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#1258 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Tue Dec 29, 2009 6:11 pm
Subject: 2009? And what the hell was that supposed to be all about? (Letter from the editor of World Streets)
fekbritton
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Letter from the editor:

2009? And what the hell was that supposed to be all about?

The following was sent yesterday by the editor as a private communication to a small group of long time colleagues, as a kick-off to and call for collaboration in the new year ahead. Since the reaction has been so immediate and positive I have decided to post it to World Streets, as part of our transition strategy and general preparations for the year ahead. Comments more than welcome. Eric Britton, Editor, World Streets (Pictured sitting at his desk as he reflects on 2009.)

 

--> Full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

--> Discussions on New Mobility Forum at www.newmobility.org  (Post to NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com)

 

Read World Streets Today at http://www.worldstreets.org/

New Mobility Partnerships  http://www.newmobility.org

8/10 rue Joseph Bara,     75006 Paris,  France, Europe

           +331 4326 1323  eric.britton(at)newmobility.org   Skype: newmobility

 


#1259 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Wed Dec 30, 2009 1:43 pm
Subject: Tribute to Streetsblog and New York City - Think Local, Act Local, Act Strong, Act Now!
fekbritton
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In closing out the old year we would like to invite you all in your cities around the world to reflect on this. Something that our friends over at Streetsblog in New York City have just published and which is part of their long term commitment to drawing attention to the terrible injustices (the phrase is not too strong) our transportation arrangements and enforcement and legal systems are perpetrating on innocent pedestrians and cyclists on the streets of our cities every day. Shouldn't you be doing this too in your city?

Have a look at this uncompromising, no excuses editorial that appeared yesterday in Streetsblog's New York City edition. You will see their sentence: "Of the 66 pedestrians, seven cyclists and one wheelchair user known to have died since January, in only 12 cases was the driver reportedly charged for taking a life." At least one city now has someone who is doing the arithmetic and making it public. Surely a first step in the process of redressing these outrageous wrongs.

In Memoriam

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memoriam_2.jpg

 

 

memoriam_3.jpg

 

memoriam_4.jpg

 

 

memoriam_5.jpg

 

 

memoriam_6.jpg



 

# # #

Look at those faces. Think of those lives so terribly truncated, simply because we are not smart enough nor fair enough to do better. But it does not have to be that way.

We know of course the answer to this: (a) Fewer cars on the street, moving far more slowly (we trap[ them through slow street architecture), far better protection for all others out on the street, and drivers who when at the wheel have the fear of their life of what will happen to them in the event they are the source of incident, injury or death. This coupled with (b) clear and simple laws, that are made widely known, together with draconian enforcement coupled with strict and immediate punishment which is comparable to the offenses committed. And no exceptions. Sometimes life is simple.

The editor, World Streets

--> Full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

--> Discussions on New Mobility Forum at www.newmobility.org  (Post to NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com)

 

Read World Streets Today at http://www.worldstreets.org/

New Mobility Partnerships  http://www.newmobility.org

8/10 rue Joseph Bara,     75006 Paris,  France, Europe

           +331 4326 1323  eric.britton(at)newmobility.org   Skype: newmobility

 


#1260 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Wed Dec 30, 2009 3:15 pm
Subject: Culture(s) of Mobility (Netherlands) - Alexander von Humboldt Lectures Series:
fekbritton
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Thanks to David Levinger for the heads-up

The Alexander von Humboldt Lectures Series:

CULTURE(S) OF MOBILITY


a lecture series on the mobility turn in Human Geography


Programme
The Department of Human Geography at the Radboud University of Nijmegen
cordially invites you to our Lecture and Seminar Series on the theme of
'Culture(s) of Mobility'.

See also http://socgeo.ruhosting.nl/humboldt
Map of campus
(http://www.ru.nl/contents/pages/2731/ruwegw.sitened06-2006.pdf)

Click here for a more detailed description of this programme:
http://socgeo.ruhosting.nl/content/programmedescription.html



Lectures and Seminars
The following Alexander von Humboldt Guests take part in our programme:
(clicking on a name will bring you to their personal homepage)
Prof. Peter Peters (Department of Philosophy, University of Maastricht, NL)
Prof. Vincent Kaufmann (Department of Sociology, Ecole Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne, CH)
Prof. Guy Baeten (Department of Geography, Lund University, Sweden)
Prof. Tim Cresswell (Department of Geography, Royal Holloway University of
London, UK)
Prof. John Urry (Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, UK)


Prof. Peter Peters (Department of Philosophy, University of Maastricht, NL)
Alexander von Humboldt Lecture: "Travel Time in Technological Cultures"

Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010, 17:30-19:30
Gymnasion
Heyendaalsweg 141
6525 AJ Nijmegen
Room GN3

Abstract: Travel takes time. And because we experience time as scarce,
innovations in the way we travel generally aim at reducing the amount of
time a journey takes. In this lecture, I will challenge the basic assumption
underlying this line of thinking, the idea that the time spent travelling
can be reduced to a neutral and measured unity which can be saved if we
speed up. The core of my argument is that travel not only takes time, but
that it also makes time. In examining every day travel practices, I argue
that travel time can also be understood as the product of situated transit
practices. Thus I hope to provide a pragmatic understanding of the way
people actually travel in order to open up new perspectives on both mobility
innovations and on the study of travel in technological cultures.
Along with transportation economists, urban planners, social geographers and
traffic engineers, I argue that travel time is of pivotal importance for
grasping the character of the problems of increased mobility. Economic and
geographical models that explain and calculate travel demand using
quantifiable unit of time shape the vocabulary we have at our disposal to
discuss mobility problems and their solutions. Yet this vocabulary has its
limits when used to explain the success and failure of mobility innovations.
Recently, greater emphasis has been given to local processes of daily
travel, developments in transportation and communications infrastructures,
and the cultures related to mobility.
In my lecture, I contribute to this emerging field by analysing and studying
'mobilities' as practices of travel. The word 'travel' has different
meanings. It refers not just to a state of mobility, but to a meaningful
activity that has a long cultural and social history. It not only engenders
a movement in space and time, but also assumes the subjectivity of
experiences as well as the inter-subjectivity of texts and discourses. In my
practice-oriented approach, travel cannot reduced to getting from A to B as
quickly and as smoothly as possible - the underlying assumption in
mainstream transportation research vocabularies on mobility - but instead,
travel has to be treated as an integrated part of everyday life, as a
'normal' practice.

In order to travel, I claim, we need to construct 'passages' that produce a
situated relation between time and space. How this is achieved in practice
can be described on three levels. As heterogeneous orders, passages assume
both material and discursive elements. As planned yet contingent orders,
they must be 'repaired' continuously in real time. And as orders that both
include and exclude people, places and moments in time, they are inherently
political and have to be justified and legitimated. This conceptual
framework enables us to examine innovations in travel in a new way: how can
they be conceived of as passages? How are passages created? What are the
politics of these new passages? In designing and innovating passages, travel
time is constructed. Shorter travel times can therefore never be a
sufficient argument for mobility innovations; instead we should envision
different possible passages and present them as argued choices, not between
different speeds, but between different 'worlds'.

Prof. Vincent Kaufmann (Department of Sociology, Ecole Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne, CH)
Alexander von Humboldt Lecture: "Re-thinking mobility"

Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010, 17:30-19:30
Gymnasion
Heyendaalsweg 141
6525 AJ Nijmegen
Room GN3

