If the issue of soft mobility touches a whole area in terms of urbanism, environment and culture, gender is central. Female mobility guarantees values ??in terms of independence, freedom, autonomy, integrity and gender equality
Women have very little access to soft mobility. This observation can be explained by several reasons mainly due to the patriarchal culture: it is the man who traditionally dominates the "visible" public space (coffee terraces, night outings, trips outside the neighborhood, etc.), who leads his family and has access to more leisure than women, especially in popular social circles. While Tunisian women have of course gained their freedom of movement, and more easily in the cities, they have not yet adopted the alternative modes of mobility, soft and ecological like the bike. Today, women face two obstacles: the fact of not knowing how to ride a bike and the negative image that characterizes women on a bike ("shame").
In Tunisian society, it is traditionally frowned upon for a woman to ride a bike, a woman who rides a bike is a libertarian or masculine woman. This is why our project is essentially based on women. In Tunis, for a boy, cycling out is no problem. For a girl, it takes courage and determination as it is not in the mores. It is the young girls who are most in touch with the association, whether to learn to ride a bike or to advocate for the place of cycling in Tunisian society.
For this, our project will broadcast a "cycling culture", that is to say, a positive image of cycling and the establishment of usual bicycle circulation. The project will offer practical solutions for bike trips for women: bike-school, bicycle parking, sharing of experiences during debates, integration into a cycling community via coffee-bike, bike rental, etc.
Focus groups with women will be organized at the beginning of the project to enable us to understand and identify their needs and to include them in the project design (with participants in the activities of the association and with other women who have never participated).
Emphasis will be placed on the safety of cyclists by offering women special training on safety and methods of self-protection (for example, personal alarms). This is a problem for some women who are afraid of cycling in Tunis.
The association relies heavily on communication on social networks. For this, a team called "team de com" composed of 6 volunteer members of Vélorution works daily on the communication of our actions: animation of the facebook page (which currently has more than 10 000 subscribers); creation of videos on the bike-school atmosphere, parades and any event (these videos reach several thousand views), photo publications, animation of the Instagram page, the Youtube account and facebook groups Velorution and Adhérents Velorution . The focus is also on interventions in the media TV and radio. Velorution is constantly solicited in the Tunisian and, recently, international media (France Info, Brut).
As part of the project proposed here, this communication plan will be continued. In addition, a facebook page of the project will be created specially and an Instagram account. Our activities will be reported live on social networks via "live facebook" on our page, photos on Instagram, a website and a mobile application (which we have just finished).
On the other hand, if flyers and brochures will be published for occasions, paper documentation will be reduced to a minimum. Indeed, first of all it does not fit the spirit of this project which is the protection of the environment and also it has been noticed that these papers, brochures or flyers are rarely read and often end up in the trash.
Finally, we will organize public meetings in the Espace where local elected officials and citizens will meet to discuss the environment, air pollution and the bicycle solution. These meetings will be systematically announced in the media (radios, presses or even televisions).
Inovative Financial Mechanisms
The capitalization of knowledge is a very important point of the project since the experience of such a Space in Tunisia is unprecedented and must therefore be documented in order to be duplicated to all cities of Tunisia in the medium and long term; to other countries in the South suffering from the same environmental problems and the same diagnosis.
At each participatory meeting, one person will be appointed to report all the discussions in writing. After 6 months of project, a team of 3 people will be responsible for analyzing these data and writing a "state of knowledge". This data will be published in the form of a booklet available to applicant actors including future teams that will create such a space in another city or people who need experience rendering one or two points of this project.
Every 4 months, filmed conferences (and broadcast live via live facebook) will orally disseminate the knowledge acquired in this project.
Finally, after 18 months, a booklet entitled "Baskel. Unpublished experience promoting soft mobility in Tunis "will be published. This work will benefit from the skills of the project team members, many of whom have experience in academic research, journalism and communication.
Available online at all, it will be offered paper version to key players. The idea is not to waste paper.
Policy Impact
The political impact is at the heart of this project and all the action of Velorution. Indeed, the aim is to make the authorities aware of the importance of cycling as a means of urban travel in Tunisia. Since for many citizens, it is the question of safety that hinders the practice of cycling, the association advocates for bike paths and it is the municipalities that can set them up. In July 2018, the association campaigned for new municipal councils to create bike paths. This was an image and a slogan that everyone had to put in Facebook profile picture and share in the facebook group of his neighborhood (image attached). The Ghazela district reacted and offered the opportunity to a Velorution activist Wissal Chebbi to come to expose our requests to the town hall.
Even before the municipal elections, we wanted to act on the electoral campaign (May 2018) and put pressure on the future candidates of the town halls to engage them for the rights of the bike. Indeed, since it is the municipalities that decide on the organization of the roads so that can implement projects of bike paths, it was necessary to seize the opportunity of the elections to put pressure.
