Lindängen is characterized by a multi-ethnic, international and very young population. 34% of its residents are below the age of 24 compared to 29% in the whole of Malmö. Malmö’s sustainable urban mobility plan was ratified in April 2016. It highlights that walking, cycling and public transport should be the natural choice for everybody who lives, works and visits Malmö by 2030.
Lindängen is a neighbourhood where citizens have been involved in several previous projects. The experience has not only been positive, and many people are tired of projects, which do not provide tangible results. Therefore, it has been crucial for SUNRISE in Lindängen to focus on transparency, communication and the ability to act on the issues and measures that were raised by citizens. Thus, Malmö focused on smaller measures to be able to gain trust and show Lindängen that participation does matter.
The focus of SUNRISE is to understand why many people in the area are avoiding biking and walking in the neighbourhood. The aim is to increase sustainable travels instead of preventing travels done by car. Since there is not a common urgency in working with sustainable mobility in the area, the subject of mobility needs to be addressed in other ways. This has been done by talking about the feeling of safety and measures linked to enhancing safety across the neighbourhood, as it was perceived as an essential issue.
Challenges
- Participation and project fatigued area
- Lack of trust for the municipality
- Other more pressing issues than sustainable mobility
- Language barriers
- Lack of knowledge and supporting organisational structure for co-creation
Actions Description
From our first co-identification activities it became clear that:
- Designated pedestrian and bicycle lanes which were considered an ideal environment for walking, cycling, children to play and for people to meet are often used for unintended purposes. For example, such public spaces are often misused for short-cuts by car-drivers and as racetracks for moped-drivers.
- Bikes parked both in public and private places tend to get stolen.
- Public spaces are frequented by drug dealers and their customers. In addition, there has recently been gang related shootings in the neighbourhood, adding to the complexity.
The effects are that car-free areas in the neighbourhood are not used as intended and many places in the neighbourhood are perceived as uninviting and/or unsafe.
Consequently, residents are reluctant to go outside and if they do, they take detours or avoid certain locations – leaving the neighbourhood’s public spaces empty – thereby rendering it even more uninviting. Residents are hesitant to replace stolen bikes and therefore stop cycling, thus creating a vicious circle of unsustainable mobility.
Based on these results, the SUNRISE activities in co-development in Lindängen co-developed three pilot action areas. In our co-implementation activities, the efforts are to co-implement measures within these action areas:
- Safer Bike Parking
- Activating Public Space
- Reclaiming Public Space
Previous Activities
Safer bike parking
- Mapping the area with real estate owners
- Semi structured interviews with residents
- Implementation of new bike stands and a service station
Activating public space
- Participation in local events – such as summer party for example
- Inventory walk with local teenage girls to make the park safer
- Workshops to prototype and build seating arrangements
- Workshop with local teenagers on how to report issues
- Implementation of flower beds, picnic tables and bike pumps
Reclaiming public space
- Interviews and mapping of problems with cars driving through the park
- Implementation of measures to hinder traffic through the park
- Follow up interviews and conversations about traffic measures
- Adjustment of traffic hinders
