Ivan Blečić and Valentina Talu on "Pedestrian mobility as a fundamental urban right. The possible contribution of children to urban walkability"

1. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
Pedestrian mobility as a fundamental urban right
The possible contribution of children to urban walkability
Ivan Blečić, ValentinaTalu
TaMaLaCa
Gruppo di ricerca e azione per la città dei diritti
Laboratorio di Analisi e Modelli per la Pianificazione (LaMP)
Dipartimento di Architettura, Design, Urbanistica dell’Università di Sassari

2. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
Contemporary city is a car-friendly city (1/3)
1) road accidents
2) air, noise and aesthetic pollution
3) waste of time due to the traffic congestion
4) privatisation of public spaces and soil consumption
5) limitation of the urban rights for people who do not use a car
Alagia, Chiusaroli, 2000; Baruzzi et al. 2004; Illich 2006; Labbucci 2011; Viale 2007; Ward 1979

3. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
Contemporary city is a car-friendly city (2/3)
1) road accidents
2) air, noise and aesthetic pollution
3) waste of time due to the traffic congestion
4) privatisation of public spaces and soil consumption
5) limitation of the urban rights for people who do not use a car
4) and 5) are perhaps the most relevant problems of "cars' invasion" in urban
contexts.
They can be handled only by reducing significantly the overall number of cars.
Alagia, Chiusaroli, 2000; Baruzzi et al. 2004; Illich 2006; Labbucci 2011; Viale 2007; Ward 1979

4. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
Contemporary city is a car-friendly city (3/3)
Drivers are consumers of space of all the inhabitants of the city: space "used" by
cars could be "used" for collective activities, which can be done without a car.
This cause a significant reduction of the urban quality of life, especially for those
people who cannot or do not want to drive:
- children
- elderly people
- disabled people
- pedestrians and cyclists
that cannot fully exercise their urban right of pedestrian accessibility and
movement.
Illlich 2006; Viale 2007; Ward 1979

5. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
Pedestrian accessibility and movement: a fundamental urban right (1/3)
The main goal of urban planning is probably to make the city capable of granting
equal urban rights for each inhabitant of the city.
Therefore, urban planning must address this problem offering solutions and
ways to grant an effective exercise of the right to "use" the city (to access and to
move) for each individual, including pedestrians.

6. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
Pedestrian accessibility and movement: a fundamental urban right (2/3)
The main goal of urban planning is probably to make the city capable of granting
equal urban rights for each inhabitant of the city.
Therefore, urban planning must address this problem offering solutions and
ways to grant an effective exercise of the right to "use" the city (to access and to
move) for each individual, including pedestrians.
Urban planning has to deal with the following issue:
how can social learning be effectively enhanced to promote a
cultural change in people's mobility behaviour?

7. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
Pedestrian accessibility and movement: a fundamental urban right (3/3)
Until now, urban planning has mainly made reference and promoted the reasons
of environmental sustainability.
The results are not satisfactory: most Italian cities are still hostile to pedestrians.
Perhaps, the reasons for environmental sustainability are not as much effective
because they usually make reference to the effects of actions on the long run and
on large spatial scales and to the “individual” contribution.
We do think urban planning should concentrate more on the reasons of the right
to the city
Elster 1993; Illich 2006; Labbucci 2011; Viale 2007

8. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
The reasons of the right to the city (1/4)
Some people choose to be pedestrians for the reasons of the right to the city.
They claim the right to "use" the city for everybody.
Their goal is to free the streets and the public spaces from cars and to bring them
back to pedestrians.
People who promote and participate in collective actions like Critical Mass,
Walking School Bus, Parking Day, etc. can be considered part of this category.
1 2 3 4
Sassari – Critical Mass (1); Walking School Bus (2,3); Critical Walk (4)
Labbucci 2011; Solnit 2005; Urbinati 2008

9. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
The reasons of the right to the city (2/4)
They want to generate constructive conflict: to claim their right to "use" the city,
they carry out actions which interfere with normal, established urban design.
Walking is therefore a form of dissent against everything driving a car in the city
may mean: speed, consumption, privatisation, isolation, ...
The fact that these actions are collective is fundamental: "being numerous"
means "being visible" and consequently means acting in an effective manner.
Labbucci 2011; Solnit 2005; Urbinati 2008

10. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
The reasons of the right to the city (3/4)
Looking at the characteristics of these collective actions of (re)conquest of the
streets and the spaces of the city it is possible to make more effective policies
aimed at building walkable cities and thus promoting urban quality of life.
We propose a sort of requirements list of collective initiatives making reference
to the reasons of the right to the city, which can be used as a starting point to
design policies aimed at improving pedestrians' urban rights of accessibility and
mobility.

11. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
The reasons of the right to the city (4/4)
1. Constructive conflict, as an important process through which to reveal the nature of
the problem, to denounce its negative effects, and to propose common possible
solutions.
2. Collectivity as a means for increasing visibility of the actions.
3. Involvement of people who usually are not interested in or are not able to express
their dissent.
4. Simplicity of the initiatives and directness of their message.
5. Acting in a playful manner as an element capable of facilitating people's involvement
and making the conflict more socially "acceptable" and thus, in a way, more effective.
6. Plurality of ends, because all these initiatives are not aimed at promoting an exclusive
use of the streets, which would be impracticable as well as dangerous, but a plurality
of uses and users, including car drivers.
7. Slowness as a way for making possible and improving social relations and people's
involvement .

12. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
An interesting example: Walking School Bus
The Walking School Bus project is one possible project that could satisfy these
requirements, on condition that it is seen as a means for improving walkability in
the city, not simply as a means to go to school.
The aim of the Walking School Bus is to create the conditions for making itself
useless.
This can happen only if Walking School Bus is seen as a transition project to a
safe, accessible and walkable city: a goal which can be achieved only through
significant infrastructure redesign projects and a more efficient traffic control
system.

13. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
An interesting example: Walking School Bus
Monte Rosello, Sassari – School opening time

14. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
An interesting example: Walking School Bus
Monte Rosello, Sassari - Walking School Bus

15. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
An interesting example: Walking School Bus
Monte Rosello, Sassari – Street redesign project

16. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
An interesting example: Walking School Bus
To promote a walkable city is an important and urgent goals for urban planning.
To promote a walkable city means, indeed, to promote a city that, in dealing with
individual differences (and not with standardisation caused by cars), aims at
reducing inequalities in urban rights.

17. TaMaLaCa
tuttamialacitta’
Thank you for your attention!
Ivan Blečić, ValentinaTalu
gruppotamalaca@gmail.com
www.tamalaca.uniss.it (in construction)