Public transport in Yerevan, Armenia, is severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Strict hygiene measures are indispensable to maintain operations and prevent infections.
Category: Urban mobility and public transport
Toolbox citizen engagement for sustainable mobility planning and implementation
The success of sustainable mobility plans and projects often depends on the commitment and acceptance by citizens. Therefore, citizen engagement in planning and implementation of sustainable mobility in municipalities turns out to be a key success factor not only for impactful implementation of new concepts, but also for co-creating smart sustainable mobility measures. This happens when solutions are developed together with stakeholders.
Due to the consequences of the pandemic citizen engagement is limited or impossible. This can endanger the success and/or slowing down necessary sustainable mobility projects. For this reason, the Connective Cities working group «Sustainable Mobility after COVID-19» created a prototype for «Toolbox citizen engagement for sustainable mobility planning and implementation».
The toolbox covers different levels and degrees of participation. It is a collection of successful tools and roadmaps that can be used in different phases of sustainable mobility planning and implementation in and after the pandemic.
Towards a gender sensitive urban development
Why do we need a gender sensitive approach in urban planning?
Existing urban public spaces as well as public transport were mostly designed by and to accommodate the needs of men. A lot of them are not fit for women’s needs – some even pose a threat to women’s safety, they complicate their everyday lives and reduce their possibilities to engage in community life. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated existing gender inequalities in various aspects.
At the same time, this crisis can be an opportunity to make urban planning more gendersensitive, equitable and sustainable. There are a lot of gender sensitive practices already existing. The task is to implement these practices and help municipal actors achieve sustainable, inclusive and (gender) equitable development in the (post-)COVID era.
This was the aim of the two Connective Cities Working Groups on:
- Gender sensitive urban planning
- Gender responsive urban mobility
Connecting municipalities in their efforts towards a gender sensitive city
The participants of the working groups joined us from the municipalities of Nabeul and Sfax in Tunisia, Mexico City and Guadalaja in Mexico, Tena in Ecuador, Nairobi in Kenya as well as Uruguay and the Municipality of Gaza, Palestine.
In bringing municipal representatives and urban practitioners together to present and discuss their challenges and good practices they were supported to develop new project ideas through peer-learning and exchange. In this they were inspired by regional and international experts who shared their insights in gender sensitive planning approaches.
The first kick-off meeting was aiming to sensitize for the various risks of widening gender inequalities in urban development and to identify the roles cities administrations can play in this context.
Annika Dalén, Strategic development and gender equality officer, Municipality of Umeå, Sweden presented the efforts of the Swedish city of Umeå as a model city for gender sensitive urban planning and mobility. Until today, reliable data on how women move in cities is missing in a lot of countries. Therefore, to redesign cities and their transport systems to effectively respond to women’s needs, it is the first essential step to collect gender-specific data at the municipal and national levels.
Due to curfews and social restrictions, the pandemic put women at a higher risk to suffer from domestic violence. Katja Schülke, Gender equality officer, City of Bonn, Germany and Conny Schulte, General manager, Arbeitskreis Opferschutz Bonn/Rhein-Sieg presented their approaches for combating domestic violence of the City of Bonn.
A third keynote by Giada Cicognola, programme analyst, Cities Alliance introduced the participants to the programme Femmedina in Tunis, Tunisia. The programme’s goal is the rehabilitation of public spaces for women in the historic centre of Tunis, the Medina, through participatory decision-making.
During the following working group meetings, the participating municipalities identified one gender related challenge in their cities. They are exemplary for the issues women face in many places around the globe:
- Enhancing the integration of women in decision making processes in Tunis, Tunisia
- Improving the situation of commuting women from rural areas in urban environments in Tena, Ecuador
- Incorporating the needs of women in the implementation of e-mobility projects and addressing sexual and gender-based violence in the e-mobility space in Nairobi, Kenya
- Promoting cycling for women in Mexico City and Guadalaja, Mexico
Connective Cities working groups promote the idea of Peer-to-Peer Consulting so that the participating municipalities can benefit from each other’s experiences and good practices. If you are interested to learn more about this approach, you may find more information here. As an outcome of lively discussions, the groups developed Guidelines that can also help other municipal actors to get going. their guidelines for:
Guidelines:Towards a gender-sensitive urban development [pdf, 307 kb, 7 pp.]
Guidelines: Towards a gender responsive urban mobility [pdf, 337 kb, 8 pp.]
Without a gender sensitive approach to urban development, the pandemic could have far-reaching effects including the risk of widening gender inequalities in various areas. At the same time gender mainstreaming tools and good practices of gender-sensitive recovery strategies already exist, which, if used effectively, can mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19 and contribute to an increased gender equality.
