The adverse impacts of transport in dense urban environments are among the most serious challenges faced by administrations of big and small cities alike. In the Russian Federation, it is estimated that the annual socio-economic damage associated with traffic jams and the worsening of environmental conditions due to mobile sources of emissions reaches 5-7 % GDP.

Traditional approaches on mitigating these impacts are often oriented towards isolated and uncoordinated measures prioritizing road infrastructure development, improvement of public transport and limited implementation of traffic management solutions. Due to their fragmented nature, in many cases these solutions do not achieve the desire results under conditions of uncontrolled growth of transport demand. So it becomes imperative to implement effective urban transport systems planning which is oriented on achievement of sustainable urban transport policy goals and based on searching of rational balance between transport demand and supply with the use of the most efficient and safe modes of transport.

The international Conference “Looking for Synergy: Integrating Transport, Urban Planning and the Use of Traffic Management Methods for Ensuring Sustainable Mobility and Healthy Urban Environment” is organized in the framework of THE PEP Annual Workshop (relay race) series and it is the first action in implementation of the Partnership on integration of transport, health and environment issues in urban and spatial planning (Paris Goal 5). The main goal of this Conference is to bring together national and international experts with the aim of promoting the exchange of ideas, experience, knowledge and best practices in the field of sustainable urban transport planning and mobility management in cities.

In this context, it is proposed to organize the discussions of the workshop along the following thematic areas and issues:

• role and place of national authorities in urban transport problems solution;
• the use of modern methods and means of traffic management as an instrument for transport demand and road network capacity management;
• ensuring co-ordination between town-planning and transport policies;
• the use of different methods and means of transport demand management including introduction of restrictions on the use and traffic of some categories of vehicles;
• development of non-motorized kinds of travel (cycling, walking) as separate urban transport modes.

The underlying idea of the Conference Agenda is improvement of urban transport systems` safety for public health and the environment, rise of urban population quality of life by optimization of transport policy and transport solutions.