Belo Horizonte is the capital of the state of Minas Gerais and is located in southeastern Brazil. With a population of around two and a half million people, Belo Horizonte is the sixth largest city in Brazil and counting. The car-centred city has a high traffic density with one of the highest numbers of injuries and fatalities from traffic accidents in the world.

The aim of the city administration and urban traffic planning company BH Trans is therefore to reduce car traffic, make it safer for the population and create more space for pedestrians and bicycles. To achieve this goal, traffic-calming measures needed to be developed and implemented.

The peer-to-peer consultation during the dialogue event and the expert mission in Belo Horizonte allowed the project idea to develop further and contributed to the success of the project. In retrospect, the implementation of the two 30 km/h zones stood on two pillars: On the one hand, on an extensive data collection, e.g. on the number and speed of vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians as well as the evaluation of concepts from other cities; on the other hand, on a comprehensive involvement of the population through surveys in advance and participation in planning and implementation. Especially the cooperation with schools, with pupils, in the two districts proved to be very inspiring and has changed the planning and implementation processes. With a new project focus, the target group was expanded to include cyclists as part of the vulnerable groups in road traffic - in addition to schoolchildren and people with physical disabilities.

An evaluation in September 2019 showed a high level of acceptance of these traffic-calming actions among the population. Due to the early involvement in all implementation steps, there was very little resistance to the transformation in urban society. The traffic-calming actions not only reduce serious traffic accidents, but they also improve air quality, reduce CO2 emissions and ultimately increase the quality of life in the neighbourhoods.

A handbook about the methodologies applied in the project is being currently developed, allowing other neighbourhoods as well as cities to learn and draw on these practical experiences and steps in implementing traffic calming measures.

Based on the first two experiences, two additional zones have now been implemented by the responsible persons on their own initiative, following the same model.

With technical support from the Wuppertal Institute and financial support from UN-Habitat as part of the Urban Pathways program, starting in 2020, more streets were traffic-calmed and new squares were designed. Furthermore, one connected network of cycle routes was created bringing together separate cycle paths leading from the west and east of the city to the centre and partly merged into bicycle lanes that are separated from car traffic. Other aspects such as waste management and the measurement of air pollution were also included in this project.

The Connective Cities approach of linking different formats of peer-to-peer consultation in order to develop projects ready for implementation has proved to be successful here. Or as Ms Eveline Prado Trevisan, responsible for sustainable mobility at BH Trans, put it: "After working together with Connective Cities, many new projects have been developed. I believe it was an important experience for us".