03rd of August 2009, Budapest
The European Mobility Week Award went to Budapest in 2008. Why did we get the award? The Municipality of the Capital and districts municipalities of Budapest developed a whole range of events and activities to promote sustainable urban transport, with a major contribution from local artists and organisations. The Hungarian capital introduced and promoted several permanent measures to demonstrate its commitment to sustainable transport, such as expanding the downtown pedestrian area, increasing parking fees in the city centre, improving metro and tram infrastructure and services, and introducing new bicycle lanes and ’park and ride’ facilities. Budapest also finished its ring road during EMW, reducing transit traffic in the city by around one-quarter.
The opening day (16th September) will be The Day of Public Transport. The programme will focus on clever commuting. In the early morning will be a competition: a group of VIPs will start from Gödöllő, a town in the agglomeration of the capital travelling on train, bus, suburban railway and private car to the city centre to demonstrate the advantages of public tranport compared to private cars. Arriving to the destination, into a new underground train, a press briefing will be hold to communicate the advantages of PT.
17th September will be The Day of Responsible and Alternative Car Usage. There will be an open air exhibition of alternative cars with hybrid, gas, velo, electro cars and a demonstrative march of these vehicles on the most crowded main road of the city. The public may try the hybrid and gas operated taxi cars for free. 18th September will be The Day of Pedestrian Streets when we focus on the expanding pedestrian areas. The event will be held on Krudy street, the newest link of the chain of the pedestrian streets in the Heart of Budapest. The Budapest-Art-Corso, an open-air fine-art exhibition will be set up here and a ‘shop-window theatre’ performance, in the environment of newly opened terraces on the car-free road.
The whole weekend of the Mobility Week will be car-free on the Andrassy street, a main road of Budapest.
The Day Of Living Streets – ‘Improving City Climates!’ (19th September) On this day Andrassy street, a part of the World Heritage Sites, will be closed. As in previous years more than 110 thousand visitors will be expected this year too to the programmes, partially in green grass on the pavement.
An ’Open Air /Clean Air Theatre Festival’ will open the theatre-season of the city on the street with the performances of 18 ‘steady’ and 20 ‘alternative’ theatres. You can walk along the Budapest-Art-Corso, visit the GreenTEX (environment-friendly technologies, goods, products and services) and colourful programs of the public transport companies (railway, urban transport). Bicycle races and special bicycle presentations will take place. NGOs, bicycle service businesses and bicycle dealers will set up stands in the Bike Centre on the street. There will be venues for soccer, streetball, street volleyball and many other sports.
On the second Car-Free Day -‘In town without my car!’ (20th September) the Andrássy street will be blocked from private cars too, but open for PT buses, hybrid cars, pedestrians, cyclists. The main actors of the day will be the children: cooperating with the Ministry of Transport and Energy we try to set up a Guinness Record! We invite families for this day to paint or draw something about environment, environmental protection into a framework, which is a bicycle path, it will be drawn on the road. We have to reach more than 5,000 participants to beat the previous record.
On the sixth day (21st September) will be organised an Open Forum and workshop to debate Urban design and traffic planning. The aim is to further cycling as a means of transport in Hungary and especially Budapest. Objectives are: To describe the present state of Urban Planning in Budapest vis a vis biking in Budapest, and to provide outside – Danish – inspiration to urban planning in this area. And to come up with suggestions for concrete –urban planning - steps forward for making Hungary and especially Budapest a better place for bicycles.
On The European Car-Free Day -‘In town without my car!’ (22nd September) we will close the a section of Nagykörút, the Grand Boulvarde of Budapest. The biggest bicycle demonstration of the World called Critical Mass will pedal around the downtown at the end of the day. This section will be where the cyclists can gather and start from.
Contact:
Laszlo Kovacs
Project manager
Tel.:+361 256 4913
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