My 6th Urban Mobility Workshop was in Warsaw on February 11, 2023 at MAL Grójecka 109. It was also the first one in Ochota!
“Really cool workshop! I love the general topic of cities and here we could listen to many personal stories of people coming from outside of Poland and how they perceive Warsaw in terms of mobility. I’d gladly join again and tell my friends.”
Participant feedback
🌍 It was a cozy, very engaged and international group, with individuals from Bosnia, Spain, Poland, Ukraine and Hungary.
👏 We had a great time and many interesting mobility stories and thoughts were shared as well as some constructive and good workshop feedback.
📝✍️ A lot happens in each of these workshops! I forward to taking time over the school Winter holiday here in Warsaw to digest the experiences of the first 6 workshops I have held around the city as well as prepare summaries of each.
🚶♀️🚶🏽🏙️ These experiences are a point of data collection for my research but are also contributing to a body of ‘Mobility Stories‘ as well as my own growing understanding of how to create meaningful spaces and experiences for people to share reflections, critique and thoughts on navigating the city.
🚲🚶♀️🚍🚇🚉 I’ve been focusing a lot in the first 6 workshops on inhabitant experience but look forward, in the next workshops (resuming next month) to adding in a dimension of education about the importance of sustainable mobility for the environment, society and health.
💡15-Minute City / 20-minute neighborhood
A few of the participants reflected that life in their neighborhoods embodied 15 / 20-minute city living. I discussed how important it is for me to hear and document such stories, to be able to convey the 15-minute city as a living reality in many places.
In a city like Warsaw, the concept (when present) is usually at the neighborhood scale with a dynamic & flexible public transportation system allowing for efficient commuting to other neighborhoods and districts.
There is much to improve on but it was so insightful to hear from individuals living in different districts how they experience the 15-minute city as reality.
One network participant mentioned that when he moved to Warsaw, he wanted a ’15-minute city’ lifestyle and that’s why he chose the neighborhood he did- Praga.
Another participant reflected that he experiences a ’20-minute neighborhood’ where he lives in Żoliborz and loves it as he can get everything he needs done within 20 minutes.
Another participant had never heard of this concept and when a fellow participant explained it to her she readily nodded and said that this is the lifestyle she has locally in her neighborhood in Ochota.
“The workshop was very important to me. I think that they considered an aspect of of relevant to big city dwellers. What attracted my attention was the energy and engagement of the presenter/host. I recommend the workshop to everybody.”
Participant feedback
Original: Warsztaty były dla mnie ważne . Uważam, że dotyczyły zagadnienia ważnego dla większości ludzi żyjących w dużym mieście. Moją uwagę zwróciła energia prowadzącej i zaangażowanie. Polecam każdemu.
“It’s very exciting for me to talk about this topic for hours. It’s also interesting to understand how others think about mobility. The location of the workshop is really great. Thank you a lot for this, I will recommend it to others!”
Participant feedback
Mobility Stories: Pictured above, a workshop participant shares how a temporary disability raised her awareness on how it is to move around the city when you are mobility impaired & enhanced her awareness on aspects of accessibility throughout the city.
“Really good workshop, very interesting topic and also very important currently. It is interesting to listen to different points of view and learn more about different ways of mobility.”
-Participant Feedback
A great big thank you to Taisiia at MAL Grójecka 109 for all the coordination and support!! Looking forward to future collaborations…..
One of the best things of course about these workshops is the social connectivity it provides and the chance to develop further collaborations. Małgorzata (above) was interested to join the workshop as she found the topic interesting and also leads a local elderly retired group, for whom she felt the workshop topic would be useful.
With the help of a workshop participant and the community center coordinator translating, we both shared excitement about collaborating on workshops for her elderly group in the near future- a prospect of great interest to me as learning about the mobility issues of retired seniors is absolutely vital for learning about accessibility issues and walkability of a neighborhood.
