1b_foto_case_study_sebes_shops_network1 (link is external)

URBACT II
Analytical case study
Green Light for Pedestrians & Cyclists, Sebeş, Romania
Active Travel Network
December 2011
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Overview
At the end of 2011, the increasing support of the local
stakeholders for the sustainable mobility in Sebeş materialized in
the creation of a Network of Walking and Cycling Friendly Shops.
The latest has been officially inaugurated through the campaign
“Verde pentru pietoni şi biciclişti” (Green Light for Pedestrians &
Cyclists) organized by Sebeş municipality between 16th and 18th
of November 2011. Despite the cold windy weather the initiative
was very well received by the inhabitants so that the 7 commercial
units involved showed their interest to take part in similar future
activities. Both, the network and the campaign were meant to
educate people in favour of active travel so that to enable the
implementation of the central pedestrian area, planned since 2010
and possible to be developed after the conclusion of the traffic belt
(end of 2012).
Basic description of the background and setting
Summary
To prepare the closure of the city centre to motorized traffic, Sebes
municipality transformed the shopkeepers into its partners
promoting the Network of Cycling and Walking Friendly Shops.
Challenges that the practice
addresses
The main problem addressed was the car dependency of the
inhabitants of Sebeş, a relatively small Romanian city, with easy
walk-able distances and a sustainable mobility tradition. In order to
limit the important transit and local heavy traffic particularly
detrimental for people lives, the city centre would need to be
rendered pedestrian area. However this option was initially
opposed by most of the local stakeholders erroneously fearing that
such a change would negatively affect their businesses.
The Context
Lasting the past decade, the prosperous industrial development
substantially increased the transit heavy traffic in Sebes, triggering
at its turn people’s fear to walk or cycle. As a consequence, they
started to adopt motorized modes of travel even for short everyday
distances. This conduced to an additional augmentation of the
roads’ congestion while discouraging even more inhabitants to
practice any form of active travel. A lot of them gave up walking
into the city centre, preferring to do their shopping in the
supermarkets outside the city or get the car even if they wanted to
buy some small things easy to be transported into a bike basket for
instance from a place close to their house.
Aims and objectives
The campaign “Green Light for Pedestrians & Cyclists” was meant
to prepare the transformation of Sebes city centre into a pedestrian
area. It was part of the series of initiatives developed in 2011
through the Active Travel Network project in order to favour the
recognition and promotion of the walk-able and cycle-able
dimensions of the city.
Social Innovation
The shops network and its associated campaign represented an
ingenious way of negotiating a necessary urban mobility measure
by co-interesting the main opponents. For the shopkeepers’
involvement, more important than the actual campaign were its
preparation and subsequent evaluation. Those two phases
enabled the presentation of various international experiences
related to the implementation of pedestrian areas and active travel
friendly initiatives as well as a lot of discussions on those issues
between the shopkeepers and between them and the
representatives of the local authorities.
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Case: Concise description and explanation of the practice
Main components or parts of the
practice
Timing - Start and duration
Process - Development over time
Overcoming challenges
The first key element of this initiative resided in the preparatory
discussions that explained the purpose and advantages of such an
action while giving to the participants the opportunity to express
their opinions, doubts and proposals. An important role for the
overall success of this campaign played the subsequent evaluation
and the permanent contact maintenance that increased people
determination to support active travel and thus the initiative’s
reloading chances.
First discussions regarding the shops association and the
campaign took place on the occasion of the LSG meeting from
February 17th, 2011. The actual shops network was established at
the beginning of November 2011 and inaugurated through the
campaign “Green Light for Pedestrians & Cyclists” organized
between 16th and 18th of November 2011. The Shops Network is
still in force, open to new members as well as to the diversification
of activities.
In February 2011, Sebes municipality and the Association for
Urban Transition (ATU) organised the first preliminary discussions
with the shopkeepers invited to join the Urban Mobility Local
Support Group (LSG) meeting. These were followed by a couple of
presentations with examples of good practices and European
studies proofing the benefits of the involvement in a network of
shops. 7 commercial units showed their interest to associate and
started to communicate more intensively with the Active Travel
Network (ATN) team for negotiating the definition of the network
and its promotion. ATU prepared and presented the campaign plan
and design. The actual establishment of the network took place at
the beginning of November, being followed by its inauguration
campaign organized between 16th and 18th of November 2011.
Lasting the latter, besides the discussions initiated on urban
mobility issues, the commercial units involved offered various
discounts and free services to the ones coming on foot or by bike.
The representatives of the participant shops were requested to
evaluate the activity immediately afterwards, expressing their
attitudes and expectations from a future similar initiative and
suggesting ways of improvement.
The main challenges were represented by the initial reticence of
the shopkeepers, the inhabitants’ scepticism and the cold weather.
The shopkeepers were encouraged to get involved by stimulating
communication between them, while offering them the opportunity
to express themselves and proposing them new advertising
solutions, an attractive design and a clear expressive campaign.