Abstract: Since the Second World War, it is true that we go faster and
farther; but, practically speaking, our journeys on a day-to-day basis take
more and more time. This has been the experience of many; identities that
were once upon a time locally rooted have now become multiple and
cosmopolitan. Low-cost travel options have also left their mark on the
economy by contributing to its globalisation and transforming modes of
production. With the context as such, it is no longer possible to think of
nation-states as autonomous societies vis-à-vis one another, nor of
geographical areas as homogenous spaces cordoned off by distinct borders. In
short, the conditions under which movement takes place has changed and is
still changing the world - a world that is living what many social
scientists call the 'mobility turn'. This mobility turn is at the heart of
global change, acting upon all aspects of economic, political and social
life. Practically speaking, it results in the unprecedented growth of
transportation and telecommunications flows. This growth brings with it
various problems at the practical level such as: chronic traffic jams of
roadways, railways and airports; environmental problems ranging from
atmospheric and sonic pollution to in-ground waste; and problems of energy
consumption. In cities in particular this means problems of social and
spatial cohesion the likes of which have never been seen, problems with the
cognitive management of information, and finally an increase in societal
friction (multicultural tensions, local and global struggles). Many experts
(oft times engineers) have offered potential solutions to these different
problems, but these solutions are for the most part limited, controversial
and more often than not seek to treat the consequences rather than going
straight to the source of the problem. Acting on mobility production
supposes having identified the logics of action that underlie movement (the
motives and the means of mobility: why do we move? how?) and their impact
(what are the results of movement in terms of space? how, in return, does
urban layout influence movement?) Only once we have taken an in-depth look
at the mobility conditions of today can we offer innovative solutions to the
question, 'How can we act upon "why" and "how" people move?' These are key
questions in mobility research - questions that are central to my own
research activities and which enable me to rethink contemporary urban
dynamics (social, geographical and political) in an original way. Giving
relevance to these questions supposes two pre-conditions:
1. It is crucial to not confine mobility analysis to notion of
transportation alone. Transportation, whether of objects or individuals,
stem more often than not from a need rooted in human activities. Returning
to the rationales that regulate movement subsequently leads to an
exploration of their political and social consequences, allowing for an
in-depth analysis of the structure and functioning of contemporary
societies. In other words, it is not only a question of considering changes
in lifestyles (pluralism, individualism, etc.) but also the new social and
technical forms that prompt them (evolution of economic structures,
technological innovation, changes in values, etc.) and the issues they give
rise to (new forms of inequality, opportunities, physical tension,
socio-cultural conflicts, etc.)
2. It is important to develop appropriate conceptual tools to tackle the
'mobility turn'. The extent of this turn is so important that movements -
their why, how and the way they change landscapes and societies - can no
longer be fully understood with static notions, externals to social actors.
The broadening of transportation options has indeed introduced new realms of
choices at the centre of everyday life (about residential location,
utilisation of transportation means, amenities). Such choices suppose
individuals will use of technical skills and have enough imagination to
appropriate technical systems to be able to benefit from them for their
personal and collective (i.e. entrepreneurial) plans. Technical and social
innovations are constantly changing the access and competency that enable
mobility. This results in the fact that individuals and social groups must
continually and imperatively adapt. The main challenge now facing research
at this level consists in developing tools capable of describing and
analysing mobility and its social and spatial implications, the goal being
to equip ourselves with the necessary means of action for dealing with it
without having a negative impact at the territorial, economic, social or
environmental levels.


Research Seminar with Prof. Vincent Kaufmann
Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010, 10:45-12:30
Thomas van Aquinostraat 3
Room 3.00.27


Together with Prof. Vincent Kaufmann we discuss his current research
programme and ideas for future research. As kick-off for this discussion
Prof. Vincent Kaufmann will (briefly) present his current research and
topical issues in the academic debate. At the same time we will discuss the
questions directed to Prof. Kaufmann by the other Humboldt Lecturers in this
series. Prof. Peter Peters and/or his assistent Sanneke Kloppenburg will
accompany us in these discussions throughout the whole series.


PhD./Researchers Workshop with Prof. Vincent Kaufmann
Friday, Feb. 12, 2010, 10:45-12:30
Thomas van Aquinostraat 3
Room 3.00.27

Researchers present their own research work (in progress) and discuss this
with Prof. Vincent Kaufmann and with the audience. Internal and external
researchers and PhD-students are cordially invited to participate.
Especially also PhD-students or Researchers from the inter-university
networks NETHUR and TRAIL are kindly invited. To present and discuss your
research please register in advance with Prof. Huib Ernste
(h.ernste@...)


Prof. Guy Baeten (Department of Geography, Lund University, Sweden)
Alexander von Humboldt Lecture: "Contradictions of Mobility and Degenerate
Utopias in Post-Political Times"

Wednesday, March. 10, 2010, 17:30-19:30
Room to be announced


Abstract: Mobility, both at global and local scales, is caught in a set of
contradictions that seem increasingly difficult to solve under contemporary
political conditions. First, while the Orient is experiencing the
establishment of mass motorized transport, comparable to the 'golden age' of
Fordism in occidental countries in the 50s and 60s, the scientific and
political communities (of the west) are warning for insurmountable global
environmental problems caused by the explosion of motorized transport.
Second, in times when grand environmental envisioning is needed to tackle
those planetary challenges, the appeal of established environmental visions
such as 'sustainability' is slowly crumbling. The degeneration of
intellectual certainties of the recent past makes it near to impossible to
frame mobility problems and mobilize response. Third, it seems that the gap
between those who are empowered by transport possibilities, and those who
are disempowered by the lack of them, continues to widen. The (re)production
of divides based on gender, class, race and ethnicity through the removal of
mobility barriers for some and the creation of mobility barriers for others,
urgently needs to be readdressed. Finally, inspired by the works of
Rancière, Swyngedouw and Dikeç, it will be investigated how a search for
'mobility justice' is possible in post-political times.

Research Seminar with Prof. Guy Baeten
Thursday, March 11, 2010, 10:45-12:30
Thomas van Aquinostraat 3
Room 3.00.27


Together with Prof. Guy Baeten we discuss his current research programme and
ideas for future research. As kick-off for this discussion Prof. Guy Baeten
will (briefly) present his current research and topical issues in the
academic debate. At the same time we will discuss the questions directed to
Prof. Guy Baeten by the other Humboldt Lecturers in this series. Prof. Peter
Peters and/or his assistent Sanneke Kloppenburg will accompany us in these
discussions throughout the whole series.


PhD./Researchers Workshop with Prof. Guy Baeten
Friday, March. 12, 2010, 10:45-12:30
Thomas van Aquinostraat 3
Room 3.00.27


Researchers present their own research work (in progress) and discuss this
with Prof. Guy Baeten and with the audience. Internal and external
researchers and PhD-students are cordially invited to participate.
Especially also PhD-students or Researchers from the inter-university
networks NETHUR and TRAIL are kindly invited. To present and discuss your
research please register in advance with Prof. Huib Ernste
(h.ernste@...)


Prof. Tim Cresswell (Department of Geography, Royal Holloway University of
London, UK)
Alexander von Humboldt Lecture: "On Turbulence"

Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 17:30-19:30
Gymnasion
Heyendaalsweg 141
6525 AJ Nijmegen
Room GN3

Abstract: This paper considers the importance of the notion of turbulence
for the theorisation of mobility. Turbulence is the product of friction
between different kinds of flow. It can be contrasted with smooth 'laminar'
flow - where everything is moving 'correctly'. This paper borrows from
physics and mathematics as well as the philosophies of Michel Serres and
Manuel Delanda to think about turbulence as a process which makes visible
the orderings of infrastructural mobilities. The issue of turbulence -
incorrect and unpredictable mobilities - will be at the heart of the paper
which will form a discussion of turbulent mobilities in a number of
different instances, illustrated by examples from the vagrants of medieval
Europe to the shipping of containers and the infrastructure of the Internet.
I will contrast the smooth operation of infrastructural mobilities that are
supposed to remain silent and invisible with the dramatic and very visible
instances of turbulence, that no system can ever predict or make disappear,
which provides an entry point into the ordering of a mobile world.


Research Seminar with Prof. Tim Cresswell
Thursday, March 25, 2010, 10:45-12:30
Thomas van Aquinostraat 3
Room 3.00.27

Together with Prof. Tim Cresswell we discuss his current research programme
and ideas for future research. As kick-off for this discussion Prof. Tim
Cresswell will (briefly) present his current research and topical issues in
the academic debate. At the same time we will discuss the questions directed
to Prof. Tim Cresswell by the other Humboldt Lecturers in this series. Prof.
Peter Peters and/or his assistent Sanneke Kloppenburg will accompany us in
these discussions throughout the whole series.


PhD./Researchers Workshop with Prof. Tim Cresswell
Friday, March 26, 2010, 10:45-12:30
Thomas van Aquinostraat 3
Room 3.00.27

Researchers present their own research work (in progress) and discuss this
with Prof. Tim Cresswell and with the audience. Internal and external
researchers and PhD-students are cordially invited to participate.
Especially also PhD-students or Researchers from the inter-university
networks NETHUR and TRAIL are kindly invited. To present and discuss your
research please register in advance with Prof. Huib Ernste
(h.ernste@...)


