Vitoria-Gasteiz

Vitoria-Gasteiz is the capital city of the Basque Country, in Spain. Located on a plain surrounded by mountain ranges, its 260,000 inhabitants live mainly in a geographically dense and small city of 36 square kilometres. Main economic activities are related to aeronautics, the automotive industry and industrial output in general, and to regional public administration and university.

They have a long record towards a human-scale green city and have made significant strides towards sustainable mobility, reducing the use of private cars, and increasing the share of trips by public transport, cycling, and walking. Their focus on active mobility has boosted its modal share to 59 % of the total (mainly walking), while the car is used in 29 % of trips.

The city has created functional networks for pedestrians and cyclists and improved the quality of public space to encourage social interaction and community building. Their Sustainable Urban Mobility and Public Space Plan (2021-2025) outlines ambitious sustainable mobility targets, with clear timelines and milestones, to gradually give public space back to pedestrians, bicycles, and public transport. The two technical representatives in POLIS are the Environmental Studies Centre (CEA) and the Mobility Lab.

CEA is a public agency whose mission is to support the City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz in its transition towards a more climate-resilient and future-proof scenario. To this end, it analyses the performance of the municipality (and its bioregion) as an environmental, social and economic system, using this knowledge for more effective local and regional planning and strengthening municipal plans and programmes aimed at jointly proposing new scenarios towards a more sustainable city and territory.

In the field of mobility, CEA focuses on aligning the digital and green transitions to accelerate the decarbonisation and modernisation of the mobility system in Vitoria-Gasteiz, promoting, through innovation, progress towards a much more resilient, inclusive, safe and sustainable model of public space and mobility. CEA designs and develops pilot tests and strategic prospections in close collaboration, not only with the different municipal services, departments and companies that make up its local mobility and public space ecosystem, but also with other relevant agents at regional and international level.

The Mobility LAB Vitoria-Gasteiz Foundation is another component of our local innovation ecosystem in urban mobility, as a pole of innovation in urban mobility and logistics, constituted in May 2023 by the City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz and the Regional Government of Álava.

The aim of the Mobility LAB is to identify, support and test innovative solutions in the field of urban mobility and logistics, taking advantage of the unique entrepreneurial and research ecosystem of Vitoria-Gasteiz and Alava. It has four main strategic areas: A Living Lab to facilitate innovation creating spaces for testing, measuring and demonstrating innovative solutions in real environments, and promoting projects in the mobility and logistics sectors; to develop a Data Space for mobility and logistics; to facilitate co-creation being a meeting place, exchange and alignment between administrations, companies, research and training centres, and citizens; and a Mobility-Lab Campus to identify the training needs of new profiles, promote research projects, facilitate the transfer of innovation to the market and promote students’ access to the professional world.

Vitoria-Gasteiz's track record as European Green Capital 2012, Global Green City 2019 and member of the 100 EU Cities Mission: Climate Neutral and Smart Cities makes it ideal for carrying out pilots to support our challenges and commitments and being a member of POLIS, would allow us to meet other like-minded peers and learn from other leading POLIS members from across Europe, receive support to join shared initiatives in urban mobility and logistics and engage in partnerships with cities and regions for the deployment of innovative policies and solutions.

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