Tartu with the best living environment

To maintain and to develop a clean and citizen-friendly environment has always been atop priority for Tartu. This has been clearly expressed both in the City Development Plan for the years 2007-2013 and in the Development Strategy Tartu 2030. Although the Estonian law prescribes that local governments have to draw up development plans for at least three years,Tartu prefers to take a longer perspective which helps the changing city governments to work towards the goals that have been established.

The river Emajogi is one of the favourite sites for the citizens and visitors of Tartu, where a lot of public events take place. Tartuers enjoy walking along the newly-opened promenade. Photo: Meelis Lokk

The innovative potential of a university as well as the city's close relations within the framework of the Baltic Sea region cities and in Europe are involved to achieve the goals. Moreover, Tartu is applying for the total of 1,131 MEUR from the ERDF to make investments that are necessary for maintaining the urban environment, e.g. in the development of public transport and building bicycle lanes. This year the city is going to construct two very important and frequently used light traffic roads. Tartu hasthe makingsofa great Bicycle City. Preliminary work has been done already: a development plan was worked out in cooperation with many bicycle enthusiasts last year. Accordingly, the network of bicycle routes will cover the whole city and there are connections between all parts of the city and the city centre. The development plan foresees a phased construction of the bicycle lanes. Another way of saving the environment is to have a passenger-friendly public transport. The city hopes to use EU support for installing vehicle telematics and ticket systems on the buses in Tartu, which would enable the live monitoring of vehicles and inform the passangers about the time of arrival at a particular bus-stop. This system would make our public transport more convenient for passangers. Tartu transport development plan contains a goal to maintain the present number of public transport users during the next five years. We are not wealthy enough to afford our buses to run half-empty.

An important part of the development plan for maintaining a clean and citizen-friendly urban environment is directing transit transport out of the city. Tartu is drafting an east-bound detour plan in cooperation with the neighbouring rural municipalities. It has been decided to apply for 3,732 m EUR from the EU cohesion fund and to start the construction at the beginning of 2011. A survey conducted by one of the biggest daily newspapers in Estonia showed that people considerTartu to have the best living environment when compared to all the other Estonian cities.The city's goal is to be a town with the best living environment even in Europe.