How do you evaluate RESOLVE's first phase? What have you learnt so far?
The first phase of the RESOLVE project was quite intense and fruitful. Through the last three years we have been exchanging experience with other project partners, conducting surveys regarding public spaces, meeting with stakeholders as well as with external experts. This comprehensive approach let us broaden our perspective and learned a lot.
First of all, we extended our scope of interests. Initially we were focused on people travel behavior. What we find as important after some time was how the deliveries are made in the retail area. Moreover, the topic of urban logistic is not well recognized in Warsaw. In the effect we commissioned two big surveys whose goal was to describe the scale and way of deliveries in two important retail streets. The conclusion was a big surprise for us – we didn’t realize how much traffic is generated because of even small shops.
Which will be the main outcomes of RESOLVE locally?
We described 6 local action based on the lessons learnt in the first phase. We will be implementing them in the second phase and probably after the end of RESOLVE. This tasks involve improvement of attractiveness of pedestrian zones at the commercial streets and simplifying the administrative procedure for stakeholders and private companies. We will also continue the project started in the first phase – marking the area where café and restaurants may locate their tables. In the pilot project, we will design a layout for Francuska street and define areas dedicated for restaurants, for people movement and for small architecture items such as benches or bins. We would like to make it transparent and easy to understand for all stakeholders: local authorities, owners of restaurants as well as citizens and designers.
Moreover we will continue analysis how the road investments affect the public spaces. The developed in the RESOLVE project Monitoring and Evaluation Tool is really useful for us – we adapted it to our local condition and use it beyond the project.
Finally, we organized a Regional Conference in March 2019. Apart of presenting RAP, it was also an opportunity to discuss the urban logistic issues. There were around 100 participants from Warsaw and Poland. We hope that this was a great kick-off for further actions and discussion!
How do you see mobility in your city/region by 2021 and how will RESOLVE contribute to achieve these objectives and vision?
There are more and more projects regarding the sustainable mobility. Local authorities started to notice the air pollution issue and the negative effect for citizens. The year 2021 is a really close perspective but we think that more and more people living in Warsaw will choose the sustainable mode of transport such as bicycles, public transport or walking. The public spaces will attract people to spend more time outside.
The big challenge for Warsaw is the transition of the city centre. This is a really long process but for sure some actions will be held.
Last but not least, we hope that we will have an effective set of tools to minimize the negative effect of urban deliveries.
