In Memoriam

Doors of Perception Report
January 2010 - Line Loss
by John Thackara

This free monthly newsletter brings you stories of how design can contribute to
the
resilience of communities and regions. It also announces Doors of Perception
events.
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**** **** **** **** ****
THIS MONTH'S HIGHLIGHTS
Why Are We Here? - - - Greener on paper? - - - Telepresence With No Illusions
- - - Designing An Associative Life - - - Transition: The Movie - - - Read My
Lips, Not the Label - - - Hand-made Clothes Fort All? - - - Move Your Money
- - - Visual Voltage - - - Sustainability in Bangalore - - - Social Media In
Brazil - - - Mass Design of Health - - - World In A Shell - - - Barter
Economy Section
**** **** **** **** ****

WHY ARE WE HERE? [Good question]

In March, this email newsletter will be eight years old; its sister Doors of
Perception blog will be ten; and the Doors website, where it all gets archived,
will have been online for sixteen years. That's a lot of content - and to what
end? The way we see it is that we hang out near the door of the design tent;
look outwards; and tell people about interesting things happening outside.
Sometimes we invite passing strangers into the tent to make new friends. And
from time to time, we set up our own tent when we spot an interesting new
challenge for design. People seem to find what we do valuable - if hard to
place. And we enjoy doing it, even if the business model to pay for it
remains... emergent. But if the stories below are true, we have to start
doing what we do differently, and soon. All suggestions welcome.

GREENER ON PAPER? [Communicating sustainably - or not]

Are we e-writers really so green and virtuous? There's growing evidence that
humble emails, such as this one, pack a hefty environmental footprint. McAfee,
for example, calculate that a single spam email generates 0.3 grams of CO2
emissions. On that basis, this newsletter has a ten kilogramme footprint. Once
the internet's infrastructure costs are factored in, that number probably
underestimates things by a factor of ten. Kris de Decker, in "The monster
footprint of digital technology", has written an excellent explanation of the
hidden costs of communications hardware; and Don Carli, who coined the term
"media carbon", reminds us that "computers, eReaders and cell phones don't grow
on trees; their spiraling requirement for energy is unsustainable". Buoyed by
studies such as these, paper-using industries are fighting back. Martyn Eustace,
for example, director of the newly-launched TwoSides initiative, states that
"producing and reading a traditional newspaper can consume 20% less energy than
reading news online for more than 30 minutes...print and paper products can be
far more sustainable than the equivalent electronic version". Decker's argument
is disingenuous. "Far more sustainable" does not mean sustainable: It means,
"unsustainable, but less so than the other way". Greenwasherish language games
diminish public appreciation for the many positive actions that the paper and
fibre industries are engaged in. Framing the question as print vs. digital is a
bad idea because the life cycles of both print and digital media have negative
environmental impacts. Don Carli puts it well: "This is not a time for the print
media pot to call the digital media kettle black. The fact is that neither print
nor digital media supply chains are sustainable as currently configured".
http://tiny.cc/LVxZO
http://www.forumforthefuture.org/greenfutures/articles/campaign_debunk_myths_pri\
nt
http://tiny.cc/L7f60
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/06/embodied-energy-of-digital-technology.htm\
l#more
http://tiny.cc/vx7g7
http://www.sustainablecommunication.org/resources/articles/53-which-medium-is-mo\
re-sustainable-paper-or-digital
http://tiny.cc/0dLlS
http://img.en25.com/Web/McAfee/CarbonFootprint_web_final2.pdf

TELEPRESENCE - WITH NO ILLUSIONS [Tools for not traveling]

So it seems as if carbon footprint of the "virtual" newsletter you are reading
is heavier than we thought. But it's still nothing compared to the travel
footprint of its author. For the last nine years my business model has been:
write interesting stuff for free, and then get paid to give talks, run
workshops, and organize conversational festivals. Face-to-face is always best,
but the carbon footprint of my travel to work has been, and remains, excessive -
tonnes and tonnes a year from my flights and TGV journeys. For the last three
years I've reduced the total number of trips by ten percent a year - but that's
too slow a change. I simply have to do a lot more of my work remotely. That's
where you can help: tell me of real remote models that work for you, and how.

