VREF Workshop 2014: Transforming Access, Mobility and Delivery in Cities – Turning Knowledge into Action

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Please see: Updated Agenda of the Worskhop (pdf)

Over the next two decades the nature of urban transportation is likely to undergo a significant change. To ensure these changes adequately and positively deal with the profound challenges of equity, public health, and climate change, we must transform networks of knowledge into tangible civic, practitioner and government action. To that end, on October 28-30 the Volvo Research and Education Foundations’ (VREF) is organizing its 2014 workshop titled “Transforming Access, Mobility and Delivery in Cities – Turning Knowledge into Action” in New York, United States.  The  VREF 2014 workshop seeks to broaden the conversation and create newcollaborative networks around the theme“transforming accessibility and mobility in cities”. The workshop will build on the substantial work of the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF) and its partners working in the VREF flagship Future Urban Transport (FUT) program.Over the past decade and a half this program has established research centers and projects around the globe, with each focused on a different topic related to sustainable urban transport. 

This workshop will connect key local, national and international advocates and policymakers with prominent FUT researchers in a dynamic sharing of views, experiences, and cutting-edge knowledge about approaches to transforming urban transportationfor the 21^st century. In addition to the Ford Foundation, host of this meeting, Rockefeller Foundation(TBC) the American Assembly, Transit Center, the Regional Plan Association (RPA) and Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) are key workshop partners. An important workshop aim is the creation of new connections among researchers, policymakers, advocacy organizations, and industrial groups. From these connections we hope that new networks and collaborative projects will emerge that can galvanize positive action on the mobility and access problems facing the world’s cities. 

The workshop, “Transforming access and mobility in cities –Turning Knowledge into Action” is envisioned as the first in which the VREF-funded Centers of Excellence and a number of other FUT projects participate in cross-cutting discussions around three main thematic areas with a wider array of policy actors.

• Theme 1: Affordable and safe public and non-motorized transit
• Theme 2: Sustainable Urban Freight
• Theme 3: Governance and leadership for civic and institutional innovation in urban transport

Participation to this workshop is by-invitation only.  If you are interested in participating, please contact Mr. Henrik Nolmark, Director, VREF at henrik.nolmark[at]vref.se.