Murcia designs its local strategy to promote the use of electric vehicles

The “Local Strategy for the use of Electric Vehicles”, is a set of initial proposals to encourage and benefit users of this type of vehicles such as tax reductions, exemption from parking fees, or reserving exclusive parking spaces, among others. The City Council wants to give a significant impulse to sustainable mobility in the city and has designed a local strategy to encourage the use of electric vehicles in Murcia, a fundamental step in the process of converting and converging towards a Smart City model.

The “Department of Modernization of the Public Administration, Urban Quality and Citizen Participation”, through their Local Energy Agency ALEM, has been responsible for the development of this “roadmap” which sets out the main outline of actions that will be undertaken and developed by the City Council in the field of promotion, advancement and support to electric mobility.

Councilmember José Guillen presented the local strategy to entrepreneurs of the mobility sector, representatives of public car parks, car rental companies and car repair shops, who “more than anyone else, know and understand the state of their industry”. Thus, the participatory process that “seeks consensus and social support” was initiated, “because the contribution of many enrich the proposal and make it more realistic, feasible and viable, without losing sight of the objective we seek: to promote electric mobility in Murcia.”

The document defines and develops various outlines of action to be implemented in the field of electric mobility in Murcia over the next three years (2017-2019), in order to, with the required institutional support, culminate the process of transformation and progressive adaptation to electric mobility in the municipality.

A set of concrete measures

The proposals that will be further developed under the roadmap of this new strategy to promote the use of electric vehicles are divided into five areas: 1) information and public awareness, 2) promotion and development of electric mobility, 3) infrastructure development associated to electric vehicle incentives, 4) citizen participation, and 5) agents related to sustainable mobility.

Some of the measures included in the strategy are:

• Informative Campaigns to inform and educate the public on electric vehicles.
• MiMurcia will display real-time data and information on the use of the electric charging infrastructure in public roads.
• Cooperation agreements with public car parks and service stations.
• Special timetables in loading and unloading areas for electric vehicles.
• The creation of an Electric Mobility Center for Local Commerce, coordinated by ALEM, to inform, promote and encourage progress in this sector.
• Granting preferential treatment and reserve parking spaces in neighbourhoods and districts, as well as special times for loading and unloading is designated areas, supporting measures for goods distribution and increased traffic.
• Assess the feasibility of introducing electric buses in public transportation fleets.
• Measures to facilitate the creation of electric charging infrastructure in public car parks, residential buildings and areas with communities.
• The creation of a workgroup with service stations and representatives of the Murcia Autonomous Community to introduce electric charging points in service stations at a large scale or implementing independent charging stations.
• Installing charging points or stations in Municipality buildings where possible providing coverage.
• Designing a network of electric charging points and reserved parking spaces favouring the intermodality of transit with the tram, bus lines and MUyBICI stations.
• Evaluate the approval of tax reductions in vehicle tax, parking fees, etc. as well as the licenses for 100% electric taxis.

Although these are initial proposals included in the preliminary document, the idea is to open debate and add other measures “which is expected to happen with the participatory process we have opened today” said José Guillen, who encouraged Murcia’s citizens to join their opinions to this project in order to provide us with “the desired conditions for the electric vehicle to form part of our urban landscape and the sustainable mobility in the municipality”.

The charging network hand in hand with the MUyBICI project

An essential requisite for achieving this goal is the creation of a network of recharging points broad enough to ensure users of electric vehicles can access them if necessary, for which the infrastructure created by MUyBICI could be used. Similarly, the city of Murcia is intensifying its commitment to gradually transform its fleet of vehicles into electrical vehicles, providing the municipal buildings with charging infrastructure, and favouring service subcontracts that foresee and increment their use.

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The document DRAFT OF THE LOCAL STRATEGY FOR THE USE OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES can be downloaded via this link.

The document A BACKGROUND OF ELECTRIC MOBILITY IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF MURCIA can be downloaded via this link.

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The participatory process: make suggestions and help us improve

Once the document of the municipal strategy draft has been presented and published, a broad participatory process opens in which the proposals of the public will be analysed and together with other suggestions made to improve the final plan, will be incorporated by experts.

Social agents related to sustainable mobility, but also Murcian society, any individual murcian, can add new initiatives and innovative actions if they meet the needs identified by each sector. Thus, Guillén adds, “we obtain a consensus on the appropriate roadmap by enriching as much as possible our strategy.” To achieve our goal, collaboration with companies from the sector is combined with the political commitment, and citizen participation are essential elements to ensure success.

The goal is to have a final version of the local strategy before the end of the year, and October will be reserved to study the contributions made leaving November for analysis and decision making.

According to the Councilmember for Modernization, José Guillén, upon completion of the review process with the elements of participation and contribution to the Local Strategy for the Electric Vehicle, the city will be ready to “set a new pace in the race for sustainability and the use of public transport that does not generate CO2 emissions “, which allow our citizens to “enjoy a cleaner and healthier Murcia, improving the quality of life through smart mobility”.

Exhibition of electric vehicles

After the presentation of the strategy, there was a display of electric and hybrid vehicles at the Floridablanca Garden which featured the latest models available. This event helped strengthen relations between City Hall and local stakeholders in the field of electric mobility and who have had a notable presence in the European R4E project (roadmaps for energy), therefore some of the available results were shared in the project and the dialogue and exchange of views with stakeholders as well as citizens who came to the exhibition. ALEM took the opportunity to emphasize the influence that the participation of Murcia in the R4E project has had in the drafting and development of the local strategy for the electric vehicle and its relation to the future of intelligent mobility in the city of Murcia.