The project aims to implement measures to improve urban mobility, which will increase air quality in cities.

The Polytechnic University of Madrid, with the help of the Transport Research Centre (TRANSyT), launched this initiative with concrete measures to improve urban mobility and air quality in cities.

Activities to achieve the project’s results include:

• Diagnosis of mobility in the main Spanish metropolitan areas in 2013: problems encountered.
• Proposal of specific sustainable mobility measures to alleviate the problems identified.
• Report containing the diagnosis and the proposed measures.
• Report with the analysis of the mobility of the Spanish metropolitan areas identified, highlighting the main problems they face and the proposal of possible measures to improve their mobility and, indirectly, their air quality.
• Dissemination of the results obtained in a conference and through the www.observatoriomovilidad.es website.

The actions carried out have served to maintain and meet the objective of analysing mobility in 10 Spanish metropolitan areas. It has been possible to identify the main mobility problems faced by each of them. The economic crisis has led to a significant decrease (9.8% in the period 2008-2013) in the total demand for public transport travel, mainly associated with a 114% increase in the unemployment rate. Compared to an increase of more than 12% in the five years prior to the crisis. However, there has been an increase of almost 20% in fare revenues, mainly associated with a higher ticket price in many Spanish capitals. The decrease in passenger demand and budget cuts make it necessary to rationalise expenditure in order to offer a quality service at a reasonable price. For this reason, a study of this type was necessary, which brings together a large number of measures carried out in several Spanish cities.
In general, the trend suggests the following measures: improvement of the quality of service, efficient renewal of the fleet, optimization of the fleet, promotion of the use of bicycles and fare integration.