Kicking off ITDP’s busy roster of events leading up to Rio+20, the Mobilidade+ series was launched on June 5th at Studio-X Rio’s headquarters in the center of the city. The series – organized by ITDP Brazil and Studio-X (Columbia University) in partnership with UN-Habitat, SLoCat, C40 Rio, and Transport Ativo – aims to illustrate how urban mobility permeates diverse aspects of daily life in cities, and affects the lives of citizens beyond considerations of merely getting from one place to another.

Photo – Caption: Speaker Dado Amaral presents the concept of Mobility+Courtesy to a full-house.

The first session of the three-part series, which will ultimately address twelve diverse concepts, addressed mobility plus urban space; delivery; courtesy and lifestyle through four fast, dynamic presentations. The presentations were followed by a lively discussion with the audience, which was made up of around 50 people, mainly urbanists and architects.

Bernardo Baranda, ITDP’s Regional Director for Latin America, addressed the them of urban space, introducing participants to ITDP’s principles for sustainable urban mobility and explaining how, if implemented in an integrated manner, they form crucial tools to improve urban mobility and quality of life. 

Photo – Caption: José Lobo discusses Mobility+Delivery

Director of Rio’s foremost cycling advocacy organization Transporte Ativo, José Lobo, presented a case study of the widespread use of delivery bicycles in Copacabana, which was made in collaboration with ITDP and C40. He demonstrated that the use of delivery bikes instead of motorized vehicles saves the neighborhood an amount of road space larger than a football field.

In addition, Tiago Leitman (founder, Cycle Chic Rio) and Dado Amaral (director of the documentary “For Courtesy”) addressed urban mobility’s relationship with lifestyle, and courtesy, respectively.

The public speaker series will be celebrated and closed with a special invitation-only event in the Ford Foundation space at the Rio+20 People’s Summit with high profile speakers including Dr. Joan Clos (Executive Director of UN Habitat), Bill Reilly (Chairman of the ClimateWorks Foundation Board), Michael Replogle (ITDP Founder and Global Policy Director), and Cornie Huizenga (Director of the SloCat network).

Following Rio+20, Mobilidade+ will be turned into a video series that will be distributed worldwide to challenge citizens and global leaders to change how they think about urban mobility.