Global Designing Cities Initiative

📣 We're #hiring! GDCI seeks a Communications Lead to enhance GDCI’s brand awareness and showcase programmatic work to a global audience, international press, industry leaders, and funders. The person in this role will create and execute GDCI’s annual communication strategy, manage GDCI’s day-to-day communication efforts, and build relationships with staff, partners, media, and other stakeholders to create and amplify content for social media, e-mails, blogs, press releases, and more. The role will also ensure GDCI’s communication & marketing content is inclusive to a global audience – diversifying the content as needed for different contexts – and will establish a clear tone for GDCI’s brand, aligned with organizational values. 📅 Application deadline: September 15 Learn more and apply ⤵

The "Sukaria" #StreetsforKids project in Solo, Indonesia 🇮🇩 focused on transforming the area around a school to create safer streets and more inclusive environments for students. Situated near the city center and Surakarta City Hall, the project was strategically chosen for its potential to inspire broader urban improvements. The Kota Kita Foundation partnered with the Surakarta City Department of Transportation to redesign a narrow, overcrowded street that caused congestion and safety concerns. Through co-design workshops involving students and neighborhood children, the project redesigned two streets to benefit over 500 students and residents 🚸 The redesign included creating pedestrian pathways, adding new crossings, and integrating traffic-calming measures. It also featured temporary street paintings on Flores Street to establish a shared street for pedestrians and vehicles and a new seating area in front of the school, complete with a green canopy and vibrant murals 🌱🎨 This project not only empowered children’s aspirations and introduced urban inclusivity concepts but also strengthened community connections and ensured accessibility and safety for all ages and abilities. We're proud to support our partners in Solo and change streets to change the world! 🎥 Watch the full video documenting this inspiring transformation: https://lnkd.in/e7C8mrpi Many thanks to FIA Foundation, Fondation Botnar and the Van Leer Foundation for their support!

🌍 Celebrating International Youth Day: 10 Cities Designing Their Streets for Kids 🌍 This #InternationalYouthDay, #StreetsforKids is excited to celebrate the ten cities that created safer, healthier, and more enjoyable streets for kids and by kids: 🌟 Abuja, Nigeria: Launched an advocacy campaign and open street event to support safe cycling to schools. 🌟Cerrillos, Santiago, Chile:  Pedestrianized a street connecting a school to a nearby park, galvanizing the school community to petition to make it a permanent street for kids. 🌟Cuenca, Ecuador: Implemented a safe connection between a school and a nearby park, to promote play and inform a city-wide policy for safer school environments. 🌟Leon, Mexico: Promoted safer and more enjoyable links to community destinations through an interim transformation with the support of community members and local artists. 🌟Lima, Peru: Pedestrianized a street near a school and launched a series of community events to prioritize students’ needs. 🌟Lusaka, Zambia: Designed and constructed a safer route to school, reducing traffic speeds and creating a space for kids and caregivers to socialize. 🌟Maltepe, Istanbul, Turkey: Demonstrated how streets can be more playful through a community pop-up, resulting in a child-friendly transformation of four streets. 🌟Solo, Indonesia: Implemented a safer, more inclusive, and more playful street through the engagement of children, caregivers, and community members. 🌟Recife, Brazil: Rebuilt a street to improve accessibility and play opportunities around a school with added street furniture, play elements, and new shade structures. 🌟Tyre, Lebanon: Expanded the school community’s understanding of streets for kids through engagement and awareness-building activities, including co-producing a parklet and murals near the school.  The 2023 cohort reclaimed over 40,000 SqM public space, prioritizing children and caregivers, engaged over 4,000 children in the process, and trained 140 practitioners. On average, the transformations reduced traffic speeds by 37% and the number of vehicles exceeding speed limits by 53%. We look forward to learning what they achieve next and hope other cities get inspired to do the same! What’s possible in your city? Download the Designing Streets for Kids guide, now available in multiple languages: https://lnkd.in/dh4R4m5 Many thanks to FIA Foundation, Van Leer Foundation, and Fondation Botnar for their support. #ChildFriendlyCities Read more about the 10 cities' stories on our website ⤵

📢 Today, along with EASST, we're proud to launch the Ukrainian translations 🇺🇦 of the Global Street Design Guide and the Designing Streets for Kids guide, made possible with the support of EBRD. To learn more, join a webinar later today at 15.00 EET (GMT+3) hosted by EASST. Languages: 🇺🇦 🇬🇧 Registration link: https://lnkd.in/exNA7hvd You can also download the guides at: https://lnkd.in/d2vf7Wri https://lnkd.in/d9NGbQNM Impact Ukraine FIA Foundation Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety International Road Federation (IRF) #safestreets #roadsafety #ukraine