Prof. John Urry (Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, UK)
Alexander von Humboldt Lecture: "After the Car"

Wednesday, April 21, 2010, 17:30-19:30
Gymnasion
Heyendaalsweg 141
6525 AJ Nijmegen
Room GN3

Abstract: An examination of the path dependence of the car system which has
so dominated the twentieth century. In some ways that century has been the
'century of the car'. In this paper I examine the array of small changes
occurring throughout the world that indicate the possibilities that a
post-car system is in process of emergence. Is such a post-car personal
vehicle system in process of being formed? When and how could the
steel-and-petroleum car be superseded? What might be the small changes that
could provoke such a new system to be established?


Research Seminar with Prof. John Urry
Thursday, April 22, 2010, 10:45-12:30
Thomas van Aquinostraat 3
Room 3.00.27

Together with Prof. John Urry we discuss his current research programme and
ideas for future research. As kick-off for this discussion Prof. John Urry
will (briefly) present his current research and topical issues in the
academic debate. At the same time we will discuss the questions directed to
Prof. John Urry by the other Humboldt Lecturers in this series. Prof. Peter
Peters and/or his assistent Sanneke Kloppenburg will accompany us in these
discussions throughout the whole series.


PhD./Researchers Workshop with Prof. John Urry
Friday, April 23, 2010, 10:45-12:30
Thomas van Aquinostraat 3
Room 3.00.27


Researchers present their own research work (in progress) and discuss this
with Prof. John Urry and with the audience. Internal and external
researchers and PhD-students are cordially invited to participate.
Especially also PhD-students or Researchers from the inter-university
networks NETHUR and TRAIL are kindly invited. To present and discuss your
research please register in advance with Prof. Huib Ernste
(h.ernste@...)



#1261 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Sat Jan 2, 2010 12:37 pm
Subject: 1 January 2009: Is World Streets worth continuing in 2010? We asked 100 experts for their views - - and 101 responded.
fekbritton
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1 January 2009: Is World Streets worth continuing in 2010? We asked 100  experts for their views - - and 101 responded.

January 1 2009. We have just competed our first year of publication of World Streets, and we now know that we are going to need financial and other forms of support if we are to continue this international sustainability adventure. Is what we are doing useful and worthy of support? 101 of our readers picked up their pens and responded to our question.


[Have a look and if upon consideration you would like to add your voice and views to what you see here, you will see on the site that you are more than welcome to do so. The editor.]

--> Full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

--> Discussions on New Mobility Forum at www.newmobility.org  (Post to NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com)

 

Read World Streets Today at http://www.worldstreets.org/

New Mobility Partnerships  http://www.newmobility.org

8/10 rue Joseph Bara,     75006 Paris,  France, Europe

           +331 4326 1323  eric.britton(at)newmobility.org   Skype: newmobility

 


#1262 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Tue Jan 5, 2010 12:16 pm
Subject: Doors of Perception: January 2010 - Line Loss
fekbritton
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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.
Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://www.doorsofperception.com/mailinglist/
Back issues: http://www.doorsofperception.com/mailinglist/archives.php

**** **** **** **** ****
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
Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://www.doorsofperception.com/mailinglist/
Back issues: http://www.doorsofperception.com/mailinglist/archives.php

...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

#1263 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Tue Jan 5, 2010 6:02 pm
Subject: How to read World Streets until we are ready for 2010
fekbritton
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How to read World Streets until we are ready for 2010

 

During the weeks directly ahead we shall be concentrating our limited resources on the search for financial and other support so that World Streets can continue publication in 2010. Thus during this period we shall not be maintaining our usual 5/7 publication schedule. For that reason you will find in this section only postings that relate to laying the groundwork for 2010 and the funding search. We are sure you understand. But wait a minute, that's not all.

 




--> Full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

--> Discussions on New Mobility Forum at www.newmobility.org  (Post to NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com)

 

Read World Streets Today at http://www.worldstreets.org/

New Mobility Partnerships  http://www.newmobility.org

8/10 rue Joseph Bara,     75006 Paris,  France, Europe

           +331 4326 1323  eric.britton(at)newmobility.org   Skype: newmobility

 


#1264 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Wed Jan 6, 2010 9:16 pm
Subject: W/S State of the Nation New Mobility 2009 reports: <
fekbritton
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Carsharing: the last nail in the coffin of old mobility

 

At the beginning of each new year the New Mobility Agenda invites the approximately two thousand individuals and groups from more than seventy nations on all continents who log into our dozen-plus focus sites to share overviews of the "state of the nation" in their particular area of interest and activity. This year we start with carsharing.

The following update note and invitation sent on Monday of this week to the almost five hundred members of the World Carshare Consortium, has set off the annual country updates on carsharing that will this year for the first time be published on World Streets. Over the course of the coming weeks, we shall be presenting their reports in these pages. You will see: 2009 was a great year for carsharing, and 2010 is going to be even better.


--> Full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

--> Discussions on New Mobility Forum at www.newmobility.org  (Post to NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com)

 

Read World Streets Today at http://www.worldstreets.org/

New Mobility Partnerships  http://www.newmobility.org

8/10 rue Joseph Bara,     75006 Paris,  France, Europe

           +331 4326 1323  eric.britton(at)newmobility.org   Skype: newmobility

 



.


#1265 From: Todd Alexander Litman <litman@...>
Date: Thu Jan 7, 2010 6:17 am
Subject: VTPI Newsletter: 2010 TRB Special
litman@...
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            -----------
             VTPI NEWS
            -----------
        Victoria Transport Policy Institute
           "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"
        -------------------------------------
            January 2010 TRB Special
         -----------------------------------
     
The 89th Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting takes place next week, 10-14 January 2010 in Washington, D.C. ( http://www.trb.org/AnnualMeeting2010/Public/AnnualMeeting2010.aspx ). The Victoria Transport Policy Institute is involved in TRB in several ways. Below are highlights.
 
 
Sustainable Transportation Indicators Subcommittee (ADD40-1)
Monday, 11 January 2010, 8:00AM- 9:45AM; Hilton, Kalorama
Agenda at: http://pressamp.trb.org/conferenceinteractiveprogram/EventDetails.aspx?ID=16224&Email =
This Subcommittee is working to develop appropriate performance indicators for evaluating transport system sustainability. VTPI Executive Director Todd Litman chairs this Subcommittee.
 
 
"Is VMT A Good Or A Bad?"
Transportation Economics Committee
Tuesday, 12 January 2010, 8:00AM- 9:45AM; Hilton
Todd Litman will give a brief (5-minute) presentation on recent research concerning transportation economic development impacts ( http://www.vtpi.org/econ_dev.pdf ). The research indicates that in industrialized countries, per capita GDP tends to increase with:
* Higher fuel prices
* Higher per capita public transit ridership
* Higher land use density
* Lower per capita vehicle miles traveled (VMT)
* Lower per capita lane-miles
 
This indicates that policy and planning reforms which improve transport options (better walking, cycling, public transit, etc.), more efficiently price vehicle travel (better road, parking, insurance and fuel pricing), and create more accessible, multi-modal, smart growth communities tend to increase economic productivity in addition to their social and environmental benefits.
 

"Sustainable Transportation Indicator Data Quality and Availability"
( http://www.vtpi.org\sustain\TRB_2010_STI_Data.pdf)
Poster Session 437: Coming to Grips with Sustainability: Framework Approach
Tuesday, 12 January 2010, 9:30AM- 12:00PM; Hilton, International Center
This paper investigates the quality and availability of data required for sustainable transportation indicators. It finds that much of the information required is already collected, but inconsistencies in definitions and collection methods, a lack of disaggregation to appropriate geographic scales, and difficulties accessing data reduce the utility of this information. With relatively little incremental costs, transportation professional organizations could improve the quality of transportation-related statistics to facilitate transportation research, policy analysis and planning.
 
 
"Are Vehicle Travel Reduction Targets Justified?" ( http://www.vtpi.org/vmt_red.pdf )
Panel (Debate) Session 499: Vehicle Miles Traveled Reduction Targets: Will This Strategy Get the Desired Results?
Tuesday, 12 January 2010, 1:30PM- 3:15PM; Hilton, International West
Several current and proposed transportation policies include targets for reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Proponents and opponents will debate the benefits, drawbacks, and viability of VMT reduction targets.
 