LINE LOSS [The problem with videoconferencing]

In power grid design, 'line loss' refers to the waste of electrical energy due
to inefficiencies in the distribution or transmission system. Line loss affects
mediated human communication, too. Despite decades of effort by engineers and
designers, the experience of video-conferencing remains mostly awful. So what to
do? and how? As a start, there are several events about the subject of
telepresence one could go to this year: in March, "Electrosmog: A Festival of
Sustainable Immobility" will It will take place in Amsterdam, Riga, New York,
Madrid, Helsinki, London, Banff, Aotearoa, and Munich. Then, in November, the
theme of the Saint-�tienne International Design Biennial will be
Teleportation.
In parallel with these events, Caroline Nevejan is editing a special edition of
the research journal AI and Society about the concept of Witnessed Presence.
Nevejan poses a question: Could the performing arts do better than the engineers
and designers? After all, artists have practiced orchestration, dramatization
and choreography for centuries; by now they know how to set a context, how to
spark the imagination, how to show the unsaid.
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/thinktank/tt_thackara.html
http://electrosmogblog.wordpress.com/about/
http://www.citedudesign.com/sites/Evenements/
http://www.springer.com/computer/artificial/journal/146

TRANSITION - THE MOVIE [More useful than Avatar]

One way is achieve effective eco-communication is to be James Cameron and spend
$300 million making Avatar. Another way is to be the Transition movement in
which hundreds of communities around the world are both stars in, and users of,
their own film. 'In Transition' is the first detailed film about the movement
filmed by those who are making it happen on the ground - communities around the
world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and
humour. The film is positive, solutions-focused, and fun. It has has already
been
shown in communities around the world and is now available as a special edition
two disc DVD set, "beautifully packaged in entirely compostable packaging".
http://transitionculture.org/in-transition/

DESIGNING AN ASSOCIATIVE LIFE [Region-wide social innovation in France]

Government departments responsible for sustainability, or "the environment",
are too often constrained by small budgets and modest influence. Their very
existence allows traditional departments - "industry", "economic affairs",
"finance" or "transport" - to carry on their ecocidal ways as normal. A growing
number of individuals in government want to work collaboratively with their
peers in other silos - but they are often stymied by a system that imprisons
them. So what to do? Rather than rage against the iniquities of politicians, a
new French organization called La 27e Region (The 27th Region) has set out to
help regional governments change by running collaborative projects that enable
them to experience a new approach to social innovation in practice. Read more
at:
http://tiny.cc/rnUGS

http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/2009/12/designing_an_as.php

READ MY LIPS, NOT (JUST) THE LABEL [Transparency and labeling]
The UK government has published a new food policy, Food 2030. Among the most
feeble of its proposals is that companies should clearly label food with its
country of origin - but voluntarily. As with Copenhagen, we citizens will have
to do the work that governments cannot or will not do. Some great tools are
becoming available: Platforms to enable citizens to communicate directly with
the people who make or grow things. We have written here before about ThingLink,
and about the Fair Tracing project at the Oxford Internet Institute. More
recently, GoodGuide has been launched "to lift the marketing veil from consumer
products and give shoppers better information about the impacts of what they
buy". Also welcome is an open source project called SourceMap. This is "a supply
chain publishing platform dedicated to transparency" that is dedicated to
tracking, documenting, and mapping where all of the components for our everyday
goods come from. What these projects have in common is a commitment to openness,
and a degree of socially-grown trust, that today's supply chain monopolizers
will find hard, over the medium and longer term, to compete with.
http://www.goodguide.com/
http://www.sourcemap.org/
http://www.thinglink.org/weSwitch
http://www.fairtracing.org/

HAND-MADE CLOTHES FOR ALL? [Platforms for design sovereignty]
Could countries such as Sri Lanka achieve design sovereignty by producing
clothes for customers using communication platforms that connect maker and
designer and customer directly? A radically dis-intermediated relationship is
feasible technically. But, as with food, a key requirement will be transparency
conerning costs. Read more at:
http://tiny.cc/qF3rx
http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/2009/12/if_the_shoe_fit.php

MOVE YOUR MONEY [How to be a David to a Goldman]
What concrete steps could individuals take to help create a better financial
system? A new web-based campaign responds with a simple idea: Move Your Money.
http://moveyourmoney.info/
http://tiny.cc/6a2Tc
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/move-your-money-a-new-yea_b_406\
022.html

]    OTHER EVENTS

VISUAL VOLTAGE [Design for energy awareness, Berlin]
Myriel Milicevic writes with news of Visual Voltage, a series of Interactive
exhibits at Nordic Embassies in Berlin that explore how to engage different
senses in an awareness of energy consumption. A one-and-a-half day workshop for
professional designers will explore design strategies for raising awareness
about energy-efficiency without imposing a gloomy feeling of guilt.
http://www.visualvoltageworkshop.de

