Julie Cournoyer, organiser of an initiative in the City of Edmonton where residents of the Parkallen Community were asked to leave their cars at home and make their trips by walking, cycling, carpooling or using public transport.
The FIA Foundation and UNEP have presented the new ‘Share the Road’ initiative at a global local government conference in Canada.
‘The Share the Road – minimum 10% finance for Safety, Sustainability and Accessibility’ is an initiative being led by the FIA Foundation and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in partnership with members of the Alliance for Eco-Mobility. The campaign aims to promote a more sustainable and community-centred approach to road building and upgrading, in line with the recommendations of the Commission for Global Road Safety and the Make Roads Safe campaign.
The FIA Foundation’s Director of Environment, Sheila Watson, presented the Share the Road campaign (nmt.roads@unep.org) to delegates at the 2009 'ICLEI—Local Governments for Sustainability' Congress in Edmonton, Canada, and explained why a dedicated proportion of all road building investment should be focused on safety and sustainability features.
‘As the Commission for Global Road Safety identified in 2006, when roads are built in developing countries it is the most vulnerable road users, and those that would benefit most from improved road infrastructure – including cyclists and pedestrians – who are marginalized. Dedicating a percentage of all investments in roads to ensuring that they are useable by everyone would lead to a real improvement in safety and sustainability and still ensure the access which the poorest communities need in order to develop. That is why ‘The Share the Roads – 10% for safety, sustainability and accessibility’ campaign can be a win-win-win campaign for everyone.’
ICLEI is a network of 1,100 cities working on sustainable development, and over 600 delegates from 57 countries across the globe attended its biannual congress to consider a vast range of issues in sustainability as they affect local communities.
With ‘Eco-mobility’ as a core theme to the proceedings, delegates were given presentations on practical policies and projects from communities as diverse as Changwon in South Korea, Tilburg in the Nertherlands, and Koprivnica in Croatia. Common themes emerged from the presentations, such as the absolute need to balance the requirements of all road users, for reasons both of safety and sustainability. But there were important regional and local differences in approach. In Changwon, for example, the NUBIJA project supplies bikes to individuals in order to promote cycling, while in Tilburg the approach has been to promote cycling through improved facilities such as secure parking.
One initiative showcased at the conference is led by the Global Alliance for Eco-mobility (of which FIA Foundation is a founder member), which has been working with the City of Edmonton to promote non-motorised transport solutions in the city, where currently 77% of all journeys made are by car. For the whole of June, residents of the Parkallen Community in the city were asked to leave their cars at home and make their trips by walking, cycling, carpooling or using public transport. As delegates to the Congress were able to see on a field trip to the area, the whole of the community, from schoolchildren to the elderly, have engaged very positively with the initiative, and whilst it is too early to come to firm conclusions on its success, organizer Julie Cournoyer of the City of Edmonton is confident that a real change in attitude has begun to develop.
For further information:
http://www.ecomobility.org >
http://www.edmonton.ca/environmental/programs/local-motion-eco-friendly-transportation.aspx >
Download Sheila Watson's presentation (445KB / .pdf) >