The Prague Walker
What problem are you solving?:
1) Prague is one of the absolutely dirtiest cities in Europe and with the worst environment protection policy.
2) Insufficient support and protection of pedestrians in Prague: Although 24% of people in Prague walk, neither politicians nor officials support walking systemically.
3) Children are the most endangered as pedestrians: Walking is very important for a healthy development of children. They should be encouraged to walk, but in many places in Prague they are in danger of fatal collisions with automobiles.
4) Careless attitude of the public and administrators to problem solution: Frequently the reason for the passivity is the fact that officials and politicians do not take the public voice seriously and ignore problems that citizens report to them.
5) There is no functional public forum to share information on the problems and dangers posed to pedestrians, celebrate successful achievement of positive change or address demands directly to competent officials and politicians.
Describe your idea:
Our objective is to create an interactive communal web portal, where people could share information on pedestrian problems in Prague and achievements, and via which they could also address their demands to competent officials and politicians.The core of the portal would be a map.
The project will take advantage of the Internet, which allows collection of information in one place and sharing it among unlimited numbers of users. At the same time, it allows categorisation of information depending on the user’s needs.
The aims are to:
-increase the visibility of pedestrian issues and importance of walking;
-activate the public for more efficiently solving problems;
-actively involve children and schools in the project;
-improve pedestrian safety;
-improve communication between administrators and citizens;
-increase transparency of decision-making in public administration on pedestrian issues;
-improve Prague environment by creating better walking conditions.
What country will this operate in?: Czech Republic
Who are you?:
Oziveni, a citizens’ association established in 1997, has been dealing with issues of corruption and conflicts of interests in public administration and promotion of sustainable development principles through systemic support to sustainable transportation in Prague. Our vision is a functioning and self-confident civil society observing the principles of sustainable living.
The point of our activities in transport segment focus on the weakest and most vulnerable citizens – pedestrians and cyclists. We provide citizens with necessary information as well as professional assistance in solving their problems related to traffic in Prague, we defend their interests in dealing with public administration, and we arrange media coverage for their problems. We support citizens’ involvement in decision-making and public governance, creation of good and equitable infrastructures for pedestrians and cyclists, and promotion of sustainable modes of transport.
For the Department of Transport Office of the City Praha 2, I am convinced that such a portal is certainly meaningful. Any thing that will help to improve life in the city and has a significant impact on the safety and traffic flow on roads is nac benefit.
Josef Gál
Head of Transport
Office City of Prague 2
Let us express our support for the project idea of Oziveni, o.s. – to create and maintain an interactive web portal on pedestrian needs. Such web sites would make possible the exchange of information between Prague inhabitants, transfer of good practice examples and may create the necessary pressure for increase of investment to pedestrian infrastructure. This project may also improve communication between public officers and common citizens.
Oziveni is one of the leading groups pushing through the pedestrian policy items in Prague master plan and commenting it. Their members actively take part in the work of the working group on pedestrian needs, co-operating in that way with City development Authority, with the Department of Transport of Prague, TSK – Technical Administration of Roads, with Institute for Environmental Policy, p.b.c. and others). Ozivení and Prague Mothers belong to the few NGOs working on improving pedestrian safety in Prague.
The only web site on pedestrian problems in Prague has been started by chief architect´s office to present proposal of theses for pedestrian policy, to collect comments and impulses for the master plan of Prague and to complete the chief missing connections or paths for walkers in the whole city. This web site is not able to monitor all actual problems of walk able city. (See http://www.urm.cz/cs/generel_pesi_dopravy ) Therefore we consider creating a website oriented on walking problems in Prague to be of great importance.
Michaela Valentová, project manager, Institute for Environmental Policy, p.b.c.
I fully support this project. I like that it is focused on the safety of the pedestrian, whose interests are often neglected in Prague. If the website is constructed well, it could become the basis for gathering information by Prague citizens and could also be a source of information for traffic experts and politicians in charge of safety/transportation. Finally the website could raise the profile of pedestrian traffic and safety and become a source for journalists and other media. Hopefully this would lead to more coverage of and attention to this problem.