SUSTAINABLE IN BANGALORE [Sustainability conference]
A conference in Bangalore called "Sustainability in Design: NOW!" will focus on
opportunities for design research, education and practice in product, service
and system design. Participants will share swap notes on ways to promote
sustainable systems thinking in design education. The conference concludes a
three year EU-funded programme called LeNS - Learning Network on Sustainability
- whose partners are Politecnico di Milano; Indian Institute of Technology
(IIT), New Delhi; King Mongkut's Institute of Technology, Bangkok; Srishti
School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore; Tsinghua University, Academy
of Arts & Design, Beijing; Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands; and
the University of Art and Design (TAIK), Helsinki. 29 September to 1 October
2010. Deadline for abstract submission 31 March.
http://www.lensconference.polimi.it

SOCIAL MEDIA IN BRAZIL [Rate our friends!]
The Knight Foundation has committed to to invest at least $25 million over five
years in the search for bold community news and social media experiments.
The deadline for entries is now closed, but you can still comment on and rate
the 320 entries for the 2010 challenge. There are some terrific projects here,
but the Doors house favourite is MetaReciclagem. MetaReciclagem is an open
network, present in all regions of Brazil, that connects together hundreds of
people and several organizations with an interest in critical appropriation of
technologies for social change.
http://tinyurl.com/mutgamb-knn

MASS DESIGN OF HEALTH [Coordinating multiple actors in a complex system]
One way to redesign a health system is to allow an army of lobbyists employed by
insurance companies to do it for you. That has been the the Obama way. Another
approach, tested in Canada last year, is to design a process that allows all the
different stakeholders to decide priorities together. From April to June 2009,
close to one thousand health service providers, physicians, community leaders
and local citizens had a chance to weigh in on health care priorities for their
region. MASS LBP designed an innovative engagement model to capture this diverse
range of voices. Their website describes how they did it:
http://tiny.cc/kmd5t
http://www.masslbp.com/projects_detail.php/mhlhin.html

THINKING INSIDE THE BOX [Design tourism]
"Indigenous peoples have been living harmoniously and sustainable with the Earth
for millennia. They are not only the most affected by climate change, but also
by its false solutions, such as agro-fuels, mega-dams, tree plantations and
carbon offset schemes". The World in a Shell project will take a polliniferoused
container on a journey around the globe to connect with a wide range of peoples
and cultures. It is scheduled to visit Botswana, Greenland, Mongolia, New
Guinea, Congo, Ecuador, Laos, the Solomon Islands, Mauritania, Rajasthan, and
Queensland. The idea is that "it will become a metaphorical treasure box of the
peoples, cultures, living conditions and natural surroundings of these
locations". This sounds like another example of design students putting more
effort into engineering than empathy - but I am sure the "indigenous people"
they turn up to meet, with their box, will be unfailingly polite and hospitable.
http://www.worldinashell.net/

]    BARTER SECTION

HELP GROW OUR RELATIONAL CAPITAL [Spread the word]
This newsletter is free, but it creates value through cross-fertilisation.
Please share it with your friends, colleagues, clients and collaborators.
http://tiny.cc/rCArh
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...AND PARTICIPATE IN THE GIFT ECONOMY
John Thackara, who wrote this newsletter, gives talks, and runs project clinics,
that help organisations embark on transformational change. He also organises
regional-scale events that help real-world sustainability projects
cross-fertilise, and grow. If you would like to support this work, please send
the speaker brochure below to someone in your company (or elsewhere) who
organises events that include paid-for talks - especially remote ones. Merci!
http://tiny.cc/YNSzN

Sincerely,
Todd Alexander Litman
Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org)
litman@...
Phone & Fax 250-360-1560
1250 Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, CANADA
“Efficiency - Equity - Clarity”

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Brook [mailto:dbrookportland@...]

Greetings,
There's an interesting and useful debate that's developed in the US
between the forces of good (transportation) and evil (road builders).
It will be the topic of a debate at TRB this coming week.  This
article looks at the impact and value of mobility management
programs.  Nothing too surprising here but what I think is useful
about the debate is makes one articulate the underlying assumptions
of a particular philosophy.

http://www.vtpi.org/vmt_red.pdf

Dave

Ahmedabad, India Wins 2010 Sustainable Transport Award

City's Janmarg Bus Rapid Transit System Reduces Carbon Emissions, Dramatically Improves Residents Access

Cities in Developing World Dominate Award

-       Source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ahmedabad-india-wins-2010-sustainable-transport-award-81222267.html

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The developing world is leapfrogging developed countries when it comes to urban transport, with the city of Ahmedabad, India, today announced as winner of the 2010 Sustainable Transport Award for the successful implementation of Janmarg, India's first full bus rapid transit (BRT) system.

