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.
