High profile International Speakers from Government, NGOs, and Research Institutions Partnering with Santiago Officials to Inspire Replication of Transport Best Practices.

For three days in June, 200 urban transport and development planners, practitioners, and officials, world-class researchers, and NGO representatives will convene in Santiago to share opportunities, challenges, and study the example of Santiago as an international best practice in pedestrian, cycling, public transit, and policy. Organizers expect representatives from around 20 nations to attend the MOBILIZE Summit, June 28-30, to be held at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Speakers will include Dr. Philipp Rode, Executive Director of LSE Cities at The London School of Economics, Laura Ballesteros, Undersecretary of Planning for the Secretariat of Mobility of Mexico City, Shin-pei Tsay, Executive Director of the Gehl Institute, and Manuela Lopez Menendez, Secretary of Public Works for the Transport Ministry of Argentina.

MOBILIZE is an annual summit organized by ITDP. The summit aims to elevate the winner of the annual Sustainable Transport Award. MOBILIZE spotlights the achievements of the winning city and gives transport professionals and researchers from around the world an opportunity to experience the city as a learning lab with lessons on how to get world class projects implemented.

Last June, Santiago was announced as the winner of the Sustainable Transport Award, selected by a committee of international transport experts for major improvements in pedestrian space, cycling, and public transit. Director of Mobility Miguel Olivares accepted the award at the ceremony in Washington, DC on Tuesday, January 10th. Together, the STA and MOBILIZE highlight an elite group of international cities that inspire and catalyze more cities around the world to implement transport solutions of their own.

Participants, including representatives from the Municipality of Santiago, Santiago Metro region, and the Chilean Ministries of Transport and Housing, will spend half the day in workshops sharing ideas and best practices in sustainable transport, development, and urban planning, and half the day on site visits in and around the city, including visits to Transantiago, the public bicycle and cycle network, and a walking tour of the newly-redesigned streets in the city center.

ITDP is organizing the summit in partnership with the Volvo Research and Education Foundation (VREF), and additional sponsors, and is consulting with a local host committee as planning moves forward.

• Mayor Felipe Alessandri, Host
• Juan Carlos Muñoz, Chair, Director of the Bus Rapid Transit Centre of Excellence
• Claudio Orrego, Intendant of the Metropolitan Region
• Paulina Saball, Minister of Housing and Urbanism
• Claudio Olivares Medina, Bicivilizate

“We are very pleased to participate in MOBILIZE, and welcome participants to this key global summit on sustainable transport. This June, the eyes of the sustainable transport community will be on Santiago, and those who visit us will find a very interesting opportunity to learn from these new changes and advances that our municipality, and the city region, have made,” said the Mayor of the Municipality of Santiago, Felipe Alessandri.

2017 will be the second annual MOBILIZE Summit. The first was held in 2016 in Yichang, China by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) in co-operation with VREF and the City of Yichang. More information on MOBILIZE Yichang is available.

Sustainable transport and development professionals interested in attending should contact Nora.Pena@itdp.org to request an invitation.  Members of the press interested in attending should contact Jemilah.Magnusson@itdp.org . For more information, visit mobilizesummit.org.