🚲 🚲 🚲 At #VC24 last week, the GDCI team and Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Cycling Infrastructure (BICI) city partners had the chance to share their experiences plus learn from experts, advocates, government leaders, and practitioners in the global cycling community. At the "Cycling Across Borders" panel session moderated by GDCI, Emanuel Barbito, architect and urban planner from the Municipality of Quelimane, spoke about the city's unique cycling culture. Cycling accounts for around 30% of mobility mode share, and like many African towns and urban areas, the bicycle taxi is a common form of transport for those that may not cycle themselves. Cycling also supports the local economy as seen by the prevalence of bicycle repair and retail shops. To encourage more people to cycle, a 7.5 km cycle track is being built as part of BICI to provide more safe, accessible, and comfortable spaces. The city and Quelimane’s Mayor Manuel de Araujo, were also recognized for leading the city’s transition to sustainable mobility by winning the Best Active Mobility Award at Velo-city. Isabela Ribeiro de Castra, urban mobility coordinator, Municipality of Fortaleza, also shared how Fortaleza has built more than 400 kms of cycle network in the past decade, and is ambitious to create another 180 kms under BICI. Its extensive bicycle share system means that 60% of its 2.4 million inhabitants live within 500 meters of a bicycle share station, making the service highly accessible. Two key components of success include how the city collects data, and listens to residents through a variety of community engagement activities, using this information to directly feed back into design. And at GDCI's interactive workshop, participants were able to redesign a fictional neighborhood to make it safer, more convenient, and accessible for a variety of uses such as for walking, cycling, and public transit use. One person said: “It’s great to participate in a hands-on workshop with people from different countries and backgrounds to develop a street design applying global best practices." #BICI #cycling #activemobility

📣 GDCI is requesting proposals for a PR or media agency to promote the initiative and increase the profile and the number of earned international media mentions of Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative of Cycling Infrastructure (BICI), a competitive grant program that fosters catalytic change in city cycling infrastructure around the world. 🚲 📅 RFP deadline: July 20 Learn more and submit a proposal ⤵

Earlier this month, GDCI organized a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) exchange in Quito, Ecuador as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS), hosting it with BIGRS embedded staff. The P2P event fostered collaboration between Quito and Guayaquil decision-makers, allowing them to gain insights into both the challenges and successes of various street design projects, including site visits to La Magdalena, San Bartolo, 5 de Junio, and the city's cycling Infrastructure network. The visiting team included Manuel Salvatierra (Guayaquil Department of Transport and Mobility), Fernanda Carrasco (Mobility and Public Works), and Luis Alfonso Saltos (Quito's Department of Urban Planning, Mobility, Cadastral, and Buildings - DUMCE). They also met with staff from Quito's Mobility Secretary and Mobility and Public Works of Quito(EPMMOP) to share common experiences and lessons learned. 🚦 📈 📝 In early June, the GDCI team also held a Data Collection Training workshop for practitioners and staff from the transport, public works, and urban planning sectors working in Guayaquil local government departments. The training combined both theoretical and practical components, and participants applied what they learned from the first day of presentations by collecting data at a future project site at Rodolfo Baquerizo Názur Corridor, Guayaquil. Measuring change before and after implementation is key to understanding the impact of our interventions, and helps to plan for further improvements as needed. Many thanks to all for sharing their knowledge at the P2P exchange, and we hope the data collection workshop participants can use some of the tools and practices in their daily work. Municipio de Guayaquil Municipio de Quito #roadsafety #safespeeds #safestreets

It's the #InternationalDayofPlay! Do you like to play? At GDCI, we consider play imperative for kids. Play improves the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and young people. It's also one of the main ways in which children learn and develop in their early stages of life ... [and] should be incorporated into streets wherever possible. We also believe that play and learning opportunities can be conceived of in new street designs, in large-scale street transformations, or as part of smaller-scale upgrade projects. See this in practice at the recent Play Street event at the Start with Children Summit in Bratislava! To learn how your city can champion more public spaces for kids to play, download the Designing Streets for Kids guide in multiple languages here: https://lnkd.in/dh4R4m5 FIA Foundation Fondation Botnar Van Leer Foundation #streetsforkids #safestreets #play

Next week, GDCI will be at Velo-city #VC24 in Ghent, Belgium! 🚲 Along with some of our Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Cycling Infrastructure (BICI) city partners, we'll be leading a hands-on workshop and moderating in a panel discussion: Workshop: Designing Streets for Cycling Tuesday, 18 June, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. CET Green Room, Citadelpark, Ghent, Belgium Session: Cycling Across Borders: Implementing the Right Infrastructure in Different Global Contexts Wednesday, 19 June, 10:45 - 11:45 a.m. CET Green Room, Citadelpark, Ghent, Belgium Plus, GDCI Chair Janette Sadik-Khan will be presenting a keynote speech at the opening plenary! Learn more: https://lnkd.in/ebmQB82y We hope to see you there! #cycling #activemobility #cyclinginfrastructure

🚲 🌏 It's #WorldBicycleDay! As part of our Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Cycling Infrastructure (BICI), 10 cities in Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe are creating world-class and innovative cycling infrastructure that is safe, accessible, affordable, and comfortable, to encourage people from all backgrounds to take up cycling. We hope to inspire other cities to do the same and are sharing some useful resources to help city leaders and practitioners understand how to design and strategically invest in cycling infrastructure for all ages and abilities as part of a holistic approach to creating streets for all users. 👀 Have a look at: 📘 Our own Global Street Design Guide, available to download for free, in multiple languages https://lnkd.in/dTwT4bdN ♻️ 💰 From Institute for Transportation and Development Policy and The World Bank - The Path Less Travelled: Scaling Up Active Mobility to Capture Economic and Climate Benefits https://lnkd.in/dNqgpae9 👣 🚲 From The Partnership for Active Travel and Health - National Policies for Walking and Cycling in all 197 UNFCCC countries https://lnkd.in/dGbBxb3D Happy World Bicycle Day! #cycling #activemobility #safestreets