Western Romania city implements award-winning urban mobility plan

The town of Turda, in Cluj county, is implementing the urban mobility plan that won in 2018 the Award for Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning of the European Commission.

Based on the plan, Turda received in 2018 EU financing amounting to EUR 31.3 million. The projects cover the modernization of the main streets where public transportation means run, by adding bicycle lanes, building modern stations, adding e-ticketing facilities and video monitoring, among others. At the same time, 20 electric buses were purchased and a bike sharing system will be implemented.

Moreover, upgrade works have started on the industrial corridor December 22 1989 St., which exits the city towards Alba Iulia. By the end of 2022 the project is to be finalized and 16 of the cities main arteries, with a total length of 11 km, will be modernized.

Based on the Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning, Turda can access EU funds amounting to over EUR 50 million by 2030.

Last year, Turda was nominated alongside Greater Manchester (United Kingdom) and Milan (Italy) for the 6th edition of the SUMP Award. Turda was declared the winner “for its clear planning vision, robust financing strategy, and measurable targets. The jury noted the replicability of the strategy and its potential to inspire other similarly-sized cities (Turda has a population of around 50,000 inhabitants). The jury also found that the level of ambition within the plan was high given the relatively small size of the city, particularly in the field of shared mobility.”

“It was essential for Turda to benefit from external financing so we could solve the infrastructure problems. This is why we did everything to attract as much EU funding as possible,” Cristian Octavian Matei, Turda’s mayor, explained.

(Photo: Primaria Turda Facebook Page)