[NOTE: 4 DAYS REMAIN TO GET YOUR COMMENTS & RECOMMENDATIONS BEFORE THE
WORKSHOP.]
With the workshop a scant four days ahead, this is perhaps a good time to take
advantage of the considerable networking resources we have at our disposal in
order to help make sure that Shell is on the right track in defining their
terrific proposed Sustainable Transport Centre activities. But first a quick
look at our tools:
1. The basic toolkit for the accompanying virtual assembly and support group is
open to all at http://newmobility.org, with the workings of this support
activity clearly spelled out under the 7 June Workshop link on both menus.
2. It is perhaps worth noting that in addition to the three dozen or so select
experts who will be showing up in person on Friday here in Paris, we have now
made contact, direct and indirect, with thousands of our colleagues and
interested people around the world, many of whom are well placed to help the
organizers sort out their priorities and eventual programs. (I might note that
in the last days we are seeing visitors coming into the website at a tempo of
about one every five minutes, which strikes me as an interesting indication of
the reach and potential of this approach.)
3. Bearing in mind the potential of the Net to extend activities such as this in
many ways - over physical space, time, range of background, disciplines,
countries, et al - we have decided to continue to support the accompanying
e-conference here on @New Mobility for the entire month of June. This will give
us all ample time for study and reflection on these important issues, and time
to provide comments, materials and recommendations both before next Friday's
workshop and in the weeks immediately following it. In addition, this will give
us a chance to exchange ideas about the workshop Proceedings as soon as they are
placed on the Foundation's site (again that's http://www.shellfoundation.org/).
4. At the completion of the month's work, we intend to draw up a short
evaluation of the achievements and shortcomings of this attempt to mesh the
physical and virtual workshops. There will certainly be lessons to be drawn
from this experience.
BACKGROUND PAPER REVIEW;
This key background piece is of course posted on the site, and we very much hope
that you will take the time to review it and in turn to sharer you reactions,
comments and recommendations with at least the organizers and, if at all
possible and appropriate, with the group as a whole. At 23 pages, the
draft-for-comment is not a quick read, so perhaps it might be useful to try to
point you to what in our view are among the main pivot issues in which the
organizers can profit from the collective wisdom and experience of this network.
In addition to providing background on the issues of sustainable and
unsustainable transport, with particular emphasis on the energy/transport
interface, which makes sense given the sponsor's own backgrounds, the draft
challenges the reader with something on the order of fifty questions on quite a
wide range of topics. Bearing in mind that the workshop organizers may chose to
spend some time on these, I thought that it might be a useful starting point if
I were to try to come up with a single handful of central questions, the answers
to which might be directly useful to the Centre in the earliest planning stages.
FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE WORKSHOP:
1. "SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION"?
How can the Foundation ensure that their program gives fair and wise coverage
over the years to the _full range_ of issues that fall under the broad umbrella
of 'sustainable transportation'? (Examples: central role of job creation,
travel-reduction, rectifying the social injustices inherent in an auto-based
transportation system, inclusion of new and as yet largely unknown kinds of
transportation arrangements and purveyors, etc.)
2. IN OR OUT OF THE BOX?
Do we have a clear enough understanding of the difference between old mobility
and new mobility - on the grounds that the latter aims not at fixing problems
(that often as not past technology, planning, values and expertise have actually
created and then consistently and blindly exacerbated) but rather at creating a
radically different mental and physical "architecture" of transportation and all
that defines it?
3. DO IT OR LINK IT?
Is it the priority for the Shell Foundation Sustainable Transportation Centre to
have its own research program - or should the emphasis be on an explicit and
consistent philosophy, wise funding and creative networking?
4. EDIFICE COMPLEX?
Will the Centre be best served by having its own building, staff, and budget -
or will it be able to achieve its objectives better based on 21st century
communications and collaborative arrangements?
5. SOUTH/NORTH LEARNING?
Since it is a fair criticism to note that most of the mega-transport problems of
third world cities can be traced to the unthinking application of what can be
called the "northern model", might not the Centre do well give attention as well
to highlighting Third World problem solving and examples, not just for other
cities in less developed countries but also across the OECD region?
* * *
To close for the moment: This is a splendid and most timely initiative on the
part of the Foundation and I am sure that all of those who have been working in
our own various ways to advance the sustainability agenda over the last decades
are extremely gratified to learn that a significant new program along these
lines is about to be launched. The need for original thinking, new paths of
problem-solving in the sector, and the more effective highlighting of promising
new solution paths is enormous. And for once we have technology on our side.
With the Net, we will be able to create the networks and knowledge flows that
are going to be vital in collectively defining the new transportation paradigm
that is needed to move toward sustainability.
[Comments on the above will be posted on the site as received. They should be
addressed to newmob@yahoogroups.com if you wish to share them with the group as
a whole, or to eric.britton@... if you wish to address the author
directly.]
Eric Britton
The @New Mobility Forum is permanently at http://newmobility.org
The Commons ___Sustainable Development and Social Justice___
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Eric.Britton@... Tel: +331 4326 1323
If you go to the @New Mobility site at http://newmobility.org today and click
the Contributions link under the Shell Workshop heading, you will see the latest
submittals, which include most recently:
* Peter Newman on long term trends and challenges of transport in cities,
* A commentary on the Pollution Probe program in Canada as an eventual
collaboration model for the new Centre
* Peter Wiederkehr on Hard Won Lessons from the OECD EST program
* Al Cormier on Critical Sustainability Issues from the CST in Canada,
* An especially challenging note from Marcus Wiggen on the Spatially
Disadvantaged
Each day a new and challenging piece from this informal world forum is posted to
the site for information and comment. Could it be that the next one is from you?
Eric Britton
The @New Mobility Forum is permanently at http://newmobility.org
The Commons ___Sustainable Development and Social Justice___
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Eric.Britton@... Tel: +331 4326 1323
First Report & Commentary on June 8th Shell Foundation Workshop
(You comments invited - to eric.britton@...)
I. WHAT IS THIS?
This is the first of three short reports to be submitted by Eric Britton who
represented The Commons and the New Mobility Forum at the Shell Foundation
expert workshop organized in Paris on June 8th in an attempt to gather a broad
range of ideas and independent expert counsel for their future Sustainable
Transportation Centre activity. The second note will address some of the
issues, views and some of the observed accomplishments of the workshop, while
the third will provide a set of proposals and recommendations to Shell for this
activity.
It was a terrific and wide open meeting. Those in attendance were well
prepared, had strong backgrounds in our topic, and expressed themselves with
interest and freely. The organizers did not flinch from the suggestions and
critical reactions of the group, that were at times at some variance with the
draft position paper they had submitted for comment. The comments that follow
are strictly personal and based only on my observations and rough notes. I
anticipate numerous reactions, corrections and additions to what you find here.
