The City of Stuttgart had the pleasure to welcome around 200 participants coming from 30 countries all over the world to the first Annual Congress “cities for mobility - mobility for citizens” from 10 - 13 June 2007.

Several high political representatives of local authorities (among them from the Netherlands, France, Poland, Mexico, Japan, China, Turkey and South Africa) as well as experts and representatives from the economy, science and civil society attended the congress in order to share their experiences in the area of urban mobility and to elaborate innovative project proposals that will be implemented on the local level.

The Annual Congress aimed at giving the participating cities and institutions the opportunity to learn from each other and to exchange experiences about their problems, solutions, ongoing initiatives and plans for the future in the urban transport sector. Mayor Wolfgang Schuster underlined in his contribution how important it is for cities nowadays to concern themselves with the consequences of growing mobility for people and the environment. Their importance as living space is increasing rapidly. In view of this development. In view of this development, Mayor Schuster emphasized the necessity of cities to cooperate in this globalized “One World” in order to cope effectively with this great challenge. Despite the fact that cities have different situations (e.g. political systems, technologies, social and economic development) they are all confronted with common trends in urban mobility, such as growing metropolitan areas, individualization and urban sprawl. The network “Cities for Mobility” was set up in 2006 to seek innovative approaches for sustainable mobility and create a stronger lobby for the needs of the cities. Mayor Schuster highlighted its function as a dynamic platform to search for common ways towards local transport systems which meet economic requirements and are at the same time socially just and environmentally friendly. 

As a concrete result, a common agenda for “Cities for Mobility” was adopted by the participants in the final plenary session. Five thematic fields of action (individual transport, public transport, bicycle transport, pedestrian transport and commercial transport) were identified for the future work of the network. For each of these action fields one working group under the responsibility of a Chairman and supported by a Manager was established. During the next Annual Congress in Stuttgart (1 - 3 June 2008) the working groups will present the concrete results which have been achieved since their creation.

The project proposals that have emerged out of the workshops of the Annual Congress will be available here next week. The Coordination Office will follow up the project proposals and support the partners in the creation of the project consortium as well as during the elaboration and submission phase. Those members who due to high travel costs were not able to participate in the congress will have the possibility to get all information on the project proposals and to join them.

• Presentations
  Click here to view and download the contributions of the speakers


• Photo Gallery
  Click here to view the photo gallery of World Congress 2007