Austrian agency coordinates major mobility networks

'Number one' portal

ELTIS, or European Local Transport Information Service, is a knowledge-sharing portal for urban transport news and events and is financed by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Transport and Energy (DG TREN). FGM-AMOR took over the coordination of ELTIS in 2006 and is responsible for feeding and maintaining its website and organising its training courses.

"ELTIS’s ambition is to be the number one portal for urban mobility in Europe," explains Karl Heinz. "Our main responsibility with ELTIS is overall control of the website, which features more than 1300 case studies of sustainable mobility applications and developments across a variety of fields from countries all over Europe."

As well as publicising external mobility events and conferences, ELTIS also runs a programme of training courses for sustainable mobility professionals from new member states and neighbouring countries.

Partnering across countries

A consortium of organisations takes responsibility for different aspects of the site. Its main partners are Hungary’s Regional Environmental Centre, which collects and disseminates information from new European member states, Edinburgh’s NapierUniversity, which is responsible for several key topics such as land use, and Belgian-based Mobiel 21, a sustainable mobility knowledge-development centre that contributes case studies and news.

Encouraging growth

Ever since FGM-AMOR has been running ELTIS, it has been growing stronger steadily. The number of case studies, the rate of news (currently one news item per day) and the number of website visits have all increased by 200 to 300%. As a result, ELTIS now receives an average of 300,000 hits every month, its training courses are frequently over-subscribed, and its newsletter mailing list continues to expand.

"We’ve had some very encouraging feedback," says Karl Heinz. "Last year the German presidency publicly stated that they got all the information on urban transport for their campaign from ELTIS."

Exemplary cities bond with CIVITAS

While ELTIS focuses on knowledge exchange, the CIVITAS Initiative is a different kind of network. Also co-financed by the European Commission, it is a group of cities that are exemplars in the field of urban transport, and it focuses on the practical implementation of related measures. The initiative began in 2000 with a call for proposals from cities with high-quality, ambitious plans for sustainable mobility, and it has rolled out three separate projects to date. As with ELTIS, FGM-AMOR coordinates the CIVITAS website.

"To participate in CIVITAS projects, a city must implement a lot of measures," says Karl Heinz. "If accepted, it receives 35 per cent of its costs from CIVITAS. It must then report on its projects, and contribute to the CIVITAS website, to allow other cities to benefit from the knowledge and information gathered throughout the process."

The yearly CIVITAS Forum Conference is an opportunity for representatives from participating cities to convene and discuss their experiences. The next CIVITAS Forum Conference will be held in Bologna, Italy, from 9 – 11 November, and the final conference for CIVITAS II will be from 21 – 23 January in Toulouse, France.

CATALIST for mentoring

According to Karl Heinz, CIVITAS CATALIST, an exciting new CIVITAS project, is also set to launch in the next few weeks. It is a mentoring scheme that targets cities not officially recognised as CIVITAS cities, but which have signed the CIVITAS charter and are CIVITAS Forum Members.

"In CIVITAS CATALIST, CIVITAS cities will be partnered with other cities that are keen to implement mobility measures," explains Karl Heinz. "There is a one million Euro activity fund for this, which will provide financial assistance for smaller measures that would not normally qualify cities for CIVITAS status. It’s a great way to get cities learning from one another and encourage partnership."

Related links:

www.eltis.org

www.civitas.eu