All these will be placed on the http://newmobility.org site, and as comments
come in they will be added directly to this original draft so that readers will
have a rounded view of the validity or otherwise of these statements. You will
also be able to cross check them for accuracy as the more definitive materials
are posted on both this and the Foundation's site at www.shellfoundation.org,
II. INTENDED NEXT STEPS
>From Shell:
* They will post all meeting documents to www.shellfoundation.org, including
final agenda, participants list, working papers and presentations as available
* They have indicated as well that they are pleased to have the benefit of the
comments and suggestions of this group.
* We have invited all participants to post their notes and thoughts here on the
@New Mobility Forum site, either by addressing them as open emails to the whole
group at newmob@yahoogroups.com, to us privately at
ShellComments@... (with your instructions concerning how they should
be treated,, or directly to the organizers at sf@...
>From The Commons;
* Post the "think octagons" (you will see) - and invite you to play with
them...
* Strategic review and commentary on the meeting, propositions made, etc.
* Our recommendation's for Shell - 2001-2003 (and beyond)
* Continued maintenance of the Shell section of the New Mobility site
A selection of the publicly submitted pieces will be turned into Yikes!
articles for broader circulation and comment. (Yikes! is the @New Mobility
Forum e-magazine, as in "Yikes!, it's already the 21st century".)
III. PARTICIPATION
1. The workshop brought together some fifty people coming from close to two
dozen countries and four continents (The full list with affiliations will
shortly be forthcoming from the organizers.)
a. Approximately half of these were people with university or consultancy
affiliations.
b. A bit more than half (different half) had strong energy backgrounds
c. Roughly a quarter came from public sector institutions.
d. And another rough quarter for the Third World countries (though at least as
many of the others have a high standard of knowledge and experience in transport
in the developing world).
e. Rather surprisingly there was no representatives of the host country (France
of course), and a general dearth of people from Southern Europe.
f. Perhaps one in four or five had industry affiliations
g. Most of those in attendance were oldish (40/50+)
h. None appeared to be physically handicapped to the point of being unable to
negotiate today's transport options.
i. The very poor, the bottom 50%, say, were not present.
j. The closest to a wild-eyed public interest firebrand in the room was perhaps
me (i.e., no friends from Greenpeace, FoE, Amnesty....)
2. This kind of distribution is of course quite typical of policy and decision
fora for matter relating to transport, sustainable or other. And perhaps that
is in part one of the reasons why we finds ourselves locked into the problem.
3. Missing Women: The biggest single oversight from my point of view was that
only one in ten were women. Now to my way of thinking, this is or at least
should be no longer possible. The transportation/environment mess that we face
today is the product of basically all-male expert guided decision-making, and
while that does not of course account for everything - far from it - we now at
the very least should be making a MAJOR effort to provide "Finnish style" 50/50
parity in all reflection and decision counsel on these matters.
a. Just to see if we are not alone in this, we placed a quick poll device on the
site the day of the workshop. Thus if you have any views of the subject we
invite you to make them known.
b. There is also space there for comments on a logbook, which might also be
helpful to Shell (and to us all).
4. I do not run down this list in the attempt of politically correct
disparagement of the organizers - not least because achieving this necessary
balance is a challenge that thus far in our circles few have directly
addressed, never mind solved. But it is a vital consideration and I certainly
hope that it will be take seriously into account in ALL their future activities.
Since the goal of the new Centre is sustainable transportation (something that
cannot exist without social justice), then we can only hope that all of us will
take this very seriously and strive to attain the necessary broader and better
balance in future projects and consultations. Whether run by Shell, or indeed
any of us!
5. Not to be clever, but as McLuhan reminded us: the medium is the message. And
here the medium was of course our group.
IV. THREE QUICK PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS
1. Flexibility? The organizers gave every evidence of flexibility and a general
willingness to take into account the messages that came out of the workshop and
all their other preliminary conversations and consultations.
* Their sincerity in this was evidenced by the way that they showed themselves
ready to back off from a number of the propositions set out in their preparatory
thinkpiece/background paper, to revise them radically, and to take on new and at
times very different ideas.
2. Social Justice? Probably the strongest single "contrary statement" and
proposition that was made was offered by Dinesh Mohan, when he said with a
certain vigor that the goal of all initiatives of the foundation should be
specifically in making major improvements in the transport and daily life lots
of the bottom half (in economic terms) of society. (I translate this in my own
mind as meaning (a) if that slice of our society is not the MAJOR beneficiary of
any given project or effort created or sustainability by the Foundation, then it
should be set aside swiftly and forever; and (b) that the target group in the
OECD nations should be the bottom quintile.
* Professor Mohan further made the fundamental point that if the activities of
the new Centre were to concentrate on either congestion reduction or energy
issues per se, they would immediately be skewed away from the priority needs of
what should be our main target group.
* If Dinesh's proposal is to be taken seriously, it suggests a name change. The
proposed working title w as "Shell Foundation Centre for Sustainable
Transportation, Energy, and Environment". Might it not be better as "The Centre
for Sustainable Transportation, Environment, and Social Justice".
* We can look at this later, but I bring it to your attention right here up
front because it is such a fundamental building block in their new structure.
(Though I add that this also overlaps and reinforces quite nicely with the
Foundation's program in the area of Community Development, though the two are
obviously entirely separate considerations.)
3. Budget? The announced budget of the Shell Centre is on the order of an
average of million dollars or so for each of the next five years. And while
this has to be regarded as an important start, it also needs to be said that in
light of the wealth of the group, their prospects over the rest of this decade,
and the huge environmental and social impacts of its activities, this is a very
very small number.
* My thought on this is that perhaps if we all get together and help them shape
a program that begins to have visible, powerful impacts they may gain in courage
and do the right thing.
* Which of course is to put a billion dollars into the Foundation.
* There is something about a billion dollars that gets my attention.
* So let's help them get this started and then we can see.
* * *
To conclude, for now: The Shell Foundation team is off to a good start - and
their willingness to work with this very large and very public open forum,
entirely independent and perhaps at times a bit uncomfortable as a working
partner, has to be taken as a sign of the sincerely of their commitment. Let's
follow closely what happens next as the others report back their observations
and recommendations. This could get interesting.
John Whitelegg challenges thinking on what happens when you try to apply 20th
century western transport ideas to 21st century eastern cities. Listen to his
BBC World Service interview via Yikes at http://newmobility.org.
Dear More Philosophic Policy Types,
If you turn to the latest edition of Yikes! (you'll see it in the top bar
menu of our http://www.ecoplan.org/wtpp webpage), you will find a trio of
thinkpieces that attempt to set out some thinking on the
carsharing/sustainability/public policy nexus.
I put this particular number of our informal e-mag before you today because
at least some of those of us who worry over policy and practice in the
transport field have in recent years come to believe that carsharing, by
whatever name, may with appropriate policy support be used as an effective
sustainability and sustainable transportation transition tool.
So if any of you have the time and taste for this sort of thing, I would be
very interested to hear what you have to say. In the interest of economy of
time for all the busy people who come here to work, may I suggest that you
mail your eventual remarks to me individually at
eric.britton@.... Then, if the responses look like they may
have a broader interest to the group, I can fashion them into a sort of
single update piece, which we can then share with the others in one shot.
