What we did and didn´t achieve in 2019

How was the year 2019? Again very successful, if a bit hectic. Completely new and also groundbreaking in that after 17 years we introduced a new visual style including a logo and a new website. And we also ventured into new waters, e.g., as film festival organizers. The Club of Friends, which consists of our financial supporters, has grown by another hundred regular donors, for which we sincerely thank everyone!

Do you want to be one of them? Support AutoMat, become a member of our Friends Club and participate with us in the development of cities that are a joy to live in. Thank you!

What did the individual AutoMat teams work on, what was more successful and what less so?

Self-propelled to work

We started the new year with the first annual Bike to Work January challenge. The week from January 21 to 27, 2019 was not only exceptional with the lowest temperatures of the entire winter, but also with the fact that 1,611 brave people decided to travel to work with us by bicycle, on foot or by trotting. Representatives of 36 cities competed in the event and their average commuting frequency was 47%. We were surprised that they did not “soften” the connection and managed most of the journeys by bicycle. Three-quarters of all journeys were covered on a bicycle or scooter, a quarter was covered by walking and running. In addition, a third of those involved were ladies. Iva P. from Karviná even won the overall performance competition in running/walking with 178 km. In the January Challenge table, however, the performances were for information only, the only criterion for success was regularity. Prague scored 542 participants, Brno 271, Pilsen and Pardubice both 93, and Hradec Králové and České Budějovice also exceeded 60.

The traditional May Challenge with the theme of Homo cykliens attracted 19,576 participants from more than 45 cities, 2,737 companies and institutions, as well as 174 students. In this challenge, we evaluated regularity, efficiency, the best cycling employer and the friendliest cycling city. Participants covered 30% of all routes on foot or at a trot. We announced the results at a great party on the ship Tajemstvi. The entire challenge was also supported by the Danish ambassador Ole Frijs-Madsen, who even starred in a promotional video from AZN kru.

By recording their journeys, Bike to Work participants can really influence their surroundings. Anonymized data compared to city maps will help to gain an overview of the problematic points of the (cycling) infrastructure and will become the basis for negotiations on further development. We launched the pilot project in Brno, other cities will follow.

This year, for the first time, we also announced the Cycling City of the Year. From a detailed poll among the participants, Rožnov pod Radhoštěm came out best in bike work and expert evaluation, followed by Otrokovice and Zlín. In the fall, together with FlixBus, we took the representatives of the three best cities (accompanied by the fourth Pardubice) on a professional excursion to Denmark for further inspiration.

What a bike ride!

The Great Spring Cycle Ride started the May Bike to Work event a little early this year. This year, it was held on Saturday, April 27, and again in a star-shaped format. Four streams of cyclists converged on Jan Palach square and together they reached the after-party in Karlín’s Přístav 186 00. There, a DJ, raffle, vegan and meat-based burritos and also a special cycling beer awaited them.

New colors, new shapes

The highlight of 2019 was the presentation of AutoMat’s new visual identity (full article). On Thursday, August 29, we showed the new logo and the entire visual style from the Butterflies & Hurricanes studio to our fans and supporters at a party in Petrohradská kolektiv. A day later (that is, 11 years, 11 months and 11 days after the registration of Auto*Matu as an association) then to the public.

The logo change after 17 years also includes a new website, changed colors and a new slogan that reads “A touch for the city”. “This motto should ideally summarize all of AutoMat’s activities in three words. We want cities to be able to breathe better thanks to our activities,” explains AutoMat executive director Martin Šotola. And he adds: “We considered various options for changing the visual identity and chose, from our point of view, the most interesting and perhaps also the most daring of the proposed options.”

We also talked about the new design in the video.

New AutoMat visual from  Butterflies & Hurricanes

About transport and public space in film language

September 2019 was quite busy for the entire AutoMat team. In addition to getting used to the new visual identity, for the European Mobility Week we prepared the weekly September call to work by bike, but mainly the 1st annual film festival about sustainable mobility called Městem. It took place on September 20 in the Ponrepo cinema and we showed six documentaries to students and visitors from the public. The festival also included discussions with experts or filmmakers after each film, as well as a separate, more extensive debate with Prague’s Deputy Mayor for Transport Adam Scheinherr, independent transport expert Ivan Lejčar and Pavla Jenková from Bike Kitchen Prague. The City Festival was accompanied by a great video by Jakub Dušek.

Thirty years of free neighborhood

Just one day later, 85 Prague streets and open spaces in 30 other cities were transformed into stages for musicians, theater artists or spaces for workshops, dance and homemade refreshments. It was the 14th year of the neighborhood festival Zažít město jinak. This year we wanted to touch on the theme of 30 years since the Velvet Revolution with the motto Ulice bez opony. The promotional video with Robert Mikluš in the lead role was shot by Matyáš Fára. Honza Vondráček’s reportage video from the event. We are very happy that a third of this year’s locations participated for the first time and that interest in community events is evidently growing.

