Local territories, decisional territories
By bringing together local
elected representatives,
researchers, experts and members
of the civil society, the organisers
of the World Forum
on sustainable mobility are
raising the fundamental questions
of local governance, regional planning, economic
and environmental development, education,
research and civil expertise. All these questions
show one same concern: how to maintain
and ensure the quality of our common heritage
without jeopardizing the movements of people
and goods?
The time has come to take new steps, to launch innovative actions and encourage virtuous behavioural patterns. More than ever before, each and every move made here or elsewhere takes on a world dimension. Sustainable mobility is one element of these remarkable dynamics that we need to support.
Our organisation is of course directly concerned by this action and wishes to help bring together its many different partners to create active international cooperation with a view to being part of tomorrow’s “sustainable territories”. In this effervescent atmosphere, intelligence together with local and global experiences will father new avenues and solutions.
I would like to invite you, in your own fi eld of activity and with your competence, to take part in this confrontation of ideas and in the cross refl ection amongst representatives from all fi ve continents, in order to draw a broad outline of sustainable mobility which is at the heart of our development strategies in our territories.
Jacques Auxiette,
Président
Pays de la Loire Regional Council
At this time of greater worldwide
awareness on climate
change, urban mobility takes
on a new dimension with questions
that need to be answered.
Aware of the central role they
must play, local authorities are
getting more and more involved in the search
for innovative solutions that are to be found
through the exchange of various experiences
and experimental actions being led in different
urban areas.
Nantes has always been a crossroads for research and innovation in the field of transport. We have always been receptive to new ideas and responses brought at a European and international level, such as the tramway, the BusWay, river shuttles, intermodality, carsharing, mobility schemes. These are many innovations that have permitted the City of Nantes to reconcile development with quality of life.
In the field of mobility, things are not easily decided and decision-makers have to take into account the population’s mobility habits and accompany people in their evolution. Paradoxically, whereas digital society has made information transmission so easy, people’s mobility needs continue to increase.
This is the reason why we salute the World Forum on sustainable mobility whose aim is to bring together mobility players from all over the world. Whether from the North or the South, rich or not so rich, they all face the same challenge: how to manage mobility in international large cities?
JI would like to invite you to take part in the 1st World Forum on sustainable mobility. May we, from our collective refl ection, bring in new solutions to this permanent challenge that is sustainable mobility.
Jean-Marc Ayrault,
Member of Parliament and Mayor of Nantes,
President, Nantes City Council