With all good wishes,
Eric Britton
The @New Mobility Forum is permanently at http://newmobility.org
The Commons ___Sustainable Development and Social Justice___
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Eric.Britton@... Tel: +331 4326 1323
* (This note contains the earlier correspondence on the Bogota crisis of the
last day's, placed here for those who have not had access to it. For the
latest direct, check out http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/. For history, try
http://www.ecoplan.org/votebogota2000/.)
Dear Lake, Christopher and Group,
Thanks for those fine heads-up Christopher and Lake. Let me run this
through you and the others as I understand it. Since it is quite possible
that I am at error in some part if not all of this, it will be with pleasure
to hear from you all so that we get this important story in its full and
necessary perspective. And at the same time, we have to be aware that time
is very short here if there is anything that we might do to attenuate this
situation.
1. Wow! One does has to wonder about what goes on in the mind of
purportedly sentient person in a Third World city who would be prepared to
take on the couple of hundred thousand people who work in the private bus
and taxi sector. History is littered with the corpses of those who have
tried, whether in Chile, in Colombia itself a decade and a half before
Salvador Allende has his face-off with the truckers, or... and the list goes
on.
2. We must be careful to keep a balanced perspective on all this. The
transportation and public space accomplishments of the city and its
administrators over these last few years have been of a very high levels,
and against all the odds. I think we have given excellent coverage of this
here in The Commons, as well as our active, world-level support. No problem
there. We love Bogota and we love certainly no less the emerging Bogota
Model for Third World Cities. But we also need to be very sure that we have
the right model, and that as we are seeing is a terrific challenge indeed.
Work for which many hands are needed!
3. I would tend to be very careful however about seeing this as an "us"
(good TransMilenio, bike paths, walking and pubic spaces, Ciclovías (car
free Sundays), and all that other good stuff) and "them" (all those filthy,
polluting, half criminal, dangerous and the list goes on vehicles) issue.
This is however, I am afraid, the sub-text of what has been going on in
Bogota more or less all along- and is on area in which I was in strong
opposition with previous administration (but apparently without being
vociferous enough about it to make my point).
4. By the way, let's ponder for a moment who's the "them" there. Let's
see -- bearing in mind that these are very rough figures since the actual
number of vehicles out there on the streets is subject to all kinds fo real
world stuff - we have something like 55,000 taxis and 35,000 or so buses of
various types and sizes. Figure anywhere from 3 to 5 support people (AKA
jobs) for each of those vehicles, and we quickly are moving up toward half a
million. Then factor in families of 3, 4 or more dependents? Hey, that's a
pretty big number of people to be playing with. Working people with no
safety net.
5. The point needs to be made about these operators that there is nothing
superfluous about the services they are providing. While they maybe didn't
get doctorates in transportation planning from some splendid First World
schools, they nonetheless are succeeding in providing services that people
want and are willing to pay for - without the great sucking sound of public
subsidy.
6. Is this to say that the transport planners and the city do not have a
point? Of course they do -- there are a real set of problems and challenges
out there that have to be resolved. There are, for example, a lot of empty
buses roaming around once the peak hour traffic has passed, and sure that's
a problem. And they are old and pollute in FULL CAPS. And they run
illegally pretty much as they wish. And and... But there are ways, and
there are ways.
7. I for one was looking forward to resolving these dangerous contradictions
with careful discussions and well thought out positions before going to bat
on this one. It had been my hope (and I guess it still is) to create a High
Level Task Force, whose job it would be to work with, follow and advice the
city and all those concerned about their transport-related policies over the
15 year period which has been targeted by the successful October Referendum
(which as you ay recall we vociferously and with high profile supported from
here). But months have passed and there is still no Task Force in sight.
8. This next sentence, you either go with or you don't. In the latter
instance, there is surely no reason to read beyond it.
9. The future of transport in Third World cities must (MUST!) take the form
of a dynamic, innovative, and patient partnership that brings together "new"
concepts such as the TransMilenio, waling and cycling as transport, in
parallel with a steady upgrading and INCLUSION of the very large number of
people and small groups who today are making their livings and providing
needed services in the city.
10. Anything less than that will be a victory for the authoritarian central
planners and a defeat for access, efficiency and social justice. The problem
with folks who learned everything they know about life in universities and
then get nice jobs in administrations or as consultants, is that they very
often don't know much about life on the street. Nor apparently much about
concepts such as love, community, responsibilities to family and dignity.
And yet these are central issues here.
11. You see, people such as the taxistas and small bus operators have to be
seen as OWNING THEIR JOBS, which means that we as advisors or administrators
cannot simply take them away from them. Nor introduce unilateral and large
changes in their working environment, without some sort of tit for tat. And
where's the tit for tat in Bogota today?
12. The weakness of the Transmilenio et al plan until now is that it
presumes a certain vision of the future of the city which is essentially
cloistered, academic and unreal. It has its strong points, and its weaker
points. And this is probably the weakest of all.
13. What Bogota needs (if I may) is a well thought out network of TMs, cycle
paths and the rest, plus draconian parking and private car control
limitations plus lots of small vehicles scooting around providing cheap and
flexible transportation for people of all economic groups - and lots of good
jobs! The potential for upgrading these private systems is enormous and
many sided.
14. And are the people who are the drivers, operators, owners, etc. easy to
work with? You bet they aren't! Life is tough out there on the street and
most of the time they meet a guy in a suit it's because the suited one is
going to make things worse for them. And here, dear friends, we have one
more example.
15. I am dead sure that this whole thing can be resolved, but the first step
in this process has to be wisdom and not wounded honor. And it has to be
taken by the administration.
16. Mayor Mockus has a terrific opportunity here. At the same time while
backing away from their ill planned (and rotten) idea of extending the Pico
y Placa by fiat, he can first declare a hiatus, let the guys get back to
work in a normal way, while announcing that the government is now ready to
enter into a New Mobility Partnership with the small service providers -
with the backing (if it can be done in the needed hurry, if only in
principle as a first step) of folks such as the UNDP, WB, IADB and the other
usual suspects.. including bilateral aid programs.
By doing this they will snatch victory out of the jaws of the defeat which
they are sure to meet if they keep playing for the win at all costs. Hey,
this is a great opportunity for them, and for the Bogota Model. So, what do
you have to say about that? And what can we do with this next?
Eric
PS. Incidentally, I have a hard time in agreeing with your criticism, Lake,
of El Tiempo's coverage. Let's not forget they have been consistent
supporters of positive transport innovation over these last years, including
for the first (and second) award winning Car Free Day. If they are not
lining up behind the planners, does this necessarily mean that they are
wrong or mean spirited? I doubt it on both scores. I have checked carefully,
including today, and find the coverage quite balanced and fair.
