Trikala, Greece

Oxfordshire is a prosperous and vibrant county, combining a thriving economy with a high-quality environment. It is the most rural county in South-East England, and yet a world leader in innovation and enterprise in areas such as life sciences, space technologies, electronic & sensors, creative & digital and automotive.

Oxford is the 52nd city in size and one of the fastest growing in the UK. However, as with many medieval European cities, Oxford faces significant issues in delivering holistic and connected mobility due to its densely-built and narrow streets. This is exacerbated by development restrictions, Green Belt zoning and flooding considerations, resulting in a lack of inter-neighbourhood connectivity. The area of the Eastern Arc, which has recently become the largest employment location within the Oxford locality, faces several urban mobility challenges with the most serious being: i) the insufficient transport network, ii) congestion at peak hours, and iii) constrained housing supply and increasing unaffordability. Limited accessibility and a disconnected transport network led to a substantial use of private cars, which in turn caused increased road congestion. A legacy of deregulation and privatisation of public transport has only increased the problem, since it brought about fragmentation and significant challenges to delivering sustainable, low-carbon, low-cost, end-to-end transport solutions.

Improving the transport network within the Eastern Arc is key to Oxford’s economic and social success. Good quality, reliable transport has an major role to play in supporting regeneration and growth by providing opportunities for reaching and accessing employment, training, essential services and amenities. How can this be achieved? As each community is unique, no Citizen Mobility Lab or Kit looks exactly like the others.

In Turkey the administration of urban transport and mobility services is being handled at the municipality and metropolitan municipality level through “Transport Master Plans”. Municipalities’ “Transport Coordination Centres” have a central role in developing action plans and taking decisions regarding public transport. Through these organisations, municipalities can track and administer urban transport in an economic and efficient manner. Although the administration of urban transport remains mostly at the local level, the central national administration regulates the field as well. The Turkish Ministry of Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communications, for instance, prepared the “National Smart Transport Systems Strategy Paper” (2014-2023) and two action plans about urban transport in the country. These documents also show the increasing role played by technology for urban planning and urban mobility.

Nationally, improvements in the accessibility through urban transport, integration of urban plans and transport plans and development of public transport systems have been pursued since 2013 to reduce traffic congestion. Other goals to make Turkish cities more eco-friendly are the promotion of the use of e-mobility and hybrid cars, the establishment of smart bike networks and the expansion of pedestrian zones. Besides, actions towards the improvement of mechanisms regarding participation in urbanisation are foreseen, which should strengthen the participation of non-governmental organisations, chambers of commerce, universities, local authorities and citizens through the creation of committees, information centres, communication tools and city councils.

Regarding the metropolitan region of Istanbul, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality is the authority responsible for organising urban transport. It administers an extended area with 73 lower-level authorities (i.e. 32 provincial sub-municipalities and 41 first-level municipalities, including Üsküdar) and supervises a range of bodies dedicated to land use planning, transport and traffic regulation, while two specific bodies (UKOME and AYKOME) are devoted to coordinating the transport sector. An Urban Transport Master Plan was prepared in 2011 for the establishment of a sustainable transport system. The transport investments of the municipality were mainly focused on public transport and, in particular, on developing rail systems, and efforts were also put into decreasing the use of private cars in the metropolitan centre and its immediate surrounding with a view to decrease traffic congestion.