Proponents:
Todd Litman - Victoria Transport Policy Institute
Patricia L. Mokhtarian - University of California, Davis

Opponents:
Alan E. Pisarski - Consultant
Samuel Staley - Reason Foundation
 
 
"Comprehensive Transport Planning: Best Practices in Planning for Sustainable Development" ( http://www.vtpi.org/comprehensive.pdf )
Workshop 717: Role of Integrated Planning in Developing Sustainable Transportation Strategies
Thursday, 14 January 2010, 8:00AM- 12:00PM, Hilton
Workshop Description: While most transportation professionals intuitively understand that transportation is a means to many ends rather than an end in itself, transportation planning processes are often driven by a narrow perspective derived exclusively from within the transportation industry. This workshop will address the role of integrated planning in developing sustainable transportation strategies. ( http://pressamp.trb.org/conferenceinteractiveprogram/PresentationDetails.aspx?ID=36751&Email = )
 

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”


#1266 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Fri Jan 8, 2010 10:33 am
Subject: World Streets Annual New Mobility Country Reviews - State of Carsharing in the United States: 2009.
fekbritton
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World Streets Annual New Mobility Country Reviews

State of Carsharing in the United States: 2009

Quite a year for cars and carsharing in the States! Dave Brooks of www.Carsharing.us out of Portland Oregon reports for World Streets on carshare developments in the United States over 2009, with some reflections on where things might be heading in the year ahead.

[This article in part of a World Streets series of annual report on new mobility modes worldwide. Click to http://tinyurl.com/ws-country-report to access the full cycle of reports.]

 

--> Full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

--> Discussions on New Mobility Forum at www.newmobility.org  (Post to NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com)

 

Read World Streets Today at http://www.worldstreets.org/

New Mobility Partnerships  http://www.newmobility.org

8/10 rue Joseph Bara,     75006 Paris,  France, Europe

           +331 4326 1323  eric.britton(at)newmobility.org   Skype: newmobility

 





#1267 From: Dave Brook [mailto:dbrookportland@...]
Date: Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:56 am
Subject: Are VMT Reductions Justified?
fekbritton
Send Email Send Email
 
-----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

#1268 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Mon Jan 11, 2010 3:36 pm
Subject: [World Streets] State of Carsharing (Car Clubs) in the UK: 2009
fekbritton
Send Email Send Email
 

World Streets Annual New Mobility Country Reviews : State of Carsharing (Car Clubs) in the  UK:  2009

Carsharing has been a slow starter in the UK, lagging considerably behind the leaders. However in the last half dozen years the operators have gained considerable momentum and are now entering into the mainstream of practical transport innovation and day to day practice. Read what the main national grouping has to report on this subject for 2009.

One has to ask why the great delay? Might it be because the British are more devoted to their own cars than the rest of the OECD nations? One has to doubt it. Might it have to do with the ambiguity of words. The British call what the rest of the world knows as carsharing by their very own phrase: Car Clubs. (Carsharing being their terms of choice for ridesharing or carpooling).

Whatever might be the case, carsharing by whatever name is coming along quite nicely throughout Britain today, as you will see here in the report from the non-profit umbrella group.

--> Full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

--> Discussions on New Mobility Forum at www.newmobility.org  (Post to NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com)

 

Read World Streets Today at http://www.worldstreets.org/

New Mobility Partnerships  http://www.newmobility.org

8/10 rue Joseph Bara,     75006 Paris,  France, Europe

           +331 4326 1323  eric.britton(at)newmobility.org   Skype: newmobility

 


#1269 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Tue Jan 12, 2010 8:54 am
Subject: [World Streets] Want to know more on carsharing development around the world?
fekbritton
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Want to know more on carsharing  development around the world?

\In addition to the country review that are appearing in these pages in the weeks ahead, you may be interested to know that we have developed some tools that permit you to dig deeper and faster. Here are four you may wish to check out for your own research purposes.

No problem. Get comfortable, pour yourself a cup of coffee and take a bit of time to investigate . . .


--> Full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

--> Discussions on New Mobility Forum at www.newmobility.org  (Post to NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com)

 

Read World Streets Today at http://www.worldstreets.org/

New Mobility Partnerships  http://www.newmobility.org

8/10 rue Joseph Bara,     75006 Paris,  France, Europe

           +331 4326 1323  eric.britton(at)newmobility.org   Skype: newmobility

 


#1270 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:50 pm
Subject: Ahmedabad, India Wins 2010 Sustainable Transport Award
fekbritton
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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


#1271 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:08 pm
Subject: 2010 update on Car Sharing in Canada
fekbritton
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A 2010 update on Car Sharing in Canada

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kbTo-M_pSuw/S02WCn2HaYI/AAAAAAAACT4/w0rUkyrI4Ys/s200/wcs-canada1.jpgKevin McLaughlin, one of the key figures in advancing the carshare agenda not only in his city (Toronto) but also across Canada and more broadly in North America as a whole, has taken time out from his busy schedule to tell our readers about the state of carsharing in Canada as we head into 2010.

[This article is one of a series on new mobility developments and status in the opening weeks of 2010, starting with leading country reports on carsharing. For the full series, click to http://tinyurl.com/ws-carshare]

--> Full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

 

Read World Streets Today at http://www.worldstreets.org/

New Mobility Partnerships  http://www.newmobility.org

8/10 rue Joseph Bara,     75006 Paris,  France, Europe

           +331 4326 1323  eric.britton(at)newmobility.org   Skype: newmobility

 

 



#1272 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Thu Jan 14, 2010 12:32 pm
Subject: Building a World-Wide Learning Community [World Streets]
fekbritton
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A Major Sustainability Challenge of 2010 : Building a World-Wide Learning Community

Is there a requirement, a potentially useful role for a more creative and powerful system of linkage, dynamic multi-level interaction, information exchange and eventually collaboration between the many and fast growing number of outstanding programs and their considerable knowledge and competence bases, with specific reference to the issues, roles and possibilities of the new mobility transport policy, planning, and practice? And if so: who, when, what next?


--> Full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

--> Discussions on New Mobility Forum at www.newmobility.org  (Post to NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com)

 

Read World Streets Today at http://www.worldstreets.org/

New Mobility Partnerships  http://www.newmobility.org

8/10 rue Joseph Bara,     75006 Paris,  France, Europe

           +331 4326 1323  eric.britton(at)newmobility.org   Skype: newmobility

 


#1273 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:21 pm
Subject: Children, Transport and Mobility in Africa: Sharing experiences from Ghana, Malawi and South Africa
fekbritton
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Children, Transport and Mobility in Africa: Sharing experiences from Ghana, Malawi and South Africa

2010 is the Year of Africa on World Streets, and here you have the first of what we intend will develop into a engaging series of articles, ideas and information on problems, attitudes, responses, barriers and the ingenious work-arounds that African children and adults are so often obliged to find on their own.

This publication was funded by the Africa Community Access Programme (AFCAP) to help us better understand how children look at and deal with day to day challenges of transport and mobility in three African countries.


--> Full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

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#1274 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Sun Jan 17, 2010 10:46 am
Subject: Rebuilding Haiti
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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

 

 


#1275 From: Dave Holladay <Tramsol@...>
Date: Sun Jan 17, 2010 3:40 pm
Subject: Re: WorldTransport Forum Rebuilding Haiti
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There is one detail which could be spelled out more clearly or even added to the list - transport, the glue that helps to bind in the links to education, water, moving the crops to the people, so that each crop requiring a particular growing regime can be grown in places where that can be established in a sustainable way  (without having to force changes on the soil, or 'push water uphill').

That transport should also be, as far as possible, capable of operating without any imported fuel or materials, and to that end the bicycle fills that role in a very effective way - it requires considerably less infrastructure than motorised transport, and in the crudest form, as seen in Africa, it operates with no requirement for tyres or brakes (imported consumables).

Not only that but proven by the recovery process of Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami, the bicycle can be running and fully functional as a transport system as soon as the wheels hit the ground - no need to consider fuel bunkering (and the inherent security issue - given the break down of public order) and special equipment/spares to keep the fleet running.  Bikes can get running repairs by the roadside.  The UK's mail service renew their fleet on a 7-year rotation - that's around 6000 bikes per year and I'd guess the French do likewise along with other operators of cargo bikes.  A cargo bike fleet could mobilise the fit population otherwise likely to create a problem and distribute the supplies in a large number of small shipments, less vulnerable to having the delays or diversions/hold-ups that will impact on a large shipment on a single large vehicle. 

