The MUBi association, which represents and defends better urban mobility by integrating the bicycle, wants serious commitment from Portuguese municipalities in the European Mobility Week but especially throughout the year.
Portugal, About 100 cities joined the European Mobility Week this year (SEM), "mostly with recreational and awareness actions for the population, of temporary nature, decontextualized from any local plan for sustainable urban mobility"says MUBi - Association for Urban Mobility on Bicycles.
"These actions fall short of what is needed to change the paradigm of urban mobility, because we know that people will only change their habits and behavior if they are in a position to do sonamely by having safe, easily accessible, useful and comfortable infrastructures".MUBi also says in a statement that it has decided not to join or organize any action in this SEM.
For that association, "more than just a week of awareness-raising activities for local communities", the European Mobility Week should "to be the test laboratory for testing measures that can then be implemented permanently and that have a real and lasting impact on people's daily lives and city experiences".
From September 16 to 22, it marks the European Mobility Week (EMW), launched in 2002 in Brussels. The objective of the campaign is to reach positive behavioral changes for cleaner and smarter transportation choices. EMW is the ideal opportunity for cities to present sustainable mobility alternatives for their inhabitants and an excellent occasion for stakeholders local people to meet and discuss the different aspects of mobility and air quality, find innovative solutions to reduce car use, and test new strategies or urban planning measures.
MUBi remembers, on this day, its manifesto for "Living Cities", that he presented a year ago regarding the local elections and in which he proposes a set of priority measures to consistently promote walking, cycling and public transport, to the detriment of the private car. "We leave the challenge to the Portuguese cities registered in the European Mobility Week to apply these measures all year round, not just for seven days in September."
For Rui Igreja, leader of MUBi, "local authorities and the government need to allocate fewer resources to the car and provide people with more efficient, economical and environmentally sustainable mobility alternatives" given the energy crisis and the climate urgency.
