On Monday 17th of July 2023, the 1st local stakeholders’ meeting on shared mobility was realized in North Aegean Region, Greece, in the frame of SMAPE project – Interreg Europe, being co-organized by the project partners University of West Attica (PP7) and the Regional Development Fund of North Aegean Region, Greece (PP10).
The meeting was successfully held at the conference room of the Chamber of Lesvos on the island of Mytilene which is the capital of the Region of North Aegean. Given the peculiarity of the Region consisting only of islands, it was a hybrid meeting in order to enable the participation of stakeholders and Authorities of other islands as well. This way, the opportunity of online participation was provided to the representatives of organizations whose headquarters are located on the other islands of the North Aegean Region, apart from Mytilene. Representatives from all aspects of the Triple Helix were engaged and participated in the sessions, coming from different universities, regional and municipal Authorities, a shared mobility service provider, and a transport-related SME. Thus, an important task of bringing the key stakeholders at the “same table” was achieved during the first semester of SMAPE project.
The focus of the meeting was on human-centered, shared and sustainable systems and how these can be effectively integrated into sectoral developments to upgrade services for residents and visitors. More specifically, the objectives of this 1st stakeholders’ meeting were, among others, to better understand the concept of shared mobility, to discuss on local opportunities and challenges, to identify relevant good practices that have been implemented in the region as well as worst ones as examples to avoid.
At first, all participants had the opportunity to introduce themselves and their organization in order to get to know each other and promote networking among them. Before diving into presenting the SMAPE project and its scope, a short presentation was delivered about defining the different types of shared mobility in order to gain a common wording, while highlighting its diversity and benefits. Then, all the main information about SMAPE project were presented. Emphasis was placed on the expectations and added-value that the Greek regional stakeholder ecosystem can have from the project. Aiming to widen the horizons of the attendees and to provide a starting point for the roundtable discussion that followed, a number of good practices on shared mobility systems from Greece and abroad was described.
A roundtable discussion and a brainstorming session were included in the agenda for facilitating the exchange of opinions and vivid interaction. In this frame, the participants jointly outlined the current situation on transport on the islands of North Aegean Region, they referred to the local potentials, and they raised issues from each organization’s perspective such as citizens’ mentality, sense of ownership, infrastructure, financial sustainability of shared mobility systems, seasonal demand. They also shared previous experiences of relevant actions.