Project SMILES brings together 5 European partners so that they can share their learning experiences on developing a sustainable transport system for their own town.
Over the next three years each partner will deliver a transport / travel scheme to promote walking, cycling or public transport. The lessons learnt will be shared amongst partners so all countries can benefit from each other’s experiences.
Each of the partners will develop a distinct scheme that will focus on different road user groups.
- Cork City Council, Ireland, seeks to develop school travel plans to encourage more sustainable transport modes such as walking and cycling and reduce traffic congestion at schools.
- Karlstads Kommun, Sweden will focus their project on encouraging more children to travel by foot and bike to school and assist schools in developing a school travel plan.
- Cheshire West and Chester, UK will focus their scheme on two areas, firstly developing an Independent Travel Training Scheme for young people with learning difficulties and secondly working with schools to promote walking and cycling for their students.
- London Borough of Merton, London, UK will focus their project on enabling the older person to walk more and drive less.
- Ayuntamiento de Aranjuez, Spain will focus the project on encouraging more children to walk or cycle to school and on assisting schools with the development of their school travel plans. They will also improve the public cycle loan scheme, as well as cycle lanes signposting and lighting. They will promote a car-sharing system.
The main objective of Project SMILES is to develop actions which promote healthy and environmentally friendly alternative modes of transport to the private car.
Promotion of the benefits of sustainable travel is a key component of Project SMILES but it is also critical to ensure that safety and quality of life of the vulnerable road user is encapsulated in the project.
