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Strong Cities The Future of Urban Mobility

by Yadira Elizabeth Gratacós Reyes

Event report

International Speaker Series 23-26 November 2020

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Exhibitor

Paco de Anda Orellana

Graduated in Industrial Design at the Universidad Anáhuac México Norte and holds a Master's degree in Marketing and Advertising from the same institution.


Founder of the first civil road safety organisation in the country, Movilidad y Desarrollo México (MDM). He has received and taught road safety courses in several countries in Latin America and Europe. He participated as Road Safety Advisor for the Pan American Health Organization and the National Council for Accident Prevention of the Ministry of Health. He was Coordinator of the Global Road Safety Programme in Mexico for the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP). He is a certified Road Safety Auditor and is a specialist in the design and management of public policies in road safety with a systemic approach, strategic communication and project management. He is currently a member of MDM, a member of the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety, a road safety consultant and a member of the Mobility Council of the city of Playa del Carmen, where he lives.


Partner

Osiris Gratacós

Founder of Fundación Educación Vial, co-organiser of the event together with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V., KAS ADELA with strategic allies from civil society, government and the legislature.

Civil society organisation promoting safe urban mobility and responsible and sustainable urbanism.


The Event

It will be held in Panama City from the 23rd to the 26th of November with an agenda of daily visits to each of the stakeholders, up to two per day, plus some specific lunch meetings. This new format has been designed by pandemic regulations.


It takes the objectives of credible target groups and offers them this interaction with presentations, dialogues and debates.


In Panama the status of road safety and mobility is complicated by the fact that there are few professionals related to the subject and that the government appoints to decision-making positions co-partisans of the political party in charge with no knowledge of the subject. It is our commitment to intervene in the issue in the most diverse and effective ways possible, such as in this case the presentation of a road safety specialist and road safety auditor to officials from different state institutions to raise awareness of the issue and ensure that the importance of the subject is identified.


Visit


In the Mayor's Office of Panama, Department of Planning with the official Paulina Boza and the Coordinator of the Recreovía Lianna Licona, and about 30 other officials in the Gladys Vidal Theatre of the Hatillo Building, headquarters of the Mayor's Office. The exhibition deals with road safety with a systemic approach that prioritises pedestrians in their diversity with respect to the management of mobility in cities and the adequacy of infrastructure that protects them over motor vehicles.

Considering that in Panama approximately 25% of jobs have been lost and income has been reduced in salaries, overtime, bonuses, commissions and others, bicycle lanes and cycle paths are promoted for urban social cycling, so that people can avoid spending money on fares, parking, fuel and others, which requires the mayor of Panama City to consider it among his plans.


At the Ministry of Education, Enriqueta De Gracia, who coordinated the participation of the exhibitor De Anda to a group of approximately 300 teachers who were taking talks on road safety, in order to introduce the topic of the systemic approach that makes the state and traffic management responsible for the prevention of road accidents, discarding tendencies such as blaming the pedestrian, a vulnerable user, for being responsible for being a victim of a road accident. The need to confront the reality of the environment that students face was discussed, for example, streets without pavements, elevated pedestrian bridges that triple distances and discriminate against pedestrians with reduced mobility, or the lack of pedestrian-friendly signage.


In Mi Bus, the state-owned company that coordinates public transport buses in Panama City, with more than one million users who travel daily.

An audience of 241 workers was reached via Zoom and a team of managers at the headquarters located towards Las Cumbres.

With this training for the drivers of the fleet of more than 2,000 buses, the aim is to renew what has been learned about road safety and mobility and the need to be sensitive towards users, pedestrians, disabled and vulnerable users and people with reduced mobility. The efforts of this company, which has been state-owned for five years, to provide wheelchair facilities, new routes, the capacity to receive information from users and, in the face of the pandemic, biosecurity regulations on buses and at bus stops, have been recognised.

 

In the National Assembly of Deputies of the Republic of Panama, Transport Committee.

The Transport Committee was convened, as well as officials of the Assembly in general related to the subject, for the presentation by the specialist De Anda, which included interaction with deputies and even generated a debate in which the possibility of enabling bicycle lanes was discussed. The explanation of road safety with a systemic approach that was presented to the honourable deputies and their teams allows us to raise the issue to decision-makers so that they can apply it to the proposed laws that are currently being debated.


In KAS ADELA Meeting with a representative of the Panamanian Society of Engineers and Architects (SPIA) and the University of the Americas to share on road safety with a systemic approach and the need to update practicing professionals and those in training. The initiative to form a committee of road safety auditors and inspectors together with other universities was presented.


In Albrook, as co-hosts we have the Ministry of Public Works (MOP), the Universidad de las Américas, Universidad Tecnológica and the Universidad Católica Santa María La Antigua, where they listened to the presentation on road safety with a systematic approach and exchanged opinions, initiatives and others. The issue of forming a Commission for road safety audit and inspection with the participation of universities and state institutions was also addressed.}


In a meeting with the Road Safety and Transport Council (CONTSEVI) based at the Transit and Land Transport Authority. With the Secretary General, Ramón Tapia, inspectors and other officials. A 45-minute virtual talk was given to Council members, around 20 people, on road safety with a systemic approach, and a second one was arranged to be held in January 2021.


We consider that this activity gets officials, activists, entrepreneurs and others to process the new trends on road safety working under the guidance of the SDGs and other commitments related to road safety and sustainable, safe and inclusive mobility.


With this theme of the Urban Mobility of the Future, the different stakeholders were able to touch on the objectives of the 2030 Agenda with the SDGs: SDG 3 #HealthandWellbeing, as it is transmitted to the National Assembly, which is an issue that, according to the WHO, around 1.3 million people die on the world's roads and Panama is a reflection of this problem; SDG 4 #QualityEducation: so that the subject of road safety education is implemented in the academic curriculum from primary school, raising awareness among the entire population from childhood; SDG 9 #Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, so that the city respects and takes the best models of appropriate urban planning with which we reach the safety of the most needy and harmony in its architecture and composition; SDG 10 #ReductionofInequalities, since a model of sustainable urban mobility achieves social balance and leaves no one behind;  SDG 11 #SustainableCitiesandCommunities, effective and efficient public administration accompanied by public policies can create and maintain strong, sustainable and resilient cities; SDG 16 #Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, with different actors (institutions, organisations and individuals) supporting and respecting regulations; SDG 17 #PartnershipsToAchieveGoals: Cities are complex organisms that require all their constituents to be in agreement, from the state, business, civil society, the family to the individual. We see that there are changes in Urban Mobility that we must motivate and adapt to achieve faster development and sustainability.

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Contact

Yadira Elizabeth Gratacós Reyes

Yadira Grataços

Project Coordinator

yadira.gratacos@kas.de +507 387 4475

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