During 18-19 of April, Eurodite participated as guest auditor in the Quest workshop in the pilot city of Ghent. A series of 10 workshops aim at gathering impressions and input from the in total 50 cities that are involved: what are the results so far, challenges and benefits of the Quest activities?

In Ghent the 2 day workshop gave the opportunity to 6 cities to present their experience in Quest and bring to the table issues and challenges they are facing in their own cities with respect to the implementation of sustainable mobility measures. The participating authorities were Boras (Sweden), Milton Keynes (United Kingdom), Grand Angouleme (France), Orihuela (Spain), Cluj-Napoca (Romania) and Hradec Kralove and Ceske Budejovice (Czech Republic).

Ghent, test city within the Quest project, took the opportunity to showcase their development in mobility planning and their vision and ambitions for the future, but more than that they showed first-hand the projects they implemented during the bicycle tour they organized through the city. The guests had the opportunity to experience the cycling system and the shared space concept while touring various areas of the city.

The main topic of discussion of the workshop referred to stakeholder involvement as supporting tool in developing the vision for a city. Who should be involved and at what stage, what are the challenges in communication to the different groups, and most importantly what is the role of the municipality in developing the long term vision for city development? The topic has been vividly discussed among participants which also created the opportunity of exchanging information and good practices, efficient ways to approach the topic of the different cities.

Read more about the project