Introduction Walking is a core component of urban mobility and constitutes the first and last mile of most urban trips, particularly for tourists navigating unfamiliar cities. Understanding how visitors perceive walkability and which pedestrian infrastructure attributes most influence their walking choices is essential for improving pedestrian mobility in urban environments. Materials and Methods The study uses Choice-Based Conjoint (CBC) analysis based on street-intercept surveys conducted in the summer of 2021 in two European cities with contrasting urban and mobility characteristics: Thessaloniki (Greece) and Lyon (France). A total of 163 valid questionnaires were collected (78 in Thessaloniki and 85 in Lyon). Five (5) walkability attributes were evaluated: viz. i) proximity to public transport stops, ii) road-crossing facilities and safety, iii) green elements in streets and public spaces, iv) weather protection, and v) sidewalk obstacles. Results The results reveal clear differences between the two cities. In Thessaloniki, green elements in streets and public spaces are the most influential attribute (31.15%), followed by proximity to public transport (18.56%) and road-crossing equipment and safety (17.86%). In Lyon, road-crossing equipment and safety ranks highest (22.22%), followed by proximity to public transport (21.18%) and green elements (20.65%). In both cities, proximity to public transport consistently emerged among the top priorities. Discussion The findings indicate that while certain walkability priorities, such as safe crossings and access to public transport, are transferable across European cities, others are strongly context-dependent. Climatic conditions, urban form, and existing transport infrastructure appear to shape tourists’ walking preferences differently across cities. Conclusion This study provides evidence-based insights for pedestrian mobility planning and sustainable urban mobility policy. By identifying and ranking design-actionable walkability attributes from a tourist perspective, it supports place-sensitive interventions aimed at improving pedestrian environments along urban tourist corridors.

Sports tourism, combining leisure travel with spectating or participating in sporting activities, is a rapidly growing industry with substantial economic, social, and cultural impacts. Vojvodina, an autonomous province in northern Serbia, offers significant potential for the development of sports tourism, however, it faces challenges such as limited strategic coordination and underutilized resources. This paper examines two projects that are a part of the Europe DEPART (DEveloPment of a sustAinable spoRts Tourism in Europe) initiative and demonstrate sustainable approaches to sports tourism in Serbia: the Tour de Fruška and EuroVelo6 Danube Bicycle Route in Serbia. Both projects highlight the importance of connecting natural and cultural assets, fostering healthy lifestyles, and promoting environmentally and socially sustainable tourism practices. The paper concludes that building on these successes can help Vojvodina enhance its sports tourism offerings, strengthen stakeholder cooperation, and support long-term regional development.

Physical activity is today a major global problem, since it is associated with physical, psychological, and social health risks. Promoting active mobility by using walking and cycling as modes of transportation has been proposed as one of the strategies to promote physical activity in urban areas while also addressing several of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. This study aimed to examine whether the adoption of active mobility behavior contributes to individual well-being and further test which constraints individuals face when adopting it. The sample of the study consisted of 294 citizens from Enterprise and Innovation a metropolitan area in Greece. The factorial analysis of the constraints active mobility scale confirmed the five dimensions: environmental, psychological, individual, social, and interest. The results indicated that citizens who reported the use of active mobility were more likely to report higher levels. Furthermore, lack of interest was not the main reason for not using active mobility. Instead, most of the reported constraints were directly or indirectly related to the inadequate, unfriendly, and unsafe urban infrastructure, which creates concerns about individual safety. The implications of these results are discussed.

