By Santiago Times Staff
SANTIAGO — The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, together with an international committee of development and transport experts, invites you to nominate your city for the Annual Sustainable Transport Award.
Nominations are now open and will be accepted online at Staward.org until April 17, 2017.
This year, Chile’s capital city Santiago won for major improvements in pedestrian space, cycling, and public transit. The city redesigned several streets in the city center to limit car traffic, and improve pedestrian, cyclist, and transit access.
The high quality and transformative scale of these projects, and the fact that it was backed up by policy changes, education programs, and a huge increase in cycling mode share made Santiago the clear winner.
In June, Santiago will host ITDP’s MOBILIZE Summit, to be held each year in the winning city.
MOBILIZE will bring together 200 international urban transport and development planners, practitioners, and officials, world-class researchers, and NGO representatives to share opportunities, challenges, and study the example of Santiago as an international best practice in pedestrian, cycling, public transit, and policy. The new winning city will be host to MOBILIZE in 2018.
“The STA recognizes bold political leadership. It’s not about crowning the best transport city in the world, it’s about celebrating vision and positive changes that improve quality of life for people in cities,” says Michael Kodransky, chair of the STA Committee.
“There are so many great things happening in cities that aren’t known as the usual transport best practices, and the STA and MOBILIZE are great vehicles for recognition for the city, and opportunities for those of us working in sustainable transport to learn from these innovative approaches.”
Since 2005, the Sustainable Transport Award has recognized profound leadership and vision in sustainable transportation and urban livability.
The award is presented to a city each January for achievements in the preceding year. Nominations are accepted from any interested parties, including government, civil society organizations,and academic institutions.
Nominations must include verifiable project data and contact information for the city.
The 2018 winner will be announced at MOBILIZE Santiago on June 30.
The winner and honorable mentions will be honored at an awards ceremony and reception in Washington, DC during the Transport Research Board conference.
Past winners include: Yichang, China; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Mexico City, México; Medellín, Colombia; San Francisco, United States; Ahmedabad, India; Seoul, South Korea; and Bogotá, Colombia.
The Sustainable Transport Committee includes the most respected experts and organizations working internationally on sustainable transportation including Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, WRIRoss Center for Sustainable Cities, World Bank, CODATU, GIZ, Clean Air Asia, Clean Air Institute, ICLEI, Despacio, and BRT Center for Excellence.
