Organization seeks to increase walkability – 03/07/2024 – É Logo Ali
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Once upon a time there was a project called Sampapé, created in 2012 by friends who liked to walk the streets of São Paulo and decided to make a business out of it, taking tourists to see the city’s most interesting spots. “It was born from a personal experience, a discomfort of mine, after living in Mexico for a while”, says Letícia Sabino, who was not satisfied with the difficulties people, especially women, have in getting around on foot through the streets of the capital. .
“From this experience I started asking questions”, says Letícia, “about people’s relationship with public spaces, how to make them change their perspective, their affection and their connection with the place”. The similarities between Mexico City and São Paulo were many, starting with the distances and social problems “very similar to ours”.
Back in São Paulo, Letícia found, among other things, that the majority of the population travels on foot every day, with 39% of these journeys being made exclusively on foot, according to data from ANTP (National Public Transport Association). “But little was said about public policies, solutions and projects for cities to become better walkable”, she says.
From playful walks to something bigger and more comprehensive it was a matter of time and experience. “We were already a third sector organization, led and coordinated by women, and creating the Caminhabilidade Institute was a natural change with the aim of promoting walkability, as the name suggests, and people’s connection with the city”, she explains , master in city planning and design from UCL (University College London), postgraduate in creative economy from FGV, and now CEO and executive project coordinator at Instituto Caminhabilidade.
With the good reception of the initiative, which included “developing participatory methodologies, creating policies that could be replicated in all cities”, Letícia realized that “it was urgent to make this change at the federal level, because throughout Brazil there was this problem, requiring a articulation between cities and the federal government, in a national action”. It was, therefore, in search of a partnership with the Ministry of Cities, with which it signed, last year, a cooperation agreement to carry out research on National Walkability Strategies in the World.
It is possible to imagine the difficulties of negotiating with public authorities the exchange of spaces that were previously exclusive or priority for vehicles with areas that are more friendly to those who want to travel on foot. In the Bruno Covas linear park itself, on the banks of the Pinheiros river, in São Paulo, the lack of access for those who want to walk along its length is notorious — and it is one of the projects that the institute is working on, together with the Pinheiros Laboratory .
“There’s a community that’s a five-minute walk from the park,” says Carolina Fortes, communications analyst at the institute. “But to get there on foot, residents need to cross two lanes of the road with cars passing at 60 kilometers per hour,” she adds. Claiming a pedestrian crossing for such a high-traffic road may seem like an unrealizable dream, but it is precisely the undertaking that is driving the institute at the moment.
“It may seem simple, like just painting a banner, but many meetings are needed with different actors and our cities are completely focused on car circulation and any reduction in this focus is very complicated”, explains Carolina. What the institute seeks, in these cases, is to show that, contrary to what it may seem at first glance, making life easier for pedestrians does not necessarily mean harm to traffic. “We have studies showing how many people pass through the place daily, how it will or will not impact the flow of vehicles, we try not to affect this flow”, she adds.
Among the projects in which Caminhabilidade successfully participated are the opening of Avenida Paulista on Sundays and holidays, and the recent opening of streets in the Liberdade neighborhood, also in the central area of the capital.
And, as could be expected in a project that was born and recreated through the initiative of committed women, there is a concern with the equation of women walking in an environment that insists on being hostile to them. “Our work is very focused on gender equality, harassment, and everything gets worse when we think about walking at night”, recognizes Carolina.
One of the most relevant projects promoted for this audience is Caminhar Afro-Feminino, with a gender and race perspective in the historic center of Salvador (BA). “It’s a project focused specifically on black girls and women, focused on promoting spaces that welcome them, engaging public authorities based on the experiences of those who live and work there”, says Carolina.
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