FOREWORD

Public transport companies have a major role to play in improving urban environment. When developing their network they have the responsibility to make sure they do so in a sustainable way. Therefore, the UITP Design & Culture Platform Members are pleased to invite you to the 4th Design Day, which will this year focus on sustainable design.

Indeed public transport designers can have an enormous impact on the environment by choosing sustainable materials and fabrics in the conception phase of rolling stock and infrastructure but also in communication materials (internally and externally). This impact can be multiplied if good practices are duplicated in other cities.

Also designers need to keep in mind that some rolling stock have a long life-cycle, which is especially true for rail vehicles (about 25 years). How to make sure that the design chosen today will not be old-fashioned ten years later? And how can newly designed buses and light rail fit in old cities?

How to make the right design choices for the development of our public transport networks by keeping in mind all the environmental aspects and the sustainability of our cities? How to make our networks more coherent with the city heritage and make our customers prouder of using a well-designed public transport network? These issues are all closely linked with the choice of the vehicles and of the infrastructure (stations, bus and light rail shelters, waiting areas, signage and information systems, accessibility systems) as well as many other aspects of a public transport network.

UITP is pleased to organise the 4th Design Day in Paris, where the conference will be hosted by RATP, which is completely committed to sustainable development and design management. Being aware of its rich and vast heritage, the RATP design policy has defined processes to develop a transport system which is totally in line with new design trends.

The 4th Design Day will give the floor to speakers from organisations around the world who are doing innovative work in this respect. We will look closely at innovative and original practices in this field. A special focus will be granted to the way public transport interchanges and the rest of the infrastructure can be designed to remodel or even improve the urban environment.