Üsküdar’s Hackday: from challenges to intervention concepts

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The Hackday of Istanbul took place on 18 July 2018 at Keşfet Üsküdar, the official location of the Citizen Mobility Lab in the building of the Municipality of Üsküdar. 18 people from different backgrounds, including public authorities, students, citizens and a mobility expert contributed to the elaboration of 10 mobility concepts that could respond to the challenges identified by the team so far.

Participants’ creativity was stimulated using the World Café method and the Story Puzzle. In the first case, four groups were created, each of them focusing on possible solutions to a specific challenge. In the second case, the groups further developed 5 ideas by means of puzzle pieces with icons on top, as described here.

Ideas were then submitted for voting in order to create a shortlist of 10 ideas. Finally, the 4 top-ranking ideas were explored in detail with the help of a solution analysis table. The ten concepts that represent the takeaway of the event for the local team are:

• citizens’ reporting on service gaps in public transport in real time through an online platform – the aim is increasing efficiency in signalling and tackling system’s deficiencies, such as, for example, a malfunctioning speaker providing information to visually impaired people
• installation of benches at the side of roads leading uphill for citizens to pause during their travel – supporting infrastructure can trigger greater use of more sustainable means of displacement, especially walking, also in the case of the elderly or people with reduced mobility
• support to the use of motorcycles – this measure could help reduce congestion in the main arteries and, consequently, reduce people’s stress level, while also increasing their free time
• creation of a safer environment in social spaces to encourage people to spend more time there – in order to fight robbery and security problems that affect social spaces, particularly later at night, cameras could be installed. An greater feeling of security is supposed to prompt people spend time outside their houses and big shopping malls and mingle in community activities
• promotion of cycling, for example by advertising more electronic bikes and limiting their maximum price – this intervention is expected to reduce congestion, increase sustainable mobility within the city despite its geographical features (hilly landscape), and enhance citizens’ health
• improvement of real time information systems on public transport – this intervention would complement the existing portal, which only offers information on busses, and would lead citizens to opt for multimodal transportation solutions, increasing the efficiency of their travels and reducing congestion
• decrease of duration and frequency of road excavations – the intervention could mean applying a canal system to gather the infrastructure needed for electricity, gas, water and internet provision and make sure workers only need to find the right canal, without digging up the whole street and blocking traffic
• increase of parking opportunities for car owners – this measure could help reduce illegal parking, which often happens on sidewalks. If parking lots were underground, the intervention could reduce congestion, improve pedestrians’ mobility and potentially increase the space dedicated to green and community areas
• awareness raising of travel conditions for people with disabilities – a way to do so would be organising an event where people can experience what it means moving around as a person with disability, such as a wheelchair race through the narrow streets and blocked sidewalks of the neighbourhood
• awareness raising of alternative transportation modes – this measure aims at reducing traffic, especially in the case of privately-owned cars, increasing air quality and fostering sustainability. How? The Municipality is considering sending SMS to the citizens, although this may be an invasive method that will not necessarily yield the desired results.

There is still another selection round on occasion of the Quadruple Helix Stakeholder meeting, where the 10 concepts will be narrowed down to 5. 3 of them will actually see daylight, but which ones? Stay tuned to see what will happen!