How to organize the European Mobility Week

On 20 & 21 March 2017, the City of Murcia participated in the workshops of the European Mobility Week Awards 2016 (EMW 2016). ALEM, the Local Energy and Climate Change Agency of the City of Murcia was responsible for sharing with other European cities the experience of the City on how to successfully organize the activities and events of the European Mobility Week. The European Commission engaged Murcia to be present in these workshops to provide advice and explain in detail their wide experience as organizer of the EMW editions. In this way, ALEM showed how they prepared the candidacy of Murcia to the edition of 2015, in which Murcia won the prize amongst more than 800 applications from all over Europe.

ALEM highlighted, among other aspects, the importance of organizing activities that have the citizen as the protagonist and in which people are actively involved. ALEM also pointed out that outdoor activities must be foreseen in order to enable citizens to enjoy the streets and the public space in a different and original way. During that week there are more opportunities for cycling and walking freely and you can enjoy the city in a full way leaving aside the car and the daily limitations.

The events held in the framework of these workshops also were useful to create new collaborative links between the City of Murcia and other European cities that also work intensely to place the sustainable means of transport such as the bicycle, walking or electric vehicle in the position they deserve and to guarantee the required municipal support to make them more relevant in our cities. In this regard, it should be mentioned that the Department of Urbanism and Environment has turned to support sustainable mobility by establishing important milestones such as the construction of 20km of new bike lanes In the city and the support to the electric vehicle, materialized through the creation of the Local Electric Vehicle Strategy to be presented soon.