As part of Mobility Week, the Municipality of Funchal, a partner in MATCH-UP, organized a mobility café on the theme of sustainable mobility. The event, entitled “Sustainable Cities: The Importance of Mobility in Urban Requalification and Territorial Cohesion” featured a panel of experts in the area of mobility, including interventions by Lisbon and Pontevedra Municipal Councils, municipalities that have done a remarkable work in the field of mobility.
Lisbon was represented by the city councilor Miguel Gaspar, responsible for urban mobility and security that pinpointed the mobility challenges and the solutions sought to improve multimodality, namely bicycles and public transport. In the case of Pontevedra, Eva Blanco, responsible for local urban development policies, spoke about the strategic vision in terms of urban rehabilitation in the city core that has proved to be very successful. The event also included an academic approach through David Vale, a phd researcher who coordinated the work of the Funchal SUMP.
Overall, the mobility cafe was highly satisfying for those who attended as well as for the Municipality that learned a lot about good practices that are being developed in other cities and have even discussed the possibility of exchanging experiences and partnerships in the future.
Moreover the exhibition, intitled "Giving Back the Streets to Pedestrians: Sustainable Mobility and Urban Renewal" was held in the city core and focused on pedestrianization, public transport, electric mobility and other technological solutions that were implemented to support the decision making process and provide the municipality with vast data. The pedestrianization measures, considered a good practice on the Interreg Europe platform, showed the impact of road restriction policies in terms of economic renewal as well as improvement of attractiveness within the area. As for public transport, the areas that were intervened through the deployment of shelters and increase of accessibility to buses were displayed on a map showcasing also some pictures. The technological solutions, namely intelligent crosswalks, that combines energetic efficiency with road safety was also highlighted as good practices within the Interreg Europe were also displayed on the exhibition.
It is expected that the exhibition, namely the section related to pedestrianization measures will be moved to the intervention areas to further promote, among citizens and tourists, the importance of measures related to pedestrian mobility.
