“The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and, if they can’t find them, make them.”

The above quotation by George Bernard Shaw is probably the biggest success factor in the MOVE project and can be translated as motivated people. Many partners have struggled with difficulties such as lack of information, knowledge and interest from their target groups but at the end solved the problems and in many cases turned them into successes, opened the eyes of their stakeholders and won the interest of their target groups. The three stories below describe what the partners thought contributed to the success of their work in the MOVE project.

ESS:Interested stakeholders

The interest from our stakeholders to these questions is a very important  success factor for us. The Swedish Road Administration has the responsibility of the whole transport sector in Sweden, hard measures such as infrastructure investments and maintenance of the roads but also of soft measures such as Mobility Management and road safety. They work on the commission of the Swedish Government and have regional representants that are our partners in this work. They have a very good competence in Mobility Management and support our and other similar actors work through Mobility Agencies etc. They also provide us with skills through regular training and network meetings.

The Regional and County Councils are other important stakeholders. They put regional targets that, in many cases, are more ambitious than both national and European targets. They want us to work with these questions so that they can reach the targets. They participate often in our seminars as speakers and demonstrate thus their support. The Public Transport Administrations are another key factor for success. Without their contribution it would not have been possible to carry out projects like Test Traveller. Finally, there are the project managers. Without their enthusiasm and effort there would be no projects implemented. The cooperation between all these actors has guaranteed the success of the Swedish project.

TEA: Private initiative

The work that Ring a Link does in Clonmel is inspirational. This is a non-profit organisation of charitable status that prioritises social inclusion by offering transport services to people of reduced mobility. However, this company has become highly innovative and extremely interested in the environmental sustainability of their actions. They wish to establish more services to reduce the number of single use private cars on the road. They tick every box when it comes to reducing the travel related carbon footprint of the region. I am looking forward to working with them on other mobility projects in the future.

The Company Ring a Link only planned to set up 4 routes per day over 6 days but because of demand an additional service was added.

Rural Transport Initiative: 18Tonnes CO2 was avoided in one year by setting up the additional bus services in Clonmel. 

ECB: Involvement of the Mayor of Žilina

The involvement of the Mayor of Zilina and the signing of the Mobility Charta for the European Mobility Week in the bus on the main town square were certainly a success factor. This attracted mass-media and resulted in greater interest from other competent bodies and institutions to participate not only in Mobility Week Campaign but also in other activities within sustainable mobility. Thanks to the quality cooperation with media (newspapers, radios, TVs) the message of the Mobility Week was spread not only within Žilina but all over Slovakia.

Also, good weather contributed to the success of the whole campaign, especially to action “Street for people”