EUKI Living Streets

Living Streets project aims at supporting residents to transform their streets temporarily into the sustainable place they have always dreamed of. It is the result of a pilot initiated by the City of Ghent. In 2012 they asked a group of citizens, entrepreneurs and civil servants to imagine a sustainable future for their city. Their vision became part of their agenda for the future: a network of car-free zones built around central squares, with rapid transit bike lanes, public transit, and neighbours talking in the street. The group realised that only a vision by itself would not change the world. To make it really happen, they launched concrete experiments, the Living Streets (“Leefstraat”) and tried to make their dreams a reality.

Based on the experience gained by Ghent’s Living Streets and the lessons learnt from the EU funded project Living Streets, this new project will support additional cities from Croatia, Greece and Portugal to develop and implement their Living Streets concept. Through the involvement of local stakeholders and citizens, they will redefine the socio-economic and the aesthetic dimension of streets within the urban development framework. Each living street experiments new forms of city life, with less cars and more social interaction, as designed by all stakeholders and answering to local needs.  

Main objectives of EUKI Living Streets project

• To increase the capacity of networks and cities in Croatia, Greece and Portugal to engage with their citizen and on energy issues;
• To experiment on the ground via the implementation of Living Streets during which selected streets are temporarily closed for 1-2 months to cars and citizens can try-out a car free lifestyle
• To impact the local spatial planning and mobility policies with practical feedback from the temporary experiments.