"This year's Sustainable Transport Award nominees demonstrate the relevance of the developing world in the fight against climate change while improving citizen's quality of life and enhancing their international competitiveness," said Walter Hook, Executive Director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. "Cities have the power to significantly reduce carbon emissions by actively seeking ways to improve transport."

The Sustainable Transport Award is given annually to a city that uses transport innovations to increase mobility for all residents, while reducing transportation greenhouse and air pollution emissions and increasing cyclist and pedestrian safety and access.

Ahmedabad's Janmarg BRT system is a sustainable model for the future of transportation in India, where a quarter of the world's population lives. "BRT systems can positively impact air quality if car and motorbike drivers start taking trips by bus," said Sophie Punte, Executive Director of the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-ASIA). "This is particularly important in Asian cities, where air pollution levels are often far above guidelines of the World Health Organization."

City residents have embraced their new BRT system; 18,000 daily passengers use Janmarg to commute to work, to school and elsewhere. In just a few months of operation, Janmarg has transformed the delivery of transit in South Asia. Janmarg uses innovative central median stations pulled away from the junctions. Bus stations feature passive solar design, an inexpensive way to keep stations naturally cool. The city is making continued efforts to be a leader in sustainable transport, including incorporating high-quality pedestrian facilities in some corridors, as well as bicycle lanes. Ahmedabad has initiated car-free days and recently announced more.

For the first time in the six-year history of the Sustainable Transport Award, all of the nominees are cities in developing nations. The four honorable mentions go to Cali, Colombia, for transforming citywide BRT service with MIO; Curitiba, Brazil, for opening a new BRT line and city park on a former federal highway; Guadalajara, Mexico, for completing a full BRT system in less than two years and at an affordable cost; and Johannesburg, South Africa, for creating Rea Vaya, Africa's first BRT and the first public transit system that connects Soweto to the downtown district.

The official award ceremony will take place tonight, January 12, 2010, from 6:00-7:30 pm at the Hilton Washington, 1919 Connecticut Avenue NW. Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, New York City Department of Transportation, will be the keynote speaker. The event is hosted by Enrique Penalosa, ITDP Board President and former Mayor of Bogota, Colombia. To attend, please RSVP to Claudia Gunter at cgunter@... or +1 646 221-7288.

The cities that received honorable mentions were all recognized for creating new BRT systems that reduce carbon emissions and create an optimal environment for pedestrians and cyclists.

The city of Cali, Colombia, is revolutionizing public transit with a complete overhaul of its transport systems. Cali opened its BRT system, called MIO, introducing a new type of service that allows the buses to work both within and outside its dedicated corridors.

Curitiba, Brazil, continues its sustainable transport heritage to link land use policy to transport interventions, including not only buses but also cycle ways, public space and pedestrian access.  

"Curitiba has laid the foundation for innovative transit," said Kathryn Phillips, a transportation policy expert with Environmental Defense Fund based in Sacramento. "Everyone recognizes it deserves to be an honorable mention recipient for the 2010 Sustainable Transport Award."

Guadalajara, Mexico, opened a full BRT system in just two years. This rapid implementation shows the city's courage and its political dedication to delivering public transport access to its residents.

"The Guadalajara Macrobus BRT System is an extraordinary example of farsighted leadership, good planning, and effective implementation," said Daio Hidalgo, Senior Transport Engineer, EMBARQ, The World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport. "Macrobus is now fully operational just two years after the idea was embraced by the local authorities, with high quality and extraordinary performance."

"Nominations to three major Latin American cities (Cali, Curitiba and Guadalajara) for this year's Sustainable Transport Award reaffirm the leadership role adopted by this region of the world to develop cleaner and more efficient transport systems," said Sergio Sanchez, Executive Director of the Clean Air Institute. "Examples like these should enlighten other Latin American cities and elsewhere to keep moving to build more competitive cities, while improving air quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

The city of Johannesburg, South Africa, opened the first full BRT in Africa, and completed the first mass transit investments in the city since the fall of apartheid. Rea Vaya is the first public transit system to link the previously disadvantaged Soweto area to the central business district.

"In under three years, Johannesburg opened a state-of-the-art BRT system that uses the cleanest buses on the continent," said Manfred Breithaupt of Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH. "Johannesburg's accomplishment against enormous challenges and the upgrading of the corridor in Soweto with lighting and sidewalks makes it an exceptional honorable mention."

