Mission of the Municipality of Komotini to Portugal within the framework of the URBACT SMALL project.

A delegation from the Municipality of Komotini visited Braga and Guimaraes Portugal in the context of 2^her transnational meeting of the project URBACT SMALL on April 17 – 19. The meeting was organized by the Portuguese project partner, Quadrilatero, which is an association of municipalities in the Braga region. The purpose of the meeting was to present and discuss the good practices implemented by the Quadrilatero member cities on the subject of sustainable urban mobility, with an emphasis on traffic management.

During the second day of the meeting, the participants visited the city of Guimaraes, where a meeting was held with the relevant Deputy Mayor, and then the way of planning and operation of bicycle lanes in the city was presented. Reference was then made to other good practices adopted by the local municipality in matters of traffic management. While at the end, a visit was made to a school in the city, where a traffic education program is successfully implemented for elementary and high school students.

On the last day, the participants took part in pilot actions to strengthen the traffic education implemented by the Municipality of Braga with a focus on young students, while afterwards a meeting was held with the Mayor of the city. Finally, good practices from the Association of People with Disabilities of Portugal, local NGOs of Braga, as well as methodological approaches from the special experts of the project to improve accessibility and sustainable urban mobility in cities were presented, focusing on the mobilization and awareness of all stakeholders sides, and especially the citizens.

The next project meeting will take place in Komotini on June 12-14, 2024. The Municipality of Komotini is a partner of the European project URBACT SMALL. The main objectives of the SMALL (Sharing Urban Solutions to Sustainable Mobility for ALL) project are linked to the three main axes of the URBACT IV program on the subject of Sustainable Urban Mobility (SUM) which are ensured through the principles of accessibility, equity and fair opportunities for all citizens, starting with the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups:

1) Creation of a “transnational exchange and learning network for capacity building” of a consortium of 8 “European cities” and public bodies to implement and strengthen SUM policies for children, elderly, disabled, disadvantaged groups, etc.

2) Exchange know-how and experience of each partner’s strengths (and at the same time improve weaknesses) related to specific actions/experiences of sustainable urban mobility for targeted groups of vulnerable people, transferring good practices and lessons to each other.

3) Utilization and dissemination of the “knowledge and practices” of the corporate scheme on the topic of SUM in order to spread it at local, regional and transnational level.

The head of the project is the Municipality of Ferrara in Italy, while the corporate structure also includes the Municipality of Strasbourg in France, the association of municipalities QUADRILATERO URBANO in Portugal, the Municipality of Larissa, the Municipality of DURSKININKAI in Lithuania, the Municipality of Sofia in Bulgaria, the Municipality of Bucharest in Romania and the Municipality of SKOFJA LOKA Slovenia