Experimenting with City Streets to Transform Urban Mobility (EX-TRA)
- Enrica Papa
- Emilia Smeds
- Tom Cohen
Read more at: https://www.ex-tra-project.eu/
EX-TRA is an international research project funded for March 2021-2024 by the ESRC through the JPI Urban Europe ERA-NET Co-fund. The project studies ‘City street experiments’ defined as: ‘an intentional, temporary change of the street use, regulation and/or form, aimed at exploring systemic change in urban mobility, away from “streets for traffic”, and towards “streets for people”.’
By way of urban living labs in Amsterdam, Bologna, Milan, Ghent, Munich and London, we generate insights into:
- Possible combinations of physical design and regulation that increase the types of usage and inclusivity among users of city streets;
- Transport and land use conditions for the purpose of enabling and improving walking and cycling accessibility in city districts;
- Shared mobility platforms and micro-mobility and freight delivery options which complement attractive streets and accessible districts; and
- Strategies of change that can accelerate the transition towards a ‘post-car’ city.
The activities developed by the UoW team in the last year were targeted at the development of an engagement platform for collecting data on user perceptions of public space changes, the street experiment process, and community engagement. We critically explore the perceptions of multiple users, ‘publics’ and stakeholders who are affected by and mobilise around ‘city street experiments’.
School Street in Lambeth, London: experiment with closing the street to provide more space for people, rather than traffic [photo © Paul Tanner + Sustrans]