Citizens must be involved in creating and enhancing policies that promote sustainable mobility. The goal is not just to address the demands of users but also to help find strategies for altering ingrained patterns and habits related to transportation behavior. The main factor influencing whether environmental results, including transportation, are positive or negative is human behavior, whether at work or in their free time. In order to understand users’ motives in relation to policy objectives, it is crucial to include them in the policy-making process. Sustainable mobility will benefit from taking an ecologically responsible stance. This paper presents several sustainable mobility interventions derived from a citizen engagement process. The methodology involved organizing four (4) citizen panels in the West Midlands, UK, where participants completed specific exercises. Specifically, the steps were as follows: i) Defining the visions – long-term direction, ii) Participatory diagnosis of transport policies, iii) Decision on priorities, and iv) Designing of actions. The findings revealed that two main citizen behaviors need to be targeted by future sustainable mobility policies. These relate to changing automatic or habitual car users’ behaviors to encourage more active travel and parents of young families to provide alternate options for their children’s safer and more autonomous school transportation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the adolescent’s active mobility and physical activity (PA) levels. With cities and school closures, as well as various restrictions, many young people have been forced to spend more time at home and reduce their usual outdoor activities. Recent data show that youth physical activity is alarmingly low and that 80% of adolescents do not meet the recommended World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous exercises. Bearing in mind the ongoing negative trends, the goal of this paper is to examine the potential of active mobility to increase the overall physical activity of young people (teens 11 to 19 years old). Based on the results of the research, a special part of the paper includes a proposal of strategic measures aimed at encouraging and raising the general level of active mobility and physical activity of adolescents. Conclusively, the post-pandemic period presents a unique opportunity to address the issue of youth inactivity and promote healthy habits, sports participation, and active living. Accordingly, the authors believe that through the implementation of evidence-based strategies, adequate measures and continuous effort, a livable environment and a healthier future will be provided for younger generations.

The WalkingBus project aimed to promote safe, active school travel for children aged 6–12 by piloting supervised group walking routes in Greece, Italy, and Türkiye. Inspired by the “walking school bus” concept, the initiative emphasized community participation and inclusivity, engaging schools, municipalities, families, and volunteers in a co-creation process. Across the three countries, nine routes were implemented, involving 196 children and 92 trained volunteers, which significantly surpassed participation targets. A comprehensive evaluation framework, combining pre- and post-intervention surveys with qualitative feedback, revealed increased rates of walking to school, enhanced perceptions of safety, and strong satisfaction across all stakeholder groups. Notably, 90% of participating children in Türkiye reported enjoying the experience, and 83% of Greek and 50% of Turkish families perceived safety improvements. The project demonstrated logistical feasibility, with no safety incidents reported, and stimulated interest from local authorities regarding formal adoption. Challenges included coordinating schedules, ensuring consistent volunteer engagement, and adapting to local urban conditions. The paper outlines the methodological framework, implementation process, evaluation outcomes, and policy implications, positioning WalkingBus as a cost-effective and replicable model aligned with European priorities on sustainability, public health, and child-friendly mobility.

This paper aims to present the Erasmus + Sports “WalkingBus” project, which addresses the objective of “Encouraging a healthy lifestyle for all” with a specific focus on children by supporting walking as a means of commuting to school and other after-school activities. A walking bus is defined as a supervised group of children walking to or from school (or other premises) along a set route and picking up or dropping off “passengers” at specific points along the way. An increasing number of children do not get sufficient regular exercise because they are taken to school by car due to safety concerns, leading to adverse health outcomes not only in childhood but also in later life. In Greece, 52

Tourists have specific mobility needs and requirements. Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece, and currently, it faces a growth in tourist flows. Apart from active mobility, public transport is the main mode of transport that tourists use. In order to assess and optimize the specific mobility needs and requirements of tourists, we conducted a Conjoint Analysis using the Choice-Based Conjoint (CBC) technique, in which 63 tourists participated, but there were only 36 complete answers. The sample seems to be low, but it can be considered sufficient due to the low population of tourists and the fact that CBC does not require a specific sample to achieve statistical significance. The results regarding the importance of the attributes were as follows: i) Schedules and route information provision: 36.4

IntroductionBike tourism is one of the fast-developing alternative forms of tourism since it can satisfy the main pillars of sustainability (economic, social, and environmental). The current study is part of a larger funded project (GoBike) and aims to profile bike tourists in Greece, examine the motives and constraints to tourism participation, and show the value of using technology as a means of promoting bike tourism.MethodsThe data was collected through a quantitative study, with one hundred and five individuals who had experience with bike tourism activities, with the use of an online questionnaire. Items were used to measure socio-demographics, motives, constraints, involvement, and attitudes toward a smartphone application.ResultsThe results indicated that “Nature”, “Health”, “Bike eco-friendly place” and “Interesting places” were the most important motives. On the other hand, the lack of “Guides”, “Appropriate Routes” “Bike tourism Programs” and “Limited Information” were reported as the most important barriers. The bikers reported that technology can facilitate their decision to do bike tourism activities.DiscussionA smartphone application should include several attributes the most important of which are the “Elevation difference”, the “warnings of obstacles/risks”, “the level of difficulty”, “the bike distance” and the “condition of the routes”.

