Connected Cities
European citizens travel much further to work and leisure facilities today than in the past. Despite bringing benefits, this huge increase in mobility has led to traffic congestion and pollution, holding back efforts to achieve sustainable development. Public transport can form the basis of more sustainable approaches to mobility. However, the mismatch between older public transport networks and much more modern patterns of city development make trains, trams and buses impractical for many commuters. Decision-makers must integrate transport policy and urban planning into comprehensive strategies for sustainable mobility if they wish to provide genuine alternatives to the car. Connected Cities seeks to develop an overall framework for regional and local sustainable mobility policies. The project aims to use experience gained from existing successes in some partner regions to provide cities and towns with superior public transport networks and high quality, safe urban spaces accessible to the disabled.