Description
The project responds to the current situation where cities create plans for planning only and citizens live in places that they know only from the window of the car. They are not interested in their development. In case they are interested, they do not believe that they can influence the situation. This fact is evidenced by the survey we did among participants of Challenge 10.000 steps. 43% would like to communicate with the city on issues of transport planning and public space, if the city had an interest, and 10% of participants on the contrary, do not want to because they feel that the city is not listening.
Our tool is nationwide Challenge 10.000 steps and a mobile/web app improved by participation tools. The Challenge encourages people to walk more often around and awaken their interest in the space where they live. The participatory elements in the application are a tool for feedback of citizens towards the community. Subsequently, in cooperation with our organization, suggestions and data will be evaluated and citizens will be informed how their suggestions are handled.
The aim of the project is to help cities to become a liveable place and to develop their space with regards to the activities and needs of their citizens. To motivate citizens to discover neighbourhoods and share their views and needs.
The main benefit from this project is for the municipalities, which will be able to develop according to the actual needs of their citizens. And at the same time for the people because the quality of the public places will be increased.
Summary of project results
Cities are currently working on whether they have Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans. They take this document more as a technical document. However, it is forgotten that the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan must also include the Communication Strategy and participation tools. Most cities do have it, but only at the level of communicating the development of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan. It is forgotten that participation and communication should also cover the implementation phase. Cities don''t actually have communication coordinators. This weakness was fully manifested in this project. When we approached cities to identify their coordinators, they were often tourism workers. Only in very few examples were experts who understand transport and active mobility. And right at this moment, this project had several positive effects, which can have a long-term effect. Thanks to this project, the cities are gradually defining their coordinators for the communication of urban mobility topics. The topic of walking is one of the ways to support the ideas of the discussion on the topic of urban mobility. In this context, the involvement of the city of Brno, where the Department of Transport became the coordinator, or the city of Prostějov, where the local branch of BESIP became the coordinator, can be considered as a very positive impact: These positive examples are already motivating other cities that it is necessary to go this way. The project was thus able to start a discussion on the topic of who should coordinate the participation of urban mobility topics. At the same time, users of the 10,000 steps challenge had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with this issue and address their coordinators, with whom they had direct contact thanks to the project.