A one-of-a-kind Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Active Mobility in India will be set up in Bengaluru by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Sustainable Transportation Lab (IST Lab.) and Urban Morph. A memorandum of understanding for the same was signed on Tuesday, September 3.
“The centre will work on research, plans, collaborations, and monitoring and evaluation of human-powered transportation modes like walking and cycling towards making the cities solve efficiencies in transportation be it full trips or last/first mile, and become more livable. It will also include modes and methodologies that make our public spaces offer equity in mobility to gender, age, economic strata and disabilities,” according to a press release from the centre.
Along with being a one-stop shop for stakeholders in cities across the country to access high-quality research, plans, and activities to enable the nation to achieve health, transportation, and climate goals via Active Mobility, the Centre also aims to bring together the ecosystem in an open collaboration model. It will also work on the vision of a liveable city with quality of life driven by Green Urban Mobility and onboarding members from across, government, institutions, civil society and industry.
“The sustainable and livable future for our cities also lies in the past of our cities (of 70s and 80s) when a lot of people used to cycle and walk. We need to bring them back to build a sustainable future, which is where this unique CoE will contribute,” said Ashish Verma, Convenor, IISc Sustainable Transportation.
