Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU), within its long history of proposing solutions in the field of urban mobility in Gran Santo Domingo, joined the proposal made by the Dominican newspaper Listín Diario in its editorial last Monday, December 11, 2023. In it, the director of the environment raised the need to create a Forum to bring together the main actors of the ecosystem of urban mobility, which will allow to outline and decide, in consensus, policies and actions to minimize the unsustainable crisis of the blockages in the main streets and avenues of the big city.
The breakfast, organized by Listín Diario, was attended by the urban planners, Architect Omar Rancier, dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Arts and Architect Heidi De Moya, director of the School of Architecture and Urbanism; who were representing UNPHU; together with other institutions and the director of Listín Diario, Miguel Franjúl.
“The city of Santo Domingo, and with it, all the cities of the country, are affected by serious problems of transit and transportation resulting from a sustained practice of not attending to the fundamental aspects of urban mobility: planning and education, or rather, management of urban planning and road education,” said the dean of Architecture and Arts of UNPHU, Architect Omar Rancier.
Architect Heidi De Moya said: “Our country must pursue urban renewal into existing cities, reducing unnecessary commuting, which means a waste of time-money-working hours, hours of rest and family. The state itself, the developers and the banks, finance bedroom-city projects, whose population must move long distances to work and study.”
To this, Architect Rancier added that: “Urban mobility is a system that physically depends on transit, the ability of vehicles to flow through the roads of an urban settlement and transport, which has to do with the offer of different modalities to transport people to their activities, however, both members of mobility depend, first, on good planning, which through a detailed diagnosis is able to integrate all the systems that make up the city in a functional operational unit, second, of road education programs that form respectful and responsible citizens in the use of mobility systems and third, of an efficient and committed management with the plans formulated.”
Following the debate, urbanist De Moya, described the current problem: «A big aggravating factor is the traffic jams caused by an overpopulation of vehicles (and with hundreds of fairs promoting the purchase of more), the duality of traffic lights-traffic police (they do more harm than good), the lack of consequence to the bad handling and violation of driving rules, the lack of connections for many of the existing public transports and especially the insecurity of our streets, among others. This makes living far away even more complex, our quality of life worse, and we have a less sustainable city.”
UNPHU, as a leading entity in urban planning since its founding in 1966 and committed to social development, seeks to offer beneficial solutions from academia, and understands the opportunity represented by the Forum to reflect on the current and future challenges of mobility in Santo Domingo. This will help to establish alliances and promote cooperation between the different actors involved in building a more sustainable and efficient city in terms of mobility. UNPHU is the first higher education academy in the country, which has a School of Architecture and Urbanism with a long history; offering debates and meetings on the issue in question.
Urban mobility in Santo Domingo is an issue of great relevance, given the rapid growth and development that the city has experienced in recent decades. With a growing demand for efficient, sustainable, and safe transport options, it is necessary to comprehensively address the challenges presented by mobility in such an urban environment. The situation requires comprehensive strategies that address both infrastructure and transport aspects, as well as sustainability, technology, and citizen participation. Collaboration between authorities, experts, companies, and the community in general is essential to promote innovative solutions that improve the quality of life in the city.
In 2019 the university and Listín Diario held the first symposium: The Santo Domingo letter from the Metropolitan Bureau of Architecture and Urbanism; which was scheduled to continue with a second part, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, stopped.
