Note: This transcript was exported from the video version of this episode, and it has not been copyedited

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:21:18
Deema Aburizik
I ask many questions and then this is the answer, this game. And then I audited the infrastructure, which is the next slide, and I asked them to say where they the problematic areas and based on the methodology that we developed, based on fact based factors from different parts of the world, we audit the infrastructure, we walked around the neighborhood and we identified the problem areas and they were identical to the areas that we audited.

00:00:21:23 - 00:00:26:28
Deema Aburizik
So the actually the people who are using the streets are actually well aware where the problem areas are.

00:00:27:04 - 00:00:51:11
John Simmerman
Hey, everyone welcome to the Active Towns Channel. I'm John Simmerman and that is Deema Aburizik from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. And we are going to be talking about some of the exciting things that are happening in walking and biking in the Dubai area. Let's jump into it with Deema. Deema, it's an absolute pleasure having you on the Active Towns Podcast.

00:00:51:11 - 00:00:52:24
John Simmerman
Welcome.

00:00:52:26 - 00:00:55:12
Deema Aburizik
Thank you, John, for having me.

00:00:55:15 - 00:01:02:19
John Simmerman
I always like to give my guest just an opportunity to introduce themselves. So who is Dima?

00:01:02:21 - 00:01:25:19
Deema Aburizik
I'm an urban designer based in Dubai. I'm passionate about cities and I'm passionate about design. I feed my passion with reading and watching YouTube and listening and taking courses and traveling to everything related to cities. And I'm so fortunate to be able to travel with my children and my my two boys and my husband to fences around the world.

00:01:25:23 - 00:01:49:01
Deema Aburizik
In the past five years, I became more and more focused on cycling and walking as a means to inform my practice and the like as a catalyst for positive urban change in our environments. When it comes to inclusivity, affordability, environmental sustainability and quite frankly, Joy. Yeah, that's right.

00:01:49:04 - 00:01:50:26
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Quite frankly.

00:01:50:26 - 00:01:59:05
Deema Aburizik
Joy Yeah. It's like having fun. Like these places where you can walk and cycle are much more fun. Yeah.

00:01:59:07 - 00:02:12:12
John Simmerman
Well, I'm going to pull up this map here because, you're, you're not originally from that area, you're actually originally from Jordan, but you also have ties to Texas too.

00:02:12:15 - 00:02:38:26
Deema Aburizik
Yeah. You remember. So yeah, I, I was born and raised in Jordan and I moved to the UAE with my husband to work. And UAE is the United Arab Emirates and Dubai is one of the Emirates. Emirates equivalent to states in the US. So UAE is a federal system and the UAE and Dubai is is a state in that country.

00:02:38:29 - 00:02:51:29
Deema Aburizik
And the yeah, so I've been here since 2005, but the rest of my family are all like all over the US, frankly. And my sister lives in like your neighbor in San Antonio.

00:02:52:00 - 00:03:01:03
John Simmerman
One of them, yeah, just 90 miles to the south of me here in Austin. So hopefully one of these days will be able to connect with each other in person if you have an.

00:03:01:03 - 00:03:02:11
Deema Aburizik
Opportunity to.

00:03:02:11 - 00:03:30:25
John Simmerman
Visit some. Excellent. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, I owe you a bicycle tour of our Dutch inspired cycling network here in in the Austin area, because we've been building out, you know, that over the last decade or so. And you and I know some of the same people in the Dutch cycling embassy and and some of the folks that have really helped assist us in helping to build out that cycling network.

00:03:30:25 - 00:03:41:15
John Simmerman
And I love giving tours to folks that are able to make it to Austin. And if I'm around, if I'm available and I love giving bike tours around the area.

00:03:41:17 - 00:03:42:17
Deema Aburizik
I can't wait.

00:03:42:24 - 00:04:17:01
John Simmerman
Yeah, that's good stuff. And so you connected with me a few months ago and you were super, super excited about this opportunity, as you just mentioned, you know, to getting inspired about creating some joy and creating and promoting active mobility. And talk a little bit about that inspiration. The nugget, what were some of the key things that really inspired you to want to transform the built environment into healthier, more active promoting places.

00:04:17:03 - 00:04:40:19
Deema Aburizik
So as an urban designer, I worked in different roles in Jordan. My role was back home in Jordan, I was in research and we were focused on water conserving landscapes and like great water use. Because Jordan faces like major challenges related to water scarcity. But then when I moved to the UAE, the skills changed and our priorities changed and the timeline of implementation of projects changed.

00:04:40:22 - 00:05:12:15
Deema Aburizik
So I worked for 13 years in a multidisciplinary engineering firm and I worked as a master planner, master planning, brownfields and greenfields developments, mostly in in the United Arab Emirates. And then I moved to the other side to a real estate developer I design that said developers. And you hear mostly that like you have a big design team within the developers, so they don't only rely on consultants, they would be a design team within the developer where I worked on the top priced project.

00:05:12:16 - 00:05:33:25
Deema Aburizik
It's a brownfield redevelopment of an army base in one of the cities in in the UAE and some blocks we designed ourselves and some blocks we attended as competition. And this competition specifically was won by Zaha Hadid Architects, and they developed this concept of like bubbles in the middle of the desert, like water being scarce. This was in the desert.

00:05:34:02 - 00:05:58:11
Deema Aburizik
And the few of these bubbles are already constructed. So I was working on the publication design, on the construction aspect and on that urban design aspect. And then during COVID, which a lot of people did like, you pivot, right? I would say that throughout my role, I was looking at cycling and walking more and more. But then I worked with the government.

00:05:58:11 - 00:06:18:18
Deema Aburizik
I moved to a government role where it's called the Roads and Transport Authority RTA, and I was part of the strategic planning team. I'm responsible for promoting walking and cycling mobility and that this is where we both worked on the infrastructure that you can see in the bottom photos which are like dedicated the street design constructs in different parts of the city.

00:06:18:20 - 00:06:31:08
John Simmerman
Wow. Yeah. And talk a little bit about that culture of trying to encourage people to to walk and bike more. Is that a huge challenge in the UAE?

00:06:31:10 - 00:07:12:04
Deema Aburizik
Well, like I have my story of how cycling and walking get and evolved in the UAE, but I'm like in general, Dubai is a city made up to 3.6 million inhabitants. Ten of them are the UAE nationals, and 90% are expatriates from different parts of the world. So that that, yeah, the culture that I would say it's only a Dubai culture whereby everybody comes here together and they we've put together a culture that is like a Dubai culture per se, so that city maybe we have a photo and like a slide of the story of how cycling and walking evolved, maybe it would be like it gets skip down.

00:07:12:11 - 00:07:17:06
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. Let's, let's skip over a couple. So this is the overhead of that.

00:07:17:08 - 00:07:35:21
Deema Aburizik
One of the brownfield developments that I told you about. It was an army base and we were developing this this city in terms of scale of this development, it's 70,000 people. It will host 70,000 people and it will be built over five, ten years. So this is that that the scale that I was working on as a developer.

