Street experiments are at the centre of “Ex-Tra” (Experimenting with streets to transform urban mobility“). What potential do temporary installations have to speed up planning processes? And: Which impact do they have on the acceptance of people that are directly affected?
For the research project "Ex-Tra", Green City Experience GmbH, in cooperation with the Technical University of Munich (TUM), organized four promotional tours in Munich's Glockenbachviertel in the period from September 23 to October 7, 2022 – as a pop-up campaign. The focus of the three- to four-hour promotional tours was on evaluating the temporary summer spots. For this purpose, local residents were interviewed about the summer spots in order to gather opinions on-site and to enter into a dialogue. In addition to people in public places, cafés and playgrounds, also retailers, institutions and stores in the Glockenbachviertel were spoken to, as they were directly affected by the summer spots. In order to raise the necessary awareness for the campaign, the team used a mobile promo bike to be able to travel flexibly with it. The team equipped the eye-catching promo bike with posters, postcards and incentives. This enabled the team to reach – and inspire – a wide range of people with different interests, life situations, and across all ages to take part in the survey.
As a small thank-you, participants received a bar of chocolate or a pack of tea. The survey could be filled out either analogue on the promo bike or digitally via a QR code. The analogue version was preferred. Overall, the respondents were very positive about the summer spots and some were also in favour of a permanent implementation.
The feedback from passers-by on site was mostly positive. One pensioner told the team that it was "a place that invites people to stay and creates opportunities to get to know the neighbourhood better”. Likewise, a family would like to see more summer squares of this kind, which offer a short break from the sometimes hectic city traffic.
Conclusion
Through the mobile and creative pop-up campaign as well as the active approach to people in the Glockenbachviertel, the goal of at least 100 completely filled questionnaires could be achieved. In doing so, a very diverse group of participants was addressed. The questionnaires are currently being evaluated by the Technical University of Munich and the University of Westminster, London.