Chosen by a selection committee that includes the most respected experts and organizations working internationally on sustainable transportation, this year's nominated cities have successfully addressed a diverse range of urban transport challenges. The Sustainable Transport Award selection committee includes the most respected experts from organizations working internationally on sustainable transportation. The committee members include:

·       Walter Hook, Executive Director, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy

·       Kathryn Phillips, transportation policy expert, Environmental Defense Fund

·       Ralph Gakenheimer, Chair, Transportation Research Board Committee on Transportation in Developing Countries

·       Sophie Punte, Executive Director, Clean Air Initiative for Asia Center

·       Sergio Sanchez, Clean Air Institute, Clean Air Initiative for Latin American Cities.

·       Dario Hidalgo, Senior Transport Engineer, EMBARQ, The World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport

·       Manfred Breithaupt, Senior Transport Advisor, GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit)

·       Heather Allen, Senior Manager, Sustainable Development, International Association of Public Transport (UITP)

·       Choudhury Rudra Charan Mohanty, Environmental Expert, United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD)

The Sustainable Transport Award is given each year during the annual Transportation Research Board meeting in Washington, D.C. Past winners include:

2009 – Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York, United States, for making bold moves to achieve the ambitious goals of PlaNYC 2030.

2008 – Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, Paris, France for implementing a range of innovative mobility solutions with vision, commitment and vigor.  

Mayor Ken Livingston, London, United Kingdom for expanding London's congestion charge program and developing other low emissions programs that dramatically impacted air quality.

2007 – Mayor Jaime Nebot, Guayquil, Ecuador for revitalizing the downtown, creating dynamic public spaces, and instituting a new public transit system.

2006 – Mayor Myung-Bak Lee, Seoul, Korea for the revitalization of the Cheongyecheon River and the implementation of its bus rapid transit system.

2005 – Former Mayor Enrique Penalosa, Bogota, Colombia for the TransMilenio bus rapid transit system, bicycle integration, and public space reclamation.

For more information, photos, and videos about the award and a list of past winners, visit www.st-award.org.  

For more information please contact: Claudia Gunter, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, +1 646 839-6479, cgunter@...

SOURCE Institute for Transportation and Development Policy

RELATED LINKS
http://www.st-award.org

Friends,

 

I think that Ms. Hartzok's list (http://www.earthrightsinstitute.org/) give us a good point of departure, to which I invite your comments and suggestions. I am working on a revised version of it from our perspective here which I shall send on later today along with a broader call for support for next steps in Haiti.

 

My reason for trying to work this through has to do with an eventual new mobility collaborative effort we have been discussing  in Haiti before this tragic event. We need to see whatever we might be able to offer or do in the broader context.

 

I look forward to your comments and suggestions on this.

 

Eric Britton

 

 

On Behalf Of Alanna Hartzok
Sent: Sunday, 17 January, 2010 03:59
Subject: Rebuilding Haiti

 

Our compassionate hearts are deeply touched by the tragedy in Haiti. And from this event, many are learning about how it came to be that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and one of the poorest in the world.

 

We as populist leaders and activists need to  come together with great clarity concerning the fundamentals of economic justice in order to build a powerful force to create a fair global society - a world that works for everyone.

 

The tragedy experienced by the people of Haiti can help serve this larger purpose. Here are the basics and a post acute crisis proposal:

 

A very few individuals and corporations own and control most of the land of Haiti. Their cash crops are exported. Most of the people are landless or have insecure land tenure. Vast numbers have been trying to survive on just one or two dollars a day. Children scavenge garbage dumps for scraps of food leftover from the plates of US soldiers stationed there.

 

In order to build a just society with basic needs secured for all after this acute crisis the land problem in Haiti must be addressed via land reform and land value taxation.

 

There needs to be:

 

* Establishment of  community land trusts and allocation of land for ecological villages.

* Implementation of a transparent public finance system based on land value taxation as called for by UN Habitat and the Global Land Tool Network.

 

On the basis of secure and equitable land tenure these are some details of what then can be established in order to meet basic human needs:

 

1. potable water

2. reforestation

3. agricultural fields (rice and root crops) and appropriate technology
4. wind and solar energy

5. dairy farms (goats, cows)

6. cotton and hemp fields for fabric and building material

7. mangosteen, mango, pineapple, papaya, trees

8. nut trees/ coconut trees, ground nuts (peanuts)

10. Affordable heath care.

11. educational institutions

12. cooperatives.

13. small industries.

 

One way we can help Haitians build a better tomorrow is to convince global creditors to cancel Haiti’s $890 million international debt. Doing so will help make sure that every possible future dollar goes towards rebuilding a stronger Haiti, not to servicing old debts.

 

Alanna Hartzok, Co-Director Earth Rights Institute

Ame Johnson, PROUT New York

 

 

Haitian Streets after the emergency: Introduction to an Informal brainstorm

·       Comments invited to editor@...   to the group via  NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com :

·       References:  Oops. Your help invited to prepare a good list here. Our own  print materials are for the most part old, and in large part look at what can be done with bicycles. Anyone who may have more good up-to-date references will be more than welcome to share them (with URL).

