Bicycle Heroes

Project Overview

Bicycle Heroes gets children more involved in addressing the mobility challenges that directly affect them but over which they have little control. In 2022, children from Dublin, Lisbon, and Rome developed innovative sustainable urban mobility solutions in their cities, using a previously implemented system developed by BYCS in the Netherlands. Through the process of design-thinking, children feel a sense of empowerment and a greater ownership over the success and implementation of these ideas, and thus the betterment of their cities.

Bicycle Heroes is based on the idea that if children can recognize the benefits of active mobility, and identify their particular needs in order to participate in active mobility, they will demand to be part of the solution and for action to be taken by government, industry, academia, and civil society. As their involvement in the process of addressing the challenges grows, so will their interest in getting other children involved. As more children get involved, cities will become safer, easier, and more comfortable for them to utilize active mobility. 

The project focuses on children for a number of key reasons. Children have a unique,fresh perspective, and often come up with solutions overlooked by adults. Additionally, they share many of the same needs as other vulnerable road users (e.g. elderly, disabled) so if their needs are met it is likely that the needs of a wide swath of society are also met. Finally, they have a strong influence over their families and the broader community due to their unbiased position within society, and as a result are important ambassadors of change. 

One of the keys to the success of Bicycle Heroes is the strong relationships between the participating children and key stakeholders from industry, government, academia, and civil society. Innovative companies further develop and scale the children’s ideas. Forward-thinking transport departments in government fast-track the piloting of the ideas. Academics in the sciences, urban planning, and engineering support the project with case studies and study the effects of the ideas. Civil society and the media promote and amplify the children’s ideas to the broader community in order to increase communication, develop trust, secure support, and ensure long-term success. 

Engagement Process

Stakeholder Engagement

In order to ensure the implementation of the selected idea developed by the participating children and increase the awareness of the project’s outputs and outcomes beyond the target group, key stakeholders from government, industry, academia, media, and advocacy are engaged. The partner in each city, utilizing their network, assembles this stakeholder group. The activities related to this group begin with a kickoff meeting in order to help these stakeholders understand the activities, outputs, and outcomes as well as how they can be involved in the design competition, exhibition, and children’s council as well as general promotion of the project. These stakeholders play key roles throughout the process and it is crucial to secure their commitment and buy-in. The stakeholders pledge their support at this kickoff meeting. Later in the project, partners also interface with these stakeholders for the design competition, exhibition, and children’s council.

Broadening Awareness

Following the kick-off meeting, an official awareness campaign is launched through the communication channels of the committed stakeholders, including traditional and social media, and targeted at key demographic groups. This continues throughout the project in order to promote the design competition, exhibition, and children’s council events.

Design Workshop: Initial Idea

In order to incorporate children into the ideation process and give them a sense of empowerment and ownership over the success of urban mobility projects in their city, local partners will organise a design competition. The competition begins with a kick-off event during which children learn about the state of the urban mobility industry and discuss barriers for children to active mobility. The presentations on the state of the industry are given by the key stakeholders identified from industry, government, academia, and advocacy and are tailored to the age group. Following the presentations, the children take part in a mobility-focused tour of their neighbourhood and discuss the important barriers that need to be addressed in order for children to become active mobility users. The children are split into teams in order to come up with an idea to address these barriers.

Design Workshop: Idea Development

The competition concludes with a design workshop, held approximately one month later, during which the ideas of the children are assessed, further developed, and judged. Participants begin the design workshop with an initial presentation of their ideas to a panel made up of key stakeholders. Based on this initial assessment, and using a design-thinking approach as facilitated by a local organisation, the children further develop and design their ideas. The program concludes with a presentation and final assessment of the ideas by a jury made up of the key stakeholders. One or more idea(s) is / are selected by the jury to develop further for implementation in the city.

Exhibition

In order to increase awareness about the project and the role children are playing in improving urban mobility, an exhibition is held to showcase the children’s ideas and designs. As part of the exhibition, attendees or viewers learn about the process of engaging children in the ideation, design, and upcoming implementation in order to inspire them to get more involved with other urban mobility projects. It also encourages them to consider active mobility as an option as a result of the emphasis on this topic through the project. The exhibition is displayed locally and virtually. Key stakeholders are invited to pledge to implement the selected idea in partnership with the participating children.

Children's Council

The final task focuses on ensuring that the participating children remain an ongoing and consistent part of the process of improving urban mobility in order to continue to build trust and create empowerment and ownership. A council of engaged children is formed in order to see through the idea that was designed and selected, to implementation and opening. The council is launched through a kickoff event involving the participating children and the key stakeholders from industry, government, academia, and advocacy. At the kickoff, the council discusses its objectives and role in relation to the key stakeholders and develop a continuation plan.

Additional Resources

A Seat at the Table: Training for Whole-Community Climate Resilience Planning

The goal of this training is to improve the practice of climate resilience planning by incorporating the needs and perspectives of populations that are especially vulnerable to changing climate conditions, many of whom are historically underrepresented in civic decision-making. The target audience is any professional, elected, or appointed official or community leader engaged in climate planning at the state or local level. While this training focuses on climate resilience planning, the approach is applicable to resilience planning in any geographical context.

Additional resources coming soon...