YOUNG MOTORCYCLISTS FOR SAFER CITIES

BY Angie Angel

The project, Young Motorcyclists for Safer Cities or YOUMS, aims to understand the perspectives and experiences of young motorcyclists and advocate for cooperative spaces promoting road safety with a focus on youth empowerment and inclusive decision-making.

Through a multi-faceted approach, the project looks to raise awareness among young motorcyclists in Bogotá through participatory workshops and street artistic pedagogy initiatives.

Additionally, the team behind the implementation of YOUMS will collect qualitative data on road safety perceptions and experiences through a virtual survey, ensuring transparency and accessibility of information.

Leveraging this data, the project will organise virtual meetings and advocacy capacity-building sessions with decision-makers to enhance the participation of young motorcyclists in dialogue spaces and promote cooperation for road safety. Furthermore, roundtable discussions will be facilitated between motorcyclist groups and District’s Mobility Secretariat (SDM) officials to include motorcyclists in actions aimed at improving road safety for all road users.

ABOUT THE PROJECT LEAD

Miguel is passionate about multidisciplinary approaches to advocate for socio-spatial justice from transportation and road safety. At 26 years old, he has dedicated his career to promoting active mobility in Colombian and Latin American cities through data-driven analytics and mapping. Currently, he works in the NGO Despacio focused on promoting quality of life at every stage of the life cycle of people in cities and regions.

His interest in road safety and active mobility in Bogota, Colombia, began in his undergraduate degree in civil engineering and master's degree in transportation. He has also wanted to strengthen his interests through spatial analysis to understand the geographies of active mobility and how road safety directly influences modal shifts in cities. He has worked on several research and advocacy projects based on the differential and inclusive approach to better study vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly and people with disabilities, and how this helps to understand the city to revolutionize the way we plan, conserve and vitalize it.”

ABOUT THE LEAD ORGANISATION

DESPACIO

Despacio is a colombian research center. It's objective is to promote a quality life in the cities during all the stages of the human life cycle, through applied research that challenges intuition. Its philosophy is similar to the Slow movement, which seeks to improve well-being from the most individual and familial aspects (eating, commuting, raising children, organizing the home and work) to the most collective (planning and managing slow, humane, and sustainable cities). Despacio centers its work on three issues: city, life, and climate. The organization pursues these three areas via publications, events, and a laboratory.