Sarajevo to develop green mobility as part of group of European cities

Sarajevo is among seven European cities participating in the five-year MOBILITIES for EU project for accelerating the transition to green urban mobility. Together with Madrid (Spain), Dresden (Germany), Ioannina (Greece), Trenčín (Slovakia), Espoo (Finland) and Gdańsk (Poland), the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina intends to reduce air and noise pollution and the overall environmental footprint and improve citizens’ health.

Right after Zagreb, Sarajevo and Janina are two more cities in Southeastern Europe that have just set a path of innovative solutions for urban mobility. Of note, Croatian startup Project 3 Mobility plans to start testing autonomous vehicles in the country’s capital this year.

The project New MOBility solutions for climate neutraLity in EU cITIES (MOBILITIES for EU) has gathered 29 partners from nine countries. They met in Madrid to kick off their five-year journey.

They aim to demonstrate that innovative passenger mobility and freight transport concepts designed and implemented following participative and user-centered principles are cost-effective and feasible solutions to contribute significantly to the cities’ transformation towards climate neutrality, consulting firm Steinbeis Europa Zentrum said.

Madrid and Dresden plan to design, deploy and evaluate the effectiveness of 27 innovative mobility solutions

As the lead cities, Madrid and Dresden will design, deploy and evaluate the effectiveness of 27 innovative mobility solutions in eleven pilot actions. The measures are envisaged to promote innovation both in vehicles and in overarching infrastructure.

Examples are autonomous mid-size electric buses for around 20 persons and the development of a so-called Sovereign Mobility Decentralized Data Ecosystem for automated driving.

The demonstration includes a design phase, deployment of the solutions and their evaluation to assess their impact and relevance for future upscaling and replication, the consulting firm explained.

Afterwards, five replication cities – Ioannina, Trenčín, Espoo, Gdansk, and Sarajevo intend to replicate the processes, designing their adaptations for the tested solutions, according to the plan.

Urban Transport Labs are envisaged to be established in all seven project cities

The participants stressed that the implementation of new urban mobility solutions can only be effective if the needs of urban residents and other local stakeholders are met.

Therefore, Urban Transport Labs (UT-Labs) involving the stakeholders are scheduled to be established in all seven project cities and play a vital role. The facilities are integrated into all phases, especially the codesign of pilot activities and in the planning of upscaling and replication activities beyond the project period, the participants added.

MOBILITIES for EU will implement innovative urban mobility solutions that can accelerate the transformation of the urban transportation sector with the use of electrification, automation, and connectivity.

The project secured EUR 24.7 million from Horizon Europe

According to Steinbeis Europa Zentrum, transportation is the second-largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and it accounts for over 30% of total energy use.

Julia Vicente Gómez, MOBILITIES for EU project coordinator and expert in the field of urban transformation towards climate neutrality, said the establishment of local Urban Transport Labs in project cities is a key component.

“Through the labs, we gather the wide variety of perspectives across sectors and professions. In the end, we can only achieve climate neutrality in our cities if we work together, break silos and design innovation centred around actual urban needs,” she stressed.

The project is funded with EUR 24.7 million from the European Commission’s program Horizon Europe. It includes organizations from Switzerland and France.