00:07:35:28 - 00:08:00:09
Deema Aburizik
But we can skip to the photo where it shows a different snapshots of of cycling infrastructure in the city. But but I will I will talk Why why are we talking so Dubai is famous for this photo as well. Yeah. Which is like I six state of the art modern infrastructure. There's also a metro and it was one of the first few metros that was introduced in in this region.

00:08:00:13 - 00:08:03:17
Deema Aburizik
Yeah I am. And then and.

00:08:03:23 - 00:08:09:09
John Simmerman
I was going to say, you know, are you sure you didn't just steal this photo from, from Texas.

00:08:09:11 - 00:08:43:01
Deema Aburizik
In no place like some people. Some people like they, they think of Dubai as L.A. more than Texas. Maybe it's facing the water. But however, the belly of the ship and the government of Dubai early on realized that the concept of wellness and attracting the skill, the force and the skill that that gives people and also to improve the wellbeing of the people, we have to pivot away and improve the sustainability of our city and use of resources.

00:08:43:04 - 00:09:07:07
Deema Aburizik
So a network of cycling infrastructure and grew in the city, some of them were or leisure and some of them were in the desert for exercise and some around the metro stations where they like to do that for some last mile. And they, as I told you, you can see a like a unique story that's not associated with a brand, with what people think of Dubai.

00:09:07:07 - 00:09:19:09
Deema Aburizik
They think of it as like those famous buildings, the one in the background of this photo, a lot of the other iconic buildings. But there is another another story to be told about the cycling and mobility here and the city.

00:09:19:11 - 00:09:41:13
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned a couple of things there. You mentioned, you know, wellness and wellbeing and being able to attract and retain people and so that you start to you're starting to get into some of those quality of life things. But then you also layered in some of the practicality of like our first and last mile associated with using transit.

00:09:41:15 - 00:10:03:12
Deema Aburizik
Definitely like what we tried before is a cycle track on the beach and the ruler of Dubai that the Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, was riding with his with his team. This photo shows a unique transport mode, I would say, in Dubai, which is the connection between Metro and Scooter. So the electric scooters and the personally personally owned scooters.

00:10:03:19 - 00:10:27:29
Deema Aburizik
So Dubai Metro is was built like so far in three phases. It does not cover the whole city because the city is made out of like since urban centers and with these and connected with this with this metro, however, there is no density level allotments like close and far from the city center. So the distances like that, the scooter became a crucial role in this.

00:10:28:01 - 00:10:45:23
Deema Aburizik
It played a crucial role in this, whether specifically in the health, whether and that the Metro is not covering a whole city, but a lot of people who use the metro or the metro and then take the Scooter for it with them and then take it out and finish the last mile. And maybe the last mile is not a mine.

00:10:45:24 - 00:11:15:12
Deema Aburizik
Maybe it's five kilometers. I think it's something I don't think in my eyes. Maybe it's two minds. But the scooter gave them that opportunity and that freedom to do that. So it's a unique thing here, personally on scooters, not just scooters, not specifically e-bikes, because e-bikes account for them. And so it's actually that electric scooters they made, they make a big part of the mobility like that the active or some people don't think it's the mobility but for me I think it's also solving a solution to sustainable moving.

00:11:15:14 - 00:11:47:06
John Simmerman
Sure. More sustainable mobility and the ability to use some of the same infrastructure that we put in place, you know, for, you know, getting off of the potentially high speed network. You're on a lower speed network. And so, yeah, you see the mixing of, you know, the e-bikes and the e-scooters and the regular bikes, you know, they're all sort of mixing and mingling in the cycle networks and the cycle paths and yeah, that makes make sense.

00:11:47:12 - 00:12:10:16
John Simmerman
And this also makes sense too, that this would be a very practical solution to the distances that you're referencing. Because when we get to the, you know, that that five kilometer range or three kilometer range, you have somewhere between two and three miles, that's longer than somebody is going to be willing to walk, especially if it's in a hotter environment.

00:12:10:18 - 00:12:37:22
Deema Aburizik
Yeah, that's exactly it. And the the barrier to entry for the scooter, the cost of owning a scooter compared to an e-bike, the ease of mobility. When you're moving a scooter from one place to another, you can take it into elevators, you can take it, you can. So it's actually it's a unique like I've haven't seen it in when I travel that much as much as I see it in the way when it comes to personally on scooters.

00:12:37:24 - 00:13:07:25
John Simmerman
Let me talk a little bit about the quality of the those personally owned e-scooters some of the high profile news things are from some of the cheaper devices that are made and the fires, the battery fires that take place. And even you may remember the mobility devices, the hoverboard type things that they were they were catching on fire because they were very, very poorly made.

00:13:08:03 - 00:13:43:10
John Simmerman
They weren't built to standards, you know, you all standards and things of that nature. And so they suddenly were banned from being on airplanes. They were banned from being on transit there. You know, in some cases, they're even being banned from being in apartment buildings because they keep catching on fire. Do we do you get the sense that these machines are built at a high quality, they have those sort of standards versus really cheap products that have that risk of of safety compromises, especially if you're bringing in on the Metro.

00:13:43:13 - 00:14:06:08
Deema Aburizik
I haven't like when I worked in RTA or during my like existing in this space, I haven't heard about these incidences incidents like now, but I don't think that's because it's this high quality or not high quality. I think because it's a new phenomena here and it is is like we're yet to see what's going to like if there are any incidents as such.

00:14:06:14 - 00:14:24:21
Deema Aburizik
Yeah, I don't think that they are made of premium material or anything like that. They are they would be a mixed basket of premium and they're lower quality. And however, it hasn't been the challenge or the barrier. The barrier has been safety, right. So and it's.

00:14:24:25 - 00:14:26:19
John Simmerman
Like.

00:14:26:21 - 00:14:48:27
Deema Aburizik
That is, is is is what the perception. So here I'm telling you that photo is then the ruler of Dubai. He's just in like it was a photo of him endorsing an urban structure plan for the spatial plan for the city. It's called the Bay 2040. And that plan actually will draw that with what Dubai will look like in the next 20 years.

00:14:48:27 - 00:15:15:00
Deema Aburizik
And it's been endorsed at the highest level. So this is a major major, because that the major statement and objective of this plan is to improve the quality of life and make the bay the best city in the world for people to live and play and use resources effectively. So that's why I chose to put because this is a guiding that actions of every government agency and every semi-government agency in the city.

00:15:15:04 - 00:15:23:02
Deema Aburizik
So this is the umbrella that is encompassing all the governance on the policy, on the project prioritization that's happening in the city.

00:15:23:04 - 00:15:29:26
John Simmerman
Yeah. Is it a sort of a friendly competition between the other members in the UAE.

00:15:29:29 - 00:16:00:07
Deema Aburizik
Thinks it's definitely a friendly competition between the whole region. Yeah. So yeah, because everybody is competing for the same workforce and for the same tourists. So definitely it's a friendly competition. And even within the government of the bay there is like an awards called the Dubai Excellence Awards and it's between the different government agencies. That's unique to Dubai actually, whereby the ruler himself, like he is all about accountability and about responsibility and about rules.

