11 April 2022

The 2021 European Mobility Week encouraged cities around Europe to make European urban areas a more pleasant place to live and work. Annually between September 16-22, cities from around the continent come together to promote active mobility solutions and clean public transport. Recently the 2021 winners were announced during the Award Ceremony on 28 March 2022. The Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) is proud to have two cities selected as winners across the four categories. 

From implementing permanent solutions to putting on a week of engaging activities, the European Commission’s European Mobility Week campaign seeks to raise awareness about sustainable urban mobility. With record-breaking European participation in 2021, this year’s independent panel of transport experts picked a winner for 4 separate categories from a pool of 3,184 registered towns and cities – of which over 55 were ICC cities (full list below). 

In spite of high competition, the ICC cities of Tampere (Finland) and Valongo (Portugal)’s initiatives to make their cities a safer and greener place to live stood out during the 2021 European Mobility Week, earning them two awards. 

The ICC winner in the Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP) category is Tampere. This award is given to a city for focusing on the “essential role of health and safety in sustainable urban mobility, including initiatives for more vulnerable groups as well as interlinking health, equality, the environment and poverty by highlighting the role of mobility within quality urban spaces.”  

Meanwhile, Valongo is the ICC winner in the smaller municipalities category—which can only be awarded to a city with less than 100,000 inhabitants. This category focuses on an “extensive variety of permanent measures and activities that integrate public opinion and for a multi-modal approach, including the creation of attractive pedestrian areas and new and improved wheelchair ramps throughout the city.” 

Both cities have made great efforts towards the green and digital transition on their ICC journeys and this recognition further proves their commitment to this. The ICC is proud to see that the efforts of Tampere and Valongo have been rewarded and is looking forward to seeing more cities implement ambitious projects in sustainable urban mobility.

The full list of 2021 participant ICC cities include: 

  • Antwerp, Mechelen, Leuven (Belgium)  

  • Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina) 

  • Sofia (Bulgaria) 

  • Rijeka, Osijek (Croatia) 

  • Brno (Czech Republic) 

  • Espoo, Jyväskylä, Turku, Tampere (Finland) 

  • Paris-Saclay, Metropole Rouen Normandie, Pays de Saint-Omer Agglomeration Community (France) 

  • Hamburg, Ulm (Germany) 

  • Kavala, Thessaloniki, Trikala, Ioannina, Tripoli, Palaio Faliro (Greece) 

  • Budapest, Szombathely (Hungary) 

  • Cork (Ireland) 

  • Milan (Italy) 

  • Poznan, Gdansk, Bialystok, Gliwice (Poland) 

  • Porto, Valongo, Guimaraes (Portugal) 

  • Skopje (North Macedonia) 

  • Bistrita, Iasi (Romania) 

  • Bratislava (Slovakia) 

  • Ljubljana, Association of Municipalities and Towns of Slovenia (Slovenia) 

  • Gijon, Las Rozas, Granada, Molina de segura, Cartagena, Alicante, Torrent, Castellon de la Plana, Gava, Terrassa, Barcelona, Logrono, Pamplona, Alcobendas (Spain) 

  • Karlskrona (Sweden)