SnowHowYear-round active mobility – resources and network

Resources

12 resources

  • ReportCore resource

    BATS Impact Report: Results and Lessons from Year-Round Active Mobility Pilots

    Jacek Oskarbski, Konrad Biszko, Daniel Kaszubowski · 2026 · Baltic Sea Region

    The BATS Impact Report (Deliverable D2.2), prepared by Gdańsk University of Technology, examines the observed outcomes, implementation experiences and operational lessons from Year-Round Active Mobility (YRAM) experiments in seven Baltic Sea Region pilot areas: Hamburg-Altona (Germany), Gdynia (Poland), Umeå (Sweden), Porvoo (Finland), Kalundborg (Denmark), Klaipėda (Lithuania) and Kiili/Harju County (Estonia). The report evaluates interventions across four thematic areas: infrastructure, traffic management, winter maintenance and citizen activation. Practical examples include physically protected cycling infrastructure and illuminated underpasses in Hamburg-Altona; weather-adaptive traffic signal control and school travel campaigns in Gdynia; citizen-based winter maintenance monitoring, projected markings and winter e-bike initiatives in Umeå; coordinated winter maintenance and user feedback systems in Porvoo; cycling route visibility improvements and commuter engagement in Kalundborg; projected guidance for shared bus-cycle environments in Klaipėda; and school-based winter cycling promotion and winter maintenance bottleneck mapping in Kiili and Harju County. For each pilot area, the report describes intervention objectives, monitoring methods, observed results, implementation barriers, enabling factors and recommendations for replication. The cross-city synthesis highlights the importance of reliable winter maintenance, route visibility, understandable information about travel conditions and citizen activation measures linked to practical support. A central finding is that year-round active mobility depends on the combined performance of infrastructure, maintenance, traffic management and user-oriented services. Communication campaigns alone cannot compensate for unusable or unsafe routes, while technical solutions require appropriate maintenance arrangements, institutional coordination and monitoring. Because the experiments differed substantially in scale, baseline conditions, monitoring methods and data availability, the report does not provide a statistically comparable ranking of intervention effectiveness. Instead, it offers operational evidence and transferable implementation lessons to help municipalities select, adapt and evaluate interventions suited to their local conditions.

    • Maintenance & Operations
    • Data & Monitoring
    • Behaviour & Mobility Management
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
  • ReportCore resource

    From Concept to Policy: Recommendations for Introducing Year-Round Active Mobility in European Municipalities

    Tiina Beldinsky, Terje Schmidt, Juliette Ténart, Dennis Martinez, Camilla Sandberg · 2026 · Baltic Sea Region

    From Concept to Policy: Recommendations for Introducing Year-Round Active Mobility in European Municipalities is a policy brief developed within the BATS project to help European municipalities and higher levels of government integrate year-round walking and cycling into transport strategies, infrastructure planning, maintenance practices and public services. Drawing on experiences from seven Baltic Sea Region pilot areas, the publication argues that year-round active mobility is a policy and governance choice rather than simply a consequence of climate. It reviews the European policy landscape, identifying growing recognition of walking and cycling in EU transport strategies but insufficient attention to seasonal conditions such as snow, ice, rain, darkness and extreme weather. The recommendations are organised around four drivers of change: Strategic Prioritisation, which calls for treating active mobility as a year-round public service; Collaboration, which addresses fragmented responsibilities across municipal departments, road authorities and other stakeholders; Caring, which emphasises the different needs of residents and the importance of user-centred planning; and Knowledge, which calls for improved seasonal monitoring, analytical capacity and reporting of pedestrian and cyclist incidents. Practical examples include Porvoo's efforts to coordinate winter maintenance across road ownership boundaries, Umeå's dedicated winter travel survey and citizen-based maintenance monitoring, Estonia's integration of year-round cycling into national strategy development, and cooperation on lighting, visibility and accessibility measures in Hamburg-Altona, Kalundborg and Klaipėda. A particularly useful feature is the two-page action matrix that distinguishes three levels of municipal readiness: YRAM Starter, YRAM Enabler and YRAM Champion. It provides differentiated recommendations for strategic planning, maintenance responsibilities, cross-departmental cooperation, user engagement, infrastructure design and year-round data collection. The policy brief also recommends dedicated funding for research and experimentation, formal inclusion of year-round requirements in Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans and cycling and walking strategies, and the integration of seasonal mobility indicators into relevant national and European reporting frameworks. The publication offers a concise framework for policymakers and municipal leaders seeking to move from isolated winter mobility measures towards systematic, inclusive and evidence-informed year-round active mobility policies.

