Goals

The MOVE TOGETHER key message is "we do not move alone, we always move around the city together with many other people". The obvious consequence is that when we approach or enter the city driving our car our movement is increasingly regulated by traffic lights, one-way directions, access and parking limitations, and more recently by charging the access and off-street parking in the most congested areas of the city at certain hours of the day. Another consequence is that we may find more practical to use public transport services, moving ourselves together with other people on buses, metro, commuter trains, etc.

However, to coordinate people daily movements in the urban environment (including city centres and traffic from/to the suburbs) is increasingly complex, and the matter is even more complicated by the need to coordinate also the daily distribution of goods. For this reason the ordinary supply of mobility services - road infrastructure, public transport services, etc. - is needed but is not enough to tackle the today increasing demand of urban transport in Europe, and the associated problems of chronic congestion, environmental pollution and road traffic accidents. We need more, we need to research continuously innovative approaches and solutions to make urban transport more sustainable, i.e. safer, more secure, more efficient and better for the environment. This is what is being done in particular in several cities of Europe with the support of EU funded research projects. The overall aim of the MOVE-TOGETHER project is therefore to raise the awareness of European citizens on EU research on urban transport and the recommendations of this research on how to increase sustainability. The underlying logic of the project is that citizens are aware of the local urban and environmental problems through their everyday experiences, yet that this awareness is based on tacit knowledge. Making this knowledge more explicit through dialogue and enlarging the knowledge base through scientific results can contribute to change in both attitudes and behaviour as well as more active citizenship with respect to transport policy.