The MobiliseDays, an exciting step for the improvement of Sustainable Urban Mobility in Indonesia

 

 

The Medan Metropolitan area, also known as Mebidangro, has engaged in a process to transform and modernise its urban mobility system. With 4.8 million inhabitants and a rapidly growing number of private vehicles, the local government of the North Sumatra province, in close coordination with the City of Medan, the City of Binjai, the Regency of Deli Serdang and the Regency of Karo has decided to elaborate a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP).

Organized on October 22-23, the MobiliseDays gathered the main stakeholders involved in the SUMP elaboration. The organization of this milestone event was the opportunity to launch the mobility planning process and to bring key stakeholders to share their experiences and start to work together towards a successful elaboration of this mobility plan.

Elaborating a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan in Mebidangro

The Province of North Sumatra, in coordination with the 4 cities/regencies involved, applied to MobiliseYourCity Partnership in February 2020 and expressed an interest in the implementation of a SUMP, which was approved by MobiliseYourCity’s Steering Committee in March 2020. The French Development Agency (AFD) then proposed to North Sumatra Province to fund the elaboration of a SUMP in Mebidangro, as a first concrete measure undertaken in Indonesia under the framework of MobiliseYourCity.

Through this SUMP, the City and the Province want to develop a comprehensive understanding of mobility patterns and needs in order to define priorities to set up a sustainable urban mobility system.

The start of great changes to improve sustainable mobility

The MobiliseDays was organised to formally launch the elaboration process of the SUMP with the key stakeholders. It was also an opportunity to propose a platform early in the preparation of the study with the objective of exchanging ideas, views, opinions about the mobility issues in the region.

Many engaging sessions took place over the course of the event, exploring topics such as the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan for the Medan Urban Metropolitan area (Mebidangro) Framework and Strategy, Unlocking the potential of urban mobility for dynamic cities, and Building Efficient and Comprehensive Urban mobility plan.

Group picture of the representatives of the main stakeholders (Day 1)

Technical presentation (Day 2)

During two days, the event provided high-level information on sustainable urban mobility issues, detailing the proposed work plan for the study as well as introducing the partners for this project. It was also a great opportunity for mobility actors in the area to meet up, share their experiences and needs and have great discussions on sustainable urban mobility plans.

The MobiliseDays have been an opportunity to celebrate the launch the SUMP for Medan and to bring together the key stakeholders. These discussions were the first start of the coordination between the many actors and stakeholders in the area, with the aim of improving mobility and of contributing to a future with less carbon emissions in Mebidangro and in Indonesia. Watch out for the next steps of this plan!

Under the MobiliseYourCity partnership, this event was facilitated by AFD, organized by the Transportation Agency of North Sumatra and animated by Egis.