    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
  • ReportCore resource

    Year-Round Active Mobility: Insights into Mobility Management Approaches

    Ida Lundström, Josefine Wigström, Naomi Zerai, Zein Anani, Camilla Sandberg, Dennis Martínez-Moro, Juliette Ténart · 2026 · Baltic Sea Region

    Year-Round Active Mobility: Insights into Mobility Management Approaches is a collection of eight thematic insight sheets developed by Umeå Municipality and Bax Innovation within the BATS project. The publication explores practical approaches to making walking and cycling safer, more accessible and more attractive throughout the year, particularly during periods of snow, ice, darkness and challenging weather conditions. The insight sheets cover winter maintenance, citizen participation in monitoring maintenance quality, intelligent transport systems, projected traffic signage, perceived security in dark environments, campaigns in educational institutions and services supporting year-round cycling. Concrete examples from BATS partner cities include Winter Scouts and Winter Agents programmes in Umeå and Porvoo, where residents help monitor winter maintenance conditions; weather-adaptive traffic signal control in Gdynia; Gobo light projections in Umeå and Hamburg-Altona to improve visibility and guidance; and solar-powered lighting solutions for cycling routes in Kalundborg. Other examples include winter e-bike lending, winter tyre services, secure bicycle storage and school-based campaigns encouraging active mobility. Each thematic sheet combines an introduction to the approach with practical implementation examples, considerations and lessons learned. The sheets are designed to be used independently or together as planning and workshop materials. The publication serves as a practical reference and source of transferable ideas for municipalities, transport planners and mobility practitioners. It illustrates how different cities have tested solutions to seasonal mobility challenges, while recognising that the examples do not necessarily provide conclusive evidence of long-term effectiveness or represent entirely new innovations.

    • Planning & Design
    • Maintenance & Operations
    • Data & Monitoring
    • Behaviour & Mobility Management
    • Communication & Engagement
    • Health, Safety & Wellbeing
  • GuidelineCore resource

    YRAM Monitoring Guidance: A User Manual for Year-Round Active Mobility Monitoring

    Jacek Oskarbski, Konrad Biszko, Daniel Kaszubowski · 2024 · Baltic Sea Region

    The YRAM Monitoring Guidance is a comprehensive methodological manual developed within the BATS project to help local authorities monitor year-round active mobility and evaluate the effectiveness of walking and cycling interventions. It complements the BATS Diagnostics-Interventions Toolkit by providing a structured approach to defining performance indicators, identifying data requirements, collecting and managing information, analysing results and refining interventions over time. A central feature is its Key Performance Indicator (KPI) selection framework, which considers the relevance of indicators to local conditions, transport management, infrastructure and maintenance, as well as their sensitivity to weather and lighting. Two alternative indicator selection methods are presented, including an approach specifically organised around weather- and lighting-dependent indicators. This helps municipalities design monitoring systems that account for seasonal variation rather than evaluating active mobility measures only under favourable conditions. The manual describes a monitoring process covering intervention definition, KPI selection, data acquisition and management, indicator calculation, analysis, scheduling and iterative improvement. It provides recommendations for using existing municipal datasets, GIS information, transport models, surveys and other data sources, including approaches to identifying data gaps, combining datasets and selecting feasible alternatives when information is unavailable. Supporting materials include a structured indicator selection table, findings from surveys of partner cities, data collection recommendations and monitoring process diagrams. A local experiment in Gdynia, Poland, is used to illustrate the application of the guidance. The publication is particularly valuable for transport planners, mobility managers and public authorities seeking to establish evidence-based monitoring systems, compare intervention outcomes under different seasonal conditions and use evaluation results to support future year-round active mobility policies and investments.

    • Data & Monitoring
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
  • ResearchCase studyCore resource

    Best Practices for Cycle Path Winter Maintenance Processes

    Kaisa Karhula · 2014 · Finland, Sweden, Denmark

    A comparative study of European best practices in winter maintenance of cycling infrastructure, focusing on maintenance processes, service standards, operational methods and organisational arrangements. The report highlights how systematic planning, route prioritisation and clearly defined maintenance requirements can support reliable year-round cycling.