The purpose of this study is to explore the active travel behaviour of kids, especially in terms of cycling. Literature suggests that safety is an important factor for both kids and parents that prevents them from the use of bicycle as an alternative mobility mode. The aim of this research is to explore the magnitude of the impact of improving the kids safe cycling skills on their independent mobility. One hundred students of age twelve to fifteen participated in the survey, inhabitants of the region of central Macedonia, Greece. The students took part on a safe cycling training that equipped them with both practical and theoretical skills on safety aspects. Their cycling behaviour was measured before and after the training provision with a questionnaire. Along with their opinion in terms of implementation of cycling promotional schemes and actions. The results revealed that a great majority of kids who undertook safe cycling training, started using their bike more often for commuting. Almost 70% started that they gained more confidence, enriched their knowledge and increased the bicycle usage. Finally, a significant percentage of participants stated that while they desire to use bicycle as their main means of transport, they are prevented from some inhibiting factors such as lack of infrastructure (cycling lanes), pack of secure parking spaces and lack of incentives.

Small and medium sized enterprises are key for ensuring economic growth, innovation, job creation, and social integration in the EU. The European Commission provides support for the SMEs in different fields. Access to finance is the most pressing issue for many small enterprises: there have been projects and schemes to improve the financing environment for SMEs both at European but also national and regional level. However, especially in the transport sector, Tier 2 suppliers find it difficult to enter the innovation chain as they generally have only short-term supply contracts with the Tier 1 companies. This paper aimed at researching into the factors that will support a stronger transport SME sector using as methodology, five international workshops and nine focus group sessions with regional stakeholders over a period of three years. This paper ultimately describes the key policy directions for reinforcing the competitiveness of the transport SMEs in the region of West Midlands, UK. A good practice exercise was conducted on four different European regions which enabled the experts involved in the policy design process to get inspiration from and further tailor the schemes to meet with the regional and local needs. The findings suggest that there is a need of a more sectorial policy approach at regional and local level to enable transport innovation flourish, strengthen cluster activities, intellectual property support, better links between tier1 and tier 2/supply chain, Financial Engineering Instruments to support SMEs, international focus, plug the skills gap.

The increase in the level of motorization, in addition to the undesirable impact on the environment, has also produced a negative influence on physical activity and general population health. The needs of modern human have conditioned the return to basic forms of travel and the promotion of new concept - active mobility. Current active mobility strategies are aimed at encouraging people physical activity through the realization of daily trips, primarily by walking or cycling. This concept underwent certain changes during the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected the general reduction of the population mobility, but at the same time increased the share of alternative modes. The mentioned outcome was used as an incentive to further promote active travel in order to preserve the general health and increase the resilience of cities. This paper presents some of the most significant results according to the survey of the Covid-19 impact on active mobility. The research was conducted for the city of Belgrade (Republic of Serbia), on a sample of 1143 respondents. The obtained outcomes indicate an increase in the degree of active mobility (walking and cycling) during the pandemic, compared to the period before the Covid-19. Similar results were observed in other cities, which led to the fact that during isolation, people transferred to sustainable modes of transport in order to realize everyday activities. Moreover, the changes that occurred in the pandemic provided the necessary incentive to maintain the existing modal split and to further increase the number of active trips in the future.

Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) at present employ 55% of the European workforce in transport and their essential role in the value chain will increase [1].

