Smart Solutions supporting Low Emission Zones and other low-carbon mobility policies in EU cities
The majority of European cities have grown around an identifiable center, where commerce, entertainment, shopping and political power are concentrated. As a result, city centers are responsible for a relevant part of urban traffic, from/to other urban areas and the hinterlands, where the urbanization phenomenon is spreading year by year causing an increasing transport demand.
Various possible instruments can be used to tackle this phenomena, such as access restriction policies, the location and pricing of parking, improvement of public transport services. Nevertheless, each of these approaches has proved to present pros and cons that need to be carefully evaluated to identify the most effective mix of solutions for each Functional Urban Area (FUA).
The SOLEZ project brings together cities which are working on low carbon mobility solutions at different extents, so to enhance their strategies and develop smart services and products around the concept of Low Emission Zones (LEZ) in functional urban areas.
Project activities will take into account local administrators’, residents’, tourists’ and private operators’ needs, and will lead to:
- identification and analysis of LEZ good practices for Central Europe FUAs,
- enhanced dialogue with key stakeholders about access restriction policies application in the partner cities, through the definition and implementation of proper participatory strategies and stakeholders involvement initiatives,
- design, development and pilot application of innovative ICT-based services and solutions supporting LEZ and other access restriction policies, by contributing to reduce the negative side effects of these interventions. 
Through this, SOLEZ will contribute to the achievement of EC targets for traffic reduction in functional urban areas, improving capacities of public administrators for low-carbon mobility planning and increasing the proposed interventions acceptability