The project is an awareness campaign on the need for general safety and efficiency of vehicles and transport. We want a more humane, safe, clean and sustainable city.
The ideas
The group began working on brainstorming and there were many possible fields of action. They were grouped into teams and saw that most interest was on the future of automobiles, circular economy, and how the future of our cities could benefit by making them safer, cleaner and more sustainable for living.
Students had a need to act as responsible citizens, to be able to take action and change their immediate environment but also to go further: to reach local, regional and European institutions. It was clear they had social and political concerns to improve and not destroy the environment in which they live, improve safety in the streets...
The University of Alcalá (UAH) opened the first recharging point for electric vehicles using sunlight to produce electricity, in Spain. There is one fotolinera (recharging point) which is located at the Royal Botanical Gardens Juan Carlos I. This was in 2012 and it is still underused.
We think that the electric vehicle is a mature solution to meet the needs of most daily movement. Further, it resolves problems of noise and air pollution. Its implementation of fleets and the building up of networks to recharge batteries could benefit from aid from European funds. There are possible measures to promote their use, such as bonus IVTM parking and free or subsidized recharging in public car parks at night, etcetera.
But it is also necessary that citizens feel the need for this change, and are sensitized to the importance of reducing greenhouse gases and improving the quality of life in our environment.
So three types of actions were designed:
• Locally: awareness campaign with students at the school
•At the regional level: Proposed European Citizens' Initiative "Green cars: a European plan to promote the use of electric vehicles"
• Globally: publish and maintain a blog.
The initiatives
A. Training and research on the state of affairs; creation of working groups; collaborative work groups; project methodology and education for service-learning
B. Awareness-raising campaign among the pupils of the school
B.1. Workshop: clean and sustainable energy and its application for cars. Options in our city. 60 students from 1st ESO (7th grade).
B.2. Online interactive game on road safety. Game competition in class with 30 students from 3rd ESO (9th grade). It has been up and played by nearly 660 students at the school.
C. Proposed European Initiative: The European Citizens' Initiative enables one million EU citizens to participate directly in the development of EU policies, asking the European Commission to present a proposal for legislation. The proposal is designed but not yet sent. Our initiative is a proposal for a European Citizens' Initiative "Green cars: a European plan to promote the use of electric vehicles." For this we have taken the following actions:
D. Design and publication of the blog: GREEN CARS: For a European plan to promote the use of electric vehicles with the aim of disseminating and publicizing our concerns, proposals and possible solutions. http://esostenibilidad.blogspot.com.es/?view=magazine
