Last month the Turkish delegation comprised of EGO Executives, EGO staff and our project partner DAI Global Belgium SRL paid a study visit to Spain within the frame of “Smart Ankara Sustainable Urban Mobility Project (SUMP project)” which is financed by the European Union under IPA II programme. The delegation visited Madrid first, then Valencia and finally they came to Barcelona.
In Barcelona we had the pleasure of accompanying them first to the City Hall of Barcelona, where they were given a talk on the implementation of several mobility measures usually applied to SUMP such as bike lanes, pedestrian areas and low emission zones. Afterwards, we took them to AMB (Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona). The conversation was based on the same topics as in the city hall but from the metropolitan area perspective, which is wider than the city.
The following day we visited the TMB installations and headquarters. There, an explanation was given regarding the latest developments towards the implementation of hydrogen and electric buses in the network, along with the benefits and challenges of such operation. We also had the pleasure of seeing the mentioned buses and analyse them closely. Finally, the 2-day visit ended with a visit to CENIT offices, where the director Sergi Saurí gave a brief presentation of the research centre, including the main research areas and projects that have been developed recently.
Our work in the Smart Ankara Sustainable Urban Mobility Project will be focused on the development of an Activity-Based model for Ankara, which will support the mobility analysis and policy-making during the development of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan of Ankara. We will also provide training in adopting SUMP for metropolitan areas in different aspects (city logistics, shared mobility approaches, parking management or urban planning) as well as ITS and traffic management principles.
