Awards 2011 - Travelling

Climate Alliance challenges local authorities to set an example by choosing to cycle instead of drive.

“Once a city councillor gets on a bike, his perspective is changed,” explains Ulrike Janssen, Executive Director of Climate Alliance in Frankfurt. Climate Alliance is the organiser of an annual initiative across Germany called “Cycling City Councillors” that gets local leaders and citizen teams up on two wheels in an effort to promote cycling in place of driving.

Now in its third year, the campaign has enjoyed steady growth and success. Thanks to the scheme’s online tracking system, the number of participants, the kilometres covered by bicycle instead of by individual cars, and each participating city’s overall average reduction in carbon dioxide emissions is monitored. In 2009, “Cycling City Councillors” achieved an impressive environmental benefit: 6,000 people participated across Germany, riding 1,200,000 kilometres and saving almost 173 tons of CO2 emissions. In 2010, those figures increased significantly: 130,000 individuals across 60 German cities took part in the programme, They rode 2,350,000 kilometres and saved 340 tons of CO2 emissions. To put this in context, overall 2010 CO2 savings are estimated to be equivalent to the amount of CO2 emissions from the energy use of 26 homes for one year.

The organisers realise that the programme puts a certain amount of pressure on local level politicians, and that is exactly their goal. “We want these leaders to serve as a model for their citizens,” Janssen said. “This peer pressure has inspired some politicians who might not ordinarily get on a bicycle to come out of their party’s traditional corner. It’s not only the Greens who are compelled to bike!”

Climate Alliance reports that city leaders are pleasantly surprised at how much they enjoy cycling. “Feedback shows that biking to work, for example, is much more comfortable than they thought it would be,” Janssen said. “And participants realise that it rains far less than they imagine.”

But the main effect of the campaign is the resulting change of perspective: debates about the implementation of new cycling infrastructure, for example, might end up with a different result if councillors who have joined the ‘StadtradeIn’ campaign are asked to vote.

Each city that chooses to participate determines a three-week period between June and mid-October for the competition and promotes it locally. City council members build teams, and teams register their kilometres on the Campaign’s website (http://www.stadtradeln.de/home.html). The campaign is supported by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development in Berlin and by Germany’s Federal Environment Agency. Funding comes from the National Cycling Plan 2002 – 2012 of Germany.

"Cycling is healthy and environmentally-friendly – these are the key aspects to the Cycling City Councillors ‘Stadtradeln’ campaign. Therefore, all those who participate benefit in several ways: they actively improve their health while at the same time, they help reduce CO2 emissions, contributing to cleaner air,” said Ferdinand Pfaffinger, Mayor of the City of Starnberg. "I'd rather cycle than drive!"

Contact::
Ulrike Janssen
Executive Director, Climate Alliance
28 Galvanistrasse
60486 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Tel: +49-69-717139-21
Web: http://www.stadtradeln.de

Seven thousand citizens in seven European countries are equipped with tailor-made travel plans for their local commute to encourage them to swap their cars for buses

Many people just don’t know how practical and efficient local buses are. A direct advertising campaign organised by a coalition of local authorities and public transport companies across Europe has sought to turn this around.
It has provided 1,000 citizens in each of seven medium-sized pilot cities – Modena in Italy, Besancon in France, Albacete in Spain, Funchal in Portugal, Baia Mare in Romania, Heraklion in Greece and Lancaster in the UK – with a personalised travel plan for their daily commute, on public transport.
For one week, people could test their plan for free. The results show that when citizens are informed, feel involved and have an efficient public transport system at their disposal, they can be persuaded to leave their cars at home: over its two-year course the campaign has recruited over 800 new public transport users and, in 2010 alone, avoided 270,000 car journeys - and their related emissions.
The project has been in part funded by the European Commission’s Intelligent Energy Europe Programme and fits well with the Commission’s 2009 Action Plan on Urban Mobility.

Contact:
Giuseppe Caruso
European Projects Manager
Comune di Modena
Via Scudari 20
41121 Modena
Italy
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Tel: +39 059 2032556
Wen:http://www.marketingpublictransport.eu/

Project partners:
ATCM
Modena, Italy
www.atcm.mo.it

Communauté d'Agglomération du Grand Besancon
Besançon, France
www.grandbesancon.fr

Keolis Besancon
Besançon, France
www.keolis.com

City of Heraklion
Greece
www.heraklion.gr

Energy Cities
Brussels Office
France/Europe
www.energy-cities.eu

City of Baia Mare
Romania
www.baiamarecity.ro

URBIS
City of Baia Mare
Romania
www.urbisbaiamare.ro

Horarios do Funchal
Funchal, Portugal
www.horariosdofunchal.pt

CEEI Albacete
Albacete, Spain
www.ceeialbacete.com

Lancashire County Council
Lancashire, United Kingdom
www.lancashire.gov.uk

Additional information:
Link 1: www.bus-sumisura.it
Description: the Italian webpage of the project.
Link 2: http://adpersonam.ceeialbacete.com/
Description: the Spanish webpage of the project.
Link 3: http://www.ginkobus.com/contenu.php?id=807
Description: the French webpage of the project.

