In our pursuit of sustainable and inclusive urban mobility solutions, we have finally published our latest deliverable, the ELABORATOR Inclusion Plan. The comprehensive document outlines strategies to promote inclusivity in the transition to climate-neutral cities.
ELABORATOR aims to include the voices, experiences, perspectives, needs and aspirations of a greater diversity of users (and potential users) in our planned research and innovation activities from the outset. The first consolidated step to achieve this is the Inclusion Plan, whose main objective is to support the cities and partners to ensure their understanding of inclusion for urban planning and mobility and provide the basis for all the following steps. This effort is part of our Work Package 2 (WP2), which focuses on setting the stage for the methodology, indicators and tools towards co-creating urban mobility interventions in each of our project's Living Labs.
Read more about ELABORATOR's WP2 here.
Guiding principles for inclusive mobility
The Inclusion Plan will guide all phases of the ELABORATOR project, emphasising the importance of inclusive practices in fostering sustainable, safe, and affordable mobility. Key aspects of the methodology outlined in the report include using inclusive language in all communications, understanding diverse patterns of urban mobility, and redefining the concept of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) to encompass all groups disadvantaged by current mobility planning practices.
The plan aims to be a reference document for ELABORATOR partners in developing activities with their different local stakeholders and, also, to be an internal reference among the consortium to promote inclusion, representation and good cooperation at all levels and phases of the project. Precisely because it is intended to be used as a practical guide by cities and partners, at the end of each chapter there is a small table as a checklist of questions related to the content of that chapter. In this way, the cities and partners can use it as an evaluation tool to ensure that their workshops and urban interventions occur within an inclusive framework.
While the document was mainly ideated to be used by ELABORATOR partners, the Inclusion Plan is also meant to be useful to other projects and interested professionals who might need guidance on implementing inclusive urban mobility practices.
City-level challenges and solutions
To understand city-level perspectives, our partner URBANA held international project training sessions to ensure a uniform understanding of inclusivity and gender perspective in urban planning under the different local contexts. These were all finalised, with a total of 5 workshops of 2 hours each, involving a total of 45 participants from 25 partner organizations.
Read more about the workshops here.
Building on the findings from these workshops, the plan calls for a nuanced understanding of the interconnected social and environmental challenges, highlighting the disproportionate impact on vulnerable communities. It stresses the importance of identifying local stakeholders and power dynamics to address these challenges effectively.
In the evaluation and dissemination phase, the document advocates for a qualitative approach that considers human experiences and social contexts, providing a holistic framework for improvement. The Inclusion Plan aims to lay a solid foundation for future efforts in inclusive urban mobility across Europe and beyond by emphasising a transition from car-centred to people-centred mobility.
The release of this document marks a significant milestone in ELABORATOR's mission to promote inclusive, sustainable, and safe mobility solutions, fostering a perspective that prioritises the needs of marginalised communities in the transition towards climate neutrality.
Read the full document here.