Press releases

MINSK, 13 September (BelTA) – Belarus will join the European Mobility Week for the third time. The campaign will run from 16 to 22 September, BelTA learned from the UNDP press service.

The European Mobility Week is organized by the association TheEuropenMobilityWeekCampaign comprising representatives of governments and business from 42 countries. The annual campaign is designed to show the benefits of environmentally friendly transport and the impact of pollutant emissions from transport on public health to urban residents and authorities.

The 2017 European Mobility Week will be held under the theme of clean, shared and intelligent mobility, as encapsulated by the slogan "Sharing gets you further". This year’s topic reflects new trends in mobility, which are about the integration of transport and digital technologies with modern payment systems, and also draws attention to the emergence of another sector on the market of transport services: sharing economy.

The events will focus on developing and ensuring the mobility of urban population, which should primarily rely on the promotion of public transport and comfortable safe conditions for pedestrians and cyclists.

Urban residents are encouraged to give up their cars, ride bicycles, use public transport and walk more during the campaign. The organizers recommend to pay special attention to the benefits from the shared use of transport and modern information technologies. This approach can make mobility more effective, save up money, and make a fair contribution to environmental protection.

The UNDP has been coordinating the European Mobility Week in Belarus since 2016. Taking part in the initiative in 2017 are thirty Belarusian populated localities, as against three in 2015. Minsk, Novopolotsk, and Polotsk will take part in the campaign for the third time, nine towns for the second time (Baranovichi, Brest, Grodno, Molodechno, Nesvizh, Postavy, Pinsk, Soligorsk, and Chausy). Eighteen towns and populated localities will be newcomers to the European Mobility Week: Bykhov, Vileika, Logishin, Myadel, Novogrudok, Slavgorod, Cherikov, Gantsevichi, Gomel, Mogilev, Svisloch, Bereza, Bobruisk, Dribin, Zhabinka, Ivanovo, Miory, and Mosty.

These towns will host public discussions on urban mobility, install bike parking racks, estimate air and noise pollution, hold bike races, joint information campaigns with the Belarusian traffic police, contests, concerts, and the like.

The European Mobility Week will wrap up on 22 September with the traditional Car-Free Day under the slogan “The city as a space for people, a space for life.” During this day, passengers in many cities can travel for free on public transport if they show their driving license.

Green Cities, a joint project of the UNDP and the Global Environment Fund, is taking an active part in the organization of the European Mobility Week. The project implements pilot initiatives on sustainable urban transport in Polotsk and Novopolotsk. It is meant to build up trust in public transport among the population, encourage it to give up private cars when driving in the city, and boost the popularity of bicycles as one of the key types of public transport.