Mobility Week in Gdansk

Summary

The private car is predominant in Gdansk’s mobility culture. The city challenged this paradigm through an event as part of the European Mobility Week.

Implementing sustainable mobility

The private car is seen as a status symbol in Gdansk. It is perceived to stand for independence and wealth. A car-free day that Gdansk held in the past had little impact as it was seen as an isolated event. Gdansk learned about the European Mobility Week through CIVITAS and decided to participate by organizing a big “Mobility Weekend”  events. The goal of the events was to increase awareness of sustainable options and voluntary modal change, as well as to increase the impact of both the mobility week and car-free day through an integrated programme of actions and information campaigns. The Mobility Weekend particularly targeted daily drivers and children. The aims of the Mobility Week were to: • Hold a number of integrated informative events in the city; • Promote awareness of the city’s CIVITAS measures and web tools for mobility management • Create a new urban mobility culture; • Optimise the use of private cars; • Promote alternative fuels and vehicles; • Stimulate the use of collective public transport; and • Promote cycling as an alternative to the car.

Progress

The measure ´Mobility Management - Mobility Week´ aimed at the development of a longterm communication concept to raise citizens´ awareness on alternatives for a  sustainable transport system in Gdansk. The long-term objective is to encourage citizens, especially car owners, to shift towards sustainable transport modes. Activities undertaken within the framework of the measure relied on the use of social communication in the area of advertising, information and promotion. The main activity of the measure is the organization of specific activities during the well-established European Week of Sustainable Transport campaign taking place yearly in Gdansk. An external positive outcome of this measure was to make visible the interaction between the several measures implemented in the frame of MIMOSA project and highlight the comprehensive vision for a sustainable mobility management initiated by the municipality of Gdansk. MIMOSA Mobility Weeks (2010-11-12) main events were located in different parts of Gdansk: •  in 2010 at Rajska Street which was specially closed for the event`s purpose, •  in 2011 at Targ Węglowy in the historic centre of Gdansk, which also was closed for traffic for the event`s purpose •  in 2012 at the seaside area which was a pilot area for MIMOSA project. The events attracted thousands of visitors with electric vehicles demonstrations, multiple cycle competitions, bike fashion shows, bike slaloms, free bike clinics, concept bike shows, crossword competitions for children, art competitions, face painting, vintage bus shows, vintage trams, excursions, parent and child games and competitions, bike slaloms for children, “anti vandalism” lessons for children in a vintage bus, lottery for participants, concerts and special „cycling town” in cooperation with the Police where each child could pass a cycle licence exam. (These attraction were present in all 3 years.) Additionally in the framework of EWM there were following actions undertaken: * “Car Free Day” campaigns (3 editions), during which car owners were given a possibility to  take public transport for free. * Urban Game, based on the sustainable transport theme, (”Magic Without a Car”) aiming at promoting travelling by public transport without instead of a car, * many street actions such as free rides on vintage buses and trams, * contribution to two local school events organized as part of the Mobility Week by Gdansk primary schools in 2012; * lessons at schools on safety and security cycling and in PT, * guided old tram route tours, * number of smaller events carried out in co-operation with partners,

Outcomes

During the Mobility weeks •more than 50 different media informing about the event each year. • 50 volunteers helping MIMOSA TEAM during the events each year • an extensive media campaign (including nationwide media, radio and TV, leaflets, newspaper inserts, e-media) informing about MIMOSA MOBILITY • pproduction of a 10 min. Movie promoting the EMW MIMOSA Project. The movie was broadcasted in regional and national TV. • promotion of EMW during “Bike Fridays” campaigns – about 5000 leaflets distributed each year During the Mobility weeks of 2010 and 2011, four questionnaire-based surveys were conducted by the MIMOSA team in order to analyze the impacts of the activities undertaken during the campaign on the awareness and transport behaviors of Gdansk citizens. At the three Mobility Weeks between 1176 and 2880 citizens were surveyed online and about 300 yearly at the events. In 2012, surveys were also conducted during the “Bike Fridays” and “Clean Stops” campaign. Organization of Mobility Week activities proved to be a very good idea to raise citizens’ awareness on sustainable transport modes and to promote facilities which are already available in the city.

The successes of the activities launched in the frame of the MIMOSA project - Car Free Days, Bike Fridays, Mobility Week – encouraged and convinced the Municipality of Gdansk to carry on these initiatives in the following years. The results of the measure are presented under sub headings corresponding to the areas used for indicators. Some key-results were highlighted through the impact evaluation. For example regarding the awareness level on the activities of the measure, the results highlighted that 26.4 % of the interviewed citizens knew about the “Change Your City” campaign while ca. 54% knew about the BikeFridays events. Regarding the percentage of bicycle trips, an increase of 9% was observed between 2010 and 2012 in trips made by bicycles more than 4 times a week. The results extracted from the impact evaluation are positive. Especially since the evaluation was conducted in a two years period of time which is a relative short period for achieving significant changes in mobility behaviours.

In the next years, the City of Gdańsk will continue implementation of MIMOSA campaigns and actions. Car Free Day and events like Bike Fridays during European Mobility Week will certainly take place next year. There are also plans to organize another European Mobility Week outdoor event. Many NGOs are likely to support these activities. The knowledge and methodology developed in order to organize EMW events constitute a set of best practise example  and can be easily transferred, especially for the cities concerned with limited resources.