Seminar-dialogue "GREEN MOBILITY – towards clean, healthy and accessible environment" was held on April 7, 2017 in the creative space "Zakheim Gateway" (Kaliningrad, Litovsky Val Str., 61). The seminar was implemented within the framework of the international project of Nordic-Russian cooperation "GREEN MOBILITY – towards clean, healthy and accessible environment" that represents the Nordic environmental solutions in the development of "green" ecological transport and contributes to the improvement of the environmental situation in the Baltic Sea region.
The seminar was organized by ICSER “Leontief Center”, Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, Nordic Council of Ministers and Kaliningrad Regional Economic Development Agency.
Alexey Ignatiev, Programme Director at Kaliningrad Regional Economic Development Agency, Advisor to the temporary acting Governor of the Kaliningrad region AA. Alikhanov, read out the welcoming words of the Governor of the Kaliningrad region to the seminar participants.
The working part of the seminar was opened with presentations by representatives of the regional government and the city of Kaliningrad, who informed the participants about the construction of bicycle path infrastructure in the Kaliningrad region in the last few years and about extensive plans to develop this direction in the coming years.
Finn Andersen, director of the Danish Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg, shared many years of Danish experience in the field of green mobility, as well as his observations of changes in this field that occurred in St. Petersburg over the several years of Mr. Andersen's stay in Russia.
Interesting technology for preparation of tracks for winter cycling was mentioned by Pekka Tahkola, representative of the Winter Cycling Federation of Finland. Passage of graders over fallen snow using special technology provides bicycle tires with excellent contact with snow without the need to switch to winter tires.
Besides, during the winter Finnish cities provide online access to so-called maps of city's cleaning showing the passage of snow clearing vehicles along city tracks and paths, as well as the classes of tracks, the schedule and the frequency of maintenance works.
Using specific examples of places in Kaliningrad, Pekka showed why winter maintenance of these places in order to prepare them for cycling is not possible (lack of access by snow clearing vehicles, lack of efficient water removal on the embankments, etc.).
Alf S. Hohansen of Innovation Circle Network, spoke about modern approaches to the development of transport infrastructure in Norway. In particular, he dwelled in detail on the potential advantages of developing a railway infrastructure in order to minimize travel time, which could subsequently lead to a change in the balance between air and rail transport in favor of the latter. This will also help improve the connectivity of routes and reduce travel time between the Scandinavian capitals.
Expert Nikolay Kharitoshkin told about the key events implemented within the UNDP / GEF-Ministry of Transport project "Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from road transport in Russian cities".
Associate Professor of Irkutsk State Technical University Alexey Levashev in his presentation focused on the approach according to which the arrangement of streets should be subordinated not only to the purposes of transport communication, but also to the effective organization of public space.
Vladimir Kumov, the founder of the "Let's bike it!" movement, shared his experience in developing approaches to the creation of bicycle infrastructure in Moscow.
Presentations and other materials of the seminar are available for download here.
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