For this, Velorution has announced publicly that it wishes to engage any list of electors for the next municipal elections whatever their political or ideological orientations to sign a document that militates for the place of cycling with as projects: bike paths, places for bicycle hooks and awareness campaign for motorists instead of cycling in the city. Velorution will ensure the proper monitoring of these projects.
We have drafted a symbolic convention that commits the voters lists. The independent electoral list "Ariana Meziana", the Democratic Courant party and the Ennahdha party signed this document (the signed agreements as an attachment).
Since the elections, we have been contacted by the town hall of Manouba who wishes to set up bike paths. The Manouba town hall has expressed its desire to develop the bicycle as alternative means of transport to the car in order to unclog the city, make it greener, less polluted and more friendly.
Its goal is to set up bike paths. The mayor has expressed his wish to make citizens aware of cycling so that they can join the project. Velorution therefore proposed two actions: a bike parade in Manouba and the establishment of a bike-school on the model of the one that Velorution has been developing since January 2018 in Tunis.
In addition, Velorution campaigns for the installation of bicycle hangers in different parts of the city, including cultural venues such as the new City of Culture. The latter asked us to address our request to the Minister of Culture, which we did (letter attached) and that the Deputy Yassine Ayari supported by addressing an "open question" to the Minister of Culture on July 12 2018
The "Space for Soft Mobility" project will allow us to continue our action towards politicians, the government and the municipalities with greater legitimacy since we will be supported by UNDP and we will have a concrete local base via the Space for Soft Mobility. . Velorution has already spotted a local that would be ideal for this project and which belongs to the mayor of Tunis. It is located Bab El Assal, in front of a huge car park that can accommodate the cars of people whose bike is parked in the Space. In addition, this place has a large green closed area, which will allow to get out the rental bicycles and tandems during the day. An appointment with the new mayor of Tunis Souad Abderrahim to talk about this local is expected late next August.
On June 10, we also met with the State Minister Mabrouk Korchid, who announced his support for our project and assured us that any premises that will belong to the state areas can be rented to us for a nominal amount.
As part of the project proposed here, different types of activities will be undertaken: public debates with the invitation of the members of the municipal councils and the concerned ministries, petitions, meetings-pleasures with members of the government, etc.
Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
The project will hire young people and women with contracts helped by the state for different positions: bike rental, bike parking, cycle tourism, repair workshop.
In addition, promoting bike mobility will save users money. In fact, people who go on a bike will be more mobile, cheaper, find a job more easily and be healthier. Young people with limited financial means can travel more easily by bicycle. It's a way to save money on transportation and fuel that is constantly increasing.
Notable Community Participation
The young people participate in the whole project. They are at the origin of the conceptualization of this project. They will be in the monitoring and evaluation. They will implement this project. The average age of twenty young people at the heart of this project and its implementation is 24 years old. They are students, engineers, photographers, teachers, unemployed, civil servants, etc.
They are the ones who will offer the different services of the Bike Space and they who will benefit.
Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples
This project will set up a participatory assembly. Indeed, although the project will be managed by a team that takes responsibility for achieving the stated objectives, the project refuses centralization, decision-making from above and the monopoly of power. Every week, all the stakeholders will meet (on Friday at 8pm) at the local to report on their activities, share their experience, explain the problems encountered and decide on the issues discussed in VOTANT.
The implementation of the project will be carried out at 3 levels: association office (4 members) / monitoring committee (5 members) / project manager and project component managers (7 members). Each shutter manager will report weekly on his axis. The project manager will report monthly on the progress of the project to the monitoring committee. The monitoring committee will report every two months of the progress of the project. At the same time, all stakeholders will communicate continuously via facebook newsgroups.
An evaluation form will also be made available at the entrance and inside the space for all users, to gather feedback on their perceptions. A mid-project evaluation will also be carried out with all the actors involved in the project (project team, members of the association, users of the cycling area, partners, public authorities, members of the public).
Capacity - Building Component
We will offer bike maintenance training in the bike repair shop. They will be provided by three young people from the association who are themselves trained in mechanics. Road safety training will be offered for the community. For this, we will call on the Tunisian Association of Road Safety. Emphasis will be placed on women's safety with the interventions of experienced women cyclists members of Velorution. We will use an outside trainer to provide advocacy training so that community members can advocate for the cause of cycling with their elected officials and any politicians. Finally, the need for training on the dangers of climate change and the fight for the protection of the environment has emerged. We will call on environmental protection associations like the WWF.
We plan that the entire team administering the project receive initial project management training and an expert who will do frequent assessments (every 2-3 months).
The cycling community that is fighting for the environment still needs to be structured, organized by major projects, identified by citizens and by the authorities. In particular, there is a need for sharing experiences. This last point is for women very important. We often notice that if young girls talk about the difficulties they encounter in the street (harassment, dredge, etc.), they encourage each other and go beyond this problem. If they feel that there is a cycling community behind them, they face more easily the pitfalls. In addition, the meetings allowed in the "Space for soft mobility" will lead young people and women to cycle together.
