As before, we are looking to improve our understanding of street design, share our knowledge and at to contribute to a body of knowledge that exists within our community of practice.
Gail Jennings has been a strong supporter of Open Streets since our inception and a regular participant in Street Minds. Gail has recently been appointed by the Gauteng City-Region Observatory to get a better understanding of the relationship between transport policy, transportation planning, street design and equity. At the next Street Minds meeting Gail will be sharing her initial findings and prompting us to think through our participation as professionals in policy development, design and implementation.
Please feel free to invite others who you think would be interested in attending.
A more detailed outline is provided below:
A perhaps unanticipated outcome in the South African transportation environment since 1994 has been that the extension of one constitutional right, and the redress of one transport ‘inequity’, hasn’t necessarily ensured a holistic outcome. Budget allocations, project prioritisation, and a requirement for operational efficiencies, can appear to abrogate or defer the realisation of transport justice. These are not only ‘inter-sector’ contradictions – such as between the siting of low-cost housing and the perpetuation of long travel times. In some instances, these are intra-sector challenges, where an attention to one particular transportation need might lead to the encroachment or erosion of others (consider the higher fares of ‘quality’, lower-carbon public transport, or the increased number of transfers in a newly implemented feeder-trunk BRT system).
This research has three key aims:
- To broadly determine the way in which transportation (and related) policy acknowledges and offers guidance regarding conflicting priorities or outcomes;
- To understand how decision-makers have reached decisions regarding contested transportation interventions or projects, and whether rights- or equity-based trade-offs have been explicitly or implicitly considered, acknowledged and communicated to stakeholders; and
- To explore the way in which the concept of transport justice and the legacy of inequitable distribution of transport benefits, is understood within civil society and by relevant authorities.
Please RSVP, space is limited.
