Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

On the 7th and 8th of March of this year, the twentieth gathering of SMART-MR was held in the metropolitan area of Porto, bringing the first phase to a close.

SMART-MR partners and experts from the eight countries met to examine issues related to the goals met and the actions to be carried out in the eight metropolitan regions. They also discussed the best ways to implement the policy recommendations created in the first phase of the project. At this gathering, the publication entitled Transforming European Metropolitan Regions was also released, along with the SMART-MR mobility public policy recommendations.

The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) is currently working on a local action plan included in these public policy recommendations. It is based on three major cornerstones, namely the creation of low-emissions zones, as well as other types of regulations on access to urban areas that restrict circulation of the most highly polluting vehicles in inner-city areas; the electric bicycle service e-Bicibox, and the creation of the Metropolitan Parking Platform (AMB Aparcament), a payment method for blue and green areas via mobile app.

Transforming European Metropolitan Regions

The point of departure of this publication is climate change and the challenges it poses to metropolitan regions. Based on the existing knowledge and firsthand experiences, participative planning is an effective tool for joining forces to counter climate change, and it is essential to create and communicate a vision and a strategy. Focused on mobility and land use planning, the publication presents short and long-term beneffits in planning mobility, low-carbon logistics and public transport management.

SMART-MR (Sustainable Measures for Achieving Resilient Transportation in Metropolitan Regions) is a project that seeks to support local authorities on improving transport policies and fostering the transition to an urban future with low-carbon emissions. The objective is to achieve sustainable measures for transport and mobility in cities. Eight metropolitan regions are participating in it: Oslo, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Budapest, Ljubljana, Rome, Porto and Barcelona.

The project, which is financed by the Interreg Europa programme, will last five years, split into two phases: the first three-year phase, which started in April 2016, to exchange, learn and develop action plans, and a second two-year phase to implement them.