CULTURA IN GENT

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• CULTURA IN GENT

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• PROGRAMM
• A short re-introduction to Gent
• The item for Cultura the school-traffic
• What did we do until now?
• Proposal for Cultura phase IV

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GENT SOME FIGURES

• Surface 15.643 ha
• Green area 502 ha
• municipal budget
• Working budget 566 millions euro
• Investments 177 millions euro

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Number of inhabitants (1 january 2004)

• 229.137 inhabitants
• 106.314 families
• 110.000 pupils and students

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Transport

• Confluence of the rivers Leie en Schelde
• Canal Gent-Terneuzen and the Port of Gent
• Highways E40 and E17 junction
• Most important railway station in Flanders
  (41.000 passengers a day)

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Traffic infrastructure

• E17 and E40 junction
• Large ring/belt around Gent - R4
• Municipal ring/belt R40
• Parking route around the centre
• Inland port
• Railway junction

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Some figures with respect to transport

• 1.046 km of public highway (800
  km of municipal roads and 200 km of regional
  roads)
• Public transport counts 150.000 passengers a day
• 2.731 seaships a year
• 110.000 bicycle movements a day

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Modal split in

• Car driver 43,0
• Car passenger 16,0
• Motorcycles 0,5
• Bicycles 14,0
• Mopeds 1,0
• Bus 3,5
• Tram 2,0
• Train 2,5
• Pedestrians 17,5
• Total 100

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The school traffic problems.
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Mobility problems in Gent

• Too many cars
• Traffic jams in all the main roads
• No spare parking capacity
• Big difference in amount of cars on schooldays -
  schoolholidays

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Schools

• 65 kindergarten
• 112 primary schools
• 60 secondary schools
• High school 19 locations
• University 11 locations

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What are we already doing?

• School mobility plans
• 10 schools pro year (until now only primary
  schools)
• Working on the items traffic organisation,
  sensibilisation, education, information,
  prevention, infrastructure

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What are we already doing?

• The City of Gent offers to all her inhabitants
  for free
• Bicycle helmets for 2,5 year old kids
• Bicycle flags for 5 year old kids
• Safety shirts for 8 year old kids
• Safety shirts for 12 year old kids

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What are we already doing?

• Free public transport for children up to 14 years
  old
• The possibility of renting a bike for the 15- 18
  years old for 25 euro/year
• High school and university students bike rental
  for 32 euro/year

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Leer het Verkeer

• Educational route learn the traffic
• For pedestrians and cyclists
• In the city centre of Gent easy access
• Age group 11- 13 years old (passage from primary
  to secondary school)
• Can be done classically or individual (with the
  parents)

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Proposal for Cultura phase IV
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Cultura phase IV

• Learn the traffic part 2
• Not only an exercise in the city centre
• Emphasis on cyclists
• Guidelines how to traverse difficult locations,
  such as the main access roads and the city belt

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Target group

• The pupils aged 14-15
• Until 15 years old they got free public
  transport, paid by the City
• At the age of 15 years, they should be mature
  enough to cope with difficult traffic situations

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Why?

• Larger distances between home and secondary
  school compared to primary school
• Growing in independent behavior
• The participation as a cyclist in traffic is a
  good preparation for becoming a safe car-driver.

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Why?

• There is a lot of traffic in Gent
• On their home-school or home-work route, most
  people have to cross the inner circle belt and
  the parking-route, which are quite dangerous
• Many difficult traffic locations next to schools

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Heuvelpoort
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Dampoort
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Differences with the first version

• Target group is 3 years older teenagers instead
  of children
• Not necessary a real circuit
• Prototypes for situations
• Students can use it to make their own home-school
  route
• Can be used for motorcycles too

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Sensibilisation

• School mobility plans also for secondary schools
• They can get help by making individualized safe
  home-school routes
• Use it as a school-project

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Working together with the police

• Working on motorcycle-behavior in the age group
  16-18 years
• Combination with second chance classes for
  penalized cyclists and motorcyclists

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Promotion

• Can be sent together with the last yearly pass
  for the public transport (at the age of 14 years)
• Ca. 3500 persons in Gent of the same age ? postal
  cost is ca. 1700 euro
• Promotion in the week of the easy paced road
  user (always in May) or around the Car Free Day
  (22 Sept.)

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Cost

• Lay-out ca. 5000 euro
• Printing cost for 10.000 ex. ca. 2200 euro
• Postal cost ca. 2000 euro
• Working hours 1 month full-time

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Conclusions

• If we want to decrease the amount of cars in the
  city centre
• If we want to have safe cyclists
• A guide for learning how to cycle in the city is
  necessary.

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INFO

• Dienst Mobiliteit Stad Gent
• Woodrow Wilsonplein 1
• 9000 Gent
• tel. [phone]
• fax [phone]
• e-mail ilse.bortels_at_gent.be

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Questions?