Overview
Europe is facing a tremendous demographic shift, its populations are ageing while there are less children born now than 50 years ago. This ageing of the population presents several challenges, one of which is the older generations preferred use of private cars instead of public transport. AENEAS set out to make public transport more attractive for the older generations through a partnership of five European cities and seven leading organisations and networks.
The AENEAS Project pursued the following aims:
Raising awareness about the challenge of energy-efficient urban mobility in an ageing society among stakeholders in European cities;
Enabling key actors to address these issues by applying successful, non-technological concepts;
Raising awareness on energy-efficient travel options (walking, public transport, cycling, car sharing and public bicycles) and promote them as alternatives to the private car;
Training older people on how to use sustainable transport according to their needs and expectations; and
Improving the attractiveness and safety of energy-efficient modes by small-scale, innovative interventions.
The AENEAS Project consisted of two main activities:
- Exchanging good practices among European cities on energy-efficient mobility in ageing societies via a 'Good Practice Exchange Ring' involving 50 cities and organisations and using tools like training workshops and implementation handbooks;
- Enabling and encouraging older people to use energy-efficient mobility in five European cities through concrete measures in the areas of mobility management, training, awareness raising and communication.
Results
The AENEAS Project produced the following key results:
- It successfully implemented fifteen measures in order to promote and enable sustainable mobility among older people in the five participating cities (Donostia – San Sebastián, Krakow, Munich, Odense and Salzburg);
- It held seven well-attended European events;
- It produced 24 deliverables in seven languages;
- It had local measures filmed by Eltis, Europe by Satellite and other film teams in all five participating cities;
- It established a website with almost 200.000 page views (approx. 200 / day) and 90.000 downloads, ranking among the top in Google in different countries and languages (e.g. Poland and Spain 3rd place, Austria 4th, Denmark and Germany 5th);
- It gave more than 70 presentations at high-level conferences and events across Europe and even in Hong Kong.
Strategy targets
This project promoted secure transport at the same time as it also promoted more sustainable development.