The first Beobuild workshop as a part of creative festival Mixer 2011 was successfully completed yesterday, and main subject was optimization and reform of public transport in Belgrade. During the five days of the festival, the visitors of our workshop were able to actively participate in the plan of reorganization of traffic or make their own suggestions for improving the efficiency of public transport systems.

The program of the workshop was focused on three main topics when talking about the possibilities of developing the public transport network. Bearing in mind the dependence of all changes related to the reorganization of such large systems, the topics were adapted to fit circumstances and were conceptually divided into three stages of development.

The first phase is a list of small changes that can be implemented in the short term without a significant investment, which would significantly contribute to the efficiency and functionality of the system.

The second phase was creating a specific reorganization of the network, where the whole system got a new scheme based on a completely new concept of organization. Although this phase includes some very radical changes, it was created using the existing infrastructure capacity, which means that does not involve building new tram or trolleybus and metro lines. So it's a new system architecture with the existing network infrastructure.

And finally the third phase, a review of future systems by building new bridges, transportation routes, subway and other transportation infrastructure. It is a concept of the future, the vision of the capabilities and needs in the years to come.

In addition to a very active creative workshop, visitors and participants were able to attend the specially convened conference at which several distinguished speakers presented the problems of transport in Belgrade, as well as plans for the future. Among the conference participants spoke historian Milos Jovanovic, who through his lecture evoked the perception of urban transport in Belgrade since its inception in the late nineteenth century until today, both by citizens, users and visitors, and thus pointed out the fundamental reason for our workshop: participation of citizens in urban transport planning and cooperation with relevant municipal authorities.
Participants were introduced with functioning problems of transport by the Mayor of Stari Grad municipality Božidarević Mirjana, who described the situation of traffic in the inner city center, a growing conflict in the limited space between the collective and individual transport, the different needs of local people and other citizens, supporting initiatives aimed at easing these conflicts.
At the end, the word had Stanko Kantar, of the Directorate for public transport, initiator of urban rail project “BG: train” and main contributor to its realization, which outlined the history of development of the project, difficulties, successes, and future development plans. Reacting to our initiative to organize Beobuild workshop, he said that the city authorities required counterweight in the civilian sector, and that cooperation with civil society initiatives such as ours is more than desirable. After the lecture, he spent a few hours with the audience talking about the conclusions of the workshop and he was happy to answer numerous questions from the audience.

We want to thank everyone who helped us in organizing this workshop and all participants and visitors who have contributed to the formulation of a more efficient and modern system. Thanks to all those people, we managed to get closer to a new concept that will be built and tailored to the needs of people who use it. The workshop was successfully completed yesterday, and the results and suggestions that were made during the course will be quickly rounded up and handed over to the Directorate for public transport.

Juče je uspešno završena prva Beobuild radionica, koja je sa temom optimizacije gradskog saobraćaja završena na kreativnom festivalu Mikser 2011. Tokom pet dana koliko je festival trajao, posetioci naše radionice mogli su aktivno da učestvuju u planu reorganizacije saobraćaja ili da sami iznesu svoje sugestije za unapređenje efikasnosti sistema javnog prevoza.

Sam program radionice bio je fokusiran na tri najvažnije teme, kada govorimo o mogućnostima razvoja mreže javnog prevoza. Imajući u vidu uslovljenost svih promena koje se tiču reorganizacije tako velikih sistema, teme su bile prilagođene okolnostima, pa su konceptualno podeljene u tri faze razvoja.

Prva faza predstavlja listu sitnih promena koje je moguće implementirati u kratkom roku bez značajnih investicija, a koje bi značajno doprinele povećanju efikasnosti i funkcionalnosti sistema.

Druga faza je podrazumevala konkretnu reorganizaciju mreže, gde bi ceo sistem dobio novu šemu baziranu na potpuno novom konceptu organizacije. Iako ova faza uključuje neke vrlo radikalne promene i ona je kreirana isključivo koristeći postojeće infrastrukturne kapacitete, što znači da ne podrazumeva izgradnju novih tramvajskih ili trolejbuskih, odnosno metro linija. Dakle u pitanju je nova arhitektura sistema sa postojećom mrežom infrastrukture.

I konačno treća faza, koja je osvrt na budućnost sistema kroz izgradnju novih mostova, saobraćajnih pravaca, metroa i ostale transportne infrastrukture. Radi se o konceptu budućnosti, kao viziji razvoja kroz mogućnosti i potrebe sistema u godinama koje dolaze.

Pored vrlo aktivne kreativne radionice, posetioci i učesnici su mogli da prisustvuju i specijalno organizovanoj konferenciji na kojoj je nekoliko uvaženih govornika upoznalo prisutne sa problematikom prevoza u Beogradu, kao i planovima za budućnost. Među učesnicima konferencije govorili su istoričar Miloš Jovanović, koji je kroz svoje predavanje dočarao percepciju gradskog prevoza u Beogradu od njegovog nastanka krajem devetnaestog veka pa do danas, kako od strane građana i korisnika tako i posetilaca, i time istakao suštinski razlog naše radionice: neophodno učešće građana u planiranju gradskog prevoza i saradnja sa nadležnim gradskim organima.
Sa praktičnim problemima u funkcionisanju prisutne je upoznala predsednica opštine Stari Grad Mirjana Božidarević, koja je opisala situaciju saobraćaja na području užeg centra Beograda, rastući konflikt u ograničenom prostoru između kolektivnog i individualnog prevoza, različite potrebe lokalnog stanovništva i ostalih građana, i podržala inicijative čiji je cilj ublažavanje tih sporova.
Na kraju reč je imao i Stanko Kantar iz Direkcije za javni prevoz, pokretač projekta gradske železnice BG:voz i glavni akter njegove realizacije koji je izložio istorijat razvoja tog projekta, poteškoće, uspehe, i buduće planove za razvoj. Povodom inicijative Beobuild radionice, naglasio je da je gradskim organima neophodna protivteža u civilnom sektoru i da je saradnja sa građanskim incijativama kao što je naša i te kako poželjna. Nakon predavanja, još nekoliko sati je sa prisutnima razgovarao o zaključcima radionice i rado odgovarao na brojna pitanja iz publike.

Želimo da se zahvalimo svima koji su nam pomogli u organizaciji ove radionice, kao i svim učesnicima i posetiocima koji su dali svoj doprinos u formulisanju jednog efikasnijeg i modernijeg sistema. Zahvaljujući svim tim ljudima uspeli smo da se približimo novom konceptu koji će biti pravljen po meri i potrebama ljudi koji ga koriste. Radionica je juče uspešno završena, a rezultati i predlozi koji su nastali tokom trajanja radionice će biti vrlo brzo zaokruženi i predati Direkciji.