On Wednesday, April 4, 2018, a second project meeting with local stakeholders of the Development Centre of the Heart of Slovenia was held in Kamnik to strat the implementation of the Local Walkability Plan within the CityWalk project.

The implementation of the local walkability plan, which will be created in the coming months, in close cooperation with representatives of the local community, societies and other interested public, means and upgrading of the Integrated Transport Strategy of the Municipality of Kamnik, which is the basic strategic document in this field.

Katja Kunstelj from Municipality of Kamnik presented existing mobility documents on the local community level. Through the CityWalk project the Municipality of Kamnik wants to quire the scientific basis for the improvement of the existing local walking areas and for the creation of new footpaths, which will complement the planned transport strategy and contribute to the sustainable development of the region. In the long term Kamnik will reduce the use of cars within the city center and make people aware of the importance of walking for the pedestrians themselves and the environment in which they live. Integrated traffic management does not only mean better utilization of transport infrastructure, lower costs for mobility in the budgets of municipalities, businesses and households, less congestions and more efficient investments, but also greater satisfaction and less pollution. Strategically addressed traffic will take into account environmentally friendly forms of urban transport, undoubtedly provide objectively measurable improvement in quality of life and increase opportunities for the municipality's successful sustainable development.

Dr. Matej Ogrin from CIPRA Slovenia, who will in a close cooperation with the Development Center of the Heart of Slovenia and the municipality of Kamnik prepare the Local Walkability Plan, emphasized the desire to prepare a document that will represent the real possibility of the municipality to adapt the existing pedestrian areas. With small steps it is also possible to find new solutions that may not yet exist, but would have a significant impact on the quality of life of the locals. With this, the municipality of Kamnik has good opportunities to become, next to the municipality of Ptuj, the first city in Slovenia with the so-called Local Walkability Strategy.

At the end of the meeting all the participants exchanged the ideas of concrete actions in the city of Kamnik:

• to make the surface for walking functionally integrated into the city’s infrastructure, to include schools into the local walkability planning process (teachers, children, parents),
• to also include local communities, associations, representatives of elderly people, architects…,
• to enable physically handicapped citizens to access public buildings and city parks, (to use the so called green-line next to the Kamniška Bistrica river in order to promote walkability in the city).
• to work on the problem of the mobile usage (texting) during the walk or bike ride,
• to add more “walkability info point”, where citizens can submit their ideas / wishes on the walkability planning in Kamnik.