·       World Streets MsF article of 17 Jan. http://tinyurl.com/yghn6xf

What is this:

I would like to brainstorm on this with whomever out there may want to pitch in. The working notes assume some familiarity with city transport conditions in very poor countries. I attach a first good note just in from Dave Holladay of Glasgow which to my mind certainly belongs on our final idea shortlist.

Just to be sure that we have our future street work in the big picture, I also attach below some notes that appeared in yesterdays' positing to World Streets in support of the Medecins sans Frontières brave work to deal as best possible with the emergency. As with the following, there are intended merely food for thought and for comment, discussion and improvement.  In an attempt to get a running start on what needs to happen on the streets of Haiti's cities.

 Here to get us going are my first imperfect thoughts.

1.      Keep it simple. (Not least because there is a lot there they can work well with)

2.      Work with what you have. Don't try to get fancy, expensive or introduce  a lot of new infrastructure.

3.      Don't fix what is already working pretty well (i.e., once you have fully understood, we then work with what we have and figure out how to make the best of it –which is we get it right will be very good indeed.

4.      Strong Points: Here are the strong points that should NOT be shouldered aside in any ill-considered attempt to "modernize" or otherwise follow the dominant western mobility model.

a.      Congestion: Heavy density on many streets forces traffic to go slow – That's perfect. Do what is needed to keep it slow and safe

b.      Confusion: Highly varied mixed use – Walkers, Animals, bikers, peddlers, street life, motorized two wheelers, buses, taxis, vans, trucks – keep it mixed (and keep it slow and safe)

c.      Danger: Taxis, Tap-Taps, buses, trucks, motor bikes  as public or shared transport providers – There is a lot out there and it is carrying many people every day. It may be unsafe, dirty, dangerous, polluting chaotic and at times life threatening.  But one way or another it accomplished an important job every day and the city and the people would be badly deprived of these lively services if they were to be swept away. Keep it, improve it and give attention to making it better in all these key areas (and bear in mind that you can't do it all overnight).

5.      Firing order: Favor, protect and support in this order:

a.      Pedestrians (targeting above all safety and comfort for women and children walking to school)

b.      Bicyclists (non-motorized)

c.      Peddlers and other street people

d.      Shared transport providers (taxis collectives, small buses, Tap-taps, etc.)

e.      Local delivery services

f.      Parking (i.e., none for cars)

g.      Cars – do what is needed to provide high quality mobility without favoring or supporting individual car ownership (in cities)

h.      Community participation in system design and policing

i.      Enforcement

6.      Dave Holladay comments on role of bikes:

a.      In the UK the Postal service runs around 40,000 bikes, and a 7 year renewal cycle means that about 6000-7000 bikes are replaced every year. Many go out to Africa through various routes. The French postal service also uses sturdy cargo carrying bikes - what happens with their renewal programme?

Could we perhaps divert the postal service workbikes that are being renewed out to Haiti?

Work bikes tend to be a) robust b) have drum brakes and c) of relaxed geometry which in turn makes them easier to ride with flat or no tyres. Unlike a motor vehicle sent as 'aid' the bike requires no further import of fuel (and consequent need to secure the bunkering facilities) and can carry almost 20 times its own weight, as well as packing to a high density in a shipping container - you get a far greater transport capacity from a container filled with bikes than one with 1 or 2 motor vehicles.

Bikes can also help to resolve the local unrest by giving the people wanting aid to be delivered a role in its delivery, and if you can accept some 'leakage' the bikes will filter in to driving the local economic recovery moving people and produce around.

If you need mechanics then recruit from the youth-bike projects which have won back kids from a route into delinquency - offer them a trip to help Haiti - an adventure with hard work but guaranteed to deliver a 'lifetime' memory.

Dave Holladay, Glasgow

PS  The other issue I noted was the dependence of portable power generation on imported fuel. Baxi make a Sterling Engine-powered unit and as this is an external combustion engine it can use any source of heat which can be focussed onto the right part of the cylinder(s), an so it can generate power as long as you have something to burn.

II. What we intend to do once the emergency has been met.

(Notes from http://newmobilityagenda.blogspot.com/2010/01/we-support-medecins-sans-frontieres-in.html)

The goal of this section is to make sure that we keep our target area in the necessary broader context:

The importance of safe streets: No city, no place in the world can hope for a fair future if it does not have safe streets that work for people in their day to day lives. Streets are the circulatory systems of our cities, They are not "roads" which tend to be treated as more or less isolated conduits down which we try to channel as many vehicles as fast as possible. No streets are rather highly idiosyncratic, hugely varied human spaces in which people move and mill around but also do a lot of other things as well. Roads are for vehicles, streets are for people. We do streets.

