How can participation formats be made more attractive so that citizens become more actively involved in planning processes? What needs to be paid more attention to when developing tools and methods? These key questions were discussed at a virtual stakeholder event as part of the e-smartec project.
In order to better understand the current participation behavior of the Hessian population in mobility planning processes, a citizen survey on marketing and participation methods was conducted at the end of last year. The results of the survey will be used to make participation formats even more attractive in the future.
This revealed, for example, that almost half of those surveyed regularly obtain information about mobility planning processes in the region. However, only just under a third had already taken part in such processes. And only 21 percent of respondents stated that they felt “well” or “very well” involved in mobility planning processes in their region.
It also became clear that participation methods that require little effort, such as surveys, digital participation opportunities or citizens’ workshops, tend to achieve a higher response.
The complete results of the survey are available on the FZ-NUM website.
Another milestone towards more citizen participation was the e-smartec stakeholder event, which took place virtually on January 22, 2021 with around 25 participants – primarily from municipalities, districts and associations. The aim of the event was to use the survey results to develop initial ideas for possible measures together with the participants on how citizens can be encouraged to participate more actively in mobility planning processes.
The results from the stakeholder meeting will now be incorporated into the development of an action plan by July 2021, which will serve as a strategic and action-oriented framework for concrete methods and measures to improve the way citizens are addressed and involved in mobility planning processes. Initial content will be presented for discussion at a second stakeholder event in April 2021.
The Center for Sustainable Mobility (FZ-NUM) is participating in the EU-funded Interreg project “e-smartec” on behalf of the state of Hesse. The aim of the current project phase, which runs until July 2021, is to develop customised participation and marketing instruments for mobility planning processes in Hesse. As part of e-smartec, aconium is providing technical advice and support to the FC-NUM in Hesse.