QUEST project celebrated its results in the final project event

During the last 2 and a half years the QUEST project has developed a Quality Management Tool to help small and medium sized cities to further develop their sustainable mobility policies with the assistance of an external expert – the QUEST auditor.  Over the course of the project 46 cities have gone through the QUEST Audit and received tailor made Action Plans. These improvement programmes are directly linked to the current status of urban mobility policies in cities and point out the areas where improvements should be made. The aim of QUEST has been to support cities in making real progress towards a more sustainable urban transport system and help them to find solutions to achieve excellence in Sustainable mobility planning!

The QUEST Final Conference, organized on the 5th of September 2013 in Budapest, Hungary, celebrated the results of the project and gathered together, for the last time, the cities and other partners that have worked together during the past two years. 

From policies into practice

 

The main aim of the conference was to present the final results of the project and discuss about the future of QUEST.  The conference addressed themes such as how to turn the plans and policies into action and how to take the leap to the next level and become a more sustainable city. Michael Koucky, the Auditor for Swedish cities stated in his presentation that QUEST Audit can also provide support and a start in the sustainable urban mobility planning processes. QUEST tool was seen useful especially for smaller cities with fewer resources to achieve improvements in sustainable mobility.

The advantage of QUEST is that it recognizes that stepwise improvements are possible at all of development of sustainable mobility policy. Therefore it is suitable for both, cities with less experience in sustainable urban mobility planning and cities advanced in this field.

Five Swedish cities Borås, Gävle, Halmstad, Mölndal and Trollhättan received their QUEST certificates. 

QUEST Academy will continue the work in future

 

To safeguard the quality of the methodology and ensure training, a QUEST Academy has been established. The overall goal of the Academy is to continue to train auditors throughout Europe, so that the method can be expanded to further countries. It also provides a platform for discussion and exchange of experiences between QUEST auditors and cities. The Academy will therefore contribute to capacity building in the field of sustainable transport throughout Europe and provide support to new auditors.

Currently, the QUEST auditor team consists of 17 auditors making the QUEST methodology available in 20 countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

If you city is interested in the QUEST methodology, please contact us and we will find the right auditor for you! 

Cities that completed the QUEST process successfully, received Certificates which recognise their efforts in sustainable urban mobility planning.

More information about the project can be found at: www.quest-project.eu or you can follow us in Twitter. You can also download the QUEST brochure in English and Swedish!

Text  and photos: Maija Rusanen, Project Coordinator at UBC EnvCom