= = = = =
Letter 1 from Christian Dunkerley from Bogota on Mon 8/6/2001 10:56 PM
Dear Eric,
I am writing to you from an internet cafe in Bogota... I was caught in the
mess on Thursday, and the blockage was massive. In fact, it was the worst
that Bogota has experienced in its entire life. Most of the main
intersections and roads were blocked. Rich and poor had to walk: there was
no other way out. It was very democratic: everyone was affected. In my
case, I had to walk around 6 miles to get back home. Not even schools or
emergency services were spared.
The funny thing is that I spent 5 years in a research project at ITS-Leed
University studying the impact of road infrastructure closures in
Colombia!!! If you want more precise details of the closures(and my
publications on this area), I can send them when I get back to the UK... my
other email address is cdunkerley@...
Regards,
Christian Dunkerley
Transport Economist
TRL Limited
= = = =
Letter 2 from Lake Sagaris [sagaris@...] on Tue 8/7/2001 3:08 PM
Hi Eric
Patricio and I just got back from Bogota where we spent quite a bit of time
with the folks at TransMilenio, Ciclovías, etc. They're doing an amazing
job in very difficult conditions. It was quite clear, however, that El
Tiempo has taken a very strong editorial line against TransMilenio itself
and that there is an enormous and very important debate going on about what
should happen with the rest of the transportation system in the city. I'm
not sure that you should be so pessimistic -- rather than a "screw up" in
Bogota, I'd characterize this as a "Crucial debate" in that it is very
important that the positive initiatives taken by authorities past and
present be recognized and receive broad and increasingly active support
from the citizens. Otherwise, in the conditions (33,000 buses!!!, not to
mention taxis, etc.) existing in Bogotá it will be very difficult to expand
the benefits of TransMilenio beyond the current 340,000 -- 1 million by
years end -- daily passenger trips (this should end up being about 1/7 of
those who move by bus, which in turn is 80% of daily commutes).
One problem is that authorities in general and in Latin America in
particular constantly underestimate the importance of citizens'
participation and hence support for their transportation policies. They
think they can change the city without the citizens, a deadly assumption.
If you look at the letters to the editor section of the same issue of El
tiempo which you posted, most of the letters are very sensible and express
support for "Pico y Placa" and, in general, the measures being taken by the
authorities. There is also widespread approval of TransMilenio, which is
also (miracle of miracles!!!) making money, and these are crucial elements
to the debate.
Anyway, I may be missing something as I haven't read the papers from Bogotá
in the past week, but in general we found people on the street were also
very happy with TransMilenio. We found it was still being underestimated in
the sense of what it could do for local business (same with the Ciclovías)
and that is an important gap, but everything takes time and it will surely
come eventually.
All best
Lake
PS I'm cc'ing this to you because I suspect the list won't take the new
address I'm sending from.
At 07:26 AM 07/08/01 +0200, you wrote:
>Dear Colleagues,
>
>I would very much like to have the benefit of your reactions and thoughts
as
>to what is currently going on in Bogota. I personally and professionally
>find it extremely distressing.
>
>Have a look at today's El Tiempo at
>http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/06-08-2001/prip83036.html to get the latest.
>(I attach the usual horrible machine translation, without apologies for
>anyone who needs a bit of help in making their way through the Spanish
>text.)
>
>If you look around through the recent issues of El Tiempo, you can see this
>storm coming. And if you want a flavour for how things are looking out
>there on the streets, check out
>http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/proyectos/ultimahora/trancon/.
>
>Those of us who follow transport matters in the Third World are well aware
>of what a dynamite keg it can be. That's on the one hand. But then there
>is all the careful work that has been done over these last years to make
>progress in building a new model of r in Third World cities. If the
present
>administration gets this one any wronger, that could be the real victim of
>all this.
>
>There is an expression that I remember from German when I was little, which
>went that as soon as a child says something clever at the table it's time
to
>put him to bed. This situation reminds me sadly of that: the original Pico
>y Placa (Odd/Even) scheme of the previous (Peñalosa) administration was
>extremely well thought out and has worked admirably with private cars for
>several years. Admirably! And now the new mayor (a fine and intelligent
>man, as it happens) and his advisors (ahem!) have decided that, since it
>works so well and they still want less traffic, well why not apply it to
>private buses and taxis? Ouch!
>
>But hey! maybe I have this all horribly wrong. I'd love to think that's the
>case and that they have really thought all this through and that the Bogota
>Model is going to come through this unscathed.
>
>Comments?
>
>Eric Britton
>
>The @New Mobility Forum is permanently at http://newmobility.org
>The Commons ___Sustainable Development and Social Justice___
>Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
>Eric.Britton@... Tel: +331 4326 1323
>
>
>
>
>= = = =
>
>BOGOTÁ, ANOTHER TIME TO HALF MARCH FOR UNEMPLOYMENT OF TRANSPORT
>
>The transporters again carry out a work stoppage to protest against
extending the
Odd/Even scheme for public service vehicles. Hundreds of citizens
>crowd together in the stations of the service of the mass transport
>Transmilenio, the only one that currently works. Others carry out long
walks to
>arrive to their working place. Today there are no classes in the district
>and private schools. For the time being, there are no blockades.
>
>
>To the edge of the midnight they broke the conversations among the Mayor
>Antanas Mockus and the transporters of Bogotá, with that which was firm the
>measure of the pick and badge for the public transportation and today
Monday
>an unemployment will be presented on the part of taxis and buses in the
>capital, fair the day of its birthday number 463.
>
>With mutual accusations of intransigence, Mockus and the transporters gave
>end at eight hours of negotiation after which there were not agreements.
The
>Mayor's office asked to the from Bogotá ones not to take today buses,
>busetas, taxis or collective whose badges finish in 1, 2, 3 or 4, and the
>Metropolitan Police gets ready to make complete the restriction to the
>public transportation that began a.m. at 5:30 o'clock
>
>The drivers announced protests with the use of the call 'Operation turtle
'.
>Miguel Ángel Pérez, spokesman of Apetrans, accused Mockus of working with "
>bad faith " in front of the union transporter, but the Minister of the
>Interior, Armando Estrada, assured to be witness of the conciliatory spirit
>of the burgomaestre.
>
>They carry to an extreme safety measures
>
>The director of the National, general Police Luis Ernesto Gilibert, noticed
>yesterday that the institution to its position already adopted the
necessary
>measures to prevent that the city is paralyzed by the transporters again.
>
>According to Gilibert, their men have the order of impeding the blockade of
>main and secondary roads of the city, and he/she said that in this occasion
>the authorities won't be consequent with the drivers.
>
>To avoid any incident, the number of agents of the Metropolitan Police was
>reinforced with troops of the Police of Highways and the Police of
>Cundinamarca. About 3.000 men travel from last night the city.
>
>Likewise, a strict control will be made to the use of radio frequencies for
>judicializar those companies that allow the drivers to use this means to
>perturb the public order.
