BATS - Baltic Sea region Active Travel Solutions is a collaborative project aiming to ensure active mobility remains a feasible transport mode during the long period of colder and darker weather in the Baltic Sea Region. We promote the concept of Year-Round Active mobility (YRAM).

Active mobility, which includes cycling and walking, is an accessible, healthy, and green mode of transport that contributes to the transition to a more sustainable mobility system. However, across the Baltic Sea Region, the proportion of pedestrians and cyclists decreases sharply during the region’s dark, wet, snowy, cold and increasingly unpredictable winter months.

By tradition, mobility and road planning is still largely designed for cars, and planning for cyclists and pedestrians is usually geared towards daylight and warmer weather conditions. For cycling and walking to remain an option for the whole year, it must be and feel safe and attractive in all seasons. This requires Public Authorities responsible for urban design, mobility planning and road maintenance to give specific attention to suitable infrastructure, optimal traffic systems, and effective procedures for removal of snow, ice, and leaves from roads and paths.

The BATS project brings together 7 city partners and 5 knowledge organisations to learn and experiment together with policies, infrastructure and campaigns that are most effective for encouraging YRAM. The project seeks to empower planners with the necessary insights into the opportunities of YRAM and methods to innovate towards new solutions. We bring the specific needs of YRAM to the table and trigger new questions among key stakeholders, such as ‘what happens with painted bike lanes in snowy conditions?’ and ‘how to best indicate and illuminate active mobility infrastructure in the dark?’

Across seven cities in the BSR, we experiment with specific interventions and local campaigns. These address common issues related to lighting, protective elements, winter services and traffic control. In BATS, the experiences from varied climate conditions and planning cultures across the region are brought together into comprehensive materials that aim to support urban and rural stakeholders to systematically address YRAM. Our YRAM Toolkit and Citizen Activation Guide include templates and guidance aiming to support public authorities with how to diagnose and plan interventions, how to monitor and evaluate YRAM and how to activate the general public towards new and more sustainable mobility habits.

A success factor for BATS is increased awareness of the specific needs of pedestrians and cyclists during darker, colder and wetter days among all key stakeholders (planners, engineers, maintenance and operational service providers). This is the starting point to fully year-round proof active mobility infrastructure.

We are establishing a follower network of cities and other relevant organisations (regional and national authorities, public service providers, etc) to share our experiences and exchange on good practices. Sign up here to receive the latest information.