Range of events in Ljubljana during EMW 2010
The European Mobility Week 2010 (EMW) in Ljubljana, which lasted from 16 to 22 September, was an excellent opportunity for CIVITAS ELAN to stand out. Last year, the project team presented local measures on a few info-points with supporting activities on CIVITAS day, which was a success for “beginners”. This year it seems the team in Ljubljana grew stronger and became even more successful - it multiplied last year’s activities during EMW by 400%!
A special triumph was the CIVITAS day, which made Ljubljana city centre dance! However there were many successful CIVITAS events.CIVITAS ELAN opened the EMW a day earlier, on 15 September 2010, with an exhibition entitled ‘I love green Ljubljana’, presenting sustainable mobility and green solutions for the city on several posters and in pictures. EMW formally started a day later, with an open day of the public transport company LPP and a presentation of their work, vehicles, technology and their part within the CIVITAS ELAN project. They were surprised by the large number of visitors - around 600 people came to visit their premises - so they decided to make it an annual event. On the same day, ELAN colleagues made a “break-through” with the first general citizen engagement event, entitled “CIVITAS Council Session” that aimed to change travel habits. The session was designed like a regular session of the council of the City of Ljubljana, however citizens had to play the role of members of the council and the mayor of City of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković, led and coordinated the session. The heads of relevant municipality administration departments were also there to answer the citizens’ questions. Floods banned cycling eventsOn 17 September, several cycling events were planned, however extremely bad weather altered the plans - the city was flooded in many areas instead of welcoming a river of cyclists. Yet the CIVITAS ELAN team didn’t cancel all activities: they only changed the open-air location for the city hall and carried out the round table making Ljubljana a cycling city by implementing a comprehensive cycling strategy, where the strategy and other cycling topics were publicly discussed. On 20 September, the first major CIVINET and National Task Force event was organised. The project partners managed to gather approximately 40 participants from all over Slovenia and offered them a chance to collect useful information about the CIVITAS initiative and present future European Commission calls for CIVITAS projects. This was also the first step towards establishing a national mobility platform of stakeholders, interested in creating sustainable mobility, cleaner environment and a better future.The next day was dedicated to responsible car usage, so the team organised a special action CIVITAS patrol, where partners of the project and a volunteers put special leaflets on incorrectly parked cars - designed like actual traffic penalties, but with funny and “smart” messages. In the afternoon they invited people to two lectures, one about eco-diving and the other about car sharing. This concept was presented during the CIVITAS ELAN open academy by Mr. Karl-Heinz Posch, a member of the Austrian research company FGM-AMOR.The EMW ended with a grand closure - our CIVITAS day, which took place on the same day as “In Town Without My Car Day”. The “blue” team occupied a part of the pedestrian zone and built an interactive info point under tents decorated with the initiative’s flag, project’s balloons, and posters. They invited a commercial radio station “Radio Kaos” to create an open-air live studio on the location of the event and rename itself into “Radio CIVITAS” for one day. The station hosted famous Slovenians, celebrities from high positioned politicians, such as the president of the Slovenian parliament and the mayor of Ljubljana, singers, actors, dancers, extreme cyclists and NGO representatives. The aim was not to present experts on sustainable mobility and other topics highlighted during EMW, but famous people, who live their everyday life according to those standards. For example, almost all of those radio guests cycle, the singers sang about how the future could be bright, if we all stood together and improved our way of living etc. They are opinion leaders or trendsetters, therefore, the goal was to set “greener” trends with their help as they are well appreciated by the public. CIVITAS ELAN team also invited around 60 school and kindergarten children to join their activities, especially to take part in the dancing activity ‘Take A Ride By Foot And Dance With Us!’ (it sounds more appealing in Slovene language, it even rimes). Children learned about healthy life style, the importance of exercise and how interesting it can be - it sure was fun! Those who weren’t the “moving” type had a chance to participate in a creative workshop ‘Ljubljana In Children’s Eyes And On City Floor’ and coloured the ground with motifs of sustainable mobility. All in all, it was a “funtastic” day - a CIVITAS day!
Author: Vita Kontić