>
>Yesterday he/she took place a safe-deposit advice in the biggest Mayor's
>office to which attended Government's secretary, Soraya Montoya; the
>commandant of the Metropolitan, general Police Jorge Enrique Linares; the
>commandant of the Unit of Traffic, colonel Pedro Molano; the commandant of
>the Tenth Third Brigade, general Reynaldo Castellanos, and the adviser for
>the security, Hugo Steel.
>
>Linares said that there are 60 control positions in the city and 40 cranes
>will be available to move away the vehicles that obstruct the roads.
>
>The objective of the advice was to review the contingency stockings that
are
>had foreseen to avoid alterations of the public order in Bogotá. Troops of
>the Army are bet around the city with the purpose of preventing that the
>guerrilla's urban militias can infiltrates in the possible manifestations
>that are carried out.
>
>Of another side, yesterday the Defender of the Town, Eduardo Cifuentes,
said
>that the taponamiento of the citizens' roads viola fundamental rights.
>
>According to the Defender, to impede the normal flow of vehicles and people
>in the city, it is an attack against the free mobilization.
>
>Cifuentes said that the drivers are in all its right of protesting provided
>they make it for the road of the I dialogue and the agreement, and not
>through measures that affect to the rest of the society.
>
>The Mayor's office announced that that of today will be an ordinary day and
>that therefore the scheduled activities are not suspended with reason of
the
>celebration of the 463 years of the capital.
>
>Even, Mockus will be at 7 in the morning in a journey for TransMilenio that
>today gives a new line of the system in the North Freeway. He/she also
>enters in operation in Portal of Usme, in the south end of the city. The
new
>stations will allow the mobilization of at least 80 thousand passengers.
>
>Recommendations
>
>Avoid to take the taxis or buses whose registrations finish in 1, 2, 3 and
>4, because the surest thing is that the authorities will immobilize him and
>you won't be able to follow their journey.
>
>To avoid that he/she repeats that of last Thursday, when children's
>thousands were caught by several hours in the blockades promoted by the
taxi
>drivers, call to the school of their children and discover if there are
>classes.
>
>Limit their activities of the day, carry out alone those that it considers
>really important.
>
>Try not to traffic for the places where they concentrate the protests, as
>downtown, for example.
>
>If it can go out with their particular vehicle, ask if some neighbor or
>relative goes for his same route and bring near it.
>
>If today's journey is not very long, use bicycle or put on comfortable
>clothes and walk.
>
>Remember that TransMilenio will lend its ordinary service, starting from
>5:30 o'clock including the new ones truncates them a.m., and park in the
>North Freeway and the Portal of Usme.
>
>In the event of an emergency, don't doubt to communicate with the Police.
I must say that I agree with the spirit behind Eric's observations. All of us
want clean air. But sometimes we forget that it is human beings (and other
living organisms) that need the clean air. If some policies harm human beings
then we have to decide who, when and how. In many less motorised countries the
most vociferous and influential sustainable development advocates belong to the
upper class, and their bias shows:
1. They are willing to pass laws to shut down workshops and factories in
cities, limit traffic, make public transport more expensive (by requiring more
expensive technonolgy), etc. because they have to breathe the same air as every
one else. But hey don't really care if thousands of poorer citizens lose their
jobs, go hungry or are forced to migrate.
2. On the other hand, the same concerned activists rarely demand that every
one must get clean and bacteria free water in their taps (if and when they get
it) because the upperclass can afford to buy bottled water.
From my experience in India, letters to newspapers only represent upper
class views. Street protests reflect the views of the "other". I am afraid the
"other " does not see our views as benign. Citizens hearings in Delhi have
brought ot the fact that some of our clean air policies have made life
difficult for hundreds of thousands, many of them have pulled thier children out
of school, others have sent their familiesd back to villages, still others are
forced into prostitution, and so on. They certainly don't believe that we want a
better world.
Sustainable transport policies will have to keep human beings in the centre and
not just chemically clean air.
Dinesh Mohan
eric.britton@... wrote:
> * (This note contains the earlier correspondence on the Bogota crisis of the
> last day's, placed here for those who have not had access to it. For the
> latest direct, check out http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/. For history, try
> http://www.ecoplan.org/votebogota2000/.)
>
> Dear Lake, Christopher and Group,
>
> Thanks for those fine heads-up Christopher and Lake. Let me run this
> through you and the others as I understand it. Since it is quite possible
> that I am at error in some part if not all of this, it will be with pleasure
> to hear from you all so that we get this important story in its full and
> necessary perspective. And at the same time, we have to be aware that time
> is very short here if there is anything that we might do to attenuate this
> situation.
>
> 1. Wow! One does has to wonder about what goes on in the mind of
> purportedly sentient person in a Third World city who would be prepared to
> take on the couple of hundred thousand people who work in the private bus
> and taxi sector. History is littered with the corpses of those who have
> tried, whether in Chile, in Colombia itself a decade and a half before
> Salvador Allende has his face-off with the truckers, or... and the list goes
> on.
>
> 2. We must be careful to keep a balanced perspective on all this. The
> transportation and public space accomplishments of the city and its
> administrators over these last few years have been of a very high levels,
> and against all the odds. I think we have given excellent coverage of this
> here in The Commons, as well as our active, world-level support. No problem
> there. We love Bogota and we love certainly no less the emerging Bogota
> Model for Third World Cities. But we also need to be very sure that we have
> the right model, and that as we are seeing is a terrific challenge indeed.
> Work for which many hands are needed!
>
> 3. I would tend to be very careful however about seeing this as an "us"
> (good TransMilenio, bike paths, walking and pubic spaces, Ciclovías (car
> free Sundays), and all that other good stuff) and "them" (all those filthy,
> polluting, half criminal, dangerous and the list goes on vehicles) issue.
> This is however, I am afraid, the sub-text of what has been going on in
> Bogota more or less all along- and is on area in which I was in strong
> opposition with previous administration (but apparently without being
> vociferous enough about it to make my point).
>
> 4. By the way, let's ponder for a moment who's the "them" there. Let's
> see -- bearing in mind that these are very rough figures since the actual
> number of vehicles out there on the streets is subject to all kinds fo real
> world stuff - we have something like 55,000 taxis and 35,000 or so buses of
> various types and sizes. Figure anywhere from 3 to 5 support people (AKA
> jobs) for each of those vehicles, and we quickly are moving up toward half a
> million. Then factor in families of 3, 4 or more dependents? Hey, that's a
> pretty big number of people to be playing with. Working people with no
> safety net.
>
> 5. The point needs to be made about these operators that there is nothing
> superfluous about the services they are providing. While they maybe didn't
> get doctorates in transportation planning from some splendid First World
> schools, they nonetheless are succeeding in providing services that people
> want and are willing to pay for - without the great sucking sound of public
> subsidy.
>
> 6. Is this to say that the transport planners and the city do not have a
> point? Of course they do -- there are a real set of problems and challenges
> out there that have to be resolved. There are, for example, a lot of empty
> buses roaming around once the peak hour traffic has passed, and sure that's
> a problem. And they are old and pollute in FULL CAPS. And they run
> illegally pretty much as they wish. And and... But there are ways, and
> there are ways.