Dave Holladay
 
Eric Britton wrote:

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

 

 


#1276 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Sun Jan 17, 2010 11:00 pm
Subject: We support Medecins Sans Frontières in Haiti today. And invite you to do the same.
fekbritton
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We support Medecins Sans Frontières in Haiti today. And invite you to do the same.

Paris, Sunday, 17 January, 2010.
Greetings from a city that is living this mid-January 2010 day in peace, health and security. Our children are safe, our neighbors about to sit down to a full Sunday meal, and most of us will venture out onto the streets of our cities tomorrow morning to another full and peaceful day. You too I hope. But that is not at all the case in Haiti and its tragic streets.

[Summary: Take 5 minutes, go to http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/donations/, and make your donation. You will be glad you did.]

But why do I interrupt your peaceful weekend with this unasked-for message? Because I am sure that somewhere in your heart you feel it is important that you take some kind of action in such an agonizing case. But what to do from so far away? Here's a thought.

 

--> Full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

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#1277 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Mon Jan 18, 2010 2:17 pm
Subject: Haitian Streets after the emergency: Introduction to an Informal brainstorm
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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.

Read World Streets Today at  HYPERLINK "http://www.worldstreets.org/" _


#1278 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Tue Jan 19, 2010 9:01 am
Subject: An ultra-short progress report on carsharing in Iceland
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World Streets Annual New Mobility Country Reviews:

An ultra-short progress report on carsharing in Iceland

This series strives to try to provide a balanced view reporting on how the practice of sharing cars is progressing in countries and cities around the world. Including in places that have yet to create their own carshare operations or pubic programs to investigate or support them. The case of Iceland is one among many, showing how the roll-up takes time and the importance of convincing of those who have yet to embrace the broader new mobility approach to transport and environment. Let's have a look.

This in today from Morten Lange, World Streets Sentinel in Reykjavík, Iceland.


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#1279 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Fri Jan 22, 2010 9:16 am
Subject: How our public transport system compares with the rest of Mama Africa.
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Message from South Africa:

How our public transport system compares with the rest of Mama Africa.

South African travel writer Sihle Khumalo knows African public transport intimately, but is more accustomed to his own private wheels in his home town of Jozi. He took time out recently to explore his own backyard by public transport, from Soweto to Sandton

Having travelled by public transport in more than 10 other African countries, it was only natural that I explore my own backyard using taxis and the newly launched Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) System – better known as ReaVaya. Amongst other things I wanted to see how our public transport system compares with the rest of Mama Africa.


--> The full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

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#1280 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Sat Jan 23, 2010 9:13 pm
Subject: World Streets / Haitian Streets. Part II
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World Streets / Haitian Streets. Part II

To Heal Haiti, Look to History, Not Nature

This special series sets out to tap the considerable competence of people and groups at the leading edge of the field of sustainable transport worldwide, to invite them to provide some independent strategic counsel for the decision-makers who eventually are going to have to figure out what to do to provide and improve mobility arrangements of Haitians in their daily lives. But before digging into the transport specifics, let's step back to share with you an outstanding article from today's International Herald Tribune in which Mark Danner in a few telling pages helps us better understand the extent to which the future of Haiti will not, must not resemble its past.


--> The full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

 

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#1281 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Wed Jan 27, 2010 3:44 am
Subject: FW: On 1 February a new era dawns on World Carshare:
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14 August 1998 - Why we support carsharing? (Announcing project start-up)  
"Why do we support a concept that may to some appear to be so off-beat and marginal as carsharing? Simple! We think it's a great, sustainable, practical mobility idea whose time has come and whose potential impact is quite simply huge. Carsharing: the missing link in your city's sustainable transport system."

 

Paris, Tuesday, 26 January, 2010

Dear World Carsharers,

 

On 1 February a new era dawns on World Carshare:

We have been running World Carshare (www.worldcarshare.com) and the program behind it (the New Mobility Agenda at www.newmobility.org) for more than a decade, and of this date we have welcomed and freely served more than 500 people and groups all over the world, many of whom with high expertise in the field, who drop in here either regularly or occasionally. (See map.) However on 1 February this is going to have to change, and from that date access will be limited only to paid-in members. Here is how we intend this to work.  (For those of you who have gotten to know me over the years you can well imagine that I am extremely sorry to be obliged to do this, but I have no choice.)

 

The World Carshare Triple Play:

Here's our 2010 offering and problem in a nutshell. All 459 of you who are presently signed in have full and free access to all our work on this topic - we call this The Triple Play:  (1) the World Carshare Consortium website and its discussion forum, and behind it both (2) the New Mobility Partnerships programs and sites (www.newmobility.org), and (3) World Streets, the planet's only independent sustainable transport daily – www.WorldStreets.org .

 

Cost sharing on World Carshare:

Now keeping all of this going requires as you can well imagine quite a bit of work every day and does not come free of cost. The bill for the full triple play runs on the order of $150,000/year (the price of a half page color car advertisement in this morning's Wall Street Journal, just to put this into perspective.), and for the carshare component ca. $20,000. Over these years I have somehow miraculously found a way to foot this bill myself, but now there is going to be a major pattern shift. Here is how it is going to work:

 

To be able to continue our work we will need to invite a certain  number of you to come in and help us keep this going. To do this, we are going to close down entry to the site and limit it only to our contributing members, until such time that the basic costs are assured (that seems fair enough does it not?).  In the meantime, we have worked out a rough schedule of membership support with suggested levels of contribution and support.

 

1.     Individual subscribers: Professionals, researchers with salaries, very small carshare groups
Suggested contribution on the order of $50/year (or what
you can conveniently afford).

2.     Group: Larger carshare and transport groups, industry and consultants:
Suggested contribution on the order of $500/year
, or what they can afford or wish to contribute.

3.     Sponsors - Ministries, larger cities, public agencies, NGOs, foundations, integrated transport groups, major industrial and service suppliers and others committed to sustainable  transport and sustainable cities who understand the importance of carsharing in this broader context and who appreciate what we are doing to support carsharing worldwide.
Suggested contribution: ca.$ 5,000.00/year
. Or etc.  

 

Your contributions  will enable you to continue to have continuing access to all three programs. The only exceptions will be our colleagues from the developing world, countries or cities that have not as yet started a carshare operation, students, regular contributors, and people without jobs, all of whom of course get free access to the triple play. But to ensure you are kept on the list and thus have access . . .

 

Please sign in to keep your membership active:

In all cases we would ask that you send us a short email with your full contact information and letting us know in which category you belong.

 

Timetable:

We shall need to hear from you before the end of this month. On 1 February we shut down the site to everyone who has not enrolled or contacted us.  Then over the month of February, we shall start limiting access as well to the New Mobility Agenda and to World Streets -- if we have to. But I am hoping that before then we will have started to get on a more healthy financial footing. 

 

Payment:

To pay in your subscription, all you need to do is make payment as per the above via PayPal or credit card to the New Mobility Partnerships/World Streets account, address: association@....

 

Alternatively you can make wire transfers to our bank as follows:

 

Account Holder: Association EcoPlan International
Account no. 00010465401
Crédit Industriel et Commercial de Paris
Succursale BR (Montparnasse)
202 Blvd. Raspail / 75014 Paris, France
SWIFT: CMCIFRPP
IBAN : FR763006610621000146540105

 

I truly wish there were another way of doing this. I have been very happy over the years sharing my work and insights with you freely, but if I am to be able to continue to do this, it will have to be with a little help from my friends. Let's see where you stand on this.

 

Eric Britton

 

Who, where checked into World Carshare Consortium today?

 

 

Read World Streets Today at http://www.worldstreets.org/

New Mobility Partnerships  http://www.newmobility.org

8/10 rue Joseph Bara,     75006 Paris,  France, Europe

+331 7550 3788  eric.britton(at)newmobility.org   Skype: newmobility

 

 

 


#1282 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Thu Jan 28, 2010 7:19 am
Subject: Next Steps After Copenhagen: Transportation
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“Next Steps After Copenhagen: Opportunities and Challenges in the Transport Sector”

 

For those of you who may have missed this recent brainstorming session organized at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington DC and attended by a number of other important players on the worldwide sustainable transport scene, here is the next best thing we can offer you, complete with more comprehensive references and URLs to the main presentations. I am sure that many or our readers would have liked to be there to observe and contribute in person. You now have a chance to send your comments to all those who were there are the time.