This year, for the first time, we offered our fundraising knowledge to the location coordinators and helped them get money from donors through so-called ambassador calls (peer to peer) on the Darujme.cz portal. Together, we managed to involve 126 donors and get a total of CZK 50,000 from them to support local neighborhood festivities. From 2020, we will systematically develop fundraising in locations through a comprehensive methodology, which AutoMat will provide to the coordinators free of charge.

Although the AutoMat team and the individual organizers found the event successful, standardization agent, doc. Krásnohorská had a different opinion. On D-Day, she walked through several reenacted sites and wrote detailed reports about what she saw and experienced. If you’d rather watch than read, play the video she made of this subversive action for covert purposes. You can also view all photos and a selection of photos

Zažít město jinak in Bulhalska str., photo: Josef Gregor

Generation U

With AutoMat, we have been dedicated to educational programs for many years. In 2019, however, we covered the entire project under the name Generation U. Why U? We are focusing on a generation that is aware, wonderful and smiling, sometimes perhaps a little sloppy, but also soon to be in office. Therefore, we hope that it will also be sustainable (Udržitelná). In schools, we organize competitions, games, field programs, bike rides and also train teachers. This year, we collected funds for at least 9 schools from 73 donors specifically for field programs, during which we teach children how to move sustainably but also safely around their school. We will have time to implement five programs before Christmas, and another four in the spring. And we’re not just thinking about Prague, we’re also going to Brno, Olomouc and Liberec. Schools also participate in the Green Kilometers competition, in which approx. 3,000 children participate every year.

A walk around the infrustructure in the school neighbourhood, photo: Jakub Kriš

LAB

That AutoMat would also throw itself into chemistry? No, in our laboratory we deal with sustainable urbanism and cities as such. The new name Laboratory of Sustainable Urbanism was given to the Rozvoj Prahy team or Watchdog as part of the autumn rebranding. And with it new energy to solve the pressing problems of the metropolis. And what did we do this year?

We submitted 68 comments on the project of the new Bubny-Zátory district in Prague, we also commented on the territorial studies around the Roztyly metro station, the Opatovská study and the Noise Action Plan.

The Supreme Administrative Court found us in the right in the lawsuit against the cancellation of some cycle lanes in Karlín. We subsequently negotiated with the Prague 8 town hall about the form of cycle lanes (article).

We have translated the most common myths about cycling into Czech (article).

We initiated a new call for the humanization of the prague north-south highway, with which we interpellated the council of the MHMP. 7 other Prague associations joined the challenge (article).

There are many questions about cycling and cycling infrastructure. Therefore, as part of the People’s School of Urban Cycling project, we have prepared Infographics of cycling infrastructure, six sheets with texts and original illustrations by Anna Nevrlé.

We also filmed videos and wrote articles on the topic of level crossings on the Vltava and Radlicka radials or the approval of the Blanka tunnel and the form of Blanka 2.

We have a hundred more friends in the Club

Our main mission – to be the watchdog and critical opposition of the city in the development of transport and urban planning – we manage to fulfill mainly thanks to regular donors from the public, i.e. our Friends Club. It is thanks to our more than 700 regular supporters that we can follow the activities of politicians and city officials on a daily basis and reveal their sometimes ill-conceived plans.

Without the Club of Friends, we would not be able to work continuously, plan for the future, and in particular, we would not be able to tackle more controversial topics such as criticism of some large transport structures (the Blanka tunnel, Blanka 2, Radlické radials), reservations about the upcoming Metropolitan Plan or we would not be able to fight against bicycle bans in the city. The fact that the ranks of the Friends Club is growing every year also convinces us that our activity has meaning.

Weaker moments of the season

Because we know that self-praise stinks, we decided to introduce a “self-criticism window” for the first time this year and admit that not everything always goes according to plan.

For example, the call Bike to School had a much smaller response than its basic version. It seems that it is time to simplify the registration process, but also to continue working with schools to solve the safe storage of bicycles and, above all, to fight for a better cycling infrastructure. The functionality of infrastructure can be determined by how weaker and more vulnerable cyclists ride their bikes around the city.

Fewer donors than we expected became the soul of the city

The 50 donations so far (25,000 CZK) will not cover the costs of preparing the neighborhood festivities in 2020. Support us in the long term with your regular donations at stansedusimesta.cz We are ambitious and aim for 200,000 CZK from our supporters. This is the only way we can ensure the continuation of the neighborhood festivities next year!

But we try to learn from all failures and move on. Do you like what we do? Would you like to support us in our efforts for friendlier and more sustainable cities?

Become a member of our Friends Club and create cities with us that are a joy to live in. Thank you!

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