00:16:00:13 - 00:16:26:28
Deema Aburizik
So every agency they set the strategy, everybody has eyes. And there is a there is a clear way of how to reach a KPI in the next quarter year, five years. And the and that's Excellence awards that every government agency has a KPI to meet satisfaction of. People have that. So and at the end of the year the best and the worst agencies are publicized and they would say why.

00:16:27:02 - 00:16:32:24
Deema Aburizik
So there's there's competition. But I think it's very, very healthy. It's very healthy. Yeah.

00:16:32:26 - 00:16:38:12
John Simmerman
Yeah. You used an acronym KPI. Why don't you define that for the audience?

00:16:38:14 - 00:17:01:03
Deema Aburizik
KPI is the key performance indicator. So if I would say like I want to make the Bay friendly debate as a cycling friendly city, some Asian, some cities would say that we want to have a more chair. We want to be like in the overall cycling or travel trips within the city, the cycling would be 5% or 2% and every city around the world they would set their own KPIs.

00:17:01:09 - 00:17:22:28
Deema Aburizik
And however, when setting the KPI, we need to be mindful that that KPI is actually not about things that people will not see. So that's what I like on KPI, on a substance cycling in London is that they will measure how far is any resident from a cycle or an off seats like it back or some people talk about nodes and networks instead of track.

00:17:22:28 - 00:17:32:03
Deema Aburizik
So I like that more than the links of facts or or some some agencies do that some agencies who are up there that say that's a KPI.

00:17:32:05 - 00:18:08:10
John Simmerman
Yeah. And we see here that the cycling track story. Yeah it really is is a success story in the sense that yeah, we're not putting in the context of what accessibility is for, for the population, but at the same time that's pretty impressive. It's grown tremendously from, from 26 inches nine kilometers to 544 kilometers and in 2022, and then as you're pointing out, okay, let's also overlay the KPI of how accessible is this to, you know, the populace.

00:18:08:10 - 00:18:40:20
John Simmerman
Can they get to those facilities? And and also, I would say, what do those facilities actually serve? Are they, you know, actually connecting people to meaningful destinations or are they more of recreation? Not that that's a problem, but we would love to see a multitude of uses for the facilities that are that are put in place. In other words, yes, it can be for recreation, but it also can serve meaningful destinations.

00:18:40:23 - 00:19:15:24
Deema Aburizik
So definitely I this is something you told me about. And the more which is the culture of activity, sometimes it's it's the feeds in the active mobility and the transportation. And initially I was like my motto was cycling and walking as a fast sport, much sport. However, more and more I'm learning that, especially in the story of the by the people who are promoting the sport, the people who are doing sports cycling as a sport are more and more transitioning into making it so I think as, as like a daily commute thing.

00:19:15:24 - 00:19:39:28
Deema Aburizik
So it's it's actually serving because we're both we both want the cycling like safe cycling infrastructure. So this, this, this slide specifically will tell you about the story of cycling in the way. So I'll briefly start from the top left, which is showing to gardeners living from there like a low density development and heading to their homes I'm assuming because they have some gardening equipment.

00:19:40:00 - 00:20:03:10
Deema Aburizik
And cycling initially was two things, which is the bottom that top layer of the photos. One was people who don't have access to cars would use cycling to go in and then from their places of work to their place to residences. Then cycling was also a leisure activity on the waterfront, which is that top right photo there was on waterfronts around parks, except that that was the initial story.

00:20:03:12 - 00:20:26:09
Deema Aburizik
However, with the opening of the Metro in 2009, we had them. We had to create an integrated network around metro stations and then at the same time a new track was built in the desert, which shows a dry second track. It's the second track. It's a 90 kilometers aqueduct. It's the longest in the world. I think it has the Guinness World Record.

00:20:26:14 - 00:20:55:11
Deema Aburizik
It's an off street cycle track in the middle of soft sand dunes and like a beautiful scenery. And the story of that specific cycle strike is super interesting. Group of, I think German, I'm not sure I don't remember, but they were a group of experts who get together and on weekends and cycle on the desert roads outside the city early in the morning when they're very quiet and the group crew from four to 10 to 30 and in the morning they were the ruler of Dubai.

00:20:55:11 - 00:21:21:29
Deema Aburizik
And so Sheikh Mohammed would drive past them, say hello or wait behind them until they cross or they pass and then like slowly walk around and slowly drive over because he had like a home in and around that that area and through that part of the city. However, one day he rolled down his window and he waited for them and he rolled down his window and he said, Guys, cycling on the road, the group is growing bigger and bigger and it's fantastic.

00:21:22:05 - 00:21:28:04
Deema Aburizik
However, you need maybe like, what do you need to make us safer? And that's how it all evolved.

00:21:28:09 - 00:21:32:07
John Simmerman
So and somebody said, Yeah, just give us our own path.

00:21:32:10 - 00:22:00:25
Deema Aburizik
Exactly. And within four months, six months, like that wasn't us with authority. The Spokes Council, the police got together that they spoke to this their athletes and the athletes told them, yeah. And off sweets I could talk maybe four meters, maybe two directional. What kind of services do you need? Why, things you need end of trip facilities. And that track right now is one of the most popular tracks and sports actually cycling became part of the Dubai tour.

00:22:00:25 - 00:22:19:09
Deema Aburizik
There is a cycling, so it became like a part of the European tour. I'm not sure I don't follow that specifically, but I know that that there's a big hype when they come to the city. And in the winter months in Dubai World, it becomes better. So you have FIFA and teams coming here and training. So then what?

00:22:19:09 - 00:22:42:22
Deema Aburizik
After they built it in the desert, now the connecting it in the city because people want like every community now they want to connect to that struck so right so it's it's interesting how it all happened then we're moving to the last role which is shows the Dubai vision focusing on the wellbeing so they closed the one of the main thoroughfares of the city or it is the main thoroughfares of the city.

00:22:42:28 - 00:23:15:05
Deema Aburizik
It's 616 lanes crossing the city in half. It's like a river. And they cut it. They close it for 6 hours once a year for like a cycling event, like a cycle event. It's not a race, but it's like you said, usually. Right. And the it's one of those days of the that that the energy and the joy and it's electric people are lying on asphalt taking photos and and so and with that more and more people are adopting cycling and walking as a mode of transport in the city.

00:23:15:12 - 00:23:44:25
Deema Aburizik
Of course, it's not there. It's not like right now cycling out so much, it is less than 2%. And our aim was to get it to 3% in the next four years. The walking is around. I think it's I think 30% more. CHAIR And this what this does, these two numbers do not count that scooters as well. So that aim is to increase these trips and then and definitely connect them to the metro because of the weather.

00:23:45:00 - 00:23:56:15
Deema Aburizik
So people are not anticipating that people will cycle for kilometers or people will like connect to our first effort for the public transport and then do like a cycling orchestra.

