Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Cities-4-People (New approaches for community-driven sustainable mobility innovations at neighbourhood and urban district level)
Reporting period: 2018-12-01 to 2020-11-30
Urban development has lacked a framework that can create a positive impact using participatory and co-design approaches. Many European mobility initiatives have been primarily characterised by top-down, centralised governance structures and suffered from low incentives, high capital intensiveness innovation and problematic financing. Cities-4-People(C4P) project has united the municipalities of Istanbul, Hamburg, Budapest, Oxfordshire and Trikala to challenge their mobility urban development through a People Oriented Transport and Mobility(POTM) approach. The involved cities have engaged in turning their citizens into active city stakeholders together with local municipalities, educational partners and transport authorities. Together they have formed the local mobility community and the Quadruple Helix Stakeholder group, identifying and transforming mobility challenges into concepts for piloting, and scaling up the best solutions within the project timeframe.
With C4P we get a real understanding and picture of what really impacts citizens’ quality of life when it comes to mobility, plus it sets the premise for inclusive approaches through active citizen participation in urban development processes. In C4P citizens and other mobility stakeholders have had the possibility to identify, understand and tackle mobility and transportation challenges that affect important aspects of their daily life. Prioritising citizen involvement provides a dedicated community, who feel heard and consequently more engaged in their local city development. Specification of the Transport and Mobility Challenges and Intervention Areas: Through an initial qualitative and quantitative research, a large number of citizens were able to participate and create an overview of local problems and main mobility issues. Community building and provide communities with the necessary arsenal to innovate: Through a number of events and tools, each of the locations has reached a large number of local citizens and managed to create an engaged community, which has been the key group in co-assessing and co-creating solutions. Due to these communities’ profile, which include representatives from local associations, transport authorities, residents, the process sets a unique environment towards original ways to impact urban development.
Devise new solutions: From challenging distinct approaches to urban development to specific solutions to be implemented in urban areas to tackle some of the local mobility problems, C4P has innovated and paved the way for original modes of inclusive and effective urban planning processes. Pilot the proposed solutions in the real field and scale-up: Fifteen co-created interventions are being piloted in the C4P locations The interventions were co-assessed and co-evaluated, and based on the evaluation results, scaled up in the second round of the project. C4P create a foundational framework for POTM assessment: By building an engaged and informed community cities gain from local expertise to solve urban challenges. The POTM framework focuses on this approach to create a well-established group, who can, not only identify local issues, but also work together to tackle them by uniting the wide spectrum of local voices and groups.
Formulate and implement a strategy and action plan for exploitation and sustainability: The knowledge created and acquired within this project builds a solid base towards other cities and projects dealing with similar aspects. Moreover, the engagement of local municipalities and local stakeholders should linger beyond the project timeline, setting a premise of how future city development can become more inclusive and diverse.
With C4P we get a real understanding and picture of what really impacts citizens’ quality of life when it comes to mobility, plus it sets the premise for inclusive approaches through active citizen participation in urban development processes. In C4P citizens and other mobility stakeholders have had the possibility to identify, understand and tackle mobility and transportation challenges that affect important aspects of their daily life. Prioritising citizen involvement provides a dedicated community, who feel heard and consequently more engaged in their local city development. Specification of the Transport and Mobility Challenges and Intervention Areas: Through an initial qualitative and quantitative research, a large number of citizens were able to participate and create an overview of local problems and main mobility issues. Community building and provide communities with the necessary arsenal to innovate: Through a number of events and tools, each of the locations has reached a large number of local citizens and managed to create an engaged community, which has been the key group in co-assessing and co-creating solutions. Due to these communities’ profile, which include representatives from local associations, transport authorities, residents, the process sets a unique environment towards original ways to impact urban development.
Devise new solutions: From challenging distinct approaches to urban development to specific solutions to be implemented in urban areas to tackle some of the local mobility problems, C4P has innovated and paved the way for original modes of inclusive and effective urban planning processes. Pilot the proposed solutions in the real field and scale-up: Fifteen co-created interventions are being piloted in the C4P locations The interventions were co-assessed and co-evaluated, and based on the evaluation results, scaled up in the second round of the project. C4P create a foundational framework for POTM assessment: By building an engaged and informed community cities gain from local expertise to solve urban challenges. The POTM framework focuses on this approach to create a well-established group, who can, not only identify local issues, but also work together to tackle them by uniting the wide spectrum of local voices and groups.