--> The full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

--> Discussions on New Mobility Forum at www.newmobility.org  (Post to NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com)

 

Read World Streets Today at http://www.worldstreets.org/

New Mobility Partnerships  http://www.newmobility.org

8/10 rue Joseph Bara,     75006 Paris,  France, Europe

           +331 4326 1323  eric.britton(at)newmobility.org   Skype: newmobility

 


#1283 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Thu Jan 28, 2010 2:09 pm
Subject: FW: [ericbritton] [World Streets] Casual Carpooling, California, 28 January 2010 <br/>E pur si ...
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E pur si muove. Casual Carpooling, California, 26 January 2010

One of the keys to sustainable transportation is to gain high quality mobility for people while reducing overall traffic. One way for doing this is to figure out how to get more people into fewer vehicles, efficiently. Fortunately there are many ways of doing this, not all of which take a lot of time to build and cost a bundle. Here is one example: casual carsharing. And despite the fact that it may seem a bit odd and marginal, as Galileo Galilei so famously put it: "E pur si muove" (roughly, "they certainly seem to be getting there"). Casual carpooling works. Let's have a look.

--> The full text of this article appears in today’s World Streets at http://WorldStreets.org/ 

--> Discussions on New Mobility Forum at www.newmobility.org  (Post to NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com)

 

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New Mobility Partnerships  http://www.newmobility.org

8/10 rue Joseph Bara,     75006 Paris,  France, Europe

           +331 4326 1323  eric.britton(at)newmobility.org   Skype: newmobility

 


#1284 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Fri Jan 29, 2010 12:31 pm
Subject: Defamation, and reclamation
fekbritton
Send Email Send Email
 

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

Read World Streets Today at


#1285 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Fri Jan 29, 2010 2:08 pm
Subject: The only good monorail, is an old monorail (maybe).
fekbritton
Send Email Send Email
 

The only good monorail, is an old monorail (maybe). Schwebebahn Wuppertal since 1901->

 

Monorails? There is something almost touching about avarice and stupidity when they get together and blatantly hang out there for all to see.

 

I first looked at monorails for city transport of all kinds of types and stripes back in 1970, and on a number of grounds they looked awful then and they still do today. I have my own long list on this, but if you wish we might have some fun starting a collaborative list under the title of something very elegant such as "Why monorails suck".

 

I am amazed that these discussions are still taking place and that there are cities and eventual sponsors that take them seriously. There is a monorail mafia that shows up wherever at the drop of a hat to show their stuff, often offering generous credits and other forms of compensation to see that their job gets done. I haven't made an effort to keep up. But I do remember some recent salvoes in parts of India, also Bogota, São Paulo, Curitiba, and a certain number of US cities that just don't know when to let a bad idea go.  (Check out the historical stuff on this in the Wikipedia. Pretty good.)

 

What I don't understand is why they are not simply laughed at and set aside for more serous things.

 

But then again, perhaps there is something that I fail to understand.

 

Educate me.

 

Eric Britton

 

PS. Here's a nice exercise for you if you wish to dig a bit. Go to the New Mobility Partnerships at www.newmobility.org and on the top menu click Knoogle (yes, it's an ugly word) and once there pop in "monorail". This will then take you on a lightning  survey of more than eight hundred sources, projects and pogroms looking at sustainable and at times unsustainable transport in countries around the world. Interesting.

 

 

 

Read World Streets Today at http://www.worldstreets.org/

New Mobility Partnerships  http://www.newmobility.org

8/10 rue Joseph Bara,     75006 Paris,  France, Europe

+331 7550 3788  eric.britton(at)newmobility.org   Skype: newmobility

 

On Behalf Of Walter Hook
Sent: Friday, 29 January, 2010 00:43
To: bruun@...
Cc: Eric Britton; TheNotSoSustainableTransportLibrary@yahoogroups.com; Sustran-discuss@...
Subject: Re: Mumbai monorail project looks to reduce CO2 emissions ???

 

eric,

we are developing these parameters for BRT also, and there is also a give back on co2 from construction, though usually its smaller, and if you need to build the elevated BRT (like they are doing in Ahmadabad in places) there is a lot of concrete there also.  its not a BRT/mrt thing.  i am trying to integrate the evaluation criteria to look at mrt and brt and other options using similar methods.  i am in Guangzhou for the opening of the BRT here and one very nice feature is its integration with the metro system, maybe the first time we get nice full integration.  the BRT is not on a corridor with mrt in the long term plan, so its additional and not competitive.  

On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 6:24 PM, <bruun@...> wrote:



Walter raises an important issue. There is indeed a payback time. But it
isn't necessarily 20 years for systems that have frequent service and carry large numbers
of people all day. And even when it is 20 years, keep in mind that metros and railways
are around for a century or more. The tunnel for the first line in London. the Metropolitan
Railway, was opened in 1863 and is still in service today. That is true sustainability.

If the point is that BRT avoids this problem, we have been over this before. Points to consider:

1) Sometimes a tunnel is the only way to get both decent capacity and high performance to the places
that need it. Once a tunnel is needed anyway, the case for rail strengthens.

2) I heard the presentation at WRI about Ahmedabad two weeks ago where the speaker said "build BRT,study Metro" which got laughs from the audience. I point out that just the opposite also happens. "Build Metro, study BRT" was the case in Delhi. This difference in incubation time must be taken into consideration when evaluating the carbon reduction. How much extra would have been emitted waiting for the go-ahead for the first BRT line?

3) What are the real options on the table? If the choice is between building a Metro and building a highway, I will take the Metro. If the choice is between BRT and Metro, then it needs to be studied closer. I don't automatically pick either one.

Eric Bruun



Quoting Walter Hook <whook@...>:

sudhir from CAI Asia just ran some numbers for metro projects and CO2.  If
you include all the construction related CO2, they come out negative for a
large number of years, and to get positive co2 impact you need to push the
project time line out something like 20 years or more. i imagine monorails
would not be quite as concrete intensive but may be close.   Interesting to
note the mention of Lanzhou.

w

On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 6:20 AM, Eric Britton <eric.britton@...>wrote:

Mumbai monorail project looks to reduce CO2 emissions

By Lisa Sibley
Published 2010-01-27 09:22
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based Scomi Group, a global service provider mainly
in the oil and gas industry, said today its trial run of India's first
monorail car for a project in Mumbai has been a success.
The Malaysia-listed company also specializes in urban transit systems, with
an emphasis on India, China, the Gulf states, and Brazil. The trial run
occurred yesterday, also a national holiday, the Republic Day of India.
The monorail is expected to prevent 200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions
daily. The proposed structure is also considered environmentally friendly
because it won't obstruct sunlight or trap excessive emissions. In
addition,
it's expected to be quieter than other modes of transportation.
Scomi India's Country President Suhaimi Yaacob said in a news release the
project's focus is on sustainable mobility, reduced urban congestion,
improved reliability, and comfortable travel.
Other cities looking to reduce mass transport emissions include China's
Lanzhou, which is working on a comprehensive urban development plan linking
a new city center with a rapid bus transport system, expected to result in
a
cleaner, more economical mass transportation system (see China's Lanzhou
makes plans to reduce mass transport emissions
<http://cleantech.com/news/5429/lanzhou-mass-transport-system>  [1]).
Scomi's engineering division and partner Larsen & Toubro, India's largest
engineering and construction conglomerate, secured $545 million for the
Mumbai Monorail Project in November 2008, and are expected to complete the
project by 2011.
Scomi is tasked with delivering 60 cars, making up 15 sets of four-car
trains. Each four-coach monorail is expected to be able to accommodate
about
600 passengers, carrying a total of nearly 300,000 daily commuters.
The monorail project is expected to have a 20-kilometer (12.4 mile)
proposed
route between Jacob Circle and Chembur, a suburban neighborhood in eastern
Mumbai, with one central depot and about 18 user-friendly stations. Chembur
is located about 22 kilometers from downtown Mumbai and considered a
transit
point for travelers to Pune.




 

 


#1286 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Sat Jan 30, 2010 5:07 pm
Subject: The only good monorail, is an old monorail (maybe).
fekbritton
Send Email Send Email
 

Dear Ashok and others,

 

Thanks for sharing that Times of India article. Glad to see that someone is pointing out one or two of the downsides of this inappropriate project.

 

But I am somewhat disappointed that no one on our Sustran list thus far seems to want to step forward and help us enumerate all the reasons why monorails are such a brain dead concept.