    • Planning & Design
    • Maintenance & Operations
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
  • Report

    Transnational Evaluation Report of BATS -project's Piloting Activities

    Miloš N. Mladenović, Isabel Scherer, Lukas Junghanns, Konrad Biszko, Anne Põder · 2026 · Baltic Sea Region

    The Transnational Evaluation Report of Piloting Activities examines the development, testing and refinement of three interconnected planning tools created within the BATS project: the Diagnostics-Interventions Toolkit, the Monitoring Guide and the Citizen Activation Guide. Prepared by researchers from Aalto University, Gdańsk University of Technology and Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), the report draws on collaboration with seven municipalities and regional partners across the Baltic Sea Region. The evaluation describes how the tools were developed through literature reviews, interviews, questionnaires, co-design workshops, prototype testing and iterative feedback from municipal practitioners. The tools were tested alongside local year-round active mobility experiments addressing infrastructure, traffic management, winter maintenance and citizen activation in Hamburg, Umeå, Gdynia, Kalundborg, Harju County, Porvoo and Klaipėda. The report examines how practitioner feedback influenced the structure, usability and practical relevance of each tool. It highlights differences in municipal capabilities, data availability, planning cultures and organisational needs, demonstrating why a common transnational framework must remain adaptable to local circumstances. Key lessons include the importance of involving practitioners throughout tool development, integrating tool testing into pilot planning from the beginning, and using short feedback cycles to refine methods. The evaluation also emphasises that tools must be clear, visually accessible and directly applicable to everyday municipal work, with practical templates, checklists and examples rather than unnecessary methodological complexity. Beyond individual tools, the report identifies organisational learning as a central requirement for improving year-round active mobility planning. It argues that cities need to strengthen their capabilities in communicative planning, user-centred design, strategic monitoring and cross-departmental collaboration, while addressing institutional barriers such as fragmented responsibilities, limited resources and insufficient implementation commitment. The publication is particularly relevant for municipalities, researchers and project coordinators developing practical planning tools through international cooperation. It provides transferable lessons on co-creation, pilot-based tool development, institutional capacity building and the translation of research-based methods into usable municipal planning practices.

    • Maintenance & Operations
    • Data & Monitoring
    • Behaviour & Mobility Management
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
  • ResearchReport

    FinnCycle Research Project 2023–2025: Final Report and Recommendations for Finnish Cities

    Harri Vaarala · 2025 · Finland, Denmark, Netherlands

    A comparative research report examining how Finnish cities can strengthen cycling through long-term transport policy, integrated land-use planning, organisational development and sustained infrastructure investment. Drawing on practices from eight leading cycling cities in the Netherlands and Denmark, the study identifies structural barriers in Finnish cities and presents 13 recommendations for more systematic and effective cycling development, including improvements to winter maintenance.

    • Planning & Design
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
  • Guideline

    Design Manual for Cycle-Friendly Infrastructure, Copenhagen

    City of Copenhagen, Technical and Environmental Administration · 2024 · Denmark

    This municipal design manual establishes Copenhagen's standards for cycle-friendly streets, intersections and infrastructure. It provides technical guidance on cycle track widths, cycling streets, junction design, accessibility and integration with other transport infrastructure. Particularly relevant to year-round active mobility, the manual requires winter maintenance and cleaning operations to be considered during infrastructure design, including minimum clearances for maintenance vehicles and the use of durable materials. It defines winter maintenance service levels, with cycle tracks generally receiving priority service level A, covering snow clearance and anti-icing throughout the day and night. The manual offers a practical example of integrating cycling infrastructure design with operational requirements to ensure reliable everyday mobility across seasons.

    • Planning & Design
    • Maintenance & Operations
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
  • Report

    Development of Diagnostics-Interventions Toolkit for Enabling Year-Round Active Mobility

    Miloš N. Mladenović · 2024 · Baltic Sea Region

    Report describes the development of Diagnostics-Interventions Toolkit for diagnosing contextualized challenges and responding to those with identifying adequate interventions. The development of this toolkit has been done in close collaboration between planning practitioners and researchers, through a series of questionnaires, interviews, site visits, and workshops, supported by research-based and professional literature scans, all integrated through soft systems methods.

    • Planning & Design
    • Behaviour & Mobility Management
  • ResearchReport

    Institutional Barriers of Promoting Year-Round Active Mobility in Northern European Cities

    Xin Chen · 2024 · 4 countries

    A comparative study examining the institutional barriers to promoting year-round walking and cycling in Kalundborg, Lahti, Umeå and Hamburg-Altona. Drawing on interviews, a survey and a stakeholder workshop, the research identifies political, organisational, resource-related and stakeholder barriers, highlighting the importance of sustained political commitment, adequate resources and institutional coordination in implementing active mobility policies.

    • Behaviour & Mobility Management
    • Communication & Engagement
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance

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