‘Improving City Climates' was the theme for this year's European Mobility Week, which ran from September 16th to 22nd and stimulated environmentally-friendly transport actions in hundreds of towns and cities across the EU. Marking Mobility Week's eighth consecutive year, the 2009 activities aimed to underline the importance of local level efforts for tackling climate change.

Particular attention was paid to promoting the quality of life benefits that can be gained from alternative transport modes to the car, such as cycling, walking, and public transport. Greater use of car-sharing and car-pooling schemes was also encouraged for their contributions that EU citizens can make to the high levels issues being discussed at the forthcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in December.

Originating from the French LIFE project ‘In town without my car', European Mobility Week has now grown into a fully fledged EU initiative that involves a seven day public programme of innovative activities and events.

This year's emphasis on promoting sustainable urban mobility saw a wide range of novel schemes including: Portugal's ‘Trips for trash' scheme in Almada, whereby the public were able to exchange recyclable materials for free public transport tickets; Users of park-and-ride schemes in France's Nantes were treated to car cleaning services in an attempt to reduce congestion concerns; Children's perspectives on car-free days featured prominently in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava; Authorities in Brussels organised a series of ‘My village in the city' events dedicated to local solutions for addressing urban transport challenges; and Polish authorities in Krakow endorsed a large scale effort to increase cycling among the city's residents.

Sustainability forms a key aim of the Mobility week, both in terms of promoting environmentally sensitive activities and also long term commitments from the participating regions to maintain at least one permanent mobility measure after the week has finished.
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These objectives stem from continuation work that reinforced the original in town without my car LIFE project's outputs. Its successor, the SMILE initiative, received LIFE funding to build on the previous project's pioneering progress and raise awareness about good practice approaches in sustainable urban mobility. Technical assistance was provided to 10 different demonstration projects and a series of studies resulted in publications covering guidelines for road traffic noise abatement, sustainable mobility related recommendations for local authorities, and advice concerning socially inclusive transport management approaches.