CityWalk project
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CityWalk project – Towards energy responsible places: establishing walkable cities in the Danube Region
CityWalk project helps cities in the Danube Region to reduce emissions, noise and to become safer, better places to live, by increasing the role of more sustainable forms of mobility in the urban transport mix, especially active transport forms – like walking and biking. To do so the main focus of project is to improve the key conditions of walkability.
🇸🇮 Decision Makers' Series – Episode 6: Ptuj, Slovenia
Every city has its own story. Every decision-maker has their own perspective.
As part of the CITYWALK2.0 Awareness-Raising / Educational Materials for Decision-Makers, we are sharing a series of short messages from local leaders across the Danube Region.
Rather than presenting project results, these videos capture something even more valuable: the personal thoughts and convictions of decision-makers who believe that the future of our cities depends on how we design our streets, shape our public spaces, and encourage sustainable mobility.
🎥 In this episode, we visit Ptuj, Slovenia, where a local decision-maker shares a personal reflection—in their native language—on why creating more liveable streets is ultimately about improving everyday life for everyone.
🇷🇴 Decision Makers' Series – Episode 5: Satu Mare, Romania
What can decision-makers learn from each other?
Within the CITYWALK2.0 project, we created a series of Awareness-Raising / Educational Materials for Decision-Makers, built on a simple idea: the most credible inspiration for local leaders often comes from fellow local leaders.
That is why, in each episode, a decision-maker shares their own thoughts and vision in their native language, offering authentic reflections on active mobility, sustainable urban development, and creating streets that work better for people.
🎥 In this episode, we hear from Satu Mare, Romania, where a local decision-maker shares why long-term thinking, cooperation, and the courage to embrace change are essential ingredients for building more liveable cities.
We hope these voices will inspire many more cities to start their own journey towards people-centred urban mobility.
🇲🇩 Decision Makers' Series – Episode 4: Chișinău, Moldova
How can we inspire decision-makers to create more liveable cities?
One of the key outputs of the CITYWALK2.0 project is a series of Awareness-Raising / Educational Materials for Decision-Makers.
We believe that the strongest inspiration for decision-makers comes from the experiences and reflections of their peers. That is why, in each episode, a local decision-maker shares their personal perspective in their own native language on the future of active mobility, people-centred streets, and sustainable urban development.
🎥 In this episode, a decision-maker from Chișinău, Moldova, shares their thoughts on why cities should be brave enough to rethink public space and put people at the heart of urban mobility.
Sometimes, a single idea from another city leader can inspire change far beyond city borders.
🚶♀️ Episode 2 – Pardubice, Czech Republic
What happens when a city dares to rethink the way people share its streets?
In the second episode of our Decision Makers' Series, we travel to Pardubice, where local leadership reflects on the city's experience of introducing its first shared street.
The message is simple yet powerful: successful urban transformation is not only about changing infrastructure—it is about creating spaces where pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists can safely coexist while improving everyday quality of life.
🎥 Watch how Pardubice's experience is helping inspire other European cities to take the next step towards more people-centred urban mobility.
How can we inspire decision-makers to rethink urban mobility?
One of the key outputs of the CITYWALK2.0 project is a series of Awareness-Raising / Educational Materials for Decision-Makers.
We believe that the most convincing message for a decision-maker comes from another decision-maker.
That is why, throughout this series, mayors, deputy mayors, and other local leaders from our partner cities will share—in their own national languages—their personal reflections, experiences, and lessons learned during the project.
🎬 We begin our journey in Budva, Montenegro.
Real people. Real decisions. Real experiences.
We hope these authentic stories will inspire other cities across Europe to take the next step towards safer, greener, and more liveable streets.
We can hardly believe it ourselves, but time has flown so quickly that the second chapter of our journey - the CITYWALK2.0 project - has now officially come to an end.
Over the past years, our partnership has worked together to rethink streets, encourage active mobility, strengthen political commitment, and make our cities safer, greener, and more liveable.
To mark this milestone, we are proud to share our closing video:
🎬 Rethinking Streets: Our Key Learnings
In this video, every CITYWALK2.0 partner shares the one lesson they believe matters most, the key message they would pass on to cities embarking on a similar journey.
Different countries. Different pilots. Different experiences.
Yet together, they tell one inspiring story about how urban transformation begins: one street, one community, and one step at a time.
Thank you to all our partners, stakeholders, decision-makers, and citizens who have been part of this incredible journey.
Enjoy the video!
22/06/2026
On June 21, 2026, URBASOFIA represented the CityWalk 2.0 project at the national level during the New Urban Habits Festival, organized by UrbanizeHub in Bucharest. The festival brought together professionals from national and local public administrations, as well as experts in urban planning, architecture, sociology, and other related fields.
