On February 19th and 20th 2019, the Municipality of Funchal, on the beautiful island of Madeira, hosted the second inter-regional meeting of the European project MATCH-UP. During the meeting the first site visit and staff exchange took place where the various partners had the chance to experience problems and solutions related to the promotion of low-carbon mobility in the city of Funchal.
Inside the majestic municipal theater Baltazar Dias, operational headquarters of the meeting, Bruno Martins, councilor for urban planning and mobility, who illustrated the main critical issues of the city and the activities and policies under way to improve mobility and urban livability. Moreover, each territory presented its own good practices, sharing experiences and advices. The meeting ended with an intense discussion about the activities to be carried out in the coming months.
The next meeting is scheduled for the second week of May in the Romanian city of Timisoara.
During the site visit it was possible to see in the field the pedestrianization solutions implemented by the city of Funchal to discourage the use of the car and encourage mobility based on pedestrian and public transport. In addition, the partners had the opportunity to meet the representatives of the main transport agencies that manage the urban and suburban bus service (Horàrios do Funchal and Madeira Cable Car) who illustrated the problems related to the service due to the particular orographic conformation of the territory.
