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DONOSTIA - SAN SEBASTIÁN
News
What we have done
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About Donostia
- San Sebastián
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| A view of
Donostia - San Sebastian |
San Sebastián is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe for its
natural setting in a small bay, where the blue shades of the sea mix
with the green tones of the surrounding hills.
The Spanish court chose it as a royal seaside resort in the second
half of the nineteenth century and this led to the town development,
its buildings and public areas acquiring higher architectonic
quality, with a definite Parisian influence.
Situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the vertex of the
Bay of Biscay (Gascony), less than twenty kilometres from the border
with France, Donostia has a population of 184,000 within a
metropolitan area of 400,000 people.
Its economy focuses on services, tourism and manufacturing
industries located in the suburban areas.
The general transport
situation in Donostia - San Sebastián
For about twenty years, the city has been enforcing
a strong policy in favour of pedestrians, bicycles and public
transport. Considering walking and cycling as serious modes of transport has
led to the building of a non-motorised transport network for
promoting this type of mobility around the city.
Likewise, the city has extended its network of bus lanes. The city
records one of the higher bus riding rates, with around 150 trips
per capita per year.
The city has established a Mobility Office.
This city department is responsible for the planning and management
of anything related to motorised and non-motorised mobility:
pedestrians, cyclists, public transport, road network, traffic light
systems, surface and underground car parks, etc.
Older people and mobility
There is an accessibility plan to adapt public roads and buildings.
We are developing a public vertical transport system in order to
improve pedestrian mobility between the flat areas of the city and
the hilly suburbs where half of the population lives.
Our activities in AENEAS
Within this project, we are in charge of local coordination as well
as of promoting the three target lines of action: promoting
pedestrian mobility, older people and public transport, and
improving road safety for older people. The following measures are
implemented as part of the project:
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MEASURE 1. PROMOTE WALKING AMONG OLDER PEOPLE
Walking has always been a very popular activity in Donostia-San
Sebastián. Probably for that reason, this is the most successful
measure carried out by the Municipality of Donostia-San Sebastián
inside the AENEAS project. Fifteen workshops have been held at the
moment with more than 60 people taking part in each activity. People
up to 85 years old are participating in the excursions and the
atmosphere is really enjoyable. Great technical support is given by
people from Club Vasco de Camping, making the reperages and
controlling times and slopes. In each excursion new persons join the
activity, although there is a stable group of people attending
almost all the program.
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MEASURE 2. ADAPTING PUBLIC TRANSPORT FOR OLDER PEOPLE
Five workshops have been organised in collaboration with DonostiaBus
Company. At the beginning attendance was not limited and too much
people joined the talks. As a result of that, we decided to restrict
to 20 or 25 the number of persons. Documentation is prepared by
people from DonostiaBus. In these documents, a report about lines
and timetables is given in order to inform audience of what services
are available. People up to 85 are attending these workshops and,
normally, they are quite good customers of public transport. They
usually know pretty well the information given by DonostiaBus and
the evaluation about bus services uses to be good enough.
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MEASURE 3. OLDER PEOPLE AND ROAD SAFETY
Further information and
contact
The city
website
Andres Martinez
Andres_Martinez@donostia.org
Maarten van Bemmelen
mvbemmelen@telefonica.net
Tel: +34 971 613714
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