Working Cars for Working Families Program

Energy efficient urban and sub-urban public transport, complemented by shared mobility is sponsored by European Commission — Horizon Europe. Expected Outcome: This topic aims at supporting activities that are enabling or contributing to the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission by accelerating the transition towards climate neutrality in cities. To this end, project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: Cities involved in this action advance in achieving their climate neutrality targets, reducing greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions by improving energy efficiency in urban and sub-urban public transport systems , complemented by urban mobility service car fleets – taxis, ride-hailing, car sharing and other active and shared mobility services . Comprehensive inventory and assessment of existing instruments and measures to foster electrification and attractiveness of urban and sub-urban public transport systems , urban mobility service car fleets and shared mobility, accompanied by targeted guidance for responsible authorities, operators and providers through integration of measures to improve energy efficiency in public transport and new shared mobility services. Upscaling of innovative and sustainable integrated mobility solutions , identifying gaps and shortcomings in existing systems and exchanging of best practices in the pilot sites involved in the action leading to a state-of-the-art of electrification and attractiveness of urban and suburban public transport with complementary urban mobility service car fleets and other active and shared mobility solutions . Enhanced assessment tools to quantify the direct benefits and associated co-benefits of decarbonised urban mobility service car fleets and of new shared mobility solutions complementary to public transport (including evaluation of impacts on modal shift, increased intermodal mobility and diverse user needs), the trade-off analysis between different solution and the recommendation of the most suitable implementation strategies, thereby helping to attract public investments. Further progress towards achieving the targets set by relevant EU strategies and policies such as the Zero Pollution Action Plan [1] , the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy [2] , the new EU Urban Mobility Framework [3] , the Decarbonise Corporate Fleets Communication [4] and the Energy Efficiency Directive [5] . Scope: Public transport is firmly at the centre of sustainable urban mobility policies at EU level and across Member States, in complementarity with active mobility and shared mobility services. However more needs to be done to make sure that urban and suburban public passenger transport, including coaches, and urban mobility service car fleets are energy efficient and attractive , contributing to climate neutrality targets as well as to cleaner and healthier urban and sub-urban environments. In addition, an optimal integration of public transport with other/new shared mobility services can increase its uptake by offering services that are complementary, offering coherent solutions allowing interconnection between mass transit and “last-mile” solutions. Designing urban and sub-urban systems that are energy-efficient and attractive and are tailored for complementary mobility options requires different thinking: e.g. new approaches to integrated urban planning; changes to or upgrades of infrastructure and redistribution of public space; better use of data and technology solutions to enable effective multimodality, including leveraging AI solutions; targeted local policies to promote and integrate different mobility options, to increase connectivity especially in peri-urban, rural, and underserved areas throughout the city, extending beyond the city centre. The objective of this topic is to explore and test solutions to increase energy-efficiency and attractiveness of urban and sub-urban public transport, urban mobility service car fleets, and other active and shared mobility solutions, in the pilot sites involved in the proposals, including by facilitating exchange of experienc Programme areas: Horizon Europe (HORIZON), Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, Climate, Energy and Mobility Keywords: Climate change mitigation, Decarbonisation, Mobility and transportation, Mobility management, Sustainable transport, Transport & Mobility, SSH (Social Sciences and Humanities), shared mobility, sustainable transport, urban and sub-urban public transport

Road Safety and resilience of rural areas is sponsored by European Commission — Horizon Europe. Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: Implementation of the NWRSA methodology for secondary rural roads; Innovative and effective enforcement strategies, incentive mechanisms and measures raising risk awareness for fostering safer behaviour; Prevention strategies for reducing road fatalities and serious road traffic injuries on rural roads along with the respective implementation guidelines and policy measures tailored to the responsible stakeholders (regional authorities, police, healthcare professionals, national governments, etc.); GIS-based application to assist local and regional authorities in identifying and mapping the impact of extreme weather phenomena and other natural disasters (such as floods, fires, storms, heavy snowfall etc.) on the safety and resilience of the road network in their jurisdiction. Scope: With more than 50% of all EU road fatalities occurring in rural areas along with evidence suggesting that crashes and crash-related fatalities in rural roads vary from those in urban roads or motorways, it is imperative to understand and mitigate the safety risks in rural roads in view of the EU’s ambition to move towards Vision Zero by 2050. Local and regional authorities have an important role to play to reduce road fatalities and serious injuries. In the EU, the Road Infrastructure Safety Management (RISM) Directive introduced the concept of network-wide road safety assessment (NWRSA) and the concept of proactive road safety assessment through the understanding of the in-built safety of roads. Considering safety at the network-level allows for an overview of the road safety performance instead of focusing on isolated parts of it, while the in-built safety assessment aims to identify parts of the road that have been omitted by crash-based analyses (such crash clusters or hotspot analysis) as they do not concentrate the majority of crashes, yet are crash-prone and/or uncomfortable to navigate. According to the provisions of the RISM Directive, a methodology has been developed to assess the network-wide safety of motorways and primary rural roads based on their combined crash-based and in-built safety assessments. While this is a first step in understanding road safety conditions on rural roads, secondary and lower-class roads are not covered and, at the same time, there is not adequate information on road user behaviour. In an ageing society, cognitive and physical impairments pose an increasing threat to safe mobility. In rural areas, people with any kind of impairment or disability often lack alternatives to driving a car for their mobility needs. Addressing these issues will not only enhance road safety but also improve the quality of life and prevent the social exclusion of these people. In addition to road safety issues, local and regional authorities manage risks associated with extreme weather phenomena and other natural disasters like floods, fires, storms or heavy snowfall. As these may affect safety and operations, relevant authorities need to adopt a more holistic resilience monitoring and response. Research should support addressing these challenges by undertaking all the following actions in at least three regions covering both primary and secondary rural roads of adequate length to allow for region-level comparisons: Demonstrate the practical applicability of the NWRSA methodology and expand its use to all rural roads for an easy, low-cost, flexible and transparent, yet sufficiently accurate assessment of road infrastructure safety. Identify information gaps and propose methods to leverage available data to supplement the understanding of crash causation and outcomes. Develop prevention strategies and measures to reduce fatalities and serious injuries in rural areas with a focus on high-risk locations and situations and on improving road user behaviour. This includes the development of reliable and easy-to-use methods to provide qua Programme areas: Horizon Europe (HORIZON), Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, Climate, Energy and Mobility, Industrial Competitiveness in Transport, Clean, Safe and Accessible Transport and Mobility, Smart Mobility