Pontevedra: The City We Want, the City We Make

Demetrio Gómez Xunqueira (Councillor for Mobility and Urban Works, Pontevedra City Council) and Daniel Macenlle Díaz (General Director of Citizen Security, Pontevedra City Council) will give a talk on Pontevedra's mobility model.

Like many cities in the world, Pontevedra was, before 1999, crowded by cars, noise, pollution, inconvenience and danger were ever present. As a consequence, the weakest (elderly, children,..) had been expelled from squares and streets because they were at risk when they used public space. Such a situation was in need of a swift action on our part. We wanted a healthy and safe city in which people could be more autonomous and get together because social cohesion is essential for the proper functioning of a community.

To achieve this aims we have adopted a mobility-focused approach. This was the key of our urban transformation process. Starting from a global perspective, where people were at the centre of our policies, we reversed the traditional scale of priorities regarding to the use of public space.

We will speak about what our objectives were, the measures undertaken in order to achieve them, likewise, we will show the results we have got by applying these policies.

It is possible for disorganized cities, unsuitable for habitation, to become safe, kind, healthy, comfortable and pleasant cities.

Mobility

For the Mobile Lives Forum, mobility is understood as the process of how individuals travel across distances in order to deploy through time and space the activities that make up their lifestyles. These travel practices are embedded in socio-technical systems, produced by transport and communication industries and techniques, and by normative discourses on these practices, with considerable social, environmental and spatial impacts.

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This presentation is part of the seminar series «Public Space on the Move» organised by OUVEMA and the Swiss Pedestrian Association with the support of the Competence Centre in Sustainability, the Institute of Geography and Sustainability and the Institute of Sport Sciences of the University of Lausanne.

Inscription : https://unil.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUufuqrqTIqE90x-cpsnmVewfQEXy-IqmTa