 

Someone tell me that I am wrong, but among the many flagrant disadvantages/absurdities of the monorail concept for cities, include:

 

1.    They cost far too much money given the level of service they provide

2.    They don't (really) go anywhere (i.e., where they are needed in a many-to-many world)

3.    Good transportation is supposed to be as close to seamless as we can make it – and they are anything but, cut off from the rest as they are by definition

4.    Limited capacity (per buck spent)

5.    They are a visual intrusion (scar) on the city scape

6.    The ignore, they actually degrade the street in many ways – which is the very heart of the city

7.    They are, to a pylon, to a track, to a car, to a station, ugly as sin (my old grandmother's expression).

8.    If they need switches, the space requirement becomes complicated.

9.    Emergencies are very messy.

10. They don't do the basic job that is needed.

11. They saddle the city with debt.

12. To be "cost effective" (ho ho), they cannot provide affordable service for the majority

13. They are not sustainable by any measure

14. They are often the project of industrial-financial-political interest alliances and even, if one digs deep, corruption. (As so often is the case with big ticket transport and other public investments.)

 

By the way, did anyone note that almost to the day as Mumbai joyously welcomed their first test car the Las Vegas Monorail Co has filed for bankruptcy?  Just thought I would mention it.

 

In summary: They are so awful, so thoroughly dysfunctional that I even have difficulty in anyone trying to justify them (or not) in terms of anything like "relative CO2 efficiency". This I see as a splendid project for a MA of PhD student sharpening their tools, but when it comes to the politics of transportation they defy common sense.

 

So out they go.

 

(I invite comment and corrections as always).

 

Eric Britton

 

PS. Ask me what's better, what gives more sustainable transport bang per buck than a monorail?

 

 

 

 

From: ashok mundkur [mailto:ashok_mundkur@...]
Sent: Saturday, 30 January, 2010 07:34

Some data  re: Metro Vs Mono rail presented in today's Mumbai edition of Times of India that may be of interest to you ..... in case U haven't seen it...

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&GZ=T&AW=1264832913750

Cheers
Ashok


From: phaizan@...
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:58:39 +0530

Please take a look at the forwarded email. The final nail in the coffin of monorail, in maverick Eric Britton style.

Faizan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Eric Britton <
eric.britton@...>
Date: Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 7:38 PM

The only good monorail, is an old monorail (maybe). Schwebebahn Wuppertal
since 1901->

Monorails? There is something almost touching about avarice and stupidity
when they get together and blatantly hang out there for all to see.

I first looked at monorails for city transport of all kinds of types and
stripes back in 1970, and on a number of grounds they looked awful then and
they still do today. I have my own long list on this, but if you wish we
might have some fun starting a collaborative list under the title of
something very elegant such as "Why monorails suck".

I am amazed that these discussions are still taking place and that there are
cities and eventual sponsors that take them seriously. There is a monorail
mafia that shows up wherever at the drop of a hat to show their stuff, often
offering generous credits and other forms of compensation to see that their
job gets done. I haven't made an effort to keep up. But I do remember some
recent salvoes in parts of India, also Bogota, São Paulo, Curitiba, and a
certain number of US cities that just don't know when to let a bad idea go.
(Check out the historical stuff on this in the Wikipedia. Pretty good.)

What I don't understand is why they are not simply laughed at and set aside
for more serous things.

But then again, perhaps there is something that I fail to understand.

Educate me.
Eric Britton

PS. Here's a nice exercise for you if you wish to dig a bit. Go to the New
Mobility Partnerships at
www.newmobility.org and on the top menu click
Knoogle (yes, it's an ugly word) and once there pop in "monorail". This will
then take you on a lightning  survey of more than eight hundred sources,
projects and pogroms looking at sustainable and at times unsustainable
transport in countries around the world. Interesting.

---

On Behalf Of Walter Hook
Sent: Friday, 29 January, 2010 00:43

eric,

we are developing these parameters for BRT also, and there is also a give
back on co2 from construction, though usually its smaller, and if you need
to build the elevated BRT (like they are doing in Ahmadabad in places) there
is a lot of concrete there also.  its not a BRT/mrt thing.  i am trying to
integrate the evaluation criteria to look at mrt and brt and other options
using similar methods.  i am in Guangzhou for the opening of the BRT here
and one very nice feature is its integration with the metro system, maybe
the first time we get nice full integration.  the BRT is not on a corridor
with mrt in the long term plan, so its additional and not competitive.

 


On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 6:24 PM, <
bruun@...> wrote:



Walter raises an important issue. There is indeed a payback time. But it
isn't necessarily 20 years for systems that have frequent service and carry
large numbers
of people all day. And even when it is 20 years, keep in mind that metros
and railways
are around for a century or more. The tunnel for the first line in London.
the Metropolitan
Railway, was opened in 1863 and is still in service today. That is true
sustainability.

If the point is that BRT avoids this problem, we have been over this before.
Points to consider:

1) Sometimes a tunnel is the only way to get both decent capacity and high
performance to the places
that need it. Once a tunnel is needed anyway, the case for rail strengthens.

2) I heard the presentation at WRI about Ahmedabad two weeks ago where the
speaker said "build BRT,study Metro" which got laughs from the audience. I
point out that just the opposite also happens. "Build Metro, study BRT" was
the case in Delhi. This difference in incubation time must be taken into
consideration when evaluating the carbon reduction. How much extra would
have been emitted waiting for the go-ahead for the first BRT line?

3) What are the real options on the table? If the choice is between building
a Metro and building a highway, I will take the Metro. If the choice is
between BRT and Metro, then it needs to be studied closer. I don't
automatically pick either one.

Eric Bruun

---

 



Quoting Walter Hook <
whook@...>:

sudhir from CAI Asia just ran some numbers for metro projects and CO2.  If
you include all the construction related CO2, they come out negative for a
large number of years, and to get positive co2 impact you need to push the
project time line out something like 20 years or more. i imagine monorails
would not be quite as concrete intensive but may be close.   Interesting to
note the mention of Lanzhou.

w

---


On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 6:20 AM, Eric Britton
<
eric.britton@...>wrote:

Mumbai monorail project looks to reduce CO2 emissions

By Lisa Sibley
Published 2010-01-27 09:22

 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based Scomi Group, a global service provider mainly
in the oil and gas industry, said today its trial run of India's first
monorail car for a project in Mumbai has been a success.

The Malaysia-listed company also specializes in urban transit systems, with
an emphasis on India, China, the Gulf states, and Brazil. The trial run
occurred yesterday, also a national holiday, the Republic Day of India.

The monorail is expected to prevent 200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions
daily. The proposed structure is also considered environmentally friendly
because it won't obstruct sunlight or trap excessive emissions. In
addition,
it's expected to be quieter than other modes of transportation.

Scomi India's Country President Suhaimi Yaacob said in a news release the
project's focus is on sustainable mobility, reduced urban congestion,
improved reliability, and comfortable travel.

Other cities looking to reduce mass transport emissions include China's
Lanzhou, which is working on a comprehensive urban development plan linking
a new city center with a rapid bus transport system, expected to result in
a cleaner, more economical mass transportation system (see China's Lanzhou
makes plans to reduce mass transport emissions
<
http://cleantech.com/news/5429/lanzhou-mass-transport-system>  [1]).
Scomi's engineering division and partner Larsen & Toubro, India's largest
engineering and construction conglomerate, secured $545 million for the
Mumbai Monorail Project in November 2008, and are expected to complete the
project by 2011.

Scomi is tasked with delivering 60 cars, making up 15 sets of four-car
trains. Each four-coach monorail is expected to be able to accommodate
about 600 passengers, carrying a total of nearly 300,000 daily commuters.

 

The monorail project is expected to have a 20-kilometer (12.4 mile)
proposed route between Jacob Circle and Chembur, a suburban neighborhood in eastern
Mumbai, with one central depot and about 18 user-friendly stations. Chembur
is located about 22 kilometers from downtown Mumbai and considered a
transit point for travelers to Pune.

 

 

 


#1287 From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton@...>
Date: Mon Feb 1, 2010 12:57 pm
Subject: This month on World Streets - January 2010 summaries for busy readers
fekbritton
Send Email Send Email
 

January 2010 - Introduction:

We very much doubt that most of our readers have the time to check into World Streets on a daily basis. For that reason we have from the beginning offered in addition to the daily edition, a monthly summary which brings together in one place all postings and comments in a manner in which the busy reader can review the month's titles in a few lines and make a decision as to whether or not to call up and read the full article. January 2010 was no exception to this rule.

