1st Intraregional Stakeholders workshop in Ljubljana urban region
Being located at the center a country with a historical focus on investment in highways, the Ljubljana urban region is heavily burdened by the continually increasing traffic flows and and faces a pressing need for sustainable solutions. As a partner in the SMAPE project that focuses on shared mobility, the Regional development agency of Ljubljana urban region (RRA LUR) tends to identify key challenges that would transfer to effective mobility policy changes as well as collect the necessary inputs for the improvement of the regional SUMP. For both of these purposes, RRA LUR held the 1st Intraregional Stakeholders workshop, taking place on 7th of June 2023.
In the last 35 years, Slovenia has built an extensive network of highways and expressways that connect major cities and regions intending to facilitate efficient transportation. On the other hand, the public transport network was neglected and is now insufficiently developed and poorly connected. The last modal split shows nearly 85% of all trips in the region are made by car. There is a strong need to improve transport policies, which will lead to the reorganization and modernization of public transport and to changes in the travel habits of daily commuters.
Therefore, sustainable mobility is one of the central development goals of the Ljubljana urban region. In 2018 our region adopted the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP), a key tool in sustainable mobility planning and for the transition of the region to a low-carbon society. After 6 years, the document needs a thorough revision.
RRA LUR has joined the EU project SMAPE to find the policy tools and actions to foster shared mobility and improve our SUMP. Our mobility plan is based on 5 pillars of sustainable mobility: (I.) Walking and cycling, (II.) Public transport, (III.) Motorized transport (IV.) Freight transport and logistics and (V.) Sustainable mobility planning. In the frame of SMAPE project we’ll focus on the first 2 through the perspective of shared mobility.
RRA LUR held SMAPE’s 1st Intraregional Stakeholders workshop on the 7th of June 2023 to ensure an effective engagement that would translate in mobility policy changes aligned with actual needs. The following stakeholders participated in the workshop:
- the Jožef Stefan Institute, the main national research institute,
- the main regional institutes in the field of spatial and urban planning, Urban Institute of Ljubljana and IPOP – Institute for Spatial Policies,
- CER – Partnership for the Sustainable Economy, the largest national sustainable business network in Slovenia and
- GoOpti – Demand-responsive transportation company, one of the main providers of on-demand transportation.
After the initial presentation of the project, a debate about shared mobility followed, focusing specifically on shared mobility in the Ljubljana urban region. In the last decade, several very successful shared-mobility systems were introduced and have since gained a large user base. For instance, in May 2011 the City of Ljubljana launched a self-service bike rental system that operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year, complementing other forms of public transportation in the city. Initially, the bike system offered 30 stations with 300 bikes and today there are 84 BicikeLJ stations with 840 bikes, spreading outside the city center. All participants agreed that though shared mobility has a strong foundation in the urban areas, it needs to be applied throughout the whole region.