00:23:56:17 - 00:24:37:15
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. Fascinating. Fascinating. And it also sort of points to which he had said earlier about how many of the people in Dubai and in the cities and states in the United Arab Emirates are people coming in from other countries. And so they have other cultures. And so and like you said to, you know, in in this particular photo, you may have a situation where they they can't afford to have an automobile and so they sort of lean towards, okay, well, what are the most practical ways for me to be able to get around?

00:24:37:17 - 00:24:55:21
John Simmerman
And as the network starts to develop, you may see even more people say, it's it's affordable and practical for me to be able to get around by bike. And that helps out a great deal for these individuals that don't have the finances available to to drive a car.

00:24:55:24 - 00:25:18:16
Deema Aburizik
And as you said, it's not a mode only for the people who don't have access to cars. Right. So it's a mode for like it's evolving. And don't forget this. We have lots of tourists, so we have like a 20 million people coming to the city each year. So these people will walk. They will expect, you know, when you walk to the station you like in the brain, vacations means a lot more walking.

00:25:18:16 - 00:25:44:06
Deema Aburizik
We're walking, right? So it's and they are digital, I would say, between the residents and expatriates and everybody. So it's it's not it's a new like it's not only for the people don't have access to cars. It's becoming more and more to everybody. So and the distribution of them. Metro It links different kinds of neighborhoods. So if we're looking at cycling between different neighborhoods, it's actually the Metro is linking with that.

00:25:44:12 - 00:26:00:07
Deema Aburizik
And the last thing in that, as I would say, the beach is a public beach here. So that beach is a place where everybody comes to, right? So and we have a 30 kilometer second track on the water. So it's actually a place for everybody. It's not only for the people who have access to cars.

00:26:00:09 - 00:26:36:21
John Simmerman
Yeah. And then here's you already talked a little bit about the figures here in terms of the percentages and all of that. And we see that we have a target of 3% of the share of cycling trips for 2025. So in a couple of years we'd like to see a doubling of of that. And the point that you just made too, in terms of the expectations of the visitors and the tourists that are coming, I'm assuming that that or those is the data from from tourists included in walking and cycling trips, or is this mostly okay?

00:26:36:21 - 00:26:40:08
John Simmerman
So this somehow captures that those those numbers as well.

00:26:40:10 - 00:27:01:16
Deema Aburizik
Yeah, Yeah. It's of course we always say that the counting will like what we trips are not counted as good as car trips. However, these are the figures that we have, and I think that there's more work to be done to improve that working condition for tourists, especially because the connectivity of the network needs a lot of improvement.

00:27:01:23 - 00:27:24:21
Deema Aburizik
But the vision is is definitely to do more of that. And that's that's why all of us in the space right now are working hard to to meet because the vision is really aggressive. So we really want to work that This photo shows actually a psychic next to my face. So you have different different shapes of psychic strikes in the city and the majority is off street.

00:27:24:24 - 00:27:55:18
Deema Aburizik
The majority is shared between walking and cycling and however, when it comes to a hyper high, like an area where there's so much population, so much walking, people walking, then the second stop, so we're not talking about busy areas. There is a downtown with walking and cycling. If it's less, if it's quiet, then you can have shared the infrastructure cycling on asphalt or on shared surfaces with cars is limited here and which I, I like, I agree with.

00:27:55:18 - 00:28:02:26
Deema Aburizik
And the people actually, if you look at that, most popular tracks are the tracks which are always off streets and not shared with cars.

00:28:02:29 - 00:28:20:17
John Simmerman
Right. Right. And and part of the reason for you stating that you're in favor of that is because I would assume that the motor vehicles are traveling at too high speed and so it wouldn't feel comfortable.

00:28:20:20 - 00:28:40:17
Deema Aburizik
And not only that, motor vehicles are the majority. Right. So any surface and that's what like you always talk about and all that like advocates are talking about if the car is the majority and the cycling and walking are the minority, then service does not work. We have to be the majority of the people on foot or on cycle.

00:28:40:17 - 00:29:12:03
Deema Aburizik
We should be the majority. And then the car as I guess that's the only way it works. The speed, the design speeds, the posted speed, maybe 33, but the design speed is higher than that and the behavior is on another level. And the type of vehicles, the SUV. And and to be honest, I don't want to like also I have to be fair for the motorists is that they don't expect you because there's not many of you you know so that's that another another thing so separating them definitely I'm for the.

00:29:12:06 - 00:29:26:13
John Simmerman
Yeah yeah so this photo we see a bike share station and the title of the, the slide here is infrastructure improvements. Is is bike share a thing. Is that. Yeah. Yeah.

00:29:26:15 - 00:29:49:20
Deema Aburizik
Okay. Actually one of my like I'm very close to the operators of the bike sharing scheme here. It's called Careem. It's one of the first all electric sharing schemes. It's actually not Dockless, it's on docks and they're, they're all e-bikes and they're growing exponentially and they, I think they're one of the largest electric bike sharing schemes in the whole world.

00:29:49:23 - 00:30:12:22
Deema Aburizik
And yeah, and then the cost of like making our yearly subscription becomes extremely affordable. Assess them. Like if you take the yearly subscription and divided over a like a day. So it's like less than $1 a day to use that. They're e-bike e-bike and as an e-bike. So e-bikes are not cheap and but they are mostly around metro stations.

00:30:12:28 - 00:30:19:02
Deema Aburizik
It's growing and it's it's really, really giving a very nice service in the city.

00:30:19:05 - 00:31:03:00
John Simmerman
And when you look at the people who are using this system, it seems like you're leaning towards encouraging actual residents who are using the metro systems to do that. And then versus, you know, just having them located in the tourist areas and like near the beach and blah, blah, blah, which you can do both. But this is an indication that you have a an annual pass which would lean towards a resident as well as situating them near the transit stops, which really emphasizes that, yeah, we're talking about people who are living and working here and then that next step to that is we've got to have the infrastructure in place to get them to their

00:31:03:00 - 00:31:05:15
John Simmerman
meaningful destinations. Yeah. That last.

00:31:05:15 - 00:31:37:10
Deema Aburizik
Mile. Yeah. And connecting it to meaningful location. So it's e-bikes are pivotal in that in delivering that, especially that there are e-bikes and as I said, the weather here, usually it's pleasant for six, seven months a year and like less than 40 Celsius I would say, or and then January the weather is 27 Spezia So it's very pleasant, however, that we have three months of like really hot conditions, humid conditions in July, August and September.

00:31:37:13 - 00:31:58:27
Deema Aburizik
And then according to the e-bikes e-bike provider, they say that they they only see a 10% drop in the number of trips in when it comes to when it when it's really hot in the high density neighborhoods. And to do we have a CBD. And they told us it's one of their most popular trips and number of trips and one of them is that tourist area as well.

00:31:59:01 - 00:32:05:08
Deema Aburizik
And they don't they only see a 10% drop between summer and winter months because of that. It's electric.

