As we are witnessing growing tensions regarding the formation of the price of public transport in Banja Luka, deeper disagreements between the city authorities and private carriers that provide public transport services, as well as more frequent threats and suspension of transport by carriers, the question is in which direction the situation is leading, is there a direction at all, and can citizens influence that direction?
Public transport and micro-mobility were the topic of the workshop within the ClimaSUM project, which was held on Thursday, April 28 in Banja Luka.
The workshop was opened by Krešimir Dvorski in front of Dash.City and Damir Margeta in front of the Giro di Sarajevo, who brought the topic of micromobility closer, pointing to the smart and sustainable possibility of organizing urban mobility. A special focus on electric scooters, as one of the options for smart mobility, its advantages and disadvantages, explained Damir Margeta.
Ahmed Ćerimović spoke about the public bike sharing system, in front of NextBike Bih, who also presented examples of practices in the region, as well as comparisons with some European and world cities.
“In order to raise the NextBike system to a higher level, both in Banja Luka and in other BiH cities, where the system works, we need to expand the network of stations, as well as the number of bicycles,” said Ahmed Cerimovic.
Milenko Džever, in front of the City of Banja Luka, presented the current organization of public transport in the city, from transport groups, through the network of existing lines, to the type and price of tickets.
There was a special discussion among the participants about the sustainability of the current organization of public transport, as well as about possible reforms and more favorable solutions.
Modern models of organizing public city transport was the topic of the presentation of prof. Danislav Drašković in front of Aperion University. Most of the talk was about the models that would be most favorable for application in cities in BiH.
At the end, Željko Volaš, in front of the UDAS organization, spoke about the problems of mobility of persons with disabilities, as well as about their possibilities of using public city transport. He pointed out that raising awareness about the presence of people with disabilities is the first step towards better conditions for this group of citizens, but also for all of us, given the tendency of aging society.