Project title: Mobility Centres Network

Acronym: MOBI-NET

Duration: January 2007-June 2009

The MOBI-Net project (Mobility Centres Network) is an initiative of nine partners from five European countries (Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Portugal). The Project, started in January 2007, will run for a period of 30 months.

The objective of the project is to promote sustainable mobility in cities through a Network of Mobility Centres, therefore reducing the need of private mobility. In these centres you could get information about how to reach your destination using a sustainable way of transport.

Based on Mobility Centres, the project has two main purposes and 3 target groups:

• Approaching the general public (target group 1) by establishing publicly accessible Info Points which offer personalized information on sustainable ways of transportation;

• Addressing: schools (target group 2) and industries and service companies (banks, office centres, utilities) - (target group 3) through local actions and mobility management services offered by the Info Points. This includes the coordination and optimisation of different mobility needs with the objective of making mobility more energy efficient.

Key actors: The project partners are in general energy agencies or research institutes already committed in the field of sustainability. The project partners will work in close collaboration with the local decision makers and all the stakeholders involved.

At local level, each partner region will establish a Local Support Group. This functional unit acts as a coordinating body at the local level. Composed of relevant local stakeholders such as energy agencies, decision makers, representatives of commerce and industry, schools, public and private services and all other interested parts, the main function of the Local Support Groups  is to be a consultation and co-ordination platform. The Local Support Groups always base their decisions on evaluation and communication between all its members. The activity of the Local Support Group is complemented by the integrated information centres - Info points - where several mobility services are organised and provided to public or other interested groups.

At international level, partner regions coordinate to design common actions. These are implemented locally in each partner region, taking into account the specificities of the different local situation. Experience gained at local level through these initiatives is then shared and analysed among all partners. The conclusions and lessons learned provide a rich basis of experiences and best practices for further replication of similar local initiatives.

Main Steps of the project

The project is articulated in the following work packages:

• Management;

• From the Local Support Group to the Operational Plan: work with the stakeholders;

• Mobility Centre: state of the art, definition of a survey, set up;

• The instrument Info point: running activities to achieve objectives;

• From theory to practice: services offered by the Mobility Centres;

• Intermediate and final evaluation: the participatory model;

• Support and Training to decision makers;

• Communication & Dissemination;

• Common dissemination activities.

Expected results

The project will be considered successful if the following outcomes are achieved:

• effective involvement of the various stakeholders (general public, schools, industries and service companies). Every stakeholders should have:

→        undertaken a mobility survey (with a good return rate) and prepared  

        a mobility plan;

→        implemented the actions resulting from the mobility plan;

→        identified a mobility manager that cooperates with the Mobility

        Centre;

• increasing by 10% (at least) the number of people who have made temporary or durable changes in their “mobility” behaviour, over the entire project geographical area and locally within each target group of every single partner community;

• training of a good number of people among the decision makers and “energy experts”;

• a useful practical tool for the animation of the network, and dissemination of the results of the project, such as a lively web site;

• increase the number of satisfied users of the Mobility Centre;

• decrease in the total emission of CO2, pathogenic molecules (in particular PM10) and fuel consumption in the target area.

For further information, please visit the project website.

Contact person: Massimo Infunti (Agenbiella, Italy- coordinating organisation).

E-mail: massimoi@impronta48.it

Tel. : +39 011 480682.