Plan for the development of a sustainable urban transport system in Skopje

Summary

City of Skopje create and adopt the Plan for sustainable transport system, seen as a very important step that will help the City to alleviate transport problems and to build a long-term policy for sustainable development of the City.

Implementing sustainable mobility

It is of utmost importance for Skopje to recognize the transport problems and to try to make its transport system more sustainable.  Therefore, the Plan for sustainable urban transport system in Skopje,  is being supported, adopted and enacted by the local government. The process of the development of the Plan has included: Review of the experience from other CIVITAS and world cities, Analysis of the existing transport system of the City of Skopje, Preparation of Draft Plan, Distribution of Draft Plan among target group representatives, and organization of workshop for presentation of the draft Plan in order to get feedback on it, adoption the plan by the Council of the City of Skopje. 

City of Skopje main objective was to overcome the unsustainable trends of urban transport development, to plan and implement well-defined, co-ordinate activities and measures toward sustainable transport. The improvement of the public transport level of service and thus attraction of more public transport users is one of the very important measures in this direction. Other sustainable modes of transport such as the bicycle, innovative taxi services etc. must be supported and people must be encouraged changing their travel behavior. In addition, the sites of historic and cultural values must be served and enriched by sustainable transport access. 

Progress

The transport plan incorporates innovative transport management strategies and solutions with the objectives of reducing congestion, reducing dependence on private cars, favoring environmentally sustainable modes and vehicles and improving public awareness on collective transport. The Plan includes experiences from other European cities as well as practical examples and solutions for implementation of relevant measures for sustainable transport in the City of Skopje.This activity are in strong correlation with all innovative actions taken for improving the public transport in the City of Skopje. 

Outcomes

The innovative aspects of the measure are:Innovative aspect: – “The plan should help to establish a new way of thinking of the professionals and politicians, relevant for developing and adopting urban plans, when it comes to problems of planning of the city transport system”and New conceptional approach, nationally – “No city in Macedonia has ever developed a plan for sustainable urban transport development, and no such experience and practice exists. Therefore, this plan will be important not only for Skopje but will be a good example for all other cities in Macedonia.”