January 15, 2020
Pune, Jakarta Honored at Sustainable Transport Award Ceremony in Washington, DC
On Tuesday, January 14, the cities of Pune, India and Jakarta, Indonesia were honored in the Sustainable Transport Award Ceremony in Washington, DC.
The Sustainable Transport Award Ceremony began with welcome remarks by Heather Thompson, CEO of ITDP who ruminated on the role that many cities are taking globally as their national governments shirk away from taking important action on climate change.
The Keynote address was given by Carolina Cunha Bezerra, the First Lady of the City of Fortaleza, Brazil, the 2019 STA recipient and host of MOBILIZE. Carolina explained how MOBILIZE helped Fortaleza by bringing important visibility to the sustainable transport efforts of the city and encouraging the city to continue their hard work. Since MOBILIZE, Fortaleza’s bike paths have expanded, more urban space has been allocated for pedestrians, and road fatalities have decreased every year for the past five years.
Shreya Gadepalli, who accepted the award on the behalf of Pune, India, discussed the city’s focus on policy, like allocating over 50% of the municipal budget to sustainable transport as well as its focus on complete streets to improve the lives of the residents of Pune.
Dr. Sri Haryati of Jakarta, Indonesia explained the many successes of Transjakarta, now one of the longest BRTs in the world with close to one million passengers as a long fought success. Transjakarta’s success has helped build a strong public transport foundation in Jakarta.
Members of the STA Committee, and recipients of the award stand on stage in Washington, DC.
In a world that is focused on “new-mo”, Pune won this award for its “slow-mo”. By embracing the basics of transport, walking, and cycling, Pune is demonstrating that these are the fundamental things you need in a city. We see this award as incentive for Pune to improve, to keep improving, and as a recognition of the work that many Indian cities are doing.”
The 2020 Sustainable Transport Award (STA) was given to Pune for its different interventions in many sustainable transport modes, particularly its expansion of pedestrian infrastructure. Jakarta won an honorable mention for the expansion of their BRT, Transjakarta, now the longest in Southeast Asia and which has doubled its ridership in less than three years.
2020 is the 16th year of the STA, which was given to Fortaleza, Brazil in 2019 and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 2018. Each year, ITDP and the Sustainable Transport Award Committee select award a city for its innovative sustainable transportation projects from the preceding year. Many of these projects take political courage and improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists and mobility for the cities’ residents as well as a reduce in harmful greenhouse gases and pollution. The winning city and honorable mentions are honored at a ceremony in Washington, DC in January. The winning city hosts MOBILIZE later on that year. This year MOBILIZE will be held in Pune, India in June 2020.