TARTU AIMS TO BECOME A TRAILBLAZER IN THE BALTICS FOR THE COOLEST AND GREENEST PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SOLUTIONS Did you know that Tartu has one of the best living environments in the world? In 2019, the jury for the LivCom Awards (International Awards for Liveable Communities) presented Tartu with a silver medal for its high-quality and innovative developments in all walks of life and for its bold decisions in designing a sustainable urban space. While improving the quality of life for locals, Tartu is also turning into a valuable sustainable tourism destination for travellers. In 2020, Tartu was selected as one of the Sustainable Top 100 Destinations by Green Destinations. In 2021, the city’s good practice story of innovative public transportation was placed second in the Environment and Climate category of the Green Destinations Story Awards.
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What makes Tartu stand out? One of the biggest goals of Tartu is to reduce private car use and eventually become a completely climate-neutral city by 2050. Launching Tartu Smart Bike Share, updating the entire bus route system and replacing all diesel-powered buses with the ones that use carbon neutral fuel, produced from local agricultural waste, make Tartu the first city in Estonia to turn public transportation fully green. Why has Tartu Smart Bike Share been so successful? Tartu Smart Bike Share is a public self-service bike share system for environmentally friendly way to take short trips in the city as well as its neighbouring areas. Compared to similar bike share systems around the world, Tartu’s success lies in the ever-growing number of parking stations in the area that is only about 154 km2 in size. This means that in the light of urban sprawl, the citizens are able to use soft mobility options instead of their private cars. Since its launch in June 2019, Smart Bike Share users have travelled more than 4.3 million kilometres around Tartu. What are the benefits of supporting a sustainable lifestyle for Tartu? Tartu’s aim is to become better each day while always remaining true to itself. The statistics and recognition show that Tartu is on the right track to support the sustainable lifestyle and increase the connection between the people and their surroundings.
by Dana Neemre | dana.neemre@visittartu.com
