The Environmental Award goes to Kaunas

The winner of the Best Environmental Practice in Baltic Cities Award 2005 is the City of Kaunas from Lithuania with the practice Modernization of the public transport network in Kaunas City.

The practice is a good mix of many medium-sized actions based on the city master plan adopted in 2003. The renewed bus and trolleybus fleet reduces gas emissions according to the European standards. The city of Kaunas is modernizing the public transport and modifying its route layout. Microbuses and taxi vans operated by private companies are integrated in the same control system with municipal transport, which improves co-ordination of public transport. The route mapping and management are regularly modified according to analysis of the up-to-date passenger flows. This allows better timetable management and customers' service.

As an incentive for customers, Kaunas has introduced a new and comprehensive ticketing system covering all modes of public transport. The customer needs only one ticket to use the public transport network. As an additional incentive the new vehicles provide a more comfort and convenience. The vehicles have lower floors and mobility ramps; they also allow greater access and mobility to disabled people, the elderly and those with pushchairs and prams.

The modernization process has already reached concrete results: 60 % of the citizens use the public transport and the air quality in the city has improved significantly. Furthermore, renewal of vehicle fleet improves convenience of traveling and increases status of public transport systems. The practice is a convincing example of an effective public-private partnership, as the public transport network is complemented with private services, such as taxi vans and microbuses.

Kaunas received the Baltic Cities Environmental Award 2005 on the occasion of the VIII General Conference of the Union of the Baltic Cities in Turku, Finland 30 September 2005.