Implementation
The implementation was possible, because the pilot project was politically motivated as one result of the Munich Alliance for Ecology. It focused on small and lean measures and had thus a better chance of implementation because of lower costs. For greater measures it was helpful to search for political support of the district council.
The planning process started with a review of the target groups and relevant stakeholders to reach and to involve, followed by a review of the experts' status analysis and ended with a review of the project time table.
The Department of City Planning and Building Regulations of Munich engaged stadt+plan (Paul Bickelbacher, expert for traffic and town planning) and KOMMA.PLAN (Kerstin Langer, expert for citizen participation) for this pilot project which was funded by the Supreme Building Authority at the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior.
Marketing and dissemination were provided by a presentation of the project at international conferences, for students, in seminars and further trainings. In addition a flyer was distributed with the most important outcomes 7 years after the project start.
The project started with a kick-off-meeting, where the present inhabitants of Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt could mark problems on a big map of the district. During the following two months, interested people could mark and describe their problems and solution proposals on a map inside a flyer, which they found in the library or the next bakery.
They could also join one of the district excursions on foot, by bike and on skates/ scooters or by bus. In addition they could give their remarks by phone, fax or email. About 550 critical points were mentioned this way.
Meanwhile, the planner made a status analysis of the whole district. With 15 plans he characterized a lot of the aspects of walking, cycling, skating and going by bus. The most important issues were concentrated in a focus analysis for every mode of transport.
All the problems were processed for discussions in two citizen juries (Bürgerforen). One of these was for the relevant stakeholders, who had already had a very active part in past discussions about environmentally friendly mobility or who were important multiplicators in the district.
For the other citizen jury, the participants were invited with the help of a random selection, so it was possible to get a greater spectrum of opinions. During the jury sessions, the citizens discussed what would be a good solution and which measures should be taken first.
They worked on their own with a list of measures, discussed in small groups and argued with members of the city administration during the plenum of the workshops. The results were summarized in a citizen report which was handed over to the (third) mayor of Munich.
With the inputs of this citizen report, the planner worked out a final report with a table of measures to be realized. The city administration examined these proposed measures. The result was that 54 % of them can be realized, 9 % are still under examination and 37 % can not be realized. Until now many things have already been done.
The introduction of parking space management and a new bus line were very important. A lot of other measures were realized such as traffic lights for pedestrians, bike lanes, contra-flow cycling in one way streets, more trees, better street lighting etc. Many more measures will be realized over the next years. All the measures were communicated to the citizens in a final flyer.
Challenges and obstacles were to coordinate at least three municipal departments for discussing the measures and to handle a lot of mobility aspects at the same time and multi-modally. It was also difficult to reach people and motivate them to engage in the participation process.
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