Abstract
Although the usefulness of walking and cycling to promote health is increasingly recognized, the importance of civil society leadership in developing new policies and activities is often overlooked. This case study, of Living City (Ciudad Viva) a community-based organization in Santiago, Chile, examines how several communities used knowledge about transport’s impact on the environment and health, gained through opposition to a major highway project, to build effective sustainable urban transport initiatives. Inspired by urban reforms in Bogot´a, Living City now focuses mainly on “active transport” (formerly nonmotorized), building the policies, attitudes and infrastructure necessary to encourage walking and cycling, and the inclusion of the differently abled. It has won two major awards for innovation and now partners with NGOs in The Netherlands and elsewhere in Chile and Latin America. Moreover, Living City now organizes cycling-inclusive training programs, design charrettes and participatory processes in cooperation with Santiago’s regional and national authorities. Its publication, La Voz de La Chimba, distributed free throughout the city by volunteers, has helped to open people’s eyes to the implications of active transport for social equality and health, and provided support to other citizens’ initiatives, struggling to get off the ground. This experience illustrates how citizens’ and community organizations acquire important knowledge and practical experience in learning by doing situations, and how they can learn to reach out to ordinary people and key policymakers, building bridges across the citizen-policy divide to produce innovative, win-win programs that simultaneously bring change at micro- and macro-levels.
Highlights
The usefulness of walking and cycling to promote health is increasingly recognized, the importance of civil society participation – and leadership – in developing new policies and activities is often overlooked.The World Health Organization notes that globally more than one billion people are overweight, and that “obesity and overweight pose a major risk for chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and stroke, and certain forms of cancer
Lation) “The movement against the Costanera Norte is a landmark in post-dictatorial citizen participation
In 2008, with its allies in CUCH, Bicicultura, CicloRecreovıas, Macletas and other groups, Living City worked with the regional government and national transport ministry to design and implement a national participatory planning roundtable. This experience of Living City and its allies in Ciclistas Unidos de Chile illustrates how citizens’ and community organizations acquire important theoretical knowledge and practical experience in learning by doing situations, and how they can learn to apply this in ways that reach out to ordinary people and key policymakers, building bridges across the citizen-policy divide to produce innovative, win-win programs that simultaneously bring change at micro- and macrolevels
Summary
The usefulness of walking and cycling to promote health is increasingly recognized, the importance of civil society participation – and leadership – in developing new policies and activities is often overlooked.The World Health Organization notes that globally more than one billion people are overweight, and that “obesity and overweight pose a major risk for chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and stroke, and certain forms of cancer. The usefulness of walking and cycling to promote health is increasingly recognized, the importance of civil society participation – and leadership – in developing new policies and activities is often overlooked. Obesity among children and young people in the US has trebled since 1980 and some estimates indicate obesity accounts for 2–6% of total health costs in some developed countries. These trends go beyond how people eat. Researchers, civil society organizations and political leaders are connecting this “obesity epidemic” with the way we build our cities and how we travel
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