As people like to be asked the opinion and see that this one is
taken into consideration, communication played an important role.
Besides the various arguments and presentations favouring
sustainable mobility, this campaign focused on exchanging ideas
with the public, trying to make the inhabitants feel a part of it not
just simple guests. On the other hand, the posters and flyers very
visible in the city correlated with radio and newspaper news caught
people’s attention making them ask for more information and finally
get involved.
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Transnationality
The experience and knowledge acquired through the trans-national
exchange helped defining the appropriate action to implement as
well as communicating with the actors involved into it and getting
the good practice examples used to obtain public support.
Key actors
Main actors involved
Coordination mechanisms
Participation
The network and the campaign were designed by the Association
for Urban Transition (ATU) that built its general strategic plan,
prepared the promotional materials and supported the actions from
the technical point of view.
Sebes municipality contacted the potential participants negotiating
their involvement, coordinating all the meetings and thus enabling
the actual network establishment.
The commercial units included in the network got actively
implicated being asked to provide ideas for the development of the
network and requested a final evaluation and comments on this
first campaign.
The general coordination was assured by Sebes municipality with
the technical support of ATU team that also prepared the
promotional materials, presentations, evaluation questionnaires
and communications to be made to the participants. The
inhabitants have been also treated as active participants being not
just presented and offered various advantages, but also
questioned about their opinion and attitudes regarding sustainable
mobility.
This campaign addressed general public and local shopkeepers
inviting the inhabitants to rediscover their own town and its facilities
from a different perspective. It has been largely promoted by the
means of local press (Unirea newspaper and radios Atlas,
Reintregirea and Ardeleanul), as well as through posters and
website news.
Supporting programmes and funding sources
Total cost and Sources of funding
EU financial contribution
Annual budget in Euro
The personal costs were covered through the Active Travel
Network project, while the discounts and products offered during
the campaign were paid by the private funding of the commercial
units included in the shops network. The latest have also
contributed for printing the necessary promotion materials (network
maps, campaign poster, flyers and vouchers).
Personal costs reimbursed through the Active Travel Network
project
Immediate and lasting results
Overall impact
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All of the network members proved to be satisfied with the results
of the campaign and offered to contribute to the future
development of other similar initiatives. Inspired by the attractive
presentation of the sustainable mobility measures, the owner of
“Leul de aur” Hotel decided to diversify his services by offering
bikes and adapted advice to the guests willing to visit the city and
its surroundings. For developing this, an inspiring example has
been already offered by the municipality of Riccione, partner in the
Active Travel Network.
Besides, a group of residents showed its interest in creating a bike
repair shop and asked for advice and support for doing this.
Beneficiaries
The main beneficiaries of the rising awareness campaign and
ultimately of the shops network were the people living or working in
Sebes who have learned how could they act in order to improve
the quality of their lives and got the administration support in order
to do so.
Concrete results
This rising awareness campaign is hard to be evaluated in exact
numbers, but there are more elements proving its success.
All of the 7 shopkeepers involved into the campaign declared
available to reload the action in improved conditions (using this
experience also as a learning possibility) and support the
motorized traffic limitation in the city centre.
“Leul de aur” Hotel decided to diversify his services by offering
bikes and adapted advice to the guests willing to visit the city and
its surroundings.
Excited about the idea of the campaign and by the ATN project in
general, some residents showed their interest in creating a bike
repair shop.
The Pupils Club offered to do a survey concerning the mountain
bike area planned to be realized in Arini Parc.
Impact on governance
There was not necessarily a change in the governance – more a
demonstration of a good small scale public private partnership
facilitating the acceptance and even support of the sustainable
mobility measures initiated by the municipality. In addition, this
rising awareness campaign seems to have stimulated the
sustainable business entrepreneurship (for instance the proposal
made by the owner of Leul de aur Hotel or the initiative regarding
the opening of a bike repair shop)
Lessons to be learnt
Success factors
The network and the campaign focused on communication
considered in a broader understanding. The key factors that
brought the success of this measure were the choice of the
partners and the good media relations. The core tactic consisted in
working with the main opponents (to the pedestrian area) and
transforming them into partners.
Barriers, bottlenecks and challenges
The main obstacles were the reticence of the shopkeepers, the
scepticism of the population in general and the bad weather. The
first 2 cannot be simply avoided nor ignored, but one has to work
on them in order to change. The bad weather could be easier
avoided through a better scheduling of the activities, but the fact
that the action was successful despite it proved once more its
structural qualities.
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Future issues
The shops network is however still at the beginning so, for
assuring its long lasting and effectiveness, some more efforts are
needed. It has to be reinforced through an intensive
communication, thus transforming it into a real community, engine
stimulating active travel as well as social life.
For obtaining the best results in terms of sustainable mobility
support, the shops network has to include progressively more and
more members and intensify its actions.
For the actual rendering of the central part into a pedestrian area
not only the physical conditions are need, but also the political and
social acceptance. The good management of the shops network
could play a lot in enabling and accelerating this process.
