EUROPEAN MOBILITY WEEK 2014

LIMERICK, Ireland’s Smarter Travel Demonstration City will unveil a series of initiatives to support sustainable travel including the unveiling of www.limericksmartertravel.ie, Limerick’s own cycle planner app, and school transport workshops but to name a few initiatives to mark European Mobility Week.

It is timely that the Giant’s journey through Limerick, which pedestrianised the city centre and saw Limerick embrace sustainable travel, such as walking, cycling, public transport and car sharing, has co-incided with the beginning of European Mobility Week. As part of this year’s campaign ‘Our Streets Our Choice’, which runs from Thursday, 16^th September to Monday, 22nd of September, Limerick Smarter Travel wants to let the people of Limerick know that an action packed week has been planned to support those hoping to continue their healthy and sustainable urban mobility habits.

“During Granny’s visit the streets of Limerick were vibrant, full of energy and life,” said Pat O’Neill, Project Manager, Limerick Smarter Travel. “People embraced walking, cycling, public transport and car-sharing while travelling in and around the City. The difference our choices made to our streets was breath-taking. It was clear to see, there’s strength in numbers, our travel choices really do add up which is what European Mobility Week is all about.”

Park and Picnic Pods

advertisement

advertisement

advertisement

In support of European Mobility Week a special effort will be made by the partnership delivering the ‘Park and Picnic Pod’ to host an ‘Our Streets, Our Choice’ event. For Culture Night, 19^th September, the location of the first pod will play host to a celebration, bringing to life café culture and sustainable urban mobility at its very best.

While out and about experiencing the diverse array of arts and cultural activities in Limerick, the community are asked to take a few minutes to park up, relax and enjoy a picnic at Mortell’s Delicatessen & Seafood Restaurant, Roches Street. Here they will witness the unveiling of the new Park and Picnic pod proposals, specially designed to support sustainable urban mobility in our city.  They can influence the design brief, before the tender competition for fabricators of the pod, by submitting their comments into the comment box on the night.

“We’re delighted to be unveiling the Park ‘n Picnic Pods on Friday  Culture Night, where a special effort will be made to celebrate Limerick’s urban mobility and café culture with everyone out enjoying and experiencing the city’s cultural offering,” continued Pat O’Neill, Limerick Smarter Travel.

“We’re also encouraging people to leave the car at home and use an alternative form of transport to get to work by supporting the European Mobility Week ‘In Town Without My Car’ event, which has been running since 2000, and sees participating towns and cities set aside one or several areas solely for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport for the entire day. There’s lots of initiatives taking place in Limerick this week and we would like to encourage everyone to visit our website and get involved.”

Limerick Smarter Travel’s New Website

Limerick Smarter Travel will launch its innovative new website, www.LimerickSmarterTravel.ie as part of European Mobility Week.

This new site is full of up to date content about sustainable travel modes in Limerick while also inviting members of the public to use the site as a social network. Users can register and join groups, create maps and share images. The website will serve as the perfect tool to plan a school walking bus with your neighbours, car sharing to local matches, group cycles etc. For more information and to register for the site visit www.LimerickSmarterTravel.ie

Limerick Cycle Planner App

This week will also see the launch of the new Limerick Cycle Planner App, developed by the National Transport Authority in collaboration with Limerick Smarter Travel. The app which is available for free on Apple and Android mobile devices allows the user to plan their cycle journey across Limerick City, choosing between easier and more direct options.

Once the Coke Zero Limerick City bike scheme is launched later this year, the app will also offer real time information of the bikes available at each docking station to further ease the public’s journey planning.

Bus in the City Workshops

Limerick Smarter Travel and Green-Schools Travel will be linking with Bus Eireann once again to deliver the popular ‘Bus in the City’ initiative in schools across the city. These workshops offer 1st class students the opportunity to experience their city by bus and learn more about public transport networks in the city. As part of this week schools will also be invited to enter a citywide ‘Design your bus stop’ competition (prizes include two family tickets to anywhere in Ireland), participate in ‘Know your Bus Route’ workshops and of course participate in the ever popular Walk on Wednesday initiative.
Since its introduction in 2002, the impact of European Mobility Week has steadily grown, both across Europe and around the world.

In recent years, the campaign has spread to countries such as Argentina, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, Canada and Vietnam. In 2013, 1,931 cities from 47 countries officially registered for the campaign.

A  total of 8,623 permanent  measures  have been  implemented,  mainly  focusing  on  infrastructure  for cycling  and  walking,  traffic  calming,  improving transport  accessibility  and  raising  awareness about sustainable travel behaviour.

The campaign represents an opportunity for participating cities like Limerick to demonstrate the importance of sustainable urban mobility and is a unique chance for local authorities to test their transport policies and present them to citizens.

For more information visit www.LimerickSmarterTravel.ie  and follow LST on Facebook and Twitter.

Read more about Limerick Smarter Travel here!