But in their rightful place: We all know the old one that to a man with a hammer all problems look like nails. So of course we have to make sure that all that we think is important is properly understood in the broader context of the needs and priorities of the people in that place. Alanna Hartzok of Earth Rights Institute sent us this morning their list of priorities for rebuilding Haiti. Putting on my hat as an development economist, let me share with you my own revised read of the situation.

The overall priorities as I see them then, in some kind of rough order . . .

1. Public safety
2. Potable water
3. Access to basic food supply
4. Sanitation
5. Habitat
6. Safe streets
7. Appropriate transport (affordable, clean, available to all, sustainable)
8. Low cost first-line health care
9. Public schools for all
10. Reforestation

And not even one nanometer behind these:

1. Land reform
2. Agricultural fields (rice and root crops) and appropriate technology
3. Transparent public finance
4. Wind and solar energy
5. Dairy farms (goats, cows)
6. Cotton and hemp fields for fabric and building material
7. Mangosteen, mango, pineapple, papaya, trees
8. Nut trees/ coconut trees, ground nuts (peanuts)
9. Cooperatives.
10. Small industries

Debt Forgiveness: A critical step to help Haitians build a better tomorrow will be to convince global creditors to cancel Haiti’s $890 million international debt. This I believe should extend to all debts held by the poor. After bailing out the biggest banks on the planet we are not talking about huge numbers here. Doing so will help make sure that every possible future dollar goes towards rebuilding a stronger Haiti, not to servicing old debts.

United Nations Trusteeship Council: To all of which I have to add a much stronger role on the part of the much-neglected Trusteeship Council which needs a far more aggressive mandate for overseeing the next ten or twenty years in democracy and peace. In many parts of the world we have for far too long been fooling ourselves about the importance of that trip to the polls as a guarantor of democracy. The facts speak for themselves. True democracy requires a full stomach and a safe walk to the polling place. And there are times in life when we all can use a little help from outside.

International Partnerships for Sustainable Transport: And in this, our partial bailiwick, I hope that our collaborators around the world will now turn their eyes and hearts toward Haiti, not only for a bit of help from our wallets today but more actively in the months and years ahead. Already and in part in reaction to the great chaos that soured COP15 in Copenhagen last month, a broad range of groups and programs are already beginning to get together lay the base for more effective international collaboration in our field, and World Streets is but one small example of this. The OECD's International Transportation Forum is also an important force for international collaboration and support. The new International Partnerships for Sustainable Transport (http://slocat.net/) already groups brings together come fifty of the most active international, bi-laterals, NGOs and other actors in our field. Others are emerging and hopefully will be regularly introduced and tracked in the pages of World Streets.

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Subject: Message of 27 Jan. 2010. "Oil & Polar Bears Don't Mix. Stop EMBARQ-partner Shell Now - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sustran-discuss/message/5729

Paris, Friday, 29 January, 2010

Dear Colleagues,

We have suffered an embarrassing incident here this week to which I would like to draw your attention this morning  in the hope that together we can perhaps learn a few positive lessons from it.

The event:

On the 27th one of our number, in his impatience for his own version of a better world, decided to engage in a pure propaganda maneuver which merits a bit of reflection.  In a phrase : this person posted to the forum a communication that he represented as having some from Francis Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NDRC). The communication as he posted it violently denigrated the work and integrity of two important organizations working for the sustainable transportation agenda by associating them directly with the aggressive Arctic Refuge drilling policies of the Shell Oil Company.  Thus, in his doctored version each time the original made reference to the Shell Oil Company, he inserted "EMBARQ-partner Shell ".  This disinformation was then distributed to several lists including ours.

The consequences:

This is not only dishonorable, something that concerns the perpetrator of this sordid mess alone, but it is also a harmful thing on many levels. 

First, because it puts the NRDC in a position which is more than awkward and which indeed is entirely contrary to their principles, given that they in fact collaborate and interact with the groups whose integrity was impugned.  I can well imagine  the impact this has on them and their staff, they who are working so hard and so vigorously for a better world.  Not fair!  (You can see more about their work and contributions at http://www.nrdc.org/about/.)

