What should we do first? Build cycle lanes or wait until there are enough cyclists to push for change? According to the panellists at last month’s Informed Cities Forum, if you want people to change their mobility habits, you need to both make them aware of their own impact and provide them with the context to be able to make that change – i.e. build the cycle lanes. This was just one of the many questions debated among the participants during the 3-day event in the European Green Capital 2022 and ICLEI Member City Grenoble (France), which focussed on behavioural change for sustainable mobility.

The event, entitled “Building better mobility relationships: Start with the city - Expand to individuals”, attracted transport practitioners, mobility consultants, politicians and academics from across Europe. The unique and dynamic programme varied from round table debates to site visits; highlights included the mobility treasure hunt around mobility hotspots of the host city and an interactive role-play on stakeholder engagement. As highlighted by speaker Dr. Charlotte Halpern (Sciences Po / SUMP-PLUS), “The role-plays gave us the opportunities to look at issues from all different perspectives, which we don’t usually get to do in our everyday jobs”.

The Informed Cities Forum is an ICLEI event series, which aims to make research work for local sustainability and bridge the gap between research, policy-making and action in sustainable development, at and for the local level. Drawing on various research projects - in this case, on the SUMP-PLUS project - the Informed Cities initiative is a meeting place for dreamers, thinkers and doers who want to co-create the future of European cities.

For more information on the Informed Cities Forum, click here.