Banská Bystrica has a leading position in the area of sustainable mobility in Slovakia

The Ekopolis Foundation and Banská Bystrica, in cooperation with another European partners, are implementing the MOVECIT project. Within the project we´ve done one of the main goals – create institutional mobility plan for the City Office. So  Banská Bystrica is the first city, which has institutional mobility plan.

„I am glad, that Banská Bystrica can admire with another primacy. We see the increase in the intensity of individual transport as a global problem that needs to be addressed.Every day we meet traffic jam.We miss about 10 000 parking spaces in a town.Through this projekt we have chance to change transport habits of the City Office employees . I believe, that with next steps we motivate them to healthier life and to move more. I am convinced that we will also be an inspiration for other organizations, “ says mayor of Banská Bystrica , Ján Nosko.

The first steps in preparing the institutinal sustainable mobility plan (IPUM) for the City Office,they focused on analyzing the current state of mobility. The analysis was conducted in the form of an on-line questionnaire survey of the transport behavior of employees, personal interviews with employees, analysis of internal and subsequently external mobility conditions at the office. Personal interviews resulted in very valuable information, such as the specific measures that would welcome workers in the workplace and motivate them to make more use of their bicycle, walking, public transport or co-operation.

Subsequently, on the basis of the collected, analyzed and evaluated data, documents and matierals as well as several sessions with the employees and head officers of the Office, realized second substantial part of IPUM processing, namely the design part of the mobility plan. It contains a proposal for concrete measures to be implemented within the Office and their prioritization as well as a timetable for the implementation of these measures.

The proposed measures are divided into so-called “ soft measures” and “hard measures”. Soft measures are mostly financial, less demanding, so simpler, faster to implement and they have more informative character. By contrast, “hard” measures are usually more financially demanding and often require infrastructure changes. The plan should make it easier for city office workers to use public transport, bicycles and walks on foot when taking up their jobs.

“We appreciate that we could help the city office in Banská Bystrica to develop and adopt the Institutional Sustainable Mobility Plan, a modern tool to reduce the use of cars for getting the office’s staff into work and working out in the city. Many of the measures taken, such as the improvement of the dressing room, showering and parking of bicycles at the office, come directly from the staff. Other measures reflect modern trends in Europe. For example, reserving parking spaces in the area of the car office where more employees come to work is the support of so- car-pooling. We are pleased that our Banská Bystrica starts to be among the few cities that do not want to solve traffic problems only by expanding the roads but also by supporting sustainable mobility and we are ready to help the city office ” says Peter Medveď, director of the Ekopolis Foundation.

The MOVECIT project is supported by Interreg Central Europe and is focused on creating mobility plans for institutions. The aim of this project, which will last until May 2019, is also to increase the awareness of self-government workers about the impacts of their transport habits on the environment and on the quality of life.

The project also includes organizing a series of interested parties meetings, trainings and workshops for mobility managers and an international conference on sustainable mobility.