SnowHowYear-round active mobility – resources and network

Resources

29 resources

  • GuidelineCore resource

    Citizen Activation Guide: Promoting Year-Round Active Mobility (YRAM)

    Tallinn University of Technology · 2025 · Baltic Sea Region

    The Citizen Activation Guide (CAG), developed by Tallinn University of Technology as part of the BATS project, provides a practical framework for municipalities and mobility planners to engage residents and encourage year-round active mobility, particularly during colder and darker seasons. The guide is structured around three questions: WHY citizen engagement is needed, TO WHOM activities should be targeted, and HOW participation and behaviour change can be supported. It explains how to assess local mobility conditions, identify residents' needs, motivations and barriers, develop user personas, and select appropriate participatory or behavioural approaches. Practical guidance covers communication campaigns, focus groups, workshops, digital mapping, public meetings, walking and cycling field visits, citizen advisory committees, and nudging techniques. The accompanying CAG Canvas supports systematic planning, while templates for resident surveys, focus groups and campaign checklists help practitioners implement and evaluate engagement activities. The guide also includes examples from seven BATS pilot areas across the Baltic Sea Region and links citizen engagement activities to monitoring and evaluation. It is particularly useful for cities seeking to move beyond generic awareness campaigns towards targeted, evidence-informed approaches that address the specific barriers preventing people from walking and cycling throughout the year.

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

    Fix the maintenance - Promoting the safety of year-round bicycle and pedestrian route usage in Finnish cities

    Timo Perälä, Matti Hirvonen, Martti Tulenheimo, Pekka Tahkola · 2024 · Finland

    A practical guide for Finnish municipalities on improving year-round maintenance of walking and cycling infrastructure. It highlights the safety, health and economic benefits of high-quality winter maintenance and provides recommendations for winter-resilient infrastructure design, maintenance prioritisation, service procurement, quality management and winter maintenance methods.

    • Maintenance & Operations
    • Health, Safety & Wellbeing
  • GuidelineCore resource

    Snow Space Guide – guidelines for a better winter

    Eeva Huuhtanen, Timo Perälä · 2024 · Finland

    A comprehensive guide to handling snow and dimensioning snow storage space in the urban environment. It explains why year-round planning matters and how it supports municipalities' strategic goals, and walks through every stage of the built-environment process, from legislation and strategic planning to street-space supervision. Intended for commissioners, planners, builders and maintenance operators in both the public and private sectors.

    • Planning & Design
    • Maintenance & Operations
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
  • ToolkitCore resource

    YRAM - Diagnostics and intervention toolkit

    Milos Mladenovic · 2024 · Baltic Sea Region

    This toolkit is a collaborative workspace for developing innovative solutions for Year-Round Active Mobility in darkness and all-weather conditions. It offers a systematic method for mobility planners and managers to go from a wish to improve active mobility to develop a systematic plan for implementation. The toolkit consists of 8 modules, each presented on a canvas that helps stakeholders explore challenges, structure ideas and co-create solutions together. There are three flexible ways to use the canvases tailored to different levels of time, ambition, team-size and data: 1) Solo sprint, 2) Starter workshop and 3) Deep dive. The canvases can viewed on Miro and used as digital PDFs or printed to paper (A1or A2 format suggested). You find detailed instructions on how to use the materials from the Toolkit pdf-file. This toolkit is part of Output 2.3 of the BATS project.

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

    Winter Cities Toolkit

    8 80 Cities · 2021 · Canada, United States

    An online toolkit developed through the Wintermission programme, providing practical resources for creating inclusive, active and welcoming public spaces during winter. It includes community engagement methods, winter life surveys, action planning worksheets, snow management policy examples and winter city strategies, drawing on experiences from three US cities.

    • Planning & Design
    • Behaviour & Mobility Management
    • Communication & Engagement
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
  • Research

    Aging in experimental places: A case study on seasonal street transformations with older adults in Verdun, Montréal

    Aryana Soliz, Meredith Alousi-Jones, Ahmed El-Geneidy · 2026 · Canada

    This research article examines how seasonal pedestrianization and car-free street initiatives affect older adults, focusing on Wellington Street in the Verdun neighbourhood of Montréal, Canada. Using in-depth interviews with older adults and an analysis of urban policies, the study explores the opportunities and challenges associated with transforming streets into pedestrian-oriented public spaces. Particular attention is given to accessibility, social inclusion, seasonal conditions and the ability of older residents to age in place. The findings highlight tensions between the objectives of sustainable urban mobility and the diverse needs of an aging population. Although Montréal's policies promote pedestrianization, universal accessibility and age-friendly environments, the study identifies gaps in the geographical and seasonal coverage of interventions and in the monitoring of their outcomes. Older adults' experiences are shaped by accessibility challenges, seasonal constraints, opportunities for social interaction and their involvement in local decision-making. The study also examines the implications of proposals to transform Wellington Street from a seasonal pedestrian zone into a permanently car-free street. The research demonstrates the importance of incorporating older adults' perspectives into street design, pedestrianization policies and evaluation processes. It provides insights for cities seeking to develop inclusive, accessible and attractive pedestrian environments throughout the year.

    • Planning & Design
    • Maintenance & Operations
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
    • Health, Safety & Wellbeing
  • 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
  • Research

    Healthy Ageing and the 15-Minute Walking Environment in the Swedish Arctic Communities

    Luisa Merlo, David Chapman, Finn Nilson, Charlotta Johansson, Agneta Larsson · 2025 · Sweden, Finland, Iceland

    A study examining the 15-minute walking environment from the perspective of adults aged 70 and older in Swedish Arctic communities. The research highlights the importance of accessible everyday services, social connections and opportunities for walking without a specific destination, providing insights for age-friendly and inclusive neighbourhood planning in northern environments.

    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
    • Health, Safety & Wellbeing
  • ResearchCase study

    Residents’ Seasonal Behavior Patterns and Spatial Preferences in Public Open Spaces of Severely Cold Regions: Evidence from Harbin, China

    Shuai Liang, Hong Leng · 2025 · China

    This study develops a computer vision-based method for analysing how residents use public open spaces across all four seasons in Harbin, China. Using longitudinal video observations of a residential square, the researchers extracted pedestrian trajectories, identified five distinct behavioural patterns and examined their relationships with spatial characteristics through geographically weighted regression. The automated classification achieved an overall accuracy of 87.5%. The findings show that activity patterns and spatial preferences vary seasonally, with features such as greenery, shading, facilities and sky visibility influencing how people use outdoor spaces. The methodology offers urban planners a data-driven approach to evaluating and improving public spaces for year-round activity in cold-climate cities

    • Planning & Design
    • Data & Monitoring
    • Behaviour & Mobility Management
    • Health, Safety & Wellbeing
  • Blog

    Addressing the policy blind spots: Age-inclusive and age-equitable outdoor spaces in the Nordic Arctic region

    Bodil Hansen Blix, Anastasia Emelyanova, Agneta Larsson, Steinunn A. Olafsdottir, Arja Rautio · 2024 · Nordic countries

    A research-based blog article highlighting gaps in Nordic ageing policies that overlook the specific needs of older adults in Arctic communities. Drawing on a policy review across Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland, it identifies geographical, urban–rural and indoor–outdoor biases and calls for more inclusive policies that ensure accessible, safe and welcoming outdoor environments for older people.

    • Planning & Design
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
    • Health, Safety & Wellbeing

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