>
> 7. I for one was looking forward to resolving these dangerous contradictions
> with careful discussions and well thought out positions before going to bat
> on this one. It had been my hope (and I guess it still is) to create a High
> Level Task Force, whose job it would be to work with, follow and advice the
> city and all those concerned about their transport-related policies over the
> 15 year period which has been targeted by the successful October Referendum
> (which as you ay recall we vociferously and with high profile supported from
> here). But months have passed and there is still no Task Force in sight.
>
> 8. This next sentence, you either go with or you don't. In the latter
> instance, there is surely no reason to read beyond it.
>
> 9. The future of transport in Third World cities must (MUST!) take the form
> of a dynamic, innovative, and patient partnership that brings together "new"
> concepts such as the TransMilenio, waling and cycling as transport, in
> parallel with a steady upgrading and INCLUSION of the very large number of
> people and small groups who today are making their livings and providing
> needed services in the city.
>
> 10. Anything less than that will be a victory for the authoritarian central
> planners and a defeat for access, efficiency and social justice. The problem
> with folks who learned everything they know about life in universities and
> then get nice jobs in administrations or as consultants, is that they very
> often don't know much about life on the street. Nor apparently much about
> concepts such as love, community, responsibilities to family and dignity.
> And yet these are central issues here.
>
> 11. You see, people such as the taxistas and small bus operators have to be
> seen as OWNING THEIR JOBS, which means that we as advisors or administrators
> cannot simply take them away from them. Nor introduce unilateral and large
> changes in their working environment, without some sort of tit for tat. And
> where's the tit for tat in Bogota today?
>
> 12. The weakness of the Transmilenio et al plan until now is that it
> presumes a certain vision of the future of the city which is essentially
> cloistered, academic and unreal. It has its strong points, and its weaker
> points. And this is probably the weakest of all.
>
> 13. What Bogota needs (if I may) is a well thought out network of TMs, cycle
> paths and the rest, plus draconian parking and private car control
> limitations plus lots of small vehicles scooting around providing cheap and
> flexible transportation for people of all economic groups - and lots of good
> jobs! The potential for upgrading these private systems is enormous and
> many sided.
>
> 14. And are the people who are the drivers, operators, owners, etc. easy to
> work with? You bet they aren't! Life is tough out there on the street and
> most of the time they meet a guy in a suit it's because the suited one is
> going to make things worse for them. And here, dear friends, we have one
> more example.
>
> 15. I am dead sure that this whole thing can be resolved, but the first step
> in this process has to be wisdom and not wounded honor. And it has to be
> taken by the administration.
>
> 16. Mayor Mockus has a terrific opportunity here. At the same time while
> backing away from their ill planned (and rotten) idea of extending the Pico
> y Placa by fiat, he can first declare a hiatus, let the guys get back to
> work in a normal way, while announcing that the government is now ready to
> enter into a New Mobility Partnership with the small service providers -
> with the backing (if it can be done in the needed hurry, if only in
> principle as a first step) of folks such as the UNDP, WB, IADB and the other
> usual suspects.. including bilateral aid programs.
>
> By doing this they will snatch victory out of the jaws of the defeat which
> they are sure to meet if they keep playing for the win at all costs. Hey,
> this is a great opportunity for them, and for the Bogota Model. So, what do
> you have to say about that? And what can we do with this next?
>
> Eric
>
> PS. Incidentally, I have a hard time in agreeing with your criticism, Lake,
> of El Tiempo's coverage. Let's not forget they have been consistent
> supporters of positive transport innovation over these last years, including
> for the first (and second) award winning Car Free Day. If they are not
> lining up behind the planners, does this necessarily mean that they are
> wrong or mean spirited? I doubt it on both scores. I have checked carefully,
> including today, and find the coverage quite balanced and fair.
>
> = = = = =
> Letter 1 from Christian Dunkerley from Bogota on Mon 8/6/2001 10:56 PM
>
> Dear Eric,
>
> I am writing to you from an internet cafe in Bogota... I was caught in the
> mess on Thursday, and the blockage was massive. In fact, it was the worst
> that Bogota has experienced in its entire life. Most of the main
> intersections and roads were blocked. Rich and poor had to walk: there was
> no other way out. It was very democratic: everyone was affected. In my
> case, I had to walk around 6 miles to get back home. Not even schools or
> emergency services were spared.
>
> The funny thing is that I spent 5 years in a research project at ITS-Leed
> University studying the impact of road infrastructure closures in
> Colombia!!! If you want more precise details of the closures(and my
> publications on this area), I can send them when I get back to the UK... my
> other email address is cdunkerley@...
>
> Regards,
>
> Christian Dunkerley
> Transport Economist
> TRL Limited
>
> = = = =
> Letter 2 from Lake Sagaris [sagaris@...] on Tue 8/7/2001 3:08 PM
>
> Hi Eric
>
> Patricio and I just got back from Bogota where we spent quite a bit of time
> with the folks at TransMilenio, Ciclovías, etc. They're doing an amazing
> job in very difficult conditions. It was quite clear, however, that El
> Tiempo has taken a very strong editorial line against TransMilenio itself
> and that there is an enormous and very important debate going on about what
> should happen with the rest of the transportation system in the city. I'm
> not sure that you should be so pessimistic -- rather than a "screw up" in
> Bogota, I'd characterize this as a "Crucial debate" in that it is very
> important that the positive initiatives taken by authorities past and
> present be recognized and receive broad and increasingly active support
> from the citizens. Otherwise, in the conditions (33,000 buses!!!, not to
> mention taxis, etc.) existing in Bogotá it will be very difficult to expand
> the benefits of TransMilenio beyond the current 340,000 -- 1 million by
> years end -- daily passenger trips (this should end up being about 1/7 of
> those who move by bus, which in turn is 80% of daily commutes).
>
> One problem is that authorities in general and in Latin America in
> particular constantly underestimate the importance of citizens'
> participation and hence support for their transportation policies. They
> think they can change the city without the citizens, a deadly assumption.
>
> If you look at the letters to the editor section of the same issue of El
> tiempo which you posted, most of the letters are very sensible and express
> support for "Pico y Placa" and, in general, the measures being taken by the
> authorities. There is also widespread approval of TransMilenio, which is
> also (miracle of miracles!!!) making money, and these are crucial elements
> to the debate.
>
> Anyway, I may be missing something as I haven't read the papers from Bogotá
> in the past week, but in general we found people on the street were also
> very happy with TransMilenio. We found it was still being underestimated in
> the sense of what it could do for local business (same with the Ciclovías)
> and that is an important gap, but everything takes time and it will surely
> come eventually.
>
> All best
> Lake
>
> PS I'm cc'ing this to you because I suspect the list won't take the new
> address I'm sending from.