The City Council focuses on improving public transport, pedestrianising the city centre, and promoting bikes and car sharing to launch a green mobility revolution

The City of Burgos in Spain has spent more than five years completely overhauling its transport infrastructure and attempting to change how citizens move about. This has already won it numerous prizes, including CIVITAS City of the Year in 2007.
Its approach has centred on improving public transport, turning the city centre into a pedestrian zone, and promoting bikes and car sharing. Three-quarters of its buses now run on biodiesel, for example, and the council ran a campaign to collect used cooking oil to turn into this. Routes have been changed for greater efficiency and bus use has gone up by 8%.
A 4km2-zone in the city centre has been turned into a car-free zone and a new traffic control centre provides real-time advice to drivers about where to park and how to avoid traffic.
A free bicycle rental scheme with 16 hire points has acquired over 5,000 regular users after three years. It has been helped by new bicycle lanes and parking. The council has also launched a car pooling website (400 users), parking sharing website, and around 4,000 children have been trained in alternative modes of transport.

Contact:
José María Diez
Project Coordinator
Strategic Plan City of Burgos
San Pablo 12C, 4
09002 Burgos
Spain
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Tel: +34 947257905 / +34 659628816
Web: http://www.aytoburgos.es/movilidad-y-transporte

Project partners:
Burgos City Council
Burgos, Spain
www.aytoburgos.es

Technological Insititute Castilla and Leon
Burgos, Spain
www.itcl.es

Additional information:
Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BJRcgDntgA
Description: Video regarding Sustainable Urban Mobility
Link 2: http://www.mma.es/secciones/medios_comunicacion/campanas/pdf/ciudades_espaniolas_en_proyectos_de_movilidad.pdf
Description: Description of some of the measures implemented (with pictures, Spanish)
Link 3: http://www.unhabitat.org/bestpractices/2010/mainview.asp?BPID=2399
Description: Best practice in UN Habitat

Oil giant pioneers a new ICT system that analyses driving, engine and re-fuelling data in real-time to guide tailored training for drivers that results in fuel and CO2 savings of up to 10%

Fuel can account for up to 30% of a transport firm’s operational costs and there is increasing regulatory pressure to reduce CO2 emissions. A new ICT system developed by Shell, Shell FuelSave Partner, gives professional road transport companies a tool to cut both. It installs an on-board monitoring system that collects driver, engine and re-fuelling data and transmits it back to a central server. Here the data is analysed and used to shape individually-tailored training courses for truck drivers.
Logistics firm Emons Group in the Netherlands trialled the new tool in 17 vehicles and achieved an average reduction in fuel consumption of 5.3%, rising to 10% for some drivers. This translates into a CO2 saving of some 90 tonnes per year, assuming 2.63kgCO2e/litre of fuel. The Emons Group is now installing the kit in another 100 vehicles, which could increase the CO2-saving to 900 tonnes per year. As well is in the Netherlands, Shell FuelSave Partner is already being used in the UK, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland and Austria (over 1,500 vehicles in total).

Contact:
Joseph Machado
Environmental Solutions, B2B
Shell International Petroleum Co Ltd
2 York Road
Waterloo
SE1 7NA London
United Kingdom
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Tel: +44 787 219 1582
Web: http://www.shellfuelsavepartner.nl

Project partners:
The Emons Group
Milsbeek, The Netherlands
www.emons.nl

Airbiquity Europe Ltd
Stevenage, United Kingdom
www.airbiquity.com

IBM
London, United Kingdom
www.ibm.com/uk

Continental Automotive
Hannover, Germany
www.conti-online.com

Additional information:
Link 1: http://www.shellfuelsavepartner.com (click on “more about” and “view website”)
Description: Information about Shell FuelSave Partner (in English), including a video.
Link 2: http://www-static.shell.com/static/nld/downloads/euroshell/testimonials/emons.pdf
Description: Emons Group Testimonial

Back to Award Competition page