00:32:05:11 - 00:32:23:20
John Simmerman
And what's interesting, too, I'm glad you brought that up because, you know, you're talking about temperatures that are very similar to the temperatures here in Texas in central and southern Texas, as you well know, since your family's down in San Antonio. So we get very, very hot in the summertime. We've got three months where people are like, my gosh, would you even bother riding?

00:32:23:24 - 00:32:43:09
John Simmerman
And I'm like, Yeah, I ride through the year because when you're on that electric assist bike, you're creating your own wind. And even though it's brutally hot out, it's actually not bad. It's actually pretty comfortable. And we see the same sort of trend in that we only see a little bit of a dip during the hottest, hottest times.

00:32:43:11 - 00:33:01:24
John Simmerman
And and honestly, it works. And when you have that little bit of an electric assist, it really helps even out, you know, whether you have hills or whether you have hot or even extremely cold weather, it's sort of an equalizer to that. So that's that's very good.

00:33:01:28 - 00:33:24:04
Deema Aburizik
I am painting a rosy picture, but I'm just saying there's so much work to be done, so. yeah, totally, totally. So definitely a three here like Maltese are needed, more shade is needed, so I can fix that. I'd like protected from the weather conditions and weather here is more extreme than the weather in there in Texas because it's hotter and we have like sand.

00:33:24:11 - 00:33:44:20
Deema Aburizik
It rains in more and maybe there's more landscape in Texas because it bends Latin, bends more. I'm not sure about Austin, but I remember in Houston it used to rain aloft. So it's it's extreme, but there's more work to be done. So definitely the more people who ride the more there will be pressure to improve the user experience of these tracks.

00:33:44:22 - 00:34:10:21
John Simmerman
Yeah, and I was going to say that, you know, one of the most important equalizers to two extreme conditions is, yeah, it's nice to have that electric access. But the other thing that's the most important part is what we have on screen now, which is we have to build meaningful or excuse me, we have to build authentic all ages and abilities facilities that really help to encourage that.

00:34:10:21 - 00:34:31:00
John Simmerman
Because if you do that, then people will ride, whether it's brutally, brutally cold or brutally, brutally hot, they will ride them. If you've got truly inviting, safe and inviting infrastructure that they can utilize because it's one less friction point, it's one less barrier people to do that.

00:34:31:03 - 00:34:57:27
Deema Aburizik
It's like, for example, in Singapore, the weather in Singapore is all year humid and hot. And yet because of that, a myriad of interventions by the government in terms of the cost to owning a car, the barriers to owning a car that a compact urban fabric, a very connected public transport network and all of that, a safe off street network, a beautiful or an attractive off street network as well.

00:34:58:03 - 00:35:30:20
Deema Aburizik
Those those greenways. So it made it all more viable to make to move people from walking and cycling. I understand that this might not happen throughout the way because we have low density development and high density areas. However, high density areas are the lowest for high density areas is the lowest hanging fruit. Improve conditions and to be honest, I'll just say something like walk in schools, close in the summer, and schools make a lot of the trips and the A lot of the congestion that's happening in our cities right now.

00:35:30:22 - 00:35:54:04
Deema Aburizik
They don't have to do these trips when it's really, really hot. However, when during my work in schools, they tell me that we have the same and problems around schools in January when the weather is super present and in June when the weather is like really, really hot. So the weather is clearly not the one, not the major barrier when it comes to the behavior and the car centric lifestyle.

00:35:54:11 - 00:36:29:02
Deema Aburizik
So there are other things at and civil is another option. There's civil is a city that is that is another example. It's a very enjoys a very nice skin because it's like a compact a cute it's a it's a network. I've been there in the summer. It's really, really, really hot and really, really, really dry. However, people are just like, I know this, for example, we have them there early, like when we travel because we're traveling with the kids and when we are on the roads between six and eight in the evening, there's nobody there.

00:36:29:04 - 00:36:37:06
Deema Aburizik
So on. Just because people just shift their like lifestyle between summer and winter and, and I just really.

00:36:37:13 - 00:37:01:16
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So I've pulled up a few photos from a very special little tour that you did because you wanted to really absorb, you know, from, you know, and you and I had chatted a little bit before you committed to doing this particular study tour to talk a little bit about what you did and why you did it.

00:37:01:20 - 00:37:41:24
John Simmerman
And I'm noticing that there's you're wearing a shirt that I kind of recognize. What is that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just like my mug spritzer for. Yeah. Thank you very much for doing that. And I and I bring that up simply because part of the reason why I got inspired to do, you know, shirts that say streets are for people and mugs that do that is because it really got driven home for me in the Netherlands because about 70% of their entire network, their cycle network, is actually some form of shared street space, like the feed struts and the and the very, very low volume, low speed residential streets.

00:37:41:27 - 00:38:02:20
John Simmerman
And so what we think of when we think of the Dutch network is definitely the protected and separated pathways. But in reality, it's a big part of it is the fact that they really do embrace the fact that streets are for people. And so it's an interesting dynamic that they've been able to get to because there's a little bit of both.

00:38:02:20 - 00:38:20:03
John Simmerman
There's the the protected and separated, and then there's also the shared. I haven't been I haven't had a chance to do a complete debrief from your visit and your study tour. And so why don't you set this up and explain what it is you did? Because you did something very, very special when you were over there.

00:38:20:05 - 00:38:50:07
Deema Aburizik
Definitely. I love traveling and I like I'm very lucky that my husband loves traveling as well. And we always explore different destinations on foot. When I graduated, my degree was architecture in school. So when I just to travel to cities, it was like we would like draw a map of the buildings that I want to see, and then we would like walk around the city to see these buildings and many times that, like an interesting building, will be outside of the city, the city like a tourist area.

00:38:50:07 - 00:39:13:28
Deema Aburizik
And people would be surprised to see us there. But because of like we're following something. However, more and more when I like, I think that practice changed and we changed with it. I said the more focusing on urban design and urban urban now and streets and like life. And I think there was a like I think there was a specific shift at one point.

00:39:13:28 - 00:39:39:09
Deema Aburizik
I can't like put my picture on it and put a finger on it. But there was a shift in practice where we started looking at the place rather than iconic buildings and the from the map myself, because I'm always looking at sustainability and inclusivity and it made sense. So having been an employee all my time, all this time, I could not have the luxury to take off and do those fantastic can do where everybody talks about that says, Do you?

00:39:39:09 - 00:40:07:19
Deema Aburizik
When you go around the world, when when I left my last role at the RTA, we didn't mention that I started that like an advisory firm focused on promoting cycling and walking mobility in our region. And the fact that one of the highlights was that I would be able to control my time and do cycling study tour, and I found that there is a bubble of like minded people on the Internet, on podcasts, on books.

00:40:07:19 - 00:40:31:04
Deema Aburizik
And I reached out to you and asked you about a number of options which cycling tour I should take, and you said you cannot go wrong. Like they're all fantastic. And I chose this, which was design designed by or organized by Sensible Transport Institute. It's a group from Australia and there we were, a group of like people from Australia, different kinds of governments.

