• Strategy for Central Europe in the field of mobility planning – strategy
• Training for municipal employees – process
• Training for municipal employees who are not directly involved in the project as part of the knowledge transfer process
• A concept for involving stakeholders in mobility planning – a process
• Implementation of pilot actions for testing the mobility plan – process.

Target groups:

• Local public authorities: 13
• Regional public authorities: 5
• Sector agencies: 35
• Infrastructure and (public) service providers: 7
• Interest groups, including non-governmental organizations: 17
• Higher education and research: 15

WPT1 – Identification of common challenges in the functional urban area of mobility in the participating municipalities:

The aim of the working group is to analyze various aspects of the current state of mobility planning in each region involved, as well as the trends of the mobility plan in urban and hinterland areas and the inclusion of stakeholder initiatives. Analysis and planning of current mobility and transport policy, current incentives for mobility and innovative concepts of mobility, the current state of stakeholders and the participation of non-governmental organizations in the planning and implementation of mobility, as well as the identification of problems, needs, gaps and opportunities in mobility plans in the CE region will be carried out. . Proposals will be made to improve mobility policies. The deliverables provide a strategic view of the participating stakeholders and planning processes of the mobility plans accompanying the action plans. This is a strategic document based on the identification of analyzes and will highlight an effective sequence of transport measures in the CE region.

WPT2 – Setting up a transferable methodology and evaluation and monitoring tool for the mobility plan process:

A plan will be created that will be monitored and evaluated with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as well as an appropriate methodology and tool for the implementation of the mobility plan. Together with the existing mobility plan preparation tools, it will be updated and further developed in the training of trainers workshop and will be used as guidelines for the preparation of the plans. Based on the identified needs, the project will focus on small (15,000-50,000 inhabitants) and medium (150,000-500,000 inhabitants) municipalities. The final product will be international and transferable guidelines/manual. In addition, teaching materials in national languages will be prepared for regional training for target groups. The objectives are: to create the MOVECIT methodology and evaluation, a tool that will monitor the continuous improvement of mobility plans for smaller and larger municipalities for implementation (testing). This will allow all PPs and target groups to fully understand the MOVECIT tools, and PPs will also successfully implement and evaluate the MOVECIT tool in the pilot cities. The monitoring plan will define the indicators and objectives on the basis of which it will be assessed whether the project achieves all the intended specific objectives.

WPT3 – Development of mobility plans and pilot actions of participants in CE regions:

This work package includes the development of a mobility plan as a strategic document of the city (taking a pragmatic approach due to benefits in the short term) to be adopted by the city council. Pilot activity, training and study visits to PP and pilot sites will also be carried out. Emphasis will also be placed on modern awareness-raising in order to change perceptions and behavior in the traffic environment, as well as to convince target groups. Small pilot activities will be carried out (to test and transfer the right measures) and small equipment for cyclists will be purchased (e.g. thematic equipment: bicycle parking stands, e-bikes, bicycle racks) or perhaps innovative IT-tools, applications, automatic bicycle counters etc. As part of the work package, customized travel itineraries will also be provided as an innovative pilot measure. One pilot investment (establishment of a reservation and vehicle fleet management system – Germany) will be allocated to the work package for investments. The goals are: raising awareness of the target groups about the impact of their mobility behavior, motivating and achieving changes in behavior and reduction of CO2 emissions by the target groups during the duration of the project based on the planned measures in the mobility plan. The target groups are still only pilot cities with their employees in the city hall, city administration, legal representatives who are also considering business travel (updated fleet) of the city hall and other public institutions. A key part of the development of any mobility plan is employee participation and consultation with them at all stages of the travel planning process is essential. The strategy of ensuring that employees actively participate in the development of the plan and have a sense of ownership of the plan is essential if we want the plan to be successful and achieve its goals. WPC – Communication WPC is the most important work group and will build on the achieved results and achievements. The success of the project and its core or of the mobility plan will be based on informing and involving employees and organizations outside the project partnership. The expansion will have the strategic function of demonstrating added value, ensuring sustainability, capitalization and contributing to the construction of “CE community”.

The communication manager will work with the project horizontal and with CE thematic projects. The communication plan will be defined together with all project partners and will include detailed dissemination events at the regional level. Social networks will play an important role. Their management will be crucial for daily activities and, as a supplement, project profiles will be opened on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. This will be used as a low-cost interaction with the public. Info tools will be ready for the press and the general public with an eye-catching project portrait in the form of innovative tools (e.g. infographics). Targeted events will be educational in nature for the target audience and for other stakeholders. The project will put a lot of effort into these events, as PP will consult directly with other cities to accept the development of the mobility plan and will also be involved and educated themselves in developing it. Employees must to know what they have achieved which will motivate them to continue.Educational seminars will be organized to inform and engage the hinterland cities as well as to ensure linkage and synergy of key cities. Marketing campaigns include: joint project poster, samples, folders, notebooks, t-shirts and reflective strips. Pilot cities will act as leaders and represent best examples for other cities; other project partners will actively expand and involve other sites to increase knowledge. A public call will be published for the involvement of other stakeholders and PP will actively assist in the implementation of integrated tools in other cities. WPI1 – Improvement of environmentally friendly (short) business and daily work routes The planned investment is the purchase of 4 electric bicycles and 1 cargo bicycle for business trips to the city for employees of the municipality of Leipzig. In order to improve the efficiency of the use of the vehicle fleet (including e-cars, car-sharing, bicycles, e-bikes and cargo bikes), it is planned to build a fleet management and reservation system for (short) business trips. This includes purchasing or programming software and setting up (updating) IT infrastructure. In order to encourage employees to use bicycles for their daily migrations (even more expensive bicycles, such as e-bikes), it is also planned to install 5 bicycle boxes. Pilot investments at the regional level aim to identify transition problems and test transition tools. Investments will be made at the regional level, but will be comparable and developed on the basis of a transitional common strategy and action plan. These measures are necessary to perform a springboard transient analysis. WPI2 – Parking station with complementary services One good technical and architecturally designed parking lot will be built, preferably with a roof and a lock (for security) in a suitable place that is also used by drivers. The aim is to establish an outpost that will fulfill the function of one “integrated point of sustainable mobility”. The final technical solution will take into account the recommendations of the planning process, experience from the project as a best example of good practice and financial possibilities. It would be ideal to consider a lockable bike room and other complementary customer services such as lockable luggage storage lockers, e-bike charger, public transport information, detailed  map and the like. The design and location of the space must be the result of joint planning with stakeholders. The investment is therefore the result of a well-designed modern bicycle parking facility, placed near a newly built bus stop (combined with a shopping center) and close to which there is also a bus stop. The location is also strategic in terms of connection to the city hinterland, as most drivers using public transport pass this point daily. The station / point will be designed as a roofed shelter including at least 10 lockable parking spaces, 10 key lockers for helmets or small luggage, 2 e-bike chargers, 1 detailed map (footpaths) and one rack with service tools. The aim of establishing an integrated point of sustainable mobility is not only to ensure better standards of service for cyclists, but also to connect cycling with other means of transport, namely public transport and walking.