And not fair either to our colleagues at Embarq, a global network of researchers, engineers and policy specialists created in 2002 under the aegis of the  prestigious World Resources Institute specifically to support environmentally and financially sustainable transport solutions to improve quality of life in cities in the developing world. Why should their hard-working staff and supporters be obliged to suffer from this calumny? (More on Embarq at http://www.embarq.org/en/about/about-embarq)

The third innocent victim was the Shell Foundation, a charity  active since 1997 in funding a lot of good work in the field of sustainable transportation and other areas where greater thoughtfulness and more aggressive representation is much needed.   Their mandate links them to working with global development and environmental challenges linked to the impact of energy and globalization.  (Go to http://www.shellfoundation.org/ and see for yourself.)

The fourth victim – and in my view certainly the most important – is all of us who are working so hard for this (I chose my word carefully here) noble cause.  There are thousands of us in local environmental and transport groups, public agencies, NGOs, universities, operators ready to take new approaches, consultants ready to join in, reporters, writers, and others who are committed to our common cause. When one of us suffers such calumny, we all are affected.

I will not comment on this person's  motivations, which I have difficulty imagining on the part of a mature individual.  What I can hope is that he will now reflect in silence on all this, not hopefully  lose his obvious enthusiasm for sustainable transport and sustainable lives, and after a couple months of judicious silence and self-examination come back to us with his ethics in order. (Who of us has never made a mistake?)

There was a good piece in yesterday's New York Times on this subject that is worth a look. Entitled "Tacking corrupt research and missing the point", you can read it at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/science/26tier.html?n=Top%2fNews%2fScience%2fColumns%2fFindings  But if you do not have time to do that, let me take a single point he makes that I believe has significance in our present context. I quote: "Conflict-of-interest accusations have become the simplest strategy for avoiding a substantive debate."  Indeed!

Why we need to unite:

One of the reasons all this is so harmful is that those of us who are giving our lives, energy, brains,  and resources to addressing the sustainable transportation agenda and all that entails, need all the help and solidarity we can get to pursue and prevail.  When it comes to money and influence we are losing the war of sustainable development and social justice. As a group we are heavily outgunned by the lobbies of those people and groups who are doing very well under the present circumstances and whose strategy by and large is either to ignore the gravity of the situation , to deny it, or to prolong action as far into the future as possible. So that their goose can continue to lay their golden eggs.

In this unequal battle, what do we have going for us? 

Well, first of all, in terms of all the basic values and fundamentals: we have the fact that we are right.  Sustainable transport, sustainable cites, sustainable lives – that is something that we can and should do. It will be the future. We will make it the future.

Our "rightness" however is considerably attenuated by the fact that as with any movement involving a lot of clever people, there are a wide range of views concerning how best to achieve these objectives.  That can make things a bit difficult at times. But this diversity is also an important part of our strength. We are not a monoculture, we are eco-diverse with all that entails.

Take us as but one example: Here in our work at the New Mobility Agenda and World Streets for example we have made the strategic decision to concentrate our attention and work on what can be done in the next two to four years to achieve significant progress. That's all we do, and others work in terms of a less defined or longer time horizon. What this aggressive shortening of the time horizon offers, we find, is a big help to ensure the near-term changes which are needed and possible without waiting around for something perhaps bigger and better – but above all later.   Not everyone agrees with this approach, but   one thing that happens when you have successes in the near-term, and that is that what you learn in the process  instructs you and others as to what to do next, and gives you courage in order to be able to execute those important next steps.

We, the international sustainable transport alliance, have one other thing going for us and this is absolutely vital -- and that is our integrity.  Without our integrity we cannot prevail -- , so anything, no matter how minor, which undermines that is the true dagger in our heart.  It is not just a matter of "reputation Iago". It goes far deeper than that.  It is not only what others think of us, but what we think of ourselves -- and if we do not have high thoughts and high ambitions we are going to lose this war.

And now what? Well, what about Haiti?

In closing I would like to suggest that as allies we treat this as a wake-up call for greater solidarity and cooperation.  And with that in mind I would like to see if we could now start to discuss how we can gather all of our resources, all of our energy, all of our knowledge, and all of our integrity --- to point  it in the direction of one place and one time right now in order to demonstrate that sustainable transportation and social justice can work even in the most challenging circumstances

Specifically, I hope that all of you read this letter will at least consider the possibility of finding ways for us to gather forces to undertake to create a viable sustainable transportation agenda that makes sense for Haiti.  Now the time to do this.  The fundamental decisions as to directions and values which will underlie what happens next in our sector have yet to be made.  Now is the time that we need to show up and make our voices heard. Together!

I hope we will in this manner perhaps turn an embarrassing, regrettable event into an opportunity. The pas this the past, the future is our challenge. Starting today

And of course as always I invite your comments and suggestions.

Kind regards,

Eric Britton

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