Spreading knowledge about sustainable mobility and good practices in the region
The Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana Urban Region responded to a request from secondary school students in Burgdorf, Switzerland and offered them a presentation of good spatial planning and traffic regulation practices in Ljubljana and the Ljubljana Urban Region (LUR) during the course of a one-week study visit to Slovenia.
The students visited the LUR in the context of the elective subject “sustainable development”, in which the main focus is on sustainable economic and social development, environmental protection and waste management. Since the subject also covers sustainable mobility, urban planning and sustainable spatial planning, they chose Ljubljana as the destination for a study visit to view good practices in the arrangement of city centres.
The “field” part of the study visit took place on 3 September in Ljubljana city centre, where the essential aspects of long-term spatial and transport planning, the importance of sustainable mobility for Ljubljana and the LUR, the process of expanding pedestrian areas and practices designed to involve the public in spatial planning processes were presented to the students.
In their post-visit evaluation the students expressed enthusiasm at the arrangement of pedestrian areas in the city centre, the variety of spatial planning content, the functioning of the Kavalir system and the “shared space” area on Slovenska Cesta. They also gave their own proposals for further improvements in the field of sustainable mobility, highlighting in particular additional traffic-calming measures outside the city centre, additional content for young people (e.g. a skate park, various forms of street art, hang-out spaces) in periodically empty squares (Revolution Square, Congress Square), and a lack of parking spaces for bicycles and scooters.
During their visit they were hosted by the Ljubljana Cyclists’ Network, Ljubljana Tourism, cultural and ecological association SMETUMET, cultural association prostoRož and the GoodPlace sustainable tourism factory, as well as by the Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana Urban Region.