As part of the festival, URBASOFIA hosted the "Behaviour-Change Lab", an interactive workshop dedicated to behavioural change and sustainable urban mobility, building on the experience and outcomes of the CityWalk 2.0 project.
The workshop was structured in two parts. The first introduced the CityWalk 2.0 project, its objectives, and its key results. The second consisted of an interactive, game-based exercise inspired by the research and findings developed throughout the project.
Participants were divided into two groups, each assigned a different urban context: Bucharest's city centre or a neighbourhood in Satu Mare. Each group randomly selected two fictional personas, two physical barriers, and two cultural or behavioural barriers, and was asked to imagine how these individuals navigate their daily journeys within the assigned area.
Based on these scenarios, participants worked together to identify six mobility interventions, three "soft" measures and three "hard" measures, selected from the CityWalk 2.0 toolkits, with the aim of addressing the challenges faced by their personas.
The exercise encouraged participants to better understand the diverse mobility needs of different user groups and highlighted the importance of integrating behavioural change into the transition towards sustainable mobility. By combining storytelling with practical problem-solving, the workshop invited participants to develop concrete, people-centred solutions for changing travel behaviour.
We were pleased to be joined by the CityWalk 2.0 project team from Satu Mare, who presented their pilot action, shared their experience as one of the project's pilot cities, and provided participants with valuable insights into the local study area.
The workshop also benefited from the participation of a national representative of the FairMobility project (funded by the Driving Urban Transitions – DUT Partnership), who offered an overview of the national and local policy framework for mobility, while also sharing valuable perspectives on the mobility experiences and challenges faced by minority communities when trying to travel safely through urban environments.
29/05/2026
Perhaps the highlight of the entire conference was the interactive panel discussion, where the experiences of the CITYWALK2.0 and Streets for Citizens projects could finally be compared from multiple perspectives in one honest and highly engaging conversation.
Moderated brilliantly by Béla Kézy, the session brought together six experts, each representing one “piece of the puzzle” behind more liveable streets and people-centered urban mobility.
The panel featured:
🔹 Antonín Suk (City of Pardubice, CZ) — street redesign
🔹 Valentina Stan (URBASOFIA, RO) — travel behaviour change
🔹 Petra Grgašović (REGEA, HR) — decision-maker commitment
🔹 Barbara La Licata (ENVIPARK, IT) — tactical urbanism
🔹 Petra Ockerl (IPOP, SI) — placemaking
🔹 Miklós Lukovics (EMFIE, HU / DUCOR, ES) — community engagement across both projects
What made the discussion especially valuable was that the panel did not focus only on success stories, but also on resistance, limitations, pilots that were difficult to sustain, and the realities behind urban transformation projects. This honesty created a surprisingly open and inspiring atmosphere.
A particularly memorable moment came when Srđan Mandić, Mayor of Centar Sarajevo, also stepped onto the stage for a short exchange, reflecting on his experiences from the CITYWALK2.0 decision-maker study tour to Copenhagen and Malmö and the importance of political courage in transforming cities.
One of the strongest conclusions of the session was that although the two projects originated from different Interreg programmes and used different approaches, they complement each other remarkably well:
one side bringing strong tactical urbanism and placemaking approaches,
the other contributing structured mobility behaviour change and political commitment methodologies.
Together, they painted a much more complete picture of what it really takes to redesign streets for people instead of cars.
28/05/2026
Here is the CITYWALK2.0 team — a partnership that has worked intensively over the past two and a half years to rethink urban mobility and create more liveable streets across the Danube Region.
Last week in Ptuj, we had the pleasure of meeting with our colleagues from the Streets for Citizens project to discuss shared challenges, different approaches, and common solutions related to active mobility, tactical urbanism, street redesign, travel behaviour change, and community engagement.
What became very clear during the discussions is that although our projects originate from two different Interreg programmes, they complement each other in many inspiring ways.
Thank you to all partners for the energy, commitment, creativity, and teamwork throughout this journey!
27/05/2026
To the best of our knowledge, it is truly exceptional that projects from two different Interreg programmes organise a joint conference together - but this is exactly what happened in Ptuj, where the Interreg Euro-MED Programme Streets for Citizens Project and the Danube Region Programme project CITYWALK2.0 joined forces for a common event.
The reason was simple: the topics, challenges, and ambitions of the two projects are remarkably similar, and we wanted to explore the synergies and different experiences together instead of separately.
And it worked extremely well.
Throughout the day, it became clear that the two projects complement each other in many more ways than we originally expected: from tactical urbanism and placemaking to travel behaviour change, community engagement, political commitment, and street redesign.
A huge thank you to all speakers, partners, decision-makers, experts, and participants for contributing to such an inspiring and honest exchange of ideas.
In the coming days, we will share more detailed reflections, insights, photos, and videos from the conference and study visits — stay tuned!
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