news: ITP partners with GIZ to support Colombia’s renewed urban mobility transformation
Wednesday 15th November 2023
Having embraced a passion for urbanism and transport after three years posted in Bogota, Stuart Clapham is delighted to share that ITP is now expanding its horizons to Colombia – ITP's first major project in South America. There, ITP are leading a team of local and international consultants to support the Promoting Inclusive and Sustainable Mobility (ProMOVIS) project. ProMOVIS is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in Colombia. Stuart's teams will be working with Colombia’s national government and key cities to renew the country’s global and regional leadership in sustainable urban mobility in emerging contexts – which has included BRT, cablecars, and a cycling revolution, amongst countless others.
Colombia has ambitious decarbonisation goals for the transport sector, which cover not only the large-scale adoption of zero emission technologies but a wider approach to promoting sustainable mobility using an avoid-shift-improve approach. Our teams will work with ProMOVIS and national stakeholders to align investments to these goals. A key focus will be upon supporting intermediate cities such as Tunja, Pereira, Sincelejo, Palmira and Cartagena to improve sustainable mobility in their cities, recognising their different needs, capacities and legal/regulatory framework compared to the larger cities such as Bogota and Cali. In the larger cities, continued growth, capacities and citizen expectations present new challenges and solutions, including focus on public space, traffic reduction and multimodality. Here, international experience combines with local expertise to respond to these opportunities.
Our team has already hit the ground running on this project, which runs to March 2025 and potentially beyond. Key initial tasks are to:
- Develop guidance to strengthen and harmonise the Colombian government’s appraisal of sustainable mobility projects, with defined methodologies for socioeconomic evaluation and cost-benefit analysis on both public transport and active mobility projects.
- Support Medellin Municipality in developing a pilot project to use cargo bikes for last mile logistics in its pioneering low emission zone, building on experience of our colleagues in the Netherlands in this field.
- Work with the District of Cartagena to conceptualise a bikeshare system, ensuring it responds to the needs of citizens, visitors and the wider mobility network.
We are excited to get to work in the country that brings the world not only the innovations such as Transmilenio, Sunday ‘Ciclovia’ and Metrocable (fantastic as they are), but also the wonders of magical realism, music, food and culture.
We look forward to both learning from Colombia’s experience and offering fresh perspectives to address the emerging challenges.
To find out more, please contact our Latin America Lead, Stuart Clapham (stuart.clapham@itpworld.net) or get in touch via our website.
Our portfolio of services for Latin America can be downloaded here.