Transnationality
The trans-national exchanges inspired and in the mean time gave
more importance to the implementation at the local level,
facilitating as well the broader dissemination of its results.
Moreover, besides the actual ideas and models suggested,
commenting the various urban mobility experiences from different
countries provided a sense of confidence, significantly supporting
the partners from the moral point of view. It is always comforting
and invigorating to learn that one is not alone, in this case that
cities with very diverse backgrounds have actually similar if not
quite identical problems and that there are so many ways to
overcome them. On the other hand the confrontation with the
other partners was positive, stimulating and motivating each one
of them to improve, to drive for better results.
Duration
The rising awareness campaign lasted for 3 days while its
preparation has taken one month. This experiment is planned to
be reloaded in a diversified and extended form.
The shops network is still in force and remains opened to new
members and ideas.
Transferability
This practice can be easily transferred and adapted to other
situations. It has been done with a minimal budget, but counted a
lot on mass media promotion. More important that the actual
event was the occasion offered to inform and exchange ideas on
urban mobility in general and on its particular issues significant at
local level.
Expert opinion
The most valuable aspect of this practice resides in its primary
idea of playing on people’s implication and motivation. Instead of
offending, deepening the conflicts, it was chosen to involve as
partners all the possible opponents.
Thus, the influence of preconceived ideas has been limited and it
has been created an optimal space for free discussions and
exchanges on urban mobility theme.
Stakeholder opinion
Learning to consider cycling and walking as real modes of
locomotion and adopt more environmentally friendly means of
transports, the local population has done a step forward a better
quality of life. Besides, the inhabitants had the satisfaction of
being listened, freely expressing their concerns, proposals and
wishes regarding Sebes’s urban mobility system.
The shopkeepers were intensively advertised through various
posters and flyers as well as through the written, spoken and
online media, being associated with a positive action and
fashionable concepts like sustainability and European projects.
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The municipality got the chance to communicate more intensively
with the shopkeepers improving its relation with them and getting
their support for transforming the city centre in a pedestrian zone.
Information sources
Name of the initiative
Active Travel Network
Country/region/city etc.
Romania, Alba district, Sebeş
Administering organisation(s)
Sebeş municipality
Contact details of administering
organisation(s)
Project coordinator: Mrs. Simona EKART
simonaekart@yahoo.com
Interviewed persons
Intreprindere familiala Isabelle, Mrs. Mariana Susan, phone: +4
0749/283332, email: isabelleeaf_2006@yahoo.com
SC Giovani Moco SRL, Mr. Ioan Pienariu,
phone: +4 0733/697464, email: ioan_pienariu@yahoo.it
SC Technostar Consulting SRL and SC Alpin 57 LUX SRL,
Mrs. Alice Colhon, phone: +4 0745/072606,
email: alis.colhon@alpin57lux.com
Other documentation sources
Data about the network and the rising awareness campaign can
be found on the website of Sebes municipality
http://www.slideshare.net/fullscreen/PrimariaSebes/reteaua-demagazine-prietenoase-cu-mediul-in-cadrul-proiectului-activetravel-network-13131154/1
http://www.slideshare.net/fullscreen/PrimariaSebes/harta-reteamagazine-sebes/1
as well as in the report of the Active Travel Network project
submitted in January 2012 and corresponding to the period JulyDecember 2011
News concerning this measure have been published as well on
the project site and in the local printed and online media (see
attached the scan of the article published in Unirea newspaper)
Website URL
http://urbact.eu/en/projects/low-carbon-urbanenvironments/active-travel-network/homepage/
Main author of the case
external expert: Mrs. Irina ROTARU - Association for Urban
Transition, ynarina@yahoo.co.uk
Illustrations
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image 1_map shops network.jpg
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image 2_poster campaign.jpg
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image 3_voucher.jpg – voucher distributed during the
campaign
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image 4_free donuts for pedestrians and cyclists.jpg
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image 5_vouchers distribution 1.JPG
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image 6_article Unirea newspaper_28.05.11.JPG – scan
of the article by Adriana Duriga published in Unirea
newspaper on the 16th of December 2011
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image 1_map shops network.jpg
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image 2_poster campaign.jpg
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image 3_voucher.jpg – voucher distributed during the campaign
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image 4_free donuts for pedestrians and cyclists.jpg
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image 5_vouchers distribution 1.JPG
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image 6_article Unirea newspaper_28.05.11.JPG – scan of the article by Adriana Duriga published
in Unirea newspaper on the 16th of December 2011
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URBACT is a European exchange and learning
programme
promoting
sustainable
urban
development.
It enables cities to work together to develop
solutions to major urban challenges, reaffirming the
key role they play in facing increasingly complex
societal challenges. It helps them to develop
pragmatic solutions that are new and sustainable,
and
that
integrate
economic,
social
and
environmental dimensions. It enables cities to share
good practices and lessons learned with all
professionals involved in urban policy throughout
Europe. URBACT is 181 cities, 29 countries, and
5,000 active participants
www.urbact.eu/project