Find more useful resources on gender sensitive urban planning:
Gender Responsive Urban Planning and Design | UN-Habitat (unhabitat.org)
How Vienna designed a city for women (apolitical.co)
How to Design a City for Women – Bloomberg
Gender in Mainstreaming Urban Development (berlin.de)
Harsh-realities-Marginalized-women-in-cities-of-the-developing-world-en.pdf (unwomen.org)
A safe city for women and girls in El Alto, Bolivia | UN Women
Goal 11 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs (un.org)
Brief-Recommendations-COVID-19-Safe-Cities-and-Safe-Public-Spaces-en.pdf (unwomen.org)
Sustainable Urban Mobility and COVID-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has led to fundamental changes in urban mobility worldwide. Some impacts are short-term, especially during lockdowns. Others are long-term changes in the way urban mobility and traffic will operate in the future. Sustainable urban mobility and Covid-19 was the focus of the Connective Cities Virtual Dialogue Event in partnership with United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and UN-Habitat and hosted by the City of Wiesbaden – Germany that took place on 19, 20 and 22 July 2021. This peer-learning note summarizes good practices of participating cities with a focus on local public transport, bicycle traffic and sustainable urban logistics.
In addition to the English version, there is also a German and Spanish version.
Additional information: a summary of the event including all presentations is available here.
TUMI Transport Outlook 1.5˚C
The Paris Climate Agreement as adopted in December 2015 set out to reduce global greenhouse emissions at a rate that would limit global temperature increase this century to a level 2.0˚C above pre-industrial levels. It went even further, laying out steps that might be taken to pursue an increase limited to 1.5˚C.
for exactly how we can achieve the goal of limiting greenhouse emissions. The transport sector accounts for nearly one-quarter of global energy-related carbon emissions. Climate action in transport is urgently needed because energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are the main driver of climate change (Teske et. al 2019). Yet a clear-cut path to transformation, one which is backed up with ‘hard’ numbers for policymakers around the world, remains missing. To close this gap, TUMI and the University of Technology Sydney developed a robust scenario study.
This study considers the conditions necessary to achieve these goals under three scenarios: A reference baseline study, in which no changes are implemented in terms of transport, along with a look at those changes that need to take place in order to limit warming to 1.5˚C or 2.0˚C.
For an executive summary and animated charts visit:
TUMI Transport Outlook 1.5˚C
The Paris Climate Agreement as adopted in December 2015 set out to reduce global greenhouse emissions at a rate that would limit global temperature increase this century to a level 2.0˚C above pre-industrial levels. It went even further, laying out steps that might be taken to pursue an increase limited to 1.5˚C.
for exactly how we can achieve the goal of limiting greenhouse emissions. The transport sector accounts for nearly one-quarter of global energy-related carbon emissions. Climate action in transport is urgently needed because energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are the main driver of climate change (Teske et. al 2019). Yet a clear-cut path to transformation, one which is backed up with ‘hard’ numbers for policymakers around the world, remains missing. To close this gap, TUMI and the University of Technology Sydney developed a robust scenario study.
This study considers the conditions necessary to achieve these goals under three scenarios: A reference baseline study, in which no changes are implemented in terms of transport, along with a look at those changes that need to take place in order to limit warming to 1.5˚C or 2.0˚C.
For an executive summary and animated charts visit:
Workshop invitation: regaining trust in public transport after Covid 19
After two years of a global pandemic, some of the preconditions of sustainable mobility plans of municipalities are questioned.
- Increased use of home-office leads to changed or even reduced mobility flows and needs
- Lack of information and fear to get infected due to unclear hygienic conditions and compliance with hygienic rules lead to loss of trust in public transport
Therefore, instead of increased public transport, people are increasingly using individual transport,
- counteracting efforts to improve sustainable mobility
- putting financial pressure on public transport
- sometimes even increasing infection risks by travelling in smaller vehicles
In this workshop we will focus on the following questions:
- Scientific findings on hygienic guidelines for public transport
- Good practices on
- defining hygienic rules for public transport
- ensuring compliance with hygienic rules in public transport
- regaining trust in public transport from political stakeholders and potential passengers
In exploration of abovementioned topics Connective Cities team would like to invite you to a workshop on December 9, 2021 at 13.00-15.00 CET on the following link
Regaining trust in public transport after Covid-19 | Connective Cities Network
Please log in or sing up on Connective Cities platform to access Event and resources. Do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions.
