Title

The Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) in Europe: Planning Walking and Sojourning in Streets and Public Spaces

Time

1:40 - 3:00pm

Location

1605 Tilia, Room 1103, West Village

Abstract

Topics to be discussed:

• The European Union’s project for ‘the city of tomorrow’ includes social and environmental objectives to create a more cohesive society, capable of responding to environmental threats.
• Policies to reinforce citizenship and identity; the crucial role of walking and sojourning in the public space. ‘Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans’ (SUMP) use tools to make European cities sustainable, liveable, healthy and safe, with fewer cars and lower speeds.
• Policies to reinforce citizenship and identity; the crucial role of walking and sojourning in the public space. ‘Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans’ (SUMP) use tools to make European cities sustainable, liveable, healthy and safe, with fewer cars and lower speeds.
• Historical differences between European and American cities in respect of walking – historical city cores’ surrounded by car oriented suburbs and the pedestrians’ difficulties.
• Policies and measures to transform the European city into a Walkable, Playable and Smart place to live. Transport planning creating conditions favorable to walking envisages neighborhoods becoming incubators of Urbanity – the Zones of 30 speed limit.
• The ‘Cyberparks’ European programme and the OECD Research Report on Walking, Urban Space and Health.
• The limits of Walking and infrastructure for combined Walking and Cycling. Developing seamless routes for pedestrians in Europe.
• The Athens’ case. Panepistimiou project.

Biographical Sketch

Thanos Vlastos is Professor of Urban & Transport Planning at National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), School of Surveying Enginnering, Department of Geography and Regional Planning. He also teaches at School of Architecture, NTUA and the Hellenic Open University. He is Architect (NTUA, 1977) and Civil Engineer (Ecole Speciale des Travaux Publics, Paris- 1979) with post-graduate studies on Transport Planning (Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris -1980) and Ph.D. on the Architecture of Urban Mobility (State University of Liège, Belgium 1983) with fellowships from France, Belgium and University of Liège (1977-1983). He has extensive experience in sustainable mobility issues (urban & transport planning integration, pedestrian and cycle friendly design), focusing through his research and published work in journals and conferences on the human dimension of urban and transport planning. He has also represented Greece in international organizations, committees and networks of cities such as OECD, Eurocities, Car Free Cities, etc. In his professional experience are included dozens of projects for local authorities in Greece and eight years in public administration (R.A.T.P. – Paris, ministry of Public Works and Organisation of Planning and Environmental Protection of Athens).

In 2000, he founded the Sustainable Mobility Unit (SMU) NTUA, aiming to investigate, plan and promote project and policies in the field of sustainable mobility (cycling, walking, public transport). Today, after 11 years, SMU has acquired long and significant experience in research and applications for the promotion of alternative means (with emphasis on cycling), becoming the leading research unit of this sector in Greece. The research projects and studies that members of SMU (11 young researchers -under 35- from different scientific fields: Transportation Planners, Urban Planners, Surveying Engineers, Civil Engineers, Geographers, Economists and Psychologists) have conducted gave solutions on cycling integration in the Greek city, suggested types of infrastructure and also took responsibility for the awareness raising of the Greek society through publications, lectures and debates in local communities.