Urban Design & Mobility Forum

The Urban Design and Mobility Forum is a Young Urbanists programme that brings together government, practitioners, civil society and the private sector to engage on how South African cities are planned, designed and delivered. Led by Young Urbanists in collaboration with the Mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, it creates a structured platform for dialogue, collaboration and action, with a focus on moving from policy to implementation.

The Forum has played a key role in aligning city leadership with practitioners and communities, working closely with the Mayor and the Urban Mobility Directorate to advance safer streets, active mobility, public transport reform and people focused urban design. This includes supporting improvements to systems such as MyCiTi around accessibility and overall performance, while contributing to more financially sustainable and integrated transport networks. It has also advanced green infrastructure approaches, including sustainable urban drainage systems and nature based solutions within street design and public space.

Through regular engagements, the Forum supports coordination across sectors, enabling shared problem solving around mobility, public space and infrastructure. It connects ongoing programmes such as Street Experiments South Africa, the Safe Passage Programme and the Safe Mobility Hub Programme, ensuring that insights from implementation inform policy and decision making.

The Forum continues to grow as a platform for collaboration across cities, supporting stronger alignment between national, provincial and municipal actors. It focuses on unlocking delivery, building partnerships and creating a clear pathway from ideas to measurable change in South African cities.