EIT Urban Mobility is pleased to announce that Mr. Àngel López (City of Barcelona) has been named the new Chair of the City Club. Mr. López has been the Head of the Mobility Department of the Municipality of Barcelona for almost 10 years, and also acted 8 more years as Mobility Strategies Advisor for some Mobility Councillors. He is among the founders of the City Club since the proposal phase of EIT Urban Mobility.
Mr. López was in charge of implementing the sustainable urban mobility strategy of the City of Barcelona, making significant achievements such as the integrated parking management scheme, the deployment of the public bike sharing scheme (Bicing), the update of the traffic management system, the implementation of traffic calming areas and traffic safety plans, and the further uptake of the electric mobility strategy.
Mr. Kalle Toivonen joins the City Club management as Deputy Chair, bringing his experience in the field of smart city solutions and cleantech, ICT experiments and new projects. He coordinates the development and establishment of digital testing platforms in the city, and has been actively building the portfolio of smart mobility projects, including multitude of autonomous transport initiatives and mobility lab concept in Helsinki for the past 5 years. He is a Senior Specialist in the Economic Development division of the City of Helsinki, and was among the founders of the City Club.
They take over from out-going Chair Mr. Barry Ubbels (City of Amsterdam) and Mr. Hans Christian Christiansen (City of Copenhagen) who are stepping down after having served for more than a year since the official launch of EIT Urban Mobility in 2019.
Àngel López, Chair of EIT Urban Mobility City Club: “Cities are the place where the main social, economic, and environmental challenges manifest themselves with the greatest intensity. Besides, cities are unique members of EIT Urban Mobility: their priorities are the citizens’ well-being, health and quality of life, cultural, economic, and social development. It is my strong believe that cities shall be the lighthouses that guide and illuminate the path of research, industry, and business models, towards the citizens’ needs and requirements. City Club is at the core of EIT Urban Mobility, which builds on understanding and solving some of the most critical challenges connected to transport and mobility in urban areas through an open innovation community approach. Getting City Club much more involved in other programmatic activities of EIT Urban Mobility is the way to get cities and citizens priorities at the core of EIT Urban Mobility agenda.”
Kalle Toivonen, Deputy Chair of EIT Urban Mobility City Club: “Cities carry a unique responsibility in creating and developing more livable urban spaces. We act as a crucial player in enabling change and also in connecting our citizens with new solutions that are coming to our environments. In the field of mobility, we have seen first-hand how innovations can change the whole system overnight and how new ideas can disrupt the existing foundations. Such changes can be a huge opportunities for cities, but also important challenges. I see that cities are not just an object for innovation, but that they rather play an active role in driving and planning these new solutions. Being proactive and flexible gives cities tools to better adapt to the fast-paced changes in our environments, while also ensuring that they benefit our citizens. City Club is an excellent vessel for cities to ensure that activeness, tackle our joint challenges and make sure that cities find their way in to middle of innovation.”
About City Club
City Club is EIT Urban Mobility’s platform for local authorities for sharing best practice, upscaling ideas and putting them to work. This is a collaborative community of towns, cities and metropolitan area authorities. The members share a powerful vision for sustainable urban mobility and liveable urban spaces. The City Club is at the core of the EIT Urban Mobility, which builds on understanding and solving some of the most critical challenges connected to transport and mobility in urban areas through an open innovation community approach.
The current City Club members are: Municipality of Amsterdam, Barcelona City Council, AMB – Barcelona Metropolitan Area, City of Copenhagen, Municipality of Eindhoven, Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Municipality of Helmond, City of Helsinki, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Municipality of Lublin, Municipality of Milan, City of Munich, City of Stockholm, Ville et Eurométropole de Strasbourg, City of Stuttgart, Toulouse Métropole, ZTM – Public Transport Authority Warsaw.
