At the end of May, two representatives from Kladno Town Hall participated in the CIVINET CZ&SK study tour held in Leuven and Mechelen. CIVINET CZ&SK, part of the broader CIVITAS network, focuses on promoting efficient and clean local transport solutions.

The study tour featured a series of presentations from the City of Leuven on the topics like: how the city empowers local businesses while talking sustainable city logistics, shared mobility and mobility hubs, smart mobility, and some other presentations from third parties promoting some innovative measurement/data acquisition tools.

Attendees mainly comprised representatives from Czech and Slovak cities, who shared insights and challenges specific to their locales, including presentation from the city of Kladno. This was an opportunity to talk about the SPARCS project, which made the city quite different from the other participants. It was evident that Kladno’s experience in international projects still ranks it among the top cities in the Czech Republic. Post-presentation networking sessions provided a valuable platform for potential collaborations. Kladno’s representatives discussed the possibility of future joint projects with Belgian cities, aiming to leverage the knowledge and experience gained during the tour.

A strong impression was left by the ongoing construction of the new station in Mechelen, the bicycle parking facilities and last but not least the bicycle ride around Mechelen, where it was possible to experience how easy it is to get around the city by bicycle when a suitable and safe infrastructure is in place. It was also interesting to observe some significant changes to the circulation of car traffic, e.g. the introduction of one-way streets and the resulting “new” public space. Plans to build catch points to park cars further away from the centre and, importantly for Kladno, a demonstration of energyHubs to charge EVs, which the city also wants to implement soon.