Palermo have been selected as an example of good practices across 10 EU Cities on physical activity in urban environments.
Specifically, Pedestrian Street project in the City Centre is one of the Italian case studies presented in the report “Environments for physical activity in Europe a review of evidence and examples of practice“. Besides the experimentation of the pedestrian area, two more events involved the citizens:
- The “Choose sport for good health” initiative, that took place on Sunday 13th April 2014 and trasformed Foro Italico into an open-air gymnasium, where twenty disciplines of different sporting activities were provided;
- “Car Free day” in Cefalù (Palermo) on 21st Settembre 2014, organized to participate in the overall initiative of European Mobility Week, that showed the city commitment to reduce the number of cars on the streets and promote sustainable ways of travelling and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, noise pollution and congestion.
The report summarises a set of data on the importance of increasing physical activity, showing many examples of physical and social environments that support healthy lifestyles as well as a guidance document on how to address the major challenges that will be faced by the partners in the various countries in order to integrate active transportation programmes (e.g. going to school walking, using bicycles to go to work etc.) in the EU public policies.
Project Coordinator, Professor Diane Crone from the University of Gloucestershire, declared:
The project involves 10 partners from 8 EU countries:
- Coordinator: University of Gloucestershire (United Kingdom)
- University of Oxford (United Kingdom)
- University of Thessaly (Greece)
- University of Zurich (Switzerland)
- Fit for Life Program – LIKES Foundation for Sport and Health Science (Finland)
- Castilla La Mancha Regional Government of Education (Spain)
- Tukums Municipality (Latvia)
- Brasov Metropolitan Agency (Romania)
- CESIE (Italy)
- Municipality of Trikala (Greece)
The project also exchanges with relevant World Health Organisation (WHO) activities and networks.
Partners will meet in May 2017 hosted by the Municipality of Trikala (Greece) to discuss and review the final Action Plans and work together to advise on next steps and how to ensure their sustainability within current and future policy.
For further information, visit the SPAcE project website or contact Rosina Ndukwe.