Over the last years, cycling has received significant attention at policy level. Recognizing its contribution to both the adaption of an active living lifestyle but also on decongestion of traffic as an active mean of travel, in 2014, in Paris Declaration, the ministers agreed on a ‘an-European Master Plan for Cycling Promotion, supported by guidelines and tools to assist in the development of cycling promotion policies at the national level’. This paper aims to define policy directions to achieve a paradigm shift by stimulating a further cycling uptake through local and regional support and promotional schemes. This paper reports secondary research from a mapping exercise on the current schemes and marketing tools being implemented in the region of West Midlands, UK for the adaption of cycling by the citizens as well as the main European policies in the field. Primary research was also conducted through a survey to identify the main promotional tools but also schemes that can contribute to a boost on cycling, from the lens of citizens. In order to achieve the research objectives, the policy schemes were compared and contrasted with the tools revealed by the research to actually suggest policy directions that can incentivize the creation of a cycling culture. The results showed that the European directions are aligned with the regional schemes in West Midlands but also with the preferences of the citizens, with infrastructure investment to increase cycling safety appearing as first priority. The policy directions were discussed and validated by a focus group consisted of the main cycling stakeholders and authorities of the region.

The ongoing trends and future challenges faced by the increased mobility demand lead to the development of sustainability measures that would support greener, accessible and safer transport means.

Decision makers and stakeholders in the field of transport and mobility are facing challenges due to changing framework conditions. A demographic change is taking place in Europe and the demand for mobility is increasing. At the same time the energy consumption, emissions and costs should be reduced and access to mobility should be provided for all. Transport users already pay a significant amount, but the price they pay often bears little connection to o the real costs on society of their travel choices (Ricci et al., 2006). A goal of the EU, over the last years, is to establish a transport system that meets society's economic, social and environmental needs and it is conducive to an inclusive society and a fully integrated and competitive Europe (Hoppe et al., 2013). The ongoing trends and future challenges point to the need for satisfying rising demand for travel or accessibility in the context of growing sustainability concerns and in the context of socioeconomic changes. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the influence of certain megatrends on achieving sustainable mobility and at the same time to measure and test different trends scenarios that could lead to a more sustainable mobility.

The motive of this research is the fact that until now no universal model for evaluation of megatrends, political imperatives, and technological advances impact on the transport concept of the future (TCF) has been defined. In the process of modeling, megatrends are one of the key elements for selection of the TCF. In this paper is proposed a model for selection of TCF based on the Analytic Network Process (ANP) approach. The developed model has allowed assessing the impact of the megatrends on the TCF and stability of the TCF ranking. It is developed ANP network for the passenger and freight transport separately. Based on the results of research, network structure of the ANP method can successfully resolve the dependence and conflicts among evaluation elements for TCF selection. The proposed ANP based model can become a tool for the evaluation of the TCF and for policy makers making decision. The paper is based on data from the INTEND project.

The ITS market is changing rapidly shaping the near future of a brand new world. This paper aims to provide an understanding of this ever-changing world, analysing current markets, trends and initiatives which will eventually contribute in developing new business models and incentives in order to accelerate the ITS deployment in Europe.

Innovations in Big Data Analytics and advances in Internet of Things have changed how we collect, interpret and analyses data from Smart City and Transportation environments. Advances in Fog Computing that suggests the extension of the Cloud to the Edge of the network using resources available to reduce latencies and improve reliability fit perfectly with concepts from autonomous and connected vehicles which have increasingly powerful processing capabilities. The use of such systems for congestion management, route planning, infrastructure management and other advances orchestration techniques requires the use of varying platform and technologies together. The existing proposals and platform are mostly designed to perform a fixed set of tasks, either purpose built or not generic enough to satisfy requirements from multiple use-cases. This paper analyses existing Fog Computing and Processing platforms characteristic data types and their brokers as well as existing Big Data cluster-computing frameworks like Apache Spark and Hadoop based on capabilities, data types and preferred use-cases. Supported by this analysis we propose a conceptual polyglot Fog Computing platform for Smart Transportation scenarios that can satisfy the needs of future smart city environments and can connect to multiple platforms and perform real-time, off line and hybrid processing of data as well. We provide a high-level framework for the integration of such platforms into collaborative clustering scenarios.

This paper brings together three major areas which are prone to be seen independently of one another. These are the wide-ranging, ubiquitous and rapidly advancing developments in transport technology; the impacts of a growing ageing population and urbanisation. The interaction between these megatrends forms the broad context against which developments in transport services and mobility must be planned and evaluated. This issue is explored through a consideration of the needs and preferences of older drivers who form a rapidly increasing proportion of the population.