On Wednesday 21 May, Friends of the Earth Malta (FoEM) organised a seminar on Micromobility, discussing the potential of safe, accessible, and green transport alternatives in urban areas, and how to promote micromobility in future transport policies for Malta. Micromobility includes most small one-person vehicles that operate at low speeds and are not gas-powered, from active modes like walking and cycling to skateboards, electric (cargo)bikes and scooters, as well as wheelchairs. Increasing the use of micromobility is a key step to reducing transport-related carbon emissions as well as air and noise pollution, and reclaiming public space in our cities.
The Seminar on Micromobility, attended by over 30 people, marked the closing of our Micromobi project, an Erasmus+ project co-funded by the EU, led by FoEM with partners from Cyprus, Sicily and Slovenia. Dr Suzanne Maas, Climate Campaign Coordinator at FoEM and leader of the project, shared the main outcomes of the project including the Micromobi Toolkit for cities and communities and a White Paper for policy makers, which was presented during the seminar, with insights and recommendations on how to promote micromobility, also in cities that are currently highly car dependent.
The highlight of the seminar was an engaging panel discussion with transport experts, operators and decision-makers discussing contemporary transport topics such as micromobility regulations, free public transport, and future policies such as the recent transport measures announced by the Minister. ‘Are Malta’s transport policies equipped to promote micromobility?’ and ‘Is there still space for change’ were some of the questions addressed in the panel discussion. Denise Fiorentino, Head of Policy from the Ministry for Transport, Infrastructure and Public Works, said that “the biggest challenge we face is getting people to commute using alternatives to cars” and explained that as part of the Ministry’s ‘Reshaping our Mobility’ initiatives “the new cycling strategy will be published soon and aims to create safe roads for people cycling. To do that, we need infrastructure and we need to show what a safe route looks like.” Konrad Pulé, General Manager at Malta Public Transport highlighted the importance of multimodality; using different modes of transport to make a trip. “Public transport cannot reach everywhere, so we need safe infrastructure for micromobility so people can connect from the start or to the end of their trip” he explained. “For that we need space, we need to take difficult political decisions to remove space currently taken by cars and on street parking, and dedicate it to micromobility and public transport”.
Questions from the public opened up a lively debate on topics such as how to promote cargo bikes for personal transport and deliveries, the lack of basic infrastructure such as safe, comfortable and connected pavements, how to deal with strong emotional responses in traffic like road rage, and how to challenge Malta’s car centric culture. Sergio Sammut, Architect and President of Rota, commented on the social justice aspect of mobility, stating that “the way our built environment is right now completely ignores the needs of certain groups of people, such as people using wheelchairs, parents with prams, kids and the elderly”. He commented that a good yardstick for equitable transport policy is the “8 to 80 principle: a design approach in urban planning that states that if a city is safe and accessible for both an 8-year-old and an 80-year-old, then it will be safe and accessible for everyone”. Steve Zammit Lupi, Mayor of Ħaż-Żebbuġ shared about different projects in his locality to promote sustainable mobility and the use of public space by people, such as opening the village square for people to play and enjoy without cars around on weekends, offering bicycle lessons to children, and widening pavements, adding safe crossings, bicycle parking and trees for a better urban environment. He explained that it is not easy to push for projects that challenge the status quo, but that “as decision makers it is our job to convince people that we must move in this direction“. On the other hand, he added, “if people want to see a change, they need to demand this change from decision makers, starting from where they live, in their local council”.
To explore and learn more about micromobility, the project’s interactive platform www.micromobi.eu offers quizzes, videos and infographics about micromobility, its benefits, and road safety, a dedicated toolkit with good and bad practices and real-life success stories from cities across Europe, and an inspiring case study from Ljubljana (Slovenia), showing how micromobility can become a pillar of sustainable urban mobility, in a move away from the negative effects of a car centric culture.
🇪🇺 This event marks the closing of the MICROMOBI project – co-funded by the European Union and implemented by Friends of the Earth Malta, Friends of the Earth Cyprus, LKM and Promimpresa.
👉 Explore more on the Micromobi Online Learning Platform: www.micromobi.eu
👉 Access the Micromobi Toolkit
👉 Read the full White Paper
