The five CIVITAS ECCENTRIC partner cities Madrid, Stockholm, Munich, Ruse and Turku are preparing to proudly present the project’s outcomes and results of over 50 measures and the lessons learned from four years’ experience. In addition to final publications, series of videos and some creative art projects, also last minute measures are being carried out, such as the car sharing pilot, e-mobility plan and cycling barometer in the ECCENTRIC city of Turku.
The partners involved are looking forward to share their results and experience also in several international events in 2020, such as the Urban Future Global Conference in April, ECOMM in June and CIVITAS Forum and final conference in September. The glossy final report accompanied by city-specific final publications can be expected in June 2020.
Meanwhile, all the fact sheets and other public deliverables from the project are available at https://civitas.eu/eccentric.
Turku speeds up to bring final measures into practice
As the City of Turku has set the ambitious goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2029, smart mobility is a significant part of the whole. The EU-funded CIVITAS ECCENTRIC project supports Turku’s strategic goals of carbon neutrality and attractiveness, where mobility is primarily about walking, cycling, electronic transport and vehicle sharing.
Turku’s ECCENTRIC team is focusing final year’s measures to the Kupittaa test area. One long participated pilot starting in February 2020 is the car sharing pilot implemented in cooperation with Hertz Car Sharing. This scheme brings out the first fully electric car for shared use in Turku, for both the employees of the city of Turku and three pilot partners to be used in the office hours, as well as to all citizens to be used in the evenings and weekends.
In November ECCENTRIC also surveyed local attitudes on the general quality of cycling in Turku and captured them in a cycling barometer. Such methods enable the public to shape transport planning and influence future policy development as the results of the barometer are now being analyzed, disseminated and integrated into the creation of new cycling routes, improvement of their winter maintenance as well as tuning the local bike sharing system. This barometer is a follow up on the previous barometer carried out in 2016.
One of the most visible examples of ECCENTRIC work in Turku is the city’s own bike sharing system called Föli bikes. The all-year-round city bike system with 300 yellow bikes is scaling up to bring electric bicycles and cargo bikes as a part of the system in spring 2020.
The city of Turku’s 11 500 employees have been a vital and easy-to-reach test audience for some of ECCENTRIC’s pilots. In 2018 the employees got to test nine different light electric vehicles for work and freetime related travels. Now in February 2020, the report on the pilot will be published and used as a basis for an e-mobility plan for electrifying the city of Turku’s fleet. One of the most important harvests of the pilot was a brand new type of leasing-market for the providers of the light electric vehicles in Turku area.
Mobility services are also based on the goals of sustainable development and the creation of service chains, making life easier for citizens while reducing the need for private cars. The purpose of the Mobility as a Service concept is to promote public transport services in Turku, including by developing digital information and payment systems and by creating opportunities for the integration of local services as part of the whole service offering. In spring 2020, the ECCENTRIC team in Turku will compile a comprehensive MaaS plan in order to strengthen the process.
Final year’s plans also include further MaaS integrations, the enlargement plan for current e-buses and the creation of a Mobility platform with real time data about all mobility in the city area, so stay tuned to get the latest local updates and news: https://civitas.eu/eccentric/turku