City mobility studied by European researchers

On the 17th and 18th, the Porto Innovation Hub hosted a workshop dedicated to the city of Porto, as part of the European project SSH Centre, a project funded and led by Energy Cities, which uses formative monitoring research to generate recommendations with an impact on public policy-making.

Porto is leading theme 5 ('Mobility Communities') in this project, and the theme was worked on for two days. The city hosted a team of five researchers and other partners who have been studying the case of Porto in depth in terms of mobility and developing methodologies that aim to contribute to improving mobility in the city, focusing especially on the dynamics that lead people to switch from individual vehicles to other types of collective and active mobility.

Representatives of partners who contribute to mobility in the municipality, such as STCP, INESC TEC and Porto Digital, signatories of the Porto Climate Pact, and from various cities, joined the event to share experiences and challenges and work on solutions. In addition to the six European cities present - Schaerbeek (Belgium), Sofia (Bulgaria), Prague (Czechia), Suceava (Romania), Ramnicu Valcea (Romania) and Beringen (Belgium), there were also representatives from the cities of Braga and Guimarães present, at Porto's invitation.

Betting on climate transition

The event was attended by Deputy Mayor Filipe Araújo, who explained to those present Porto's ambition for climate action by 2030, gave a political overview of what the Executive has been working on in terms of mobility and transport, since 2013, and hints on the current ambition in terms of promoting the use of public transport, namely with the 22 free journeys that will be offered annually to Porto Card holders, and the recent +perto project.

After experiencing the challenges of mobility in the city, by using different modes of transport, the group approached again the city's reality and worked on potential solutions, especially focused on community involvement and interaction between several stakeholders. This event brought proposals that will now be developed by the researchers team with the municipality.

This initiative reaffirms the path that the Municipality of Porto has been taking in climate transition, continuing the journey towards carbon neutrality by 2030, where mobility is one of the most important sectors to take into account on this journey.