POLIS unveils its brand-new magazine 'Cities in motion'!

We are proud to have released the first issue of our brand new publication, Cities in motion, at the 2022 Annual POLIS Conference. Titled 'The 15-year City', the volume turns to what the city of the future will have to look like to pave the way for a greener, smarter, and more inclusive urban mobility.

During the Opening Plenary of the 2022 Annual POLIS Conference, POLIS' brand new magazine, Cities in motion, was finally unveiled. Following POLIS' former publication, Thinking Cities, it provides a unique platform for answers, analysis and inspiration about the intense and evolving relationship between cities, transport and, essentially, our lives as citizens and mobility actors. Published in a yearly format, each issue features a range of news, exciting policies and best practices to help cities keep innovating.

Developed entirely in-house, Cities in motion brings together all the inputs on urban mobility that our members have to offer in one convenient place: in particular, it aims to elevate their experiences, challenges, and innovative solutions to become safer, smarter, and more sustainable, liveable and equitable. For both those who are already vanguard of all things sustainable mobility and those who want to sink their teeth into the world of transport for the first time, the magazine quenches a thirst for topic knowledge, and then some.

From 15 minutes to 15 years

The first edition of Cities in motion, 'The 15-year City', focuses on what the city of the future, namely the city in 15 years, will have to look like. By highlighting pioneering concepts like superblocks, the 15-minute City, mobility hubs, integrated ticketing and many more, it discusses how this radical and innovative thinking will pave the way for the greener, smarter and more inclusive future cities.

Cover for Cities in motion Volume I: 'The 15-Year City.

With this inaugural edition of Cities in motion, we hope to inspire cities, regions, and other stakeholders alike to rethink classic understandings of mobility, and empower them to take advantage of the wide range of tools available for building more sustainable mobility systems. The issue features the outstanding work of our members, from capital cities such as Brussels, Ljubljana, Paris and Amsterdam, to smaller municipalities and regions, such as Bologna, Rogaland, and Flanders, to leading knowledge institutes such as Mpact and Sustrans, sharing their best practices on moving passengers and goods in new and innovative ways.

This first issue also focuses on inclusivity in urban mobility, something that POLIS has been working hard on in recent years: thus we examine the relationship between mental health and travel, tackling the gender gap that exists within the transport sector, exploring what queer mobilities really means, and bridging the urban-rural transit divide.

'The 15-year city' also includes exclusive interviews with some of the leading mobility personalities in Europe, such as Delft-based mobility advocates Melissa and Chris Bruntlett, queer mobility experts Dr Karen Lucas, Dr Martin Zebracki, Amos Weintrob and Luke Hansell, or our Annual Conference keynote speakers, Derk Loorbach, Director of DRIFT at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Carlos Moreno of the Sorbonne University, renowned for developing the '15-minute City’ concept.

Following the release, Alessia Giorgiutti, Cities in motion's Editor in Chief and POLIS Communications Coordinator, said:

This magazine showcases the fantastic work our members are doing: we really hope readers not only enjoy, but find food for thought and motivation for accelerating their own actions and, pun unintended, for 'channelling change' head-first. We hope more cities, regions, and others will contribute to future editions, telling their stories in their own voice.

Karen Vancluysen, POLIS Secretary General, said:

The encyclopedic coverage of urban transport across this issue reflects the extensive meld of tools available for creating more sustainable mobility systems and the wealth of topics being addressed by POLIS and its members. No single city or region is the same, each is shaped by unique geographies, economies, and governance; nonetheless, it is only through sharing and learning what works (and what does not!) that we can tackle the enormous challenges ahead.