European community for mobility management

The CIVITAS MODERN city of Vitoria-Gasteiz has recently been unveiled as the host of the 10th CIVITAS Forum Conference that will take place in autumn 2012. The event will run across three full days and highlight results and outcomes achieved by CIVITAS cities.

The announcement has been made at the closing plenary of the Forum Conference 2010 in Funchal (Portugal) on 19 October by the newly elected Chair of the Political Advisory Committee Bruno Pereira.

Vitoria-Gasteiz, the capital of the autonomous community of the Basque country and the province of Alava in northern Spain, offers 42 m² of green space per person. Especially the green belt surrounding the city received international appraisal. These features and Vitoria-Gasteiz’s long commitment to progressive environmental policies have been acknowledged by the city’s appointment as European Green Capital 2012. For a glimpse of the city’s achievements, have a look at this video.

Unprecedented growth of the city challenges Vitoria-Gasteiz to live up to its reputation for sustainable urban planning. An integrated model to regulate traffic, access and urban space organisation through the definition of so-called superblocks is one of the strategies the city developed and is testing through the MODERN project.

The objectives of this approach are to reorganise traffic to free up space, improve accessibility and coverage of the public transport network, consolidate the network of cycling paths, set up a network of pedestrian walkways, and identify infrastructure required for parking and delivery of goods.

For more information about Vitoria-Gasteiz, click here. For more information about the Forum Conference, contact the CIVITAS Secretariat at secretariat@civitas.eu.