After a successful kick-off in Amsterdam in June 2017, our consortium met for a second time in Budapest. We took time to discuss the progress of the project and to coordinate on the next steps.
Not everyone was ready for the photo, but everyone was ready to use the lunch break to discuss in more detail mobility and sustainability issues: after about 5 months, all the partners got together for a second time to share local insights and updates on what had happened in each pilot area.
This time, we had the chance to meet at the building of BKK – Budapesti Közlekedési Központ (Centre for Budapest Transport) in the centre of Budapest. The city welcomed us on the 6th and 7th of November. The first day was dedicated to our Steering Commitee, while the second day involved all the representatives of the consortium in a broader discussion. The latter revolved around those activities that had to do with the definition of socio-economic and mobility challenges, the selection of the specific intervention areas and the set-up of communities and tools.
The Municipality of Budapest, together with BKK and KTI – Közlekedéstudományi Intézet Nonprofit Kft. (Institute for Transport Sciences Non Profit Ltd.), has been particularly active in engaging stakeholders in the past months. Therefore, two main intervention areas for Budapest have been selected and we were able to visit them: the Műegyetem embankment and Batthyány Square. You can read more about them in this article of our news section.
Besides seeing with our own eyes some of the problems that these Buda and Pest districts face, we also had the chance to talk about what is happening in the Zugló-Törökőr district, which is one of the pilot areas of the SUNRISE project (this is the Hungarian project website to collect ideas for mobility solutions in Budapest). We hope we will be able not simply to move in parallel, but rather to build on one another’s efforts to make a more sustainable mobility in Budapest reality.
It is clear that we have a long way to go before our communities are all set, but seeds have been planted and we expect to see the first results next spring. After the warm-up activities will have attracted a first pool of motivated citizens, Cities-4-People partners will help these early communities to define their structure, vision and strategy by organising a consultation workshops in each pilot area (foreseen for January 2018). The workshop will help the communities self-define: (i) their objectives as a community, (ii) the community’s overall structure, roles and responsibilities and (iii) specific action plans for the community enlargement. Once the communities are set, the fun can start: even if it will be a bumpy ride, we look forward to it.
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