Award honors "visionary achievements in sustainable transportation and urban livability"

The deadline for nominations is September 15, 2009.

Announcement:

From the the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) :

The 6th Annual Sustainable Transport Award Nomination Process Is Now Open

Do you know a city that has done innovative work in transportation and livability this year?
Nominate a city for the 2010 Sustainable Transport Award!

Click Read more for the criteria.

The idea of Car Free Development is gaining increasing attention around the globe.  Designing streets for people, not just cars, is considered to be a key issue in efforts aimed at reducing car dependency and promoting low carbon mobility, such as public transport enhancement and fostering non-motorised transport. Moreover, recent concepts summarised under the term New Street Design help to reconcile traffic movement with the needs of pedestrians and the desire for attractive public spaces.

This document aims at providing the reader with an overview of the latest available literature on Car Free Development and New Street Design. Moreover, it includes links to a wide range of related organisations and projects.

Registered SUTP users can download the document by clicking here 1.11 Mb (after login). Unregistered visitors may click here for registration (at no cost) and then proceed to download after login.

On Friday, May 15th, several European cities signed the Charter of Brussels in the European Parliament, bringing the Velo-city conference to a fitting conclusion.  

By signing the charter, cities committed themselves to invest in bicycle policy as an integrated part of urban mobility. At the same time, the charter is a call on the European Union to promote urban cycling. For details please see http://www.velo-city2009.com/charter-brussels.html , for the Charter of Brussels click here.

Side event at the Bonn Climate Change Talks June 2009, eighth session of the AWG-KP and sixth session of the AWG-LC: MRV, NAMA, and sectoral approaches: Ensuring the role of land transport in the Post 2012 framework

On June 10th, GTZ, UIC, UITP, TRL and Veolia Transport hosted a side event in Bonn: “MRV, NAMA, and sectoral approaches: Ensuring the role of land transport in the Post 2012 framework”. Agenda

Mr. Sebastian Ebert, GTZ Consultant, participated at the “Brazil National Summit for Transport and the Environment” in Brasília on 28th of May. The congress was hosted by CTS-Brasil (The Center for Sustainable Transport Brazil) and CNT (Confederação Nacional do Transporte).

The GTZ Sustainable Urban Transport Project recently opened an office in New Delhi. This office will oversee the urban transport assistance activities in the South Asian region. SUTP is currently working with GTZ – Advisory Services for Environmental Management (ASEM) at providing technical assistance to some JNNURM cities that are under the purview of ASEM.

The theme of the 2009 United Nations World Environment Day on 5th of June was “Your Planet Needs You-unite to Combat Climate Change”.

GTZ this year laid its main focus on sustainable mobility. After an opening by CEO Wolfgang Schmitt, Louis Palmer reported about his exciting and successful world tour with a solar vehicle.

Also the staff members could test electric scooters. The German Bicycle Club (ADFC) and a health insurance company (AOK) informed about the action "Bike To Work”, which GTZ takes also part of.

Also public transport was high on the agenda with presentations and a booth.

"Side event at the Bonn Climate Change Talks June 2009, eighth session of the AWG-KP and sixth session of the AWG-LC: MRV, NAMA, and sectoral approaches: Ensuring the role of land transport in the Post 2012 framework"

Since COP 13 in Bali, TRF, GTZ, UITP and UIC, along with other initiatives, have highlighted that transport is part of the problem but that it is also part of the solution.

The IEA projects an enormous growth in road transport-related CO2 emissions in developing countries (about 1.9 gigatonnes CO2, 2006-2030). Due to the rapid motorization processes there is a high danger that GHG mitigation achievements in other sectors are made up by increasing emissions from fossil fuel combustion in the transport sector.

The second Workshop of the initiative “Bridging the Gap”, which aims to ensure that sustainable transport is recognized in the climate change negotiations process in COP15 in Copenhagen, will be held on 6th of June in Bonn, Germany. Download agenda here.

Mr. Santhosh Kodukula, GTZ SUTP Urban Transport Specialist, participated and presented at a consultation workshop organised by the UN HABITAT in association with ITDP Indonesia and INSTRAN, Indonesia. The workshop was titled “Access to clean urban transport energy solutions for the urban poor” and was held between 27 - 29th May 2009 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

The Urban Transport photo DVD developed by GTZ has been updated. The update contains nearly 4000 new photos spanning over various aspects of urban transport issues/practices. The photos are contributed by experts working in transport projects around the world and also by photographers with passion on urban transport issues.