Our campaign aims at making people aware of the advantages of using public transportation instead of so much driving around the city. It consists of factual and artistic activities that are meant to act as wake up calls to people living in Bucharest!
The ideas
It all started with some enthusiastic ideas on how to make our city a better place, from the point of view of road safety and mobility.
After having our first project meeting, we realized that a major problem of our city was the busy traffic, which could turn into a real nightmare at rush hours. Thus, we thought we could raise up to the task of designing a campaign meant to raise people’s awareness of this mobility problem. Many people are bothered by traffic congestion, and by scarce public transport in some areas of our city.
We believe we have identified a problem which is deeply rooted in the general attitude that getting to different places by driving is the most comfortable and flexible way of getting around the city. Our main idea was to make people aware that excessive driving could be harmful both to people’s health and the environment.
- Internal combustion engines produce exhaust fumes which damage air quality: we know that air pollution is the contamination of the environment with gases that interfere with human health; this is why we think that people should set their minds to improving air quality
- Spending too much time in traffic jams causes stress and anxiety: everyone is nervous or bothered by these problems, to a greater or lesser extent.
- People no longer benefit from the advantages of walking: it is very good to walk; this is how you get rid of the crowds, you exercise and enjoy the urban landscape and the weather.
We decided to ask people what they felt about living in such a busy city and what mobility problems they might have faced. We created a questionnaire and we used the online environment to share it. We were happy to notice that public transportation and walking to different places are widely regarded as eco-friendly alternatives by all our 22 online respondents. People tend to agree with the fact that mobility is a real issue in our city.
The main conclusion we could reach emphasizes the need for the use of public transportation, as a healthier and faster way for people to get to whatever places they need to. This seems to be the key to sustainable and durable mobility in a very crowded community such as ours. Nowadays, there are many of us who go by the principles of living a healthier life, but they still drive their cars everywhere. Everyone should become more aware of the fact that public transportation, as a more environmentally friendly approach to mobility, will have a positive impact on life quality within our community.
The initiatives
Our campaign stems from the need to build a real-life framework for sustainable mobility and encourage people to make wiser mobility choices.
This main goal breaks down into smaller objectives which are closely related to the actions we undertook in order to implement our campaign successfully.
The specific objectives of our campaign are listed below:
1. Describe the present situation of the crowded city we live in
2. Identify a possible solution to this problem
3. Compare driving to using public transportation
As far as our first objective is concerned, we got the help of specialists in the automotive domain to get a clearer picture of the current situation of mobility in our city, Bucharest being one of the busiest European capitals.
The informative session we participated in was meant to inform us on the disadvantages on living in such a crowded city, with thousands of car blocking every intersection at rush hours. We found out about the impact of internal combustion engines and electrical engines on the environment; we also found out about sound pollution, physical and mental diseases caused by stress and pollution, the benefits of walking, a.o. The materials we used were the brief notes we came up with at the end of this activity. After sharing this information with our colleagues, we got positive feedback from the students in our school who, sometimes, encouraged our initiative just by saying nice words to us.
Then, we came up with a leaflet which consisted of relevant information on our campaign. We shared it with our colleagues and friends and we realized they really liked it: it was informative, colorful and fun to read.
We also tried to compare driving to using public transportation from an artistic perspective, in the sense of getting our audience be stirred by emotion. We came up with 8 poems on the advantages of walking and using public transportation. Each poem was attached to a relevant picture and then we turned everything into a short mp4 video which we shared on the internet (TikTok). Our video has a nice musical background which encourages people to 'make the world a better place'. We assessed the success of this activity by the number of likes it got so quickly.
We believe these activities have been really successful because we were able to get people thinking of the advantages of using public transportation.