>
> At 07:26 AM 07/08/01 +0200, you wrote:
> >Dear Colleagues,
> >
> >I would very much like to have the benefit of your reactions and thoughts
> as
> >to what is currently going on in Bogota. I personally and professionally
> >find it extremely distressing.
> >
> >Have a look at today's El Tiempo at
> >http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/06-08-2001/prip83036.html to get the latest.
> >(I attach the usual horrible machine translation, without apologies for
> >anyone who needs a bit of help in making their way through the Spanish
> >text.)
> >
> >If you look around through the recent issues of El Tiempo, you can see this
> >storm coming. And if you want a flavour for how things are looking out
> >there on the streets, check out
> >http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/proyectos/ultimahora/trancon/.
> >
> >Those of us who follow transport matters in the Third World are well aware
> >of what a dynamite keg it can be. That's on the one hand. But then there
> >is all the careful work that has been done over these last years to make
> >progress in building a new model of r in Third World cities. If the
> present
> >administration gets this one any wronger, that could be the real victim of
> >all this.
> >
> >There is an expression that I remember from German when I was little, which
> >went that as soon as a child says something clever at the table it's time
> to
> >put him to bed. This situation reminds me sadly of that: the original Pico
> >y Placa (Odd/Even) scheme of the previous (Peñalosa) administration was
> >extremely well thought out and has worked admirably with private cars for
> >several years. Admirably! And now the new mayor (a fine and intelligent
> >man, as it happens) and his advisors (ahem!) have decided that, since it
> >works so well and they still want less traffic, well why not apply it to
> >private buses and taxis? Ouch!
> >
> >But hey! maybe I have this all horribly wrong. I'd love to think that's the
> >case and that they have really thought all this through and that the Bogota
> >Model is going to come through this unscathed.
> >
> >Comments?
> >
> >Eric Britton
> >
> >The @New Mobility Forum is permanently at http://newmobility.org
> >The Commons ___Sustainable Development and Social Justice___
> >Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
> >Eric.Britton@... Tel: +331 4326 1323
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >= = = =
> >
> >BOGOTÁ, ANOTHER TIME TO HALF MARCH FOR UNEMPLOYMENT OF TRANSPORT
> >
> >The transporters again carry out a work stoppage to protest against
> extending the
> Odd/Even scheme for public service vehicles. Hundreds of citizens
> >crowd together in the stations of the service of the mass transport
> >Transmilenio, the only one that currently works. Others carry out long
> walks to
> >arrive to their working place. Today there are no classes in the district
> >and private schools. For the time being, there are no blockades.
> >
> >
> >To the edge of the midnight they broke the conversations among the Mayor
> >Antanas Mockus and the transporters of Bogotá, with that which was firm the
> >measure of the pick and badge for the public transportation and today
> Monday
> >an unemployment will be presented on the part of taxis and buses in the
> >capital, fair the day of its birthday number 463.
> >
> >With mutual accusations of intransigence, Mockus and the transporters gave
> >end at eight hours of negotiation after which there were not agreements.
> The
> >Mayor's office asked to the from Bogotá ones not to take today buses,
> >busetas, taxis or collective whose badges finish in 1, 2, 3 or 4, and the
> >Metropolitan Police gets ready to make complete the restriction to the
> >public transportation that began a.m. at 5:30 o'clock
> >
> >The drivers announced protests with the use of the call 'Operation turtle
> '.
> >Miguel Ángel Pérez, spokesman of Apetrans, accused Mockus of working with "
> >bad faith " in front of the union transporter, but the Minister of the
> >Interior, Armando Estrada, assured to be witness of the conciliatory spirit
> >of the burgomaestre.
> >
> >They carry to an extreme safety measures
> >
> >The director of the National, general Police Luis Ernesto Gilibert, noticed
> >yesterday that the institution to its position already adopted the
> necessary
> >measures to prevent that the city is paralyzed by the transporters again.
> >
> >According to Gilibert, their men have the order of impeding the blockade of
> >main and secondary roads of the city, and he/she said that in this occasion
> >the authorities won't be consequent with the drivers.
> >
> >To avoid any incident, the number of agents of the Metropolitan Police was
> >reinforced with troops of the Police of Highways and the Police of
> >Cundinamarca. About 3.000 men travel from last night the city.
> >
> >Likewise, a strict control will be made to the use of radio frequencies for
> >judicializar those companies that allow the drivers to use this means to
> >perturb the public order.
> >
> >Yesterday he/she took place a safe-deposit advice in the biggest Mayor's
> >office to which attended Government's secretary, Soraya Montoya; the
> >commandant of the Metropolitan, general Police Jorge Enrique Linares; the
> >commandant of the Unit of Traffic, colonel Pedro Molano; the commandant of
> >the Tenth Third Brigade, general Reynaldo Castellanos, and the adviser for
> >the security, Hugo Steel.
> >
> >Linares said that there are 60 control positions in the city and 40 cranes
> >will be available to move away the vehicles that obstruct the roads.
> >
> >The objective of the advice was to review the contingency stockings that
> are
> >had foreseen to avoid alterations of the public order in Bogotá. Troops of
> >the Army are bet around the city with the purpose of preventing that the
> >guerrilla's urban militias can infiltrates in the possible manifestations
> >that are carried out.
> >
> >Of another side, yesterday the Defender of the Town, Eduardo Cifuentes,
> said
> >that the taponamiento of the citizens' roads viola fundamental rights.
> >
> >According to the Defender, to impede the normal flow of vehicles and people
> >in the city, it is an attack against the free mobilization.
> >
> >Cifuentes said that the drivers are in all its right of protesting provided
> >they make it for the road of the I dialogue and the agreement, and not
> >through measures that affect to the rest of the society.
> >
> >The Mayor's office announced that that of today will be an ordinary day and
> >that therefore the scheduled activities are not suspended with reason of
> the
> >celebration of the 463 years of the capital.
> >
> >Even, Mockus will be at 7 in the morning in a journey for TransMilenio that
> >today gives a new line of the system in the North Freeway. He/she also
> >enters in operation in Portal of Usme, in the south end of the city. The
> new
> >stations will allow the mobilization of at least 80 thousand passengers.
> >
> >Recommendations
> >
> >Avoid to take the taxis or buses whose registrations finish in 1, 2, 3 and
> >4, because the surest thing is that the authorities will immobilize him and
> >you won't be able to follow their journey.
> >
> >To avoid that he/she repeats that of last Thursday, when children's
> >thousands were caught by several hours in the blockades promoted by the
> taxi
> >drivers, call to the school of their children and discover if there are
> >classes.
> >
> >Limit their activities of the day, carry out alone those that it considers
> >really important.
> >
> >Try not to traffic for the places where they concentrate the protests, as
> >downtown, for example.
> >
> >If it can go out with their particular vehicle, ask if some neighbor or
> >relative goes for his same route and bring near it.
> >
> >If today's journey is not very long, use bicycle or put on comfortable
> >clothes and walk.