Contact:
Dr. Irakli Samkharadze
GIZ Regional Network Coordinator Connective Cities – Southeast Europe
irakli.samkharadze@giz.de
For German experts:
Alice Balbo
Connective Cities Project Manager at the German Association of Cities
alice.balbo@staedtetag.de
Invitation: “Citizen engagement in planning and implementation of sustainable mobility after Covid-19”
Connective Cities Southeast European Region is pleased to invite you to a Workshop on “Citizen engagement in planning and implementation of sustainable mobility after Covid 19”, discussing a collection of successful tools and roadmaps that can be used in different phases of sustainable mobility planning and implementation in and after the pandemic. The tools will cover different levels and degrees of participation.
This Planning Workshop is dedicated to
Presenting and discussing the prototype of the toolbox, selected roadmaps and tools for citizen engagement in the pandemic;
Sharing additional experiences and good practices;
Collecting ideas for publishing the toolbox (CC platform, municipality websites, research institute websites …); and
Identifying potential next steps for extending the toolbox.
The workshop will take place on
December 3, 2021 14.00-16.30 CET on the following link Sustainable Mobility Core Group | Connective Cities Network.
Please log in or sing up on Connective Cities platform to access Event and resources. Do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions.
Contact:
Dr. Irakli Samkharadze
GIZ Regional Network Coordinator Connective Cities – Southeast Europe
irakli.samkharadze@giz.de
For German experts:
Alice Balbo
Connective Cities Project Manager at the German Association of Cities
alice.balbo@staedtetag.de
Support for more bike lanes in cities
On 8 September 2021 the event “Pop-up bike lanes: long-term opportunities for green urban development after the COVID-19 pandemic?” took place as part of the virtual event series Insight Sessions: (Post) COVID Urban Futures. The series facilitates a recurring exchange on various topics of sustainable urban development in the (post) COVID-19 era between urban practitioners and interested participants worldwide. In entertaining exchange formats, space is created for impulses and reflection, and innovative solutions are presented.
The current event focused on pop-up bike lanes and changes in urban mobility during the pandemic. Over 30 participants from Bangladesh, Georgia, Tunisia, Egypt, Japan and Germany, among others, took part in the event. Representatives of cities worldwide discussed the possibilities and opportunities that arise from the long-term maintenance of the newly created cycle paths.
Programme
After a brief insight into this year’s Connective Cities COVID-19 programme, Sebastián Posada Garcia of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Department at the Secretariat of Mobility of the City of Bogotá, Colombia, presented the concept of pop-up bike lanes and good practice in Bogotá. At peak times in April and May 2020, the city installed more than 80km of additional temporary bike lanes, some of which have already been converted into permanent new bike lanes. In his presentation, Mr. Posada Garcia also addressed some frequently mentioned criticisms against pop-up bike lanes, such as increased numbers of accidents or increased congestion for motorists. He emphasised, based on statistical analyses, that the speed of car traffic did not decrease during the pandemic. However, many more citizens used bicycles to get around the city of Bogotá during COVID-19.
Afterwards, Thomas Kiel d’Aragon, Head of the Transport and Civil Engineering Department at the German Association of Cities in Berlin, presented examples of pop-up cycle paths in German cities. He also discussed the legal basis for the construction of additional cycle paths, as well as the financing of sustainable urban projects. Mr. Kiel d’Aragon also highlighted the enormous knowledge in the private sector compared to cities and pleaded for a close cooperation between the municipal administration with cycling initiatives or sustainability movements and private institutions.
Finally, Seçil Öznur Yakan, co-founder of the Women on Bicycle Initiative in Istanbul, Turkey, gave insights into the work of her initiative. In an impressive way, she showed how women around the world are working for more equity in bicycle mobility and networking with each other as well as with urban actors. Ms Öznur Yakan also presented the film My Bicycle My City, which was released in 2019 as part of World Bicycle Day. The film is available on YouTube: Benim Bisikletim Benim Şehrim Film – 2019 – YouTube
The presentations were followed by a lively discussion in which further questions could be answered, for example on the political promotion of increasing bicycle mobility in the different cities and countries. Finally, the Connective Cities working groups “Gender responsive urban mobility” and “Smart Mobility” were presented in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. You want to be part of the working groups? You can find more information and register here: Platform COVID-19 | Connective Cities Network
Recording
You can find the recording of the event here: Insight Session: Pop-up bike lanes - Long-term opportunities for green urban development?
Presentation
Good Practice Bogotá, Colombia
Providing access to cycling as a sustainable and affordable form of transport
Mzikhona Mgedle, a local resident in Langa township (Cape Town, South Africa), founded Langa Bicycle Hub in 2020 with a vision of positively influencing the community of Langa while providing access to a sustainable and affordable form of transport by using bicycles to move people and basic goods and facilitate community building. This project is in partnership with Open Streets Cape Town, Darrvin Ebikes Africa, Langa Safety Patrol and Langa Community individuals.