The second version of the MOBILIZE international summit was recently held in Universidad Católica de Chile, located in Santiago, Chile. Santiago was the winner city of the Sustainable Transport Award last year. The city received the award due to its outstanding advances in the space for pedestrians, urban cyclists and public transportation. MOBILIZE is organized by the ITDP, a New York-based NGO with offices in Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, India, China, Indonesia and Kenya. This summit shows the achievements of the winning city, allowing researchers from around the world the opportunity to know the city as a learning laboratory, with lessons on how to implement world-class projects. The conference was co-organized by the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS) and the Bus Rapid Transit Center of Excellence (BRT CoE). The host organizing committee was led by our Director Juan Carlos Muñoz. This committee was also composed by members of the Municipality of Santiago, the Regional Metropolitan Government, the Ministry of Transport & Telecommunications and the Ministry of Housing.
Some speakers of the summit were representatives of various national government agencies, such as: Felipe Alessandri, Mayor of Santiago; Claudio Orrego, Intendant of Santiago; Paola Tapia, Minister of Transport & Telecommunications; Paulina Saball, Minister of Housing. Attendants included representatives of international governments, such as: Guillermo Dietrich, Minister of Transport of Argentina; And Laura Ballesteros, undersecretary of Mobility of Mexico City. On the other hand, we also had representatives of the academy, such as Eliott Sclar (University of Columbia), Robert Cervero (University of California at Berkeley), Chris Zegras (MIT), Diane Davis Mohan and Geetam Tiwari (Indian Institute of Technology Delhi), Genevieve Giuliano (University of South California) and Roger Behrens (University of Cape Town).
For three days, nearly 200 participants attended talks and workshops to share ideas and best practices in sustainable transport, development and urban planning. There were various visits to the city, which had a record of attendance. These included: a visit to the network of cycle paths with bicycles provided by the public bicycle system of the Municipality of Santiago; pedestrian routes in the newly redesign streets of Santiago; bus trips that crossed different types of bus corridors; a visit to Metro, including La Cisterna intermodal station and Franklin station, part of the new Line 6. Finally, a visit to an Elemental housing project in Lo Barnechea, where the importance of avoiding eradications and formalizing slums was emphasized.
Finally, the winner city of the Sustainable Transport Award was Dar Es Salam, Tanzania. Congratulations!
For more details, visit http://mobilizesummit.org/
