Ambato strengthens its Commitment to Sustainable Mobility

Ambato joins the 42 cities and 11 member countries of the MobiliseYourCity Partnership

With the purpose of reversing the trend of intensive vehicle use, greenhouse gas emissions and rapid motorization, Ambato seeks to change the city’s mobility model and point towards sustainable urban mobility. For this, the city joined the MobiliseYourCity International Alliance, in order to obtain methodological support and a global network for knowledge exchange on the subject.

In Ambato, the car fleet is growing faster than the population (180 cars per 1000 inhabitants vs. the national average rate of 133 cars per 1000 inhabitants). That is why in the campaign period of sectional elections in February 2019, the issue of sustainable mobility was a constant request from citizens and was one of the proposals of today’s Mayor Javier Altamirano.

After assuming duties, he sought to materialize that promise and ratify his political commitment to sustainable mobility by formally presenting his expression of interest to belong to this Alliance. Its application is based on the project “Update of the Transport and Mobility Master Plan” in which Ambato has the financial and technical support of the EUROCLIMA + program.

“Ambato doesn’t resist improvisation anymore; the execution of road and transport works in the city must respond to a long-term planning model and cannot ignore the international commitments to which the country has subscribed to achieve sustainable urban development and climate change mitigation”,

said Mayor Javier Altamirano, this Wednesday, September 25, when he received the membership certificate in the framework of the activities organized by Ambato Urban Mobility Week.

The head of the urban mobility component of EUROCLIMA + in Ecuador, Dorothea Kallenberger highlighted the fact that this membership does not imply any cost for Ambato, but many benefits: “It makes available to the city a technical guide and a personalized support for development of its new Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan ”.

Ambato is the first intermediate city in Ecuador to join MobiliseYourCity, and will therefore seek to be a pioneer in the implementation of effective measures to put human beings at the center of planning. In addition, it will seek to have a high incidence in the construction of the National Urban Mobility Policy that the central government also develops with the support of the EUROCLIMA + program.