”A red pill” research project challenges car norms and paves the way for healthy living environments

How can we create cities where people's health and well-being are at the center rather than the car? This is what the research project ”A red pill” aims to investigate by challenging conventional thinking and testing new solutions for sustainable mobility in Karlstad.

Our car-centric society has well-known negative impacts on both the climate and human health. They are reflected in the big picture, through climate change and emissions of microplastics and other harmful particles, but are also felt in daily life. Physical inactivity and mental illness are linked and are a growing problem, especially among young people.

The research project ”A red pill - thoughts that change reality”, which has been granted support from Formas, takes this problem as its starting point. The name refers, of course, to the movie Matrix and the truth pill, about daring to see reality as it is and opening up to new perspectives and solutions.

Challenging the norm and making the alternatives visible
Behind the project are the research institute VTI, the architectural firm FOJAB, the Swedish Bicycle Cities network and Karlstad Municipality. Together they want to break the car norm and create conditions for living environments that promote physical and mental health, with public spaces that prioritize people and social interactions.

- We need to challenge the norms that govern how our cities are planned today. By combining research with practical experiments, we can highlight alternative ways of using our common spaces," says Åsa Samuelsson, architect at FOJAB.

Over the next two years, a series of 'think tanks' will be held, inviting local actors - from politicians and civil servants to associations, businesses and citizens - to participate. Different methods will be used to stimulate open discussions and questioning of existing structures.

More inclusive environments
In parallel, physical prototypes are developed and tested in Tingvallastaden, Karlstad's city center, where ideas are translated into real environments. With inclusive approaches and norm-critical exercises, participants explore how places can be used in new ways beyond the dominance of the car.

- "The project gives us the opportunity to explore how public spaces can become more inclusive and provide greater space for social encounters, movement and children's perspectives. When we develop the city, we need to be better at asking who the place is really designed for," says Frida Bernhardsson at Karlstad Municipality.

National dissemination
The project is continuously evaluated with the aim of gathering knowledge that can be put into practice and scaled up nationally. Swedish Bicycle Cities has an important role in disseminating the experiences further. The hope is that in the short term the project will contribute to new insights and changed perspectives among the participants. In the longer term, the ambition is to enable community planning where good health and a high quality of life are not dependent on having your own car.

- "We want to find ways to create cities that are better for both people and the environment than today's, and that contribute to greater gender equality and equity. But to do this, we need to break ingrained patterns and choose the red pill," says Katja Kircher, project manager at VTI.