During semester 6, twelve online study visits were realized in total in the frame of PE4Trans project for the presentation of interesting Good Practices (GPs) on sustainable mobility and public engagement. PP4 - AUTh is mainly proud for the fact that it organized and hosted six (6) out of the twelve (12) study visits in total, meaning half of them were focused on presenting Good Practices coming from Greece - with one of them co-hosted with the German project partner. These study visits were successfully organized with the aim to provide inspiration to the PE4Trans partners towards the development of their regional Action Plan. AUTh decided to place much attention on this task, since the sharing of lessons learnt would contribute significantly to the exchange of experience process of the project as well as to the successful transfer of GP elements to other participating regions. Also, apart from the detailed presentation of the selected GPs, AUTh team focused on enhancing the interactive aspect of the meetings by preparing poll questions to stimulate participants’ interest and promote interaction during the meetings it hosted. Polls were relevant to the thematic of each study visit. Due to the emphasis placed, AUTh contacted and managed to engage and ensure the participation of high level representatives of the 6 Greek GP owners in the study visits, indicatively mentioning the Deputy Mayor of the Municipality of Trikala, the Director of Technical Services of the Municipality, the CEO of e-Trikala SA, the CEO of DotSoft SA, the Head of Planning Department of the Municipality of Karditsa, the Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Support of the Region of Central Macedonia, stakeholders from the Regional Development Fund of Central Macedonia, the General Organizer of “by bicycle to work” competition in Greece, etc.
In addition, AUTh is proud because it managed to overcome any kind of challenges that emerged during both the organization and the realization of its 6 study visits, such as, among others, the invitation and engagement process of all GP owners, the arrangement and timeslot issues, the need of live real-time translation from Greek to English (and vice versa) that emerged during two of the study visits due to the foreign language barrier. Another interesting aspect is related to the efforts made to organize common online study visits with other partners by grouping similar GPs. It was achieved in the case of a Greek and a German GP, so a joint meeting was realized. The adding value of the discussion between the GPs’ elements and their owners was significant, through the identification of similarities and comparison of different experiences in these countries which enabled the extracting of interesting conclusions.
The Good Practices which were rated high by the PE4Trans partners during the selection process and were analysed on each study visit, were the following:
- Crowdsourcing campaign and platform to involve citizens in the generation process of innovative ideas to improve public transport (27.4.2021)
- “Let's go to school; Eco-friendly transportation to school!” online pupils contests of painting and photography organized among schools of the Region of Central Macedonia (5.5.2021)
- “By bicycle to work” national competition in Greece and “Cycling to work” campaign from Germany, organized yearly in May to encourage as many employees as possible to use the bicycle for the way to work and home (joint study visit - 6.5.2021)
- Free mobile app for online booking of shared bicycles and wheelchair scooters, facilitating the car-pooling and on-demand travels from a rural area to the city center (10.5.2021)
- Specifically designed elevated road crossings outside of schools, as an infrastructure intervention for the protection of pupils and the increase the safety feeling of parents while their kids walk to school in the Municipality of Trikala, Greece (11.5.2021)
- Inspiring practices from the Municipality of Karditsa, Greece, along with focusing on its holistic approach on sustainable mobility and bicycle use towards the behavioral change which has been achieved in the city (28.5.2021)
