What we achieved in 2021

Achievements of AutoMat in 2021

It’s been a big year for AutoMat. Let’s see what our association has been involved in this year. What worked and what AutoMat events figured in the public space to push it towards the people? What did we tackle in 2021 in the framework of the Laboratory of Sustainable Urbanism (LAB), Bike to Work, Zažít město jinak and Education?

LAB

In the Laboratory of Sustainable Urbanism, we monitored events in the field of transport and public space. We actively participated in the enforcement of the law on a safe 1.5 meter distance when overtaking people on bicycles.

On World Bicycle Day on June 3, we organized a “World Bicycle Ride“, which was attended by hundreds of people, including ambassadors and representatives of a total of 12 embassies. The bike ride passed through the city under the auspices of Deputy Mayor Adam Scheinherr and the UN Information Center in Prague.

We released a six-part educational animated video series, AutoMat’s Guide to Sustainable Mobility, which explains the principles of sustainable transport and urban planning in an accessible way. We have big plans for it, it can serve as a teaching material, for example.

We have organized several online and offline parts of AutoMatí Cykloporadna, in which we pass on our know-how on how to ride safely in city traffic to those interested for free.

For the sixth time in a row, we won the court case with the Prague 8 Municipal Council, which has been illegally removing bicycling two way lanes in Karlín since 2017. In an effort to find a satisfactory solution, we met with representatives of the municipal district.

We were the first in the Czech Republic to quantify the CO2 emissions of large transport structures in Prague and draw attention to the fact that Prague’s commitment contained in the city’s climate plan to reduce CO2 emissions by half by 2030 is unfulfillable.

We organized a festival of films about urban planning Městem and participated in the autumn Za Prahu sustainable and neighborhood festival, which brought the current problems of Prague’s development closer to the general public.

Last but not least, we also record podcasts on urban planning topics, we are long-term and systematically engaged in negotiations on the form of cycling measures and new city districts, and we continue to submit comments on urban planning studies (this year, for example, Žižkov Freight Station).

As a contract for the IKEA company, we developed a concept for making the Zličín area accessible for bicycle traffic.

We collected positive and negative responses to the newly emerging cycle lanes, from the survey form we gave the city 125 responses and outlines of modifications to some locations.

Zažít město jinak (Take Back Your Street)

Další rekord jsme pokořili s akcí Zažít město jinak. Slavnosti se letos konaly na 163 místech – v ulicích, na náměstích a dalších veřejných prostranstvích. Každá slavnost vypadala jinak, protože ji s asistencí AutoMatu pořádali vždy místní. Všem ale šlo o jedno: sbližovat komunity a oživovat jindy nehostinný veřejný prostor.

Veliké DÍKY patří všem dobrovolným organizátorkám a organizátorům. Šlo totiž o největší ročník slavností za jejich šestnáctiletou historii. Zábor pro letošní akci v Praze dosahoval téměř 100 tisíc m2, což je pro představu 24 fotbalových hřišť. Sousedské slavnosti Zažít město jinak se letos vedle Prahy pořádaly ve 42 městech a obcích po celé republice.

Letošní motto slavností znělo ‚Návod k sestavení‘. Chtěli jsme jím zdůraznit, že po pandemii, která výrazně změnila veškeré naše fungování, si naše města můžeme znovu sami sestavit podle svých představ. A to se povedlo! Téma také odkazovalo na princip ‚udělej si sám‘, tedy fakt, že samotný program v daných lokalitách připravují dobrovolníci a dobrovolnice zcela nezištně a leckdy tak nějak na koleni.

We broke another record with the event Experience the city differently. This year, the festivities took place in 163 places – in streets, squares and other public spaces. Each celebration looked different because it was always organized by locals with the assistance of AutoMat. But they all had one thing in mind: bringing communities together and revitalizing an otherwise inhospitable public space.

A big THANK YOU to all the volunteer organizers. It was the biggest year of the festivities in their sixteen-year history. The take-up for this year’s event in Prague reached almost 100,000 m2, which is equivalent to 24 football pitches. This year, in addition to Prague, the neighborhood festivities Zažít město jinak were held in 42 cities and towns across the country.

This year’s motto of the festivities was ‘Guide to assembly‘. We wanted to use it to emphasize that after the pandemic, which significantly changed our entire functioning, we can rebuild our cities ourselves according to our ideas. And it worked! The topic also referred to the principle of ‘do it yourself’, i.e. the fact that the program itself is prepared by volunteers in the given localities completely selflessly and sometimes on their knees.

The accompanying program of the festivities at 26 locations included special gallery programs, tailor-made art performances, open-air theater performances, experiential walks or open-door days. We also prepared our own locality with AutoMat, when we built an improvised living room on September 15th at Anděl in Smíchov as part of the Výstup na Andělu (Anděl exit) event. It was then occupied by artists of all kinds with their own program for the whole day and offered passers-by a completely new perspective on this place used mainly for transfers.

Remind yourself of the atmosphere of the festival with photos and video. 

Do práce na kole

This year, to our surprise, even the Bike to Work challenge became a record. We embarked on the organization of the May event with slight concerns – due to the epidemiological situation and the constantly changing measures. But for the whole of May, more than 22,000 people traveled sustainably and actively with us, who together covered almost 5.5 million kilometers and thus saved almost 700 tons of CO2. That’s about as much as 700 trees can absorb in 100 years! We are happy that the interest in sustainable (and epidemiologically safe) modes of transport is constantly increasing.

Given that a large part of the population spent this spring at home office, we enabled the participants (just like last year) to write down not only trips to and from work, but also walks, rides, shopping trips or to the post office. We analyze anonymized data about their routes, and can thus help city representatives identify critical places or places with deficiencies in cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.

We motivate cities and employers to be more receptive to sustainable transport. This year’s title of Cycling Town of the Year went to Otrokovice, and the ÚJV Řež Group became the Cycling Employer of the Year.

We know from the feedback from the participants that the challenge contributed to the mental and physical well-being of everyone involved and helped to bond teams whose cohesion was sometimes greatly weakened due to the pandemic. A full 64% of participants in the challenge want to continue sustainable transport outside the context of the challenge with the same intensity and 36% only a little less. So no one wants to give up environmentally friendly transport. And that is the most important thing for us.

Other activities

We also highlighted gender inequalities in cycling and also put together a series of interviews with the women of AutoMat.

Read the interview with financial director Bára, head of PR Anička, member of the DPNK team Linda, urban planner Zuzana, coordinator of corporate partnerships Míša or Eliška.

For a long time, we have been dedicated to guiding the little ones to sustainability as part of the Generation U project. And the AutoMat Friends Club has grown by 198 donors this year. Why, for example, MUDr. Martin Šnajdauf you can see here.

None of the activities of the AutoMat association could take place without our donors and supporters. You can also join at nakrmteautomat.cz. Thanks.