00:40:31:10 - 00:41:00:21
Deema Aburizik
We were sent to the states, we had them and they are from San Francisco metropolitan area. We had one of them, a northern state of New York in the northern part of the state of New York and myself. So a group of 11 people spend maybe eight days in the Netherlands doing different. It was not only looking at cycling and walking if it was talking about the ecosystem of sustainable mobility and land use, planning and urban planning and parking and electric and trains and community and service and behavior, it fantastic.

00:41:00:21 - 00:41:24:06
Deema Aburizik
We met the usual that like that celebrities in cycling like Michael I met these people and Mark however we also they were fantastic and they delivered on what I expected the presentation to be that that is the experience. But there were also some very nice gems when we went to them at the train provider, how they talk about service and how they measure satisfaction.

00:41:24:09 - 00:41:45:11
Deema Aburizik
We had one tour which is on the left. We met with them land use planning from university. A From the Mayor of trust and land use planners from the municipality. And they took us around fantastic infrastructure around the city and they would answer questions like, what is the density, How much is this cost? And all of this like feeding the curiosity all the time.

00:41:45:18 - 00:42:10:28
Deema Aburizik
And this is a photo dressing. I also enjoyed in this trip not only like being around like minded people, being in my own life, enjoying myself, being the active learning, and you know, when you practice, you don't learn, you don't get that fantastic atmosphere of being in a classroom. But that gave us that at the same time as an adult, not as a suit, as a child, as a guy and a young person.

00:42:11:01 - 00:42:29:25
Deema Aburizik
And the last thing is that the amazing thing about the Netherlands is that the cycling infrastructure can be iconic, you know, iconic Now became a dirty word. A sexy becomes like a dirty word. But the cycling infrastructure there is like is is is definitely iconic. Like it's not a bad word to say iconic. It's just it's a place for people.

00:42:29:25 - 00:42:31:12
Deema Aburizik
What do you think? Yeah.

00:42:31:15 - 00:42:58:03
John Simmerman
Yeah. No, I think it's a really, really good point. Yeah, that's that's fantastic. And I'm really super, super stoked that you had this opportunity to do this. And, you know, this is a just a little bit of a video. We'll kind of let this play in the background. It's, you know some of the some of the iconic images, the well-known images of, you know, the the the canals and the boats going through that.

00:42:58:06 - 00:43:01:06
John Simmerman
Now, was that your first visit ever to the Netherlands or is that.

00:43:01:07 - 00:43:05:27
Deema Aburizik
No, I've been many times. Okay. But this is my first time to visit.

00:43:06:00 - 00:43:08:27
John Simmerman
Yeah, this is the first time, too. Like I'm studying this.

00:43:09:00 - 00:43:33:00
Deema Aburizik
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And usually, actually, to be honest, when I go to Netherlands, I don't like it because it's very intimidating, extremely intimidating for someone from the outside. I was like, cycle for 2 hours and just walk safe. Much safer to walk over Utrecht. It provided a safe, safer opportunity for someone like me. It's really it's really it's been, it's been fantastic.

00:43:33:00 - 00:43:54:22
Deema Aburizik
And actually it's nice to visit. Like I always said, my friends, it's like a Amsterdam, like a cleaner Amsterdam, more people around the water, they were like paddleboards. They were like swimming. It was a heatwave, of course, and it was a place where children were swimming. It felt it's the skin is like San Antonio, you know, the water level and the shops.

00:43:54:29 - 00:44:08:21
Deema Aburizik
However, it's it's, it's also Amsterdam. So it's like if people don't think about it as a tourist destination, it's like university town and it's like a working town. But it's really, really nice. Yeah, yeah.

00:44:08:24 - 00:44:29:08
John Simmerman
It really is. It's, it's fantastic. It also happens to be one of the busiest, you know, central train station. Yeah, it's it's a major, major hub. And I also see in the top right photo here, if we look up there, you know, to the top right, that looks like that's the new parking structure in Amsterdam.

00:44:29:11 - 00:44:32:28
Deema Aburizik
Yes. Yes. We've been to the new on. Have you seen it So I haven't.

00:44:32:28 - 00:44:37:17
John Simmerman
Been there yet. No. It was still under construction last November when I was there. So Yeah.

00:44:37:19 - 00:45:05:19
Deema Aburizik
It's it's like it's really high quality and the finishes and the lighting and like it's not harsh. You don't feel like even it's a metro station and it's also seamless. The speeds may and feeling that the staff are smiling. Some of some people I heard they think of it as a cathedral like that and the lighting, it's really like what Not what you expect from a parking spot, you know, like a parking structure.

00:45:05:21 - 00:45:30:10
John Simmerman
Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, one of the things that I really about here at the Active Towns initiative is that if we want to see behavior change, if we're trying to change the way people are getting around and we're in a car dominated society, we really need to think about things in a way that says, okay, how can we encourage and support behavior change?

00:45:30:10 - 00:45:58:09
John Simmerman
How can we encourage and support doing things a little bit different? And one of the things that we can do so from a behavior change perspective is make it pleasant, is make the experience enjoyable, is make the experience convenient. And when you start doing these things, you start these things off. You start to realize that, yeah, for 8000 years we've been making driving everywhere for everything, the most convenient, the most pleasant.

00:45:58:16 - 00:46:30:05
John Simmerman
If we can start making walking and biking that way too, including providing high quality, secure, clean bike parking facilities that facilitate the use of transit. Voila. I mean, you're able to do some really, really cool stuff, so that's great. Now you're doing all of this, and you and I have been talking about this for the better part of almost a year now of preparation for that next phase, because you have a dream that you want to bring these concepts there to the UAE.

00:46:30:10 - 00:46:34:26
John Simmerman
And that brings us around to your very first workshop.

00:46:34:29 - 00:47:06:08
Deema Aburizik
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So when when we talk about promoting cycling and walking any in any part of the world education, we have like we have to raise awareness, we have to change policy and we have improved to improve skills and data. Of course. However, when it comes to skills, you know that worldwide there there is a gap in skilled engineers, landscape architects, urban designers and government officials in promote how to promote cycling and walking.

00:47:06:14 - 00:47:36:26
Deema Aburizik
And it does not take one an infrastructure improvement. It takes like everybody working together to improve that, to promote that aspect, to make that that shift. So I knew when I started Street Design Team, which is the set, the focus of promoting walking cycling in here, which is less than a year old and that workshops and bringing workshops in Dubai, taking people from their offices and sitting together with like minded people or not with like minded people and changing perspectives is key.

00:47:37:03 - 00:47:55:29
Deema Aburizik
So that was part of the reason that I took the time to go to the residents was, however, and I think always time to travel around the world. I wouldn't want to go to the Netherlands, by the way. I connected it with like a Euro tour to look at the different infrastructure in different parts of the world. But however, in different parts of Europe, however, not everybody can take that time.

