European Mobility Week Chemnitz honoured
On Monday, the city of Chemnitz was awarded a prize for its European Mobility Week 2021 programme.
Chemnitz was awarded third place in the category "Best EMW programme for large municipalities with over 100,000 inhabitants". The jury praised the extensive and sustainable measures to promote cycling and the quality of stay as a particular strength of the EMW programme in Chemnitz.
In 2021, the EMW programme aimed to implement permanent measures to increase the number of journeys made by bike or public transport and to promote environmentally conscious mobility behaviour. For example, the first cycle lanes were created and a bicycle service station was set up, the location of which Chemnitz residents were able to vote for online beforehand. Knowledge and educational materials with practical tips were provided for cycling education in schools and school routes were made safer by removing unnecessary traffic signs and setting speed limits of 30 km/h. In order to encourage more citizens to switch to public transport, contactless payment of tickets via smartphone was also introduced on local transport.
For the first time, the prizes for European Mobility Week in Germany were awarded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment and the Federal Environment Agency. The competition was open from 23 September to 19 November 2021. A total of 28 municipalities, including 25 cities and three districts, as well as eleven non-municipal stakeholders submitted 45 entries. An independent interdisciplinary jury assessed the degree of innovation, reach and transfer potential of the entries and selected the winners.