Sustainable Mobility & URBACT Cities: Watch Euronews Reportage!

The Lisbon experience on Euronews thanks to its participation in URBACT EVUE project
Sustainable mobility was a few months ago the main topic the Euronews blog Commentvisions chose to focus on. And URBACT cities are so upfront on the issue that after Sally Kneeshaw published a comment based on the experience of the EVUE URBACT project, the producers decided to screen a short reportage on the experience of one of the project partner cities: Lisbon.

In the reportage, Antonio Costa, Lisbon's Mayor, and Tiago Fargas, URBACT Local Support Group coordinator, explain the challenges and strategies of Lisbon's Electric Mobility project. Sally Kneeshaw - Lead Expert for the EVUE project - presents a more European outlook on the issue, fed with the experience of the URBACT project.

Electric cars: the perfect topic for knowledge exchange between European cities

Considering the ongoing technological innovation and the relative newness of the issue makes it one of the topics for which knowledge exchange and experience sharing is the most useful.
 
As Sally Kneeshaw underlines 'each of the partner cities of EVUE come up with different perspectives, which other cities are benefitting from while thinking ways to change people’s behaviours in terms of mobility and testing new ideas'.

'Fast charging stations' for electric cars: one key learning point in EVUE

Among the new ideas currently discussed in EVUE that of 'fast charging' stations for electric cars is controversial.
Considering that the normal time to charge an electric car fully is about 6 to 8 hours, these fast charging stations (operating in half an hour) may appear as the ideal solution at first sight. However, from cities experiences, opinions differ on their usefulness or even relevance.

Stockholm reports that their two fast charging stations are almost always empty. One of the explanations for this lack of success may well be that using an electric car requires a totally different attitude to mobility. Once you have it the concept of fast charging does not appear as relevant anymore!
The obstacle according to Oslo city partners are different: they consider the issue of the fast charging stations from a safety point of view and estimate that it may cost too much if one is to always have staff supervision to use the station. Some London's boroughs are nevertheless considering the opportunity of installing these stations and are then very eager to hear about the other cities experiences.

Accessing finances

Finally, sharing experiences can also bring new ideas for financing sustainable transportation: One of the partner cities, Madrid, was recently successful in accessing a loan through the ELENA (European Local ENergy Assistance) programme of the European Investment Bank. A success that has inspired the other cities that are now thinking of applying for the same loan.

Thinking differently about mobility

EVUE is all about electric vehicles (not only cars but also bicycles, police vehicles, trucks..) and therefore is goes well beyond the mere considerations of practical issues regarding the installation of electric cars. The possibilities and opportunities for cross learning of and from the partner cities are therefore still wide open.

Read more: 

• EVUE - URBACT website
• Special Report: EVUE - "Enabling electric vehicles to prove themselves in the street" - URBACT website
• Watch the Euronews programme on line in English, French, German, Italian or Portuguese - Commentvisions website