Thematic Working Group
Urban Mobility

This page has been archived. Please refer to the Thematic Groups page for up to date activities' content.

The ECTRI Thematic Working Group on Urban Mobility has been created in 2004, further to INRETS initiative, with the following aims:

To prepare by May 2005, as first action, a Strategic Research Agenda on Urban Transport Mobility to be presented at first place at the 56th UITP World Congress and Mobility and City Transport Exhibition in Rome in June 2005

To define a working programme in this area for actions at short, medium and long terms

To propose some common reflections about research needs in urban mobility to European, National and Regional Institutions.

The Thematic Working Group is currently composed of 41 experts from 22 institutes, as following:

AIT: Nobert Brändle
CENIT: Francesc Robusté & Francesc Soriguera
DLR: Prof. Barbara Lenz (rapporteur) & Claudia Nobis
DTU: Henrik Gudmunsson
DVS: Henk Pauwels
FHG: Ulf Jung, Thilo Bein, Werner Schönewolf & Dietrich Schmidt
HIT: Dr Yannis Tyrinopoulos & Maria Morfoulaki
IFSTTAR:Claude Soulas, Alain Lhostis, Sandra Bozzani & Anne Aguilera
IK: Andrzej Massel
KTI: Imre Keseru
LET: Prof. Cristina Pronello
LNEC: Dr. Elisabete Arsénio
POLITO: Valentina Rappazzo & Cristian Camusso
TØI: Frode Longva & Nils Fearnley
TRL: Neil Paulley
TTEF: Prof. Jadranka Jovic
TTI: Prof. Igor Kabashkin & Prof. Irina Yatskiv
UPM: José Manuel Mera & Rocio Cascajo
UVEG: Pedro Alfonso Pérez Losa, Jaime San Martín, Leandro García & Ignacio Sánchez
VGTU-TMI: Jurgita Barysine & Andrius Jarzemskis
VTI: Bertil Hylen, Robert Hrelja & Kerstin Robertson
VTT: Tuuli Jarvi

The objectives of this TWG:

- preparation of a strategic research agenda (SRA) on urban mobility & definition of a working program in this field,
- proposal of common reflections about research needs in urban mobility to European, national and regional institutions

The first action of the TWG was the preparation of URBAMOVE – Urban Mobility Initiative – issued in June 2005, which proposes a Strategic Research Agenda for Urban Mobility in the European Union.

After the URBAMOVE publication, the TWG experts have been invited to participate in the EURFORUM (European Research Forum for Urban Mobility) project. This FP6 project was a Coordination Action funded by the EC and coordinated by UITP; besides ECTRI, the 5 other partners involved were the Technical University Dresden, CERTU, ASSTRA, POLIS, and EMTA. EURFORUM’s Strategic Research Agenda addressed research issues in the particular field of urban transport considering all transport modes and focusing on intermodality for both passenger and freight transport. Technology-oriented as well as policy-oriented research was considered. The focus was directed on urban issues, including the transport between an agglomeration and its surroundings. EURFORUM’s SRA relied on the conviction that holistic and interdisciplinary research is the most adequate approach to solve the problems identified in the area of urban transport.

The TWG A has prepared an input to the EC green paper on Urban Transport in April 2007, and lastly, this group also released in March 2008 a positon paper on EC Green paper "Towards a new urban mobility culture".

The TWG Urban Mobility also prepared inputs for the FP7 update. These inputs have been gathered in a report entitled "White spots in the European Transport research traced by ECTRI's Thematic Working Groups". This report was released to the EC in June 2009.

Since 2010, this TWG is also closely following up both the ITS action plan and the Urban Mobility Action, the Intelligent Transport Systems in Urban Areas – Urban ITS expert group initiated by the European Commission to promote the deployment of ITS solutions in urban areas. The EC expert group exchanges best practice, develop guidance and work towards improved interfaces between urban and interurban ITS for continuity of services. Dr. Yannis Tyrinopoulos from HIT, Greece and member of this TWG seats in the expert group.