Lugoj – For kids, by kids (Lugoj, Romania)

Lugoj - For kids, by kids is an initiative aiming to improve the public realm and encourage active urban mobility, while at the same empowering children/teenagers to get involved in shaping the urban community they wish to have. Through digitalization and grassroots democracy, the project aims to help the town of Lugoj regain its reputation of being a "bike town".

Challenge addressed

Enhancement of public realm, accessibility, and interconnection through active mobility modalities, to mitigate air pollution and improve physical and mental health. (EIT Urban Mobility)

Solution proposed, focus area

The main objective of "Lugoj – For kids, by kids" is to identify the obstacles pupils face in cycling to school and using the relevant infrastructure and co-create solutions, which is forwarded to the municipality. The secondary aim is to stimulate pupils' participation and involvement in the decision-making processes of their school by forming a long-term working group to deal with school projects.

For tackling youth engagement and its civic participation in relation to the improvement of public realm in a short-term and also long-term to raise awareness and involve and exchange experiences with citizens (e.g., tailored campaigns and customised local events). The pupils and the municipality will form a very strong bond and connect through a common vision, improving the public realm Creation of a GIS StoryMap showcasing problematic areas of the cycling infrastructure in the town as well as proposed solutions.

Target Groups

Pupils (5th - 8th grade, possibly high school students) - regarded as equal partners in co-creating the output together with the lead partner

Municipality of Lugoj- the main beneficiary of the project, receiving the GIS StoryMap for further use in improvement of public realm and active mobility infrastructure

Main activities / milestones

• Enhancing urban stakeholder communication

• Facilitation: Pupils Experience

• Geo-Tracking

• GIS StoryMap Development

• Long-term community development
  
  

Partnership

Local Development Institute – Think Global Act Local

Urbanize Hub

Outcomes

hrough the activities the young citizens (pupils) and the municipality of Lugoj (end-user) became aware, educated on the active role both stakeholders can play in improving the quality of the city and empowered them to act.

The main output of the project is the visualised ArcGIS based Interactive and Story Maps, which contains all the problematic areas specified and analyzed by the lead partner and the working group, as well as the proposed solutions. Check out the Lugoj interactive problem map

Lugoj interactive solution map

All of the project outcomes & solutions proposed and the interactive maps delivered to the municipality of Lugoj in order to take action in the future and improve the infrastructure. The project outcomes, including the solution part and the challenges will be integrated into the “Sustainable Urban Mobility Development Strategy” of Lugoj.

For more information: Story map