UVAR Box

Country Coaches

The UVAR Box project aims to digitise urban vehicle access regulations (UVARs) in Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy and Germany. This will be achieved thanks to a selection of national experts, who act as the link between the European project level and the local and national authorities, as well as the cities and other urban municipalities in the respective countries.

Guide to country coaches

Learn more about the tasks of the country coaches by clicking on the questions below.

The UVAR Box defines a country coach as a dedicated person and/or organisation that coordinates the digitisation and cooperation process on the national level.

Each country has certain particularities, influenced by the administrative and political division of the country, the languages spoken, the level of development of UVARs, as well as the level of established cooperation, just to name a few examples. National experts, who are familiar can facilitate the processes on a national level.

The selection is based on the fact that the respective countries of Austria, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands and Italy have a significant number of UVARs, as well as a elaborate level of cooperation between the different administrative levels. Furthermore, in these countries, the concept of UVARs are well-established.

A significant difference is the administrative and political structure of the countries, ranging from very federal systems, like Germany and Belgium to a more liberal approach for cities, like in the Netherlands.

The project aims to create long-lasting ties between the National Access Points, the cities, regions and federal entities. The success of this endeavour depends on the coordination of stakeholders throughout the duration of the project.

Austria

Austriatech, as the ‘daughter’ of the Transport Ministry, is coordinating the digitisation endeavours of the UVAR Box in Austria. The Alpine Republic has a well-organised dataset of pedestrian zones, as well as a long-standing cooperation between the central government and the ‘Länder’, due to its federal system.

One of the many benefits of UVAR Box for Austria will be the fostering of coordination between European and national frameworks.

Belgium

MAPtm is the country coach of Belgium. With many digitalisation going on in both countries we strive to get a 100% score on getting all UVARs for Belgium. The challenge for us will be communication with officials from cities and regions in the three  languages.

Netherlands

MAPtm is the country coach of the Netherlands, the country in which the traffic management agency is located. Thanks to several years of cooperation between MAPtm and various urban administrations across the Netherlands, MAPtm has the necessary connections to foster the digitisation process. This is shown in their high aim to achieve a 100% score on digitising all UVARs in the Netherlands.

Luxembourg

Currently, discussions are taking place whether or not the EU-funded UVAR Box project will expand its digitisation tasks to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. This endeavour does depend on the potential cooperation between MAPtm, the country coach of the BeNeLux region, and the respective representatives of Luxembourg and its urban municipalities with urban vehicle access regulations.

Germany

Germany has a long tradition of urban vehicle access regulations. Beginning 2010, environmental zones, which limit access for vehicles with high emissions to certain urban areas, came into effect in many cities. Specific bans of certain diesel vehicles followed in 2018. Of course, there are many more UVARs in German cities, such as parking regulations, congestion regulations, zones with limited traffic or pedestrian zones.

The digitisation of UVARs and the communication between stakeholders in Germany will be supported by PRISMA solutions, a traffic expert and solution provider based in Germany and Austria.

Italy

Italy has the highest number of UVARs, which are currently identified by project partners. Therefore, the country coach is facing a large challenge. TRT – Trasporti e Territorio is the ideal organisation to coordinate this task, due to their expertise on the national and European level thanks to their engagement with European projects.

MemEx is an Engineering Consultancy Company working since 1994 in the field of Urban Mobility, ITS and Smart Cities. The company’s  main clients are Italian and European Public Administrations and Public Transport Operators. MemEx  provides consultancy services for design of access regulation actions and  traffic management solutions. Thus. the main challenge for MemEx is to obtain the required contributions by as many as possible cities with the opportunity also to enlarge its contacts network.

General Support team

As the project leader, ARMIS is coordinating the UVAR Box project, in support with several technical experts and POLIS Network as the communication responsible. Colleagues from Armis, Polis and Sadler Consultants act as country coaches for countries outside the five above. You can learn all about the project partners on our dedicated page.

 

Armis

Sadler Consultants

POLIS Network