UITP - International Association of Public Transport

Public transport is one of the first tools a youngster use to discover the world and to gain independence. Their first steps on public transport facilities often make them feel self-empowered. The role of public transport in young people’s life is large, as is the presence and trust of youth in public transport organisations. Through its Youth Project, the UITP is committing itself in different ways to promote youth participation as a key to successful programming. The UITP Youth Project involves young people in relevant aspects of programming through the Youth Project Awards, and encourages dialogue between governments and youth groups through the Youth Parliaments. It also supports youth initiatives to build their organisational, advocacy and programming capacities, and provide opportunities for young people to voice their demands through collaboration with international organisations.

The youths have been one of the top priorities of the UITP General Secretariat since 2005. The UITP Youth Project recognizes the strong mutual links between public transport organisations and young people. It aims to bring public transport organisations to consider young people as essential for public transport, and to prepare young people to think of public transport as a critical component of their lives.

To promote active youth participation and leadership, we must first change the way adults perceive and deal with young people, as their capacities are often unrecognized or undervalued. At the same time, we must take into consideration their age and maturity levels as well as relevant cultural, gender and economic factors. This is exactly what the UITP has been doing through its Youth Project, committing itself in different ways to promote youth participation as a key to successful programming. The key elements of the Youth Project involve:

Since the launch of the UITP Youth Project with the Youth Project Awards in 2005, and the UITP’s 57^th World Congress 2007 in Helsinki, the emphasis on youth participation has gained ground and acceptance with our Members. Our Members have been very supportive of all our initiatives through participation, organisation of events, concrete proposals and communication. One important result is that more and more of our public transport operators are getting closer to their young customers, educating them to respect and take responsibility in the usage of public transport facilities, offering them cultural and artistic events, and involving them in promoting safety and security, and fighting vandalism.

The first edition of the Awards focused on public transport initiatives in favour of young people, preferably realized in collaboration with young citizens. The projects should contribute, directly or indirectly, to better mobility (including easy and affordable mobility for teenagers) and social integration for all. Hence, the projects should combine public transport with values that are important for the young people, such as social interaction, conviviality, freedom, speed, adventure, pleasure and innovations; and with a direct link to core areas in the young people’s lifestyles such as culture, education, leisure and first jobs. At the same time, the projects may also help fight road fatalities among young drivers, tomorrow’s congestion, social exclusion, generation barriers and unemployment.

UITP received 40 projects covering wide-ranging issues, including educational and vocational training, cultural issues, environmental sustainability, safety and security, and social inclusion matters.. The projects were detailed, concrete, modern and innovative. Each project demonstrated very visible results in terms of employment, safety and changing the behaviours of youths and the image of public transport. Projects such as Cuta International Youth Summit on Sustainable Urban Transportation, the Internship Project from Metro Sao Paulo and RATP’s marketing campaign on Imagin’R card are just some examples of the incredible variety received. The Singapore Land Transport Authority won the first International UITP Youth Project Award in the category 'Improving Mobility of Young People' with an educational game developed in an immersive 3D environment.

The second edition of the Awards will focus on promoting public transport best practices in favour of youths. The winners will be presented with the Awards at the 58^th UITP World Congress in Vienna in June 2009.

Through the Youth Project Awards, participants and winners from all over the world have come to recognize UITP as a major actor in promoting changes in their professional lives, as well as the public transport operators, regulators and industry players for their value, efforts and activities in these directions.

There are strong and mutual links between public transport and young users: young people are heavily dependent on public transport, it is often their only way to reach school, working places, sports facilities and any other locations where they live and build their future. And through their views, we can predict how public transport will evolve.

The UITP Youth Parliament initiative recognizes the distinctiveness of youth cultures and ideologies and advocates participatory decision-making processes for youth policies. The Youth Parliament initiative aims to provide opportunities for young people’s full participation in society, and plans to set in place long-term strategic instruments that improve their social opportunities.

The idea of a Youth Parliament was first mooted at UITP’s 57^th World Congress in Helsinki. A small delegation from Helsinki University went on stage to comment on the Youth Project Award winners. From there, we decided to recreate similar sessions where young people were invited to participate in important UITP events all over the world and present their views on the subjects discussed during the events. After the events, they generally continued to be committed to public transport issues through the respective local UITP Members.

Through the Youth Parliament, UITP reaches out to organized and informal youth groups at private and public schools and universities, and young interns dealing with urban, environmental and public transport issues. It helps to create and improve spaces where ideas and experiences are shared, to tap on young people’s creative potential and recognize its uniqueness. Youth participation is also essential to the development of successful programming.

Including young people in issues that directly affect them contributes to their self-confidence while collaboration with adults who share some of their views reinforces their ideas and values. The experience of contributing to a cause, a decision or a group can play a crucial part in developing a sense of responsibility, purpose and self-worth in the young people. This can help prepare young people to exercise the rights and responsibilities of adulthood and citizenship, and develop their sense of identity too.

Young people, aged 15 to 24, have been invited to join Youth Parliaments in the following cities from the UITP Regions: Helsinki, Karlsruhe, Guadalajara, Johannesburg, Vancouver, Milan, Istanbul, Taipei and Vienna. Each Parliament produced a report at the end of their sessions. These reports have been presented at the closing sessions of UITP events in these cities.

At the World Congress, a global Youth Advisory Parliament comprised of representatives from the 9 Parliaments will give their feedback on their UITP experience, and advise on the needs and wants of the youths for public transport. For the first time, they will share their ideas all together and communicate their common vision for the future. The Youth Advisory Parliament will also deliver the Final Worldwide Report, a comprehensive set of recommendations on public transport planning, policymaking and programming, to decision makers at the Congress to secure the commitment of politicians on youth and public transport policies.

Today, half of the world’s population is under the age of 25. This includes the largest ever generation of adolescents who are approaching adulthood in a rapidly changing world. And the number and proportion of urban young people is increasing dramatically. That is why one of the focus areas of the UITP Youth Project is to work in collaboration with international organisations and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) worldwide, such as UNESCO and Youth Forums in Latin America and Canada.

Public spaces have an intrinsic role in the development of our societies. They allow young people to exchange ideas and trigger their creative potential. They make it possible for youth cultures to express themselves outside the framework of the dominant culture. Public areas foster the generation of symbols, rituals and practices that form the foundation of our culture. Improving existing public areas and creating new ones allow young people to build their identity as they reconcile their personal ideas with those shared by their peers.

We must therefore recognize the need for youths to access democratic arenas as well as the impact of substituting public spaces with private and commercial areas as this will reduce places where people can meet without any commercial purpose.

The UITP, in partnership with UNESCO, will launch a project in 2009 to respond to the needs of young people in relation to the availability and quality of public spaces, and to understand the role of public transport in providing and improving public spaces for the young people. The project will have a series of activities planned with UITP members, to highlight places like underground stations and bus stop areas as places where young people can feel free to gather spontaneously, to exchange ideas and socialize openly in a safe and secure environment, not places where people aggregate for anti-social behaviour. Through these activities, we aim to keep public spaces alive for our young people.

CONTACT: Alessandra Gorini, Youth Project Coordinator, alessandra.gorini@uitp.org