00:47:55:29 - 00:48:30:29
Deema Aburizik
Remember that I have been in this space for a very long time, but in taking that time away and studying and bringing that, it's like taking the a doable for everyone and it's not scalable. So I threw like a very nice network of supporters. I was able to work with then consulate of the Netherlands here in Dubai and with the Dutch Cycling Embassy and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water in the Netherlands who made the pledge in COP 27 last year to train 10,000 professionals around the world to in on active travel.

00:48:31:01 - 00:48:57:05
Deema Aburizik
And then we made this happen. So we last week we met and created the first workshop to promote active travel in Dubai. We invited the because of the ministry and the agenda. We invited mostly people from government agencies. However, we also invited people from the private sector. We had people from Dubai police. We people from the Knowledge Authority, Education Party.

00:48:57:10 - 00:49:26:21
Deema Aburizik
We had people from the Roads and Transport Authority. We had developers in the region. And then this day from this development and we had them, the Sports Council, which was very interesting, I tell you about it in a bit, and that we had that careem bike sharing and we sat in I of course, and was fascinated by it, by myself and the experts from the Cycling Embassy and the ministry also from the ministry also spoke about the policy level.

00:49:26:28 - 00:49:36:02
Deema Aburizik
So and we did the cycling tour. We, we, we solve some case for these and the findings were extremely interesting.

00:49:36:04 - 00:49:48:27
John Simmerman
Yeah. Overall, how would you say the audience, you know, receive this information, I'm sure at some level it was almost like a culture shock.

00:49:48:29 - 00:50:10:03
Deema Aburizik
Yeah, I think it wasn't because it actually the expression that's like an embassy. We were like we had like a long text in order to bring them here and bring them on the same level as infrastructure, because the story of cycling and walking is not really publicized in about this way and maybe the resources are in Arabic, maybe then.

00:50:10:06 - 00:50:31:08
Deema Aburizik
So it was actually for them and a little bit of to like to understand that there is cycling infrastructure. We don't have to plant the seed. There is a walking infrastructure however we like. Let's look at the other things. So then that that interesting thing that I heard from the participants is a lot of people who are focusing a lot is thinking about infrastructure.

00:50:31:10 - 00:50:59:21
Deema Aburizik
However, people start to think about behavior change and how to impact behavior change. I also wanted to focus about communication. How do we talk about cycling infrastructure and how do we talk about safety and how do we talk about changing the mindset? And I learned also from the participants a lot as well. I also learned that that sports and that the Sports Council are an important catalyst in making that happen because that's what counts it.

00:50:59:21 - 00:51:31:17
Deema Aburizik
And the ones who are organizing those rides and they're organizing the sport, but they are a very important partner and I am and the police are also important partner. The police spoke about how to make it safe for everybody because they deal with, I would say, 200 nationalities in the whole. And everybody comes with their mindset and they they really brought so much to the table to talk about how to how do you enforce do you inform that change in a in a in a safe and manner?

00:51:31:23 - 00:51:56:00
Deema Aburizik
So I've learned so much and I think even the experts from the Netherlands also got so much information and people in the room. And I an interesting thing is that something happens after these talks and you can see something magic and happens. We are creating a community. So we agreed to meet later and we are going to make it a catalyst for more workshops.

00:51:56:06 - 00:52:17:23
Deema Aburizik
However, the next next workshops that I will organize may be more specialized. Maybe we'll do workshops for infrastructure and maybe we'll do workshops for specialized. And maybe I am not only talking about Dubai, I want to work in my home country, Jordan, and I work for a focus on the region because developments happening all over and we're not stopping here.

00:52:17:25 - 00:52:49:23
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, that's great. I think that that's just so incredible and I'm so excited and happy for you that that A, you were able to pull that together and leveraging that commitment from from the COP meeting because that was a key point to that commitment was, you know, getting out and trying to, you know, spread the word and train more people, you know, really work on that knowledge capacity building, which is so incredibly important.

00:52:49:25 - 00:53:11:28
Deema Aburizik
And actually it's also like if you always talk about this and because like it's about community, so that I like it. When I had the meeting, the person who introduced me to the people in the consulate, I was doing, I was working on on and there the consulate was also organizing this with the ministry. So it just it's about talking to more people and connecting with more people.

00:53:11:28 - 00:53:37:06
Deema Aburizik
Even if you think that it's not going to like nothing's going to come out of this meeting. But trust me, every time I talk to people like my energy is boosted, and especially when you're alone, when you are like creating something new. Because we are the first startup in the whole region focused on walking and cycling. So it's very important to build the community and I'm so happy with the support that we have so far.

00:53:37:09 - 00:53:53:24
Deema Aburizik
I even have like an E community with you and people who support me as well. I keep asking you questions and you would always like reply within a few hours advising me on different facets of like the challenges and the opportunities that we are facing, which I'm always grateful for.

00:53:53:26 - 00:54:21:03
John Simmerman
And it's my pleasure and honor to be able to do so. And when we talk about creating a culture of activity, it really is agnostic to, you know, the type of activity we're talking about here. We're you know, you had mentioned how important it was to have the sports representation there at the workshop. And and yeah, I sometimes we kind of divide ourselves needless, Lea into these little groups of, that's just sports and recreation.

00:54:21:03 - 00:54:50:06
John Simmerman
We're talking utilitarian, walking and biking. No, no, no, no, no. It's all trying to encourage a culture of activity and getting us moving. And there's many different ways that we can do this, including activating public spaces like we have in this photo here. But really, it's it's really, you know, just whatever we can do to reinforce the that reality that as a human species, being physically active is the most natural thing that we can do.

00:54:50:09 - 00:55:05:25
John Simmerman
And what better way to to be able to experience our beautiful environments and being able to get out into nature. And and I just I can't wait to come visit you one of these days. Well, I to have you here, but I'm going to have to come visit you there.

00:55:05:28 - 00:55:27:24
Deema Aburizik
Definitely. Definitely. I can't wait to host you that the two photos that you were showing is about like Dubai comes to life when the weather becomes better and you'll be surprised that it is built to be an outdoor city. So like, the city is somehow like restricted in the summer, although everything is air conditioned. But in the city in the winter months, when the weather is really good, the whole city comes to life.

00:55:27:24 - 00:55:48:14
Deema Aburizik
And one of it is our whole month. The whole month they organize called the way 30 by 30, which is in November, whereby the government is organized like from a wellness point of view, they wanted to improve the witness and they tell people like, let's move for 30 minutes for 30 days in November, and then it triples around the whole year.

00:55:48:17 - 00:56:06:22
Deema Aburizik
And then they organize events from like obstacle racing to cycling to Ironman to do, as you said, yoga and public spaces, and that the whole city becomes like electrified with these amazing activities. And the it's actually poster is it?

00:56:06:25 - 00:56:07:12
John Simmerman
Yeah.

00:56:07:15 - 00:56:32:03
Deema Aburizik
Really it was tourism like one time that you know the Ironman races. Yes they're very like they're not mainstream. They're all they're very specific. There is a lot of training. And one time they announced that they organize like Ironman in Dubai and I think the number of participants was around 10,000, which is for a city of the bay is a lot, which means that so many people came from different parts of the world to take part of that activity.

