Open streets accolade for city
OPEN Streets, the local, citizen-driven initiative and NPO was selected as a winner in the prestigious Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative (Tumi) challenge.
The award places mobility innovation in Cape Town on the global map. Open Streets was one of 10 award recipients selected from over 100 submissions from more than 30 countries in this inaugural year of the award. The winners were announced at the Women Mobilise Women Conference, which was part of the International Transport Forum, held in Leipzig, Germany, in May.
Marcela Guerrero Casas, managing director and co-founder, accepted the award for Open Streets Cape Town, but also on behalf of the city’s administration and other partners who are working to encourage residents to claim and re-imagine streets as public spaces.
“Winning the Tumi award will help to scale our programmes and to bring even more inspiration to Cape Town as an innovative city – and particularly in terms of mobility innovation. Open Streets is growing as an organisation, thanks to international recognition like the Tumi award, but also from countless individuals and groups in Cape Town. In particular, we thank the City of Cape Town, and especially the Transport and Urban Development Authority, for its continued support for the work we do,” said Guerrero Casas.
Open Streets seeks to create a new mindset around urban mobility, to create shared spaces that embody respect and help to bridge the social and spatial divides in Cape Town.
It does this through a programme of year-round activities, including advocacy campaigns, Open Streets Days, the Street Indaba, among others. With the award, the organisation hopes to scale its activities, as well as to increase knowledge exchanges with other cities and convene local groups to expand and deepen discussions on how to improve and change the status quo of the city’s streets.
Open Streets also builds connections with communities such as Langa, Mitchells Plain, Bellville and Woodstock, through its mobility-related advocacy programmes and activities.
Ricky Mabee from Mitchells Plain Alive said of the award: “This award is a great opportunity to shed light on the positive impact that Open Streets has had in our community and the enormous potential it still holds. Residents of Mitchells Plain are eager to see a more regular programme that can show the real potential of our streets and that maximises the wealth that exists in our community.”
Open Streets is a citizen-driven initiative working to change how we use, perceive and experience streets. It was formed in 2012 to challenge the model of urban mobility by carrying out campaigns, temporary interventions, dialogues and walks that raise citizen awareness, spark public debate and ultimately drive behaviour change around the role of streets in the life of the city.