Throughout the EU, increased reliance on the car has resulted in high levels of congestion and more pollution, leading to economic, environmental and health problems for our regions and cities. ERDF investment in infrastructure could accelerate this trend if parallel alternative measures are not introduced at the same time.

Mobility Management aims to reduce reliance on the car by encouraging travellers to use other modes. It comprises ‘soft’ measures (e.g. information or coordination of existing user services), which enhance the effectiveness of ‘hard’ measures of traffic planning (e.g. new tram lines, new roads and new bike tracks). But mobility management is new, not very visible, politically risky. It raises questions about administrative competencies: there is no ‘Department of Mobility Management’ anywhere in the EU.

Responsibilities are split between functions and between different levels of administration. Many budgets need to be engaged in order for most mobility management actions to be funded – even though they are low-cost. Regions have a crucial lead-role.

So the overall objective of PIMMS CAPITAL is to stimulate modal shift towards more sustainable forms of transport by increasing the implementation of high quality mobility management techniques and policies in European regions. The additional benefit to the regions will be the development of more efficient and free-flowing transport systems, which will contribute to their economic competitiveness.