00:56:32:03 - 00:56:39:18
Deema Aburizik
So it's actually mostly boosting, definitely boosting tourism. And the it's a city that the government is well aware of that.

00:56:39:20 - 00:56:54:01
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We need to wrap this up. So to close this out, talk a little bit about school streets and and why you're passionate about this in the context of the work that you're doing in your region.

00:56:54:03 - 00:57:16:14
Deema Aburizik
I'm a consultant, so I'm an advisor. However, there are most of the projects that I've worked on are quite different tools of marketing and with top down. So either a developer or a government government entity that's doing some work and then they implement it and people are just like waiting for that to happen to them. However, when I started the street design team, I wanted to think about this from bottom up.

00:57:16:16 - 00:57:40:25
Deema Aburizik
So instead of like waiting for something to happen, why don't we all participate in improving the environment around our our places and improve our, our lifestyle? And the people don't know that, you know, and they need someone like engineers to like me. So I've been practicing in the city space for some time to help them. However, it's not about me telling them what they need.

00:57:40:25 - 00:58:01:08
Deema Aburizik
It's about us teaming up together and letting me and and knowing what they need. And from like we formed street design teams and from before the street design team, we actually start identifying their goals and from that, their goals. We collect data, understand like that, and do some surveys with the with the parents and then identify some action plans.

00:58:01:13 - 00:58:29:07
Deema Aburizik
And usually I start with the lowest minimum intervention that can really meet those goals. And from that scale it's up. And then at the end we really need to also scale it, like tell the story and record it. So that's an anthology which is about building a theme, identifying goals, and then from that identify a understands empathy, like empathizing with the people, understanding what they need and listing the actions, and then lastly, telling that story.

00:58:29:10 - 00:58:51:23
Deema Aburizik
So this is a photo of so I'm, I am working with like I send an email you would one of the major exclude providers here in the UAE and I'm working on promoting walking and riding to schools and we are like, we want to replicate this to 100 schools in the region and the Web by saying that we are focusing on lowest hanging fruit.

00:58:51:23 - 00:59:17:13
Deema Aburizik
Is that maybe the infrastructure of change will come, maybe intersecting us work will come to the school like in five or four years time. However, like we can actually change this time we can like that photo is a signal, like a signal that a lot of people use it in the morning. So what we are proposing to change the signal time in the morning when people are crossing to make it more for pedestrians other than for for for cars, at least in the peak hours in the morning.

00:59:17:20 - 00:59:38:08
Deema Aburizik
And this is a slide showing that we surveys the parents in one of the schools and we wanted to understand from them like a menu of 11 reasons. Why don't why don't they cycle or why don't they cycle around the room to get the school? And then we excluded the people who live more than eight kilometers away from the school because we could not actually cater for those.

00:59:38:08 - 01:00:03:19
Deema Aburizik
We wouldn't cater for them in a different different a different maybe providing public transport robust around. However, we wanted to focus on the people who are really going to use the infrastructure and they identified the 40% they wanted improvement and sidewalks 18%. They wanted improvement in pedestrian crossings. And what I would like learn from the survey is that nobody said that we need more lighting or we don't feel safe or security.

01:00:03:23 - 01:00:23:22
Deema Aburizik
They didn't say these things. They said that we need those specific items. So I learned, like I said, is it the weather? Is it the dust? Is it what they should know? What, like a shade, for example? So these are really noise. For example, like I asked many questions and then this is the answer that came and then I audited the infrastructure, which is the next slide.

01:00:23:29 - 01:00:45:00
Deema Aburizik
And I asked them to say where they the problematic areas and based on the methodology that we develop, based on fact perspectives from different parts of the world, we audit the infrastructure. We walked around the neighborhood and we identified the problem areas and they were identical to the areas that we audited. So the actually the people who are using the streets are actually well aware where the problem areas are.

01:00:45:04 - 01:01:00:22
Deema Aburizik
And then we list a few like a number of infrastructure changes. And now we are working on them. And the nice thing is that we're not only in infrastructure, we're also looking at the behavior. So that's that's, that's that's one of the schools that actually I'm working with.

01:01:00:25 - 01:01:11:05
John Simmerman
I have to I'm laughing because it's like, imagine that the people who are actually using the streets, they're the ones that know about the streets. Yeah, we just Yeah.

01:01:11:08 - 01:01:31:14
Deema Aburizik
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And surveyed them and we had the I think the the school had 1000 students. We have 300 respondents. Yeah. So people wanted to talk about it's very personal for them. So it was a it was really fantastic. And now I'm, I'm working on rolling it on more and more and more. That's cool.

01:01:31:16 - 01:01:38:09
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah, that's fantastic. Where can people follow up with you and is there a website that they can go to?

01:01:38:12 - 01:02:20:23
Deema Aburizik
Definitely see if design team dot com and LinkedIn is also a great way to connect. Please give me a shout it to my page or to the firm's page but definitely I look forward to info for engaging with people. I am not active on other forms, other media platforms. It's mostly links and and the website. So if people wanted to join the upcoming workshops and or tell me what they want to organize the workshops on, you can do that if a school in our region or a school in the region like in the whole DC or the whole Middle East is facing challenges.

01:02:20:23 - 01:02:34:14
Deema Aburizik
I'm happy to share the resources that I talked about and the yeah, I am also. And if someone wants to have a cycling tour or recommendations about where to walk and cycle in the bay, I'm happy to assist.

01:02:34:16 - 01:02:41:28
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. It has been such a joy and pleasure. Thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast.

01:02:42:01 - 01:02:49:17
Deema Aburizik
It's my pleasure and thank you for having me and thank you for your support and saying my questions and being very patient with me and being very generous with your time.

01:02:49:19 - 01:03:01:04
John Simmerman
Again, it's truly, truly my pleasure to do that. I it's one of the things that I love most about doing this sort of work is to help spread the joy.

01:03:01:07 - 01:03:03:16
Deema Aburizik
Exactly. Yeah. I things are more like.

01:03:03:19 - 01:03:17:06
John Simmerman
Hey, thank you all so much for joining and I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you did, please give it a thumbs up. Leave a comment down below and share it with a friend. And if you haven't done so already, I'd be honored to have you subscribe to the channel. Just click on that subscription button down below and ring the notifications bell.

01:03:17:06 - 01:03:34:17
John Simmerman
And if you're enjoying this content, please consider supporting my efforts by becoming an active town's ambassador. It's easy to do. Just head on over to active towns dot org and then click on the support button again. Thank you so much for tuning in. I really appreciate it. And until next time, this is John signing off by wishing you much activity, health and happiness.

01:03:34:19 - 01:03:54:09
John Simmerman
Cheers. And again sending a huge thank you to all my active town's ambassadors supporting the channel on Patron Buy me a coffee YouTube super thanks As well as making contribute to the nonprofit and purchasing things from the active town store, every little bit adds up and it's much appreciated. Thank you all so much.