Global Youth Coalition Member Feature: Bruno Batista

1. Where are you connected right now? Tell us about the work you're doing.
I live in the city of Porto Alegre in the South of Brazil. I work on the Active Mobility Team of the World Resources Institute (WRI) Brasil where I worked in sustainable urban mobility in various cities around the country. I also own an Instagram account with the handle @ruascompletas where I post photos of nicer and safer street design projects mostly in Latin America. 

2. How did you first get involved in road safety and how long have you been working in the road safety and sustainable mobility field? 
I studied urban planning in The Netherlands from 2014 to 2015. My desire to work on this issue started there. Coming back to Brazil, I started to work more in the area in 2017 (6 years already).

Photo from https://www.instagram.com/ruascompletas/

3. Can you tell us a little about your area's road safety and sustainable mobility situation? 
The city of Porto Alegre has close to 1.5 million inhabitants. As in most big cities in Latin America, high speeds and unsafe designs are common and the growing number of motorcycles makes it harder to tackle the issue. 

4. Why do you think it's important to include young people in local and global road safety efforts? 
Young people can help on promoting change in public opinion to push for more investments in active mobility, public transport, and lower speeds. 

5. Are there any other updates on your work you would like to share? 
I have worked a lot with the concept of Complete Streets and it has been very effective in Brazil. I organized two online courses in the past and plan to organize more in the future, reach out if you are interested.

6. Why did you join the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety? 
Mostly to exchange experiences and learn more about how they are working with road safety in other countries. I would also love to highlight street design projects from other members of the Youth Coalition on @ruascompletas

7. What are your comments on the Youth Coalition? Its activities? Its opportunities? 
I started taking the YOURS Academy courses and the first module was amazing, looking forward to doing the other ones. 

8. Any messages for people who have not yet joined the Youth Coalition? 
If you are young and work on road safety, join it, and let’s grow the number of positive connections.

Bruno is 29 years old and is from Porto Alegre, Brazil. He holds a Master's degree in Transportation Engineering at UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul) and a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering, focusing on transportation, at the same university in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He also studied Urban Planning for one year at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.

In the last five years, he has worked on projects related to active mobility, road safety, tactical urbanism, complete streets, cycling infrastructure, accessibility, and urban planning in over 20 cities, mainly in Latin America.