Formulate and implement a strategy and action plan for exploitation and sustainability: The knowledge created and acquired within this project builds a solid base towards other cities and projects dealing with similar aspects. Moreover, the engagement of local municipalities and local stakeholders should linger beyond the project timeline, setting a premise of how future city development can become more inclusive and diverse.
Development of the Cities-4-People conceptual framework and five unique urban profiles: C4P created an up-to-date knowledge base of relevant frameworks and models with a strong application potential to the specificities of neighbourhood-level, urban-district level or peri-urban mobility interventions, plus, through user-research, create 5 urban profiles that have grounded all the activities that followed.
Co-Identified and co-selected each city’s challenges and intervention areas. The local mobility communities are composed of a wide range of residents, local associations, transportation authorities, municipalities and have been responsible for co-identifying challenges and co-deciding, co-evaluating and co-creating solutions to be piloted in their cities.
Implemented Citizen Mobility Labs(CML), developed Citizen Mobility Kits(CMK) and Co-Creator Navigator(CCN) platform: CML, originally setup by the local partners, became a point of reference, where citizens could meet, engage and learn about the project goals and activities. As part of the Labs, CMK were developed containing tools and relevant material to facilitate and execute during C4P workshops and events. These tools also compose the CCN, which is an online and interactive platform, where anyone can access and download a range of activities to carry out similar processes in related projects. Both the CMK and CCN are ‘live’ and will continue to be expanded based on the project needs and developments.
Co-designed 15 concepts to be piloted in the cities: In the coming months, 15 unique co-created interventions are taking place in the C4P local areas. To create a solid result regarding the interventions’ impacts, they will be evaluated and assessed in both quantitative and qualitative manners by local citizens.
Co-Identified and co-selected each city’s challenges and intervention areas. The local mobility communities are composed of a wide range of residents, local associations, transportation authorities, municipalities and have been responsible for co-identifying challenges and co-deciding, co-evaluating and co-creating solutions to be piloted in their cities.
Implemented Citizen Mobility Labs(CML), developed Citizen Mobility Kits(CMK) and Co-Creator Navigator(CCN) platform: CML, originally setup by the local partners, became a point of reference, where citizens could meet, engage and learn about the project goals and activities. As part of the Labs, CMK were developed containing tools and relevant material to facilitate and execute during C4P workshops and events. These tools also compose the CCN, which is an online and interactive platform, where anyone can access and download a range of activities to carry out similar processes in related projects. Both the CMK and CCN are ‘live’ and will continue to be expanded based on the project needs and developments.
Co-designed 15 concepts to be piloted in the cities: In the coming months, 15 unique co-created interventions are taking place in the C4P local areas. To create a solid result regarding the interventions’ impacts, they will be evaluated and assessed in both quantitative and qualitative manners by local citizens.
We have created a knowledge base that provides access to a variety of concepts in different fields, and tested co-creative, participatory methods. We are in the process to implement the first round of interventions, which provides evidence for how participatory processes work. These interventions should impact local residents enhancing their quality of life and other aspects, such as social inclusion. These aspects will be measured through a COS(Core-Outcome Set) evaluation methodology. This process will allow us to assess these impacts and guide the scaling-up, creating guidelines for other cities to follow suit. The COS provides a more inclusive evaluation method, where locals are the ones who are defining and assessing the intervention process and results. We have reached a large number of citizens and other mobility stakeholders in all pilot cities creating local engaged communities aided by the local CML and CMK. The C4P citizen engagement has so far proved successful and has impacted positively local governance strategies, transforming decision making processes to be more inclusive and democratic. The process is building a solid knowledge base that will offer a set of mobility-related interventions and guidelines to other cities that want to implement similar approaches. Furthermore, we have greater scientific evidence concerning participatory processes and co-creation, which is a step beyond the state of the art.
Based on the intervention results, we will have a concrete impact on the C4P pilot cities. In terms of societal impact, this also means more awareness that positively affects inclusion (e.g. disabilities), safety and improves quality of life and environmental standards. Our C4P COS methodology should help with standardising practices to evaluate mobility interventions and provide a more inclusive and encompassing evaluation method that takes into account quality of life indicators for all citizens.
Based on the intervention results, we will have a concrete impact on the C4P pilot cities. In terms of societal impact, this also means more awareness that positively affects inclusion (e.g. disabilities), safety and improves quality of life and environmental standards. Our C4P COS methodology should help with standardising practices to evaluate mobility interventions and provide a more inclusive and encompassing evaluation method that takes into account quality of life indicators for all citizens.