* Click titles for full article.

* To be taken directly to full January edition, click here: http://newmobilityagenda.blogspot.com/2010/02/january-2010-this-month-on-world.html

 

Summaries:

 

World Streets goes to the movies What's playing in February 2010

A new series inaugurated on 1 February, presenting a selection of outstanding videos, to be renewed over the year on a monthly basis. The idea is to invite our readers to check in from time to time to view some very different kinds of presentations and topics, with the objective of stimulating even greater variety in their thinking and problem-solving approaches. You can find the small gadget

Sustainable transport survey identifies five types of travellers

A new study from Germany of attitudes towards transport and mobility has identified five groups of travellers. The groups differ significantly in their choice of transport, distance travelled and the impact their transport choices have on the environment in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.- by ClickGreen staff. Published Sat 30 Jan 2010 16:50 http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/research/trends/

E pur si muove  Casual Carpooling on the streets of America

One of the keys to sustainable transportation is to gain high quality mobility for people while reducing overall traffic. One way for doing this is to figure out how to get more people into fewer vehicles, efficiently. Fortunately there are many ways of doing this, not all of which take a lot of time to build and cost a bundle. Here is one example: casual carsharing. And despite the fact that

Next Steps After Copenhagen: Opportunities and Challenges in the Transport Sector

For those of you who may have missed this recent brainstorming session organized at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington DC and attended by a number of other important players on the worldwide sustainable transport scene, here is the next best thing we can offer you, complete with more comprehensive references and URLs to the main presentations. I am sure that many or our readers

April Streeter ponders six (might be) car free cities.

Friend April Streeter, diligent reporter for the busy Treehugger cars+ transportation blog, called in to World Streets on Monday to talk car free(r) cities. We applauded her decision to try to find a range of very different kinds of cities, pushed a bit to bring Guadalajara and at least one Chinese city, in addition to the more usual suspects, and urged her on with all due caution. Here is what

Citiscope: Reporting on Worldwide City Innovation

In the wake of the troubles and lessons of COP15 we are seeing projects, programs and groups sprouting up around the world setting out to take the high ground in ideas and communications on the up-side of the change and innovations necessary if we are to face the challenges of the planet and our cities. We invite you to have an advance look at the Citiscope project that will be formally announced

World Streets / Haitian Streets. Part II. To Heal Haiti, Look to History, Not Nature

This special series sets out to tap the considerable competence of people and groups working the leading edge of the field of sustainable transport worldwide, to invite them to provide their best independent strategic counsel for the decision- makers who eventually are going to have to figure out what to do to provide and improve mobility arrangements of Haitians in their daily lives. But

America, it’s time to meet the Sharrow. (Be brave)

After five years of sanctioned experimentation in American cities—large and small--the Federal Highway Administration has officially adopted Shared Use Lane Markings, or “Sharrows,” into the latest version of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). America Codifies Shared Use Lane Markings (Sharrows)While the MUTCD is not everyday reading for many livable streets advocates, its

Message from South Africa: How our public transport system compares with the rest of Mama Africa.

South African travel writer Sihle Khumalo knows African public transport intimately, but is more accustomed to his own private wheels in his home town of Jozi. He took time out recently to explore his own backyard by public transport, from Soweto to Sandton…Having travelled by public transport in more than 10 other African countries, it was only natural that I explore my own backyard using

World Streets Annual New Mobility Country Reviews: An ultra-short progress report on carsharing in Iceland

This series strives to try to provide a balanced view reporting on how the practice of sharing cars is progressing in countries and cities around the world. Including in places that have yet to create their own carshare operations or pubic programs to investigate or support them. The case of Iceland is one among many, showing how the roll-up takes time and the importance of convincing of those

World Streets / Haitian Streets: Part I. What to do once the emergency has been met.

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 towns and 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

Children, Transport and Mobility in Africa Sharing experiences from Ghana, Malawi and South Africa

2010 is the Year of Africa on World Streets, and here you have the first of what we intend will develop into a engaging series of articles, ideas and information on problems, attitudes, responses, barriers and the ingenious work-arounds that African children and adults are so often obliged to find on their own. This publication was funded by The Africa Community Access Programme (AFCAP) to help

 

A major sustainability challenge of 2010: Building a World-Wide Learning Community

Is there a requirement, a potentially useful role for a more creative and powerful system of linkage, dynamic multi-level interaction, information exchange and eventually collaboration between the many and fast growing number of outstanding programs and their considerable knowledge and competence bases, with specific reference to the issues, roles and possibilities of the new mobility transport

World Streets Annual New Mobility Country Reviews: A 2010 update on carsharing in Canada

Kevin McLaughlin, one of the key figures in advancing the carshare agenda not only in his city (Toronto) but also across Canada and more broadly in North America as a whole, has taken time out from his busy schedule to tell our readers about the state of carsharing in Canada as we head into 2010.# # # An update on Car Sharing in Canada in 2009 (with the important proviso that I am writing from

Want to know more on carsharing around the world? All you have to do is push here.

In addition to the country review that are appearing in these pages in the weeks ahead, you may be interested to know that we have developed some tools that permit you to dig deeper and faster. Here are four you may wish to check out for your own research purposes. No problem. Get comfortable, pour yourself a cup of coffee and take a bit of time to investigate . . . 1. All World Streets articles

World Streets Annual New Mobility Country Reviews: A 2010 update on carsharing (Car Clubs) in the UK

Carsharing has been a slow starter in the UK, lagging considerably behind the leaders. However in the last half dozen years the operators have gained considerable momentum and are now entering into the mainstream of practical transport innovation and day to day practice. Carsharing is really hitting the road in Britain in 2010. One has to ask why the great delay? Might it be because the British

World Streets Annual New Mobility Country Reviews: A 2010 update on carsharing in the United States

If not such a great moment for the US car industry, 2009 was quite a year for carsharing in the States! Dave Brooks of www.Carsharing.us out of Portland Oregon reports for World Streets on carshare developments in the United States over 2009, with some reflections on where things might be heading in the year ahead. # # # Best wishes to World Streets readers for 2010. Here are some thoughts

How to read World Streets . . . until we are ready for 2010

During the weeks directly ahead we have to concentrate our limited resources on the search for financial and other support so that World Streets can continue publication in 2010. Thus, during this period we shall not be maintaining our usual 5/7 publication schedule. For that reason you will over the coming weeks find in this top section only those postings and articles that relate to laying the

 

World Streets Annual New Mobility Country Reviews: Carsharing: The last nail in the coffin of old mobility.

At the beginning of each new year the New Mobility Agenda invites the approximately two thousand individuals and groups from more than seventy nations on all continents who log into our dozen-plus focus sites to share overviews of the "state of the nation" in their particular area of interest and activity. This year we start with carsharing. The following update note and invitation sent on

It's time you too rolled up your sleeves and got involved.

World Streets, it says right at the top of the page, is a collaborative, sharing effort. After a first year of proving its worth edition after edition, five days a week, bringing hundreds of carefully selected news items, expert views, questions, comments, inspirations, and leads to the desks of more than one hundred thousand visitors from more than seventy countries on all continents

Year 2010 started in Copenhagen on Friday, 18 Dec 2009 And now World Streets gears up for 2010 (Special edition)

The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen has given us ample reason to reflect not only on the climate/ governance and the climate/transport links – the latter which we have taken as a pillar of transport policy for some years now – but also on our own contribution here at World Streets to the strategic re-thinking and institutional re-tooling process that must now be engaged. A challenge

Is World Streets worth continuing in 2010? We asked 100 experts for their views - - and 101 responded.

Dateline Paris. 4 January 2010. We have just completed our first year of publication of World Streets. The results are there for all to see and judge. And we now know that we are going to need financial and other forms of support if we are to continue this international sustainability adventure. Is what we are doing useful and worthy of support? 101 of our readers picked up their pens and

 

 

 

 

Read World Streets Today at http://www.worldstreets.org/

New Mobility Partnerships  http://www.newmobility.org

8/10 rue Joseph Bara,     75006 Paris,  France, Europe

+331 7550 3788  eric.britton(at)newmobility.org   Skype: newmobility

 

 

 


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