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Exchange cities

Exchange cities

The EU FLOW project's nine Exchange Cities will learn and exchange on improving local planning and modelling practices to maximise the congestion reducing potential of walking and cycling measures.  FLOW Exchange Cities will be paired with FLOW partner cities based on their common interests and goals to engage in systematic experience transfer (in-person and online) of congestion busting measures developed in FLOW. This close learning process will last throughout the project, supported by an online platform for experience exchange and sharing of results.

Exchange Cities' activities will build towards the development of a roadmap for developing congestion busting measures. These roadmaps will identify the factors involved and the concrete steps required to carry out and to evaluate a walking or cycling measure in each Exchange City. In order to build a robust knowledge base for these roadmaps, Exchange Cities will participate in:

  • 3 learning and exchange workshops tailored to Exchange Cities' needs and knowledge gaps, offering exchange and mutual learning on multi-modal modelling of walking and cycling in urban areas and including input from PTV, Walk21 and the European Cyclists' Federation.

  • A 1-2 day exchange visit with a FLOW Partner City or another Exchange City, including e.g. site visits and a demonstration of modelling and assessment activities OR have FLOW experts (walking, cycling and/or modelling) visit their city for focused exchange and support.

  • Analysis of context conditions, data availability and suitable indicators (self-assessment, with support from the Technical Support Partners in commissioning modelling activities and data collection, e.g. stated preference surveys and new sources of data)

  • FLOW training activities:

    • 3 webinars on walking and cycling as congestion busting measures
    • an e-course on integrating walking and cycling into transport modelling

The selected cities are: 

Nicosia - Cyprus

Tallinn - Estonia

Thessaloniki - Greece

Pisa - Italy

Ploiesti - Romania

Örebro - Sweden

Zurich -Switzerland

Izmir - Turkey

Manchester - United Kingdom 

For cities

FLOW supported systematic knowledge transfer with a group of Exchange and Follower cities in assessing the effectiveness of walking and cycling measures to address urban congestion.

For decision makers

The FLOW project dedicated particular attention to decision makers and politicians as they are the ones taking the strategic decision to integrate a measure into the local policy.
For businesses

Private sectors has, in its field of competences, a key role to play in reducing congestion and promoting walking and cycling in cities. The tools they propose may not be known by the end users.