> >
> >Remember that TransMilenio will lend its ordinary service, starting from
> >5:30 o'clock including the new ones truncates them a.m., and park in the
> >North Freeway and the Portal of Usme.
> >
> >In the event of an emergency, don't doubt to communicate with the Police.
>
> The @New Mobility Forum is permanently at http://newmobility.org
> To post messages to list: newmob@egroups.com
> To get off this list: newmob-unsubscribe@egroups.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
--
=======================================================================
Send your response to DRAFT CHARTER ON PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO SAFETY, GO TO
TRIPP website http://www.iitd.ac.in/tripp/
[IMORTANT: if this server gives you trouble in sending a mail to me,
you can use <trippdelhi@...> temporarily.]
=======================================================================
Dinesh Mohan
Henry Ford Professor for Biomechanics and Transportation Safety
Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme
Room MS 808, Main Building
Indian Institute of Technology
Hauz Khas
New Delhi 110016
Phone: (+91 11) 659 1147 & 659 6361
FAX: (+91 11) 685 8703 & 685 1169
Home: (+91 11) 649 4910
Email: dmohan@...
=======================================================================
Lancaster & Paris
3 September 2001
The current edition of World Transport Policy & Practice, a quarterly
journal edited by Professor John Whitelegg, and brought to you in
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Contents of Volume 7, Number 2, 2001:
Editorial
John Whitelegg
Cycling in African Cities: Status & Prospects
Theo Rwebangira
National symbolism undermining healthy transport policies? A case study of
Canberra's V8 Supercar race
Paul J. Tranter & Timothy J. Keeffe
Twisted Logic in the upside-down world of 'road safety' ideology: A case
study of 'The Safety & Security issues of Women drivers & passengers'
Robert Davis
Determinants of air travel growth
Stefan K. Nielsen
Liveable Neighbourhoods
Evan Jones
Walking as a local transport modal choice in Adelaide
Andrew Allan
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Dear Friends,
This last good observation on Sustran from Kisan Mehta on pedicabs,
riskhsaws, et al has been haunting my mailbox for the last several days as I
have been scratching my head and trying to figure out how I might somehow
usefully in this matter. Here is my best quick stab for now with the
following proviso: you all know the old saw that “to a man with a hammer all
problems look like nails”. So you may find that the ideas that follow may
suffer from this syndrome as well.
Let’s take a minute and see if we can at least figure out a couple of
important things that we know – and them maybe a few others that we don’t
but perhaps should:
Item 1: Pedicabs, riskhsaws, motorized or not, bicycles and all that stuff
with only a couple of wheels and often motors have to be THE wrinkle in the
terrible conundrum of sustainable transport in Third World cities that put
it in an entirely different league from what we are seeing in the so-called
West. And this is of course not even to mention the further complications
of animal drawn transport.
Item 2: There is no clear model (known to me) that shows how (if at all)
they should be integrated into the global transportation system, which
should be sustainable, should be socially just, and probably should also
have some place for other transport forms as well.
Item 3: We know that car-based systems of the kind that without any doubt
underlay the root thinking of most transport policy makers in the Third
World, and their first world advisors and bankers, are clearly NOT the
answer.
Item 4: But we also know for a fact that this car-based model (which of
course includes and defines by default the space available for its poor
cousin “public transport” or “mass transport” cousins) is the one that is in
place -- and which now somehow needs to be dislodged.
Okay, I admit. Up to now I have said absolutely nothing original on this or
anything that you all do not know full well. But if we look at it in this
light – and if we further bear in mind that those four points only start a
list of many others which all head uniformly in the same direction – it does
suggest one thing. AND THAT IS THAT WE CANNOT FIX THE PRESENT SYSTEM.
Hmm. Now that to my mind is a kind of interesting statement, because,
barren though it might at first seem, it does in fact contain the seeds of
what might be our eventual answer. Let me toss out a few ideas that might
possibly feed your own and better thoughts on all this:
a. The cars have to come out. This requires a program of street space
shifts which probably should be deliberately spread out over say a two or
four year period, at the end of which something like 90% of all private cars
are removed from the city traffic stream. (In a democracy or something that
wishes to pass for such, this should really not be unachievable since nine
out of ten or nineteen out of twenty or more households simply don’t have
own cars in the first place.
b. The traditional modes HAVE to be integrated into the solution set, not
just as minor add-ons or barely acceptable perverse artifacts of the past,
but as central elements of the sustainable transportation system. Like the
Critical Mass people, they can rightfully claim that they are not
obstructing traffic – they ARE traffic! (And the justifications for this
are so many and so well known to this group that I need not try even to
summarize.)
c. This leaves the question about how do all of the richer folks get around
in the brave new world of sustainability – and there we have some
interesting answers. By deregulating the field, we can expect that a whole
number of new entrepreneurs will emerge who are ready and able to provide
first class non-car transport (i.e., based on multiple occupancy with
variations) using vehicles of quite some range of sizes and types (and
prices). Think of these new systems as the logistical variation of say
mobile phones as opposed to the old POTS networks.
d. What about so-called “public transport” and its many variations? Well,
to my way of thinking that is just part of the puzzle, and certainly where
one has a well working pt system there is every reasons to maintain and
improve it. Moreover, the sort of things that we are seeing with the
TransMilenio in Bogota and the Curitiba busway system are surely going to
emerge as an important part of this new world of city transport. But that
said, we know for sure that they too only respond to one part of the much
broader challenge.
Let’s assume for the moment that this is a pretty good list and analysis of
the situation, where, if it is true, does it leave us? Well, I guess it
suggests that we are or at least should be searching for an entirely new
model, and that this is the only way out there by which we can break the
impasse. So, if all we do is continue to build another fly-over here,
another new bus lane there, clean up a few engines over there, and even one
of your wonderful three billion dollar all bells and whistles metros that
will solve who knows whose problems in maybe half a generations time . .
that inevitably all this will add up not to nothing, but to a situation
which will continue to go from bad to worse.
Well, if we do know that, and if we can organize and get some strong
agreement on that from say one thousand of the leading thinkers and
practitioners in the field before we all die of old age (or asphyxiation),
then maybe we have a running start on a new world of transport policy and
practice. And of course what would be great about this is that the West
will be able to look on and learn enough maybe even to save itself.
Do we have a discussion here? Or an action program as we managed to have
for Bogota? And if so, what next?
With all good wishes,
Eric Britton
The @New Mobility Forum is permanently at http://newmobility.org
The Commons ___Sustainable Development and Social Justice___
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Eric.Britton@... Tel: +331 4326 1323
>Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 08:39:36 +0300
>To: eric.britton@...
>
>From: Allan Johansson <Allan.Johansson@...>
>Subject: Fwd: distributed economies
>
>
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 10:13:41 +0300
From: Allan Johansson <Allan.Johansson@...>
Subject: distributed economies
Dear Eric,
A sudden sign of life from one of your more dormant members. Transport is not
my "thing" but it does pop up more and more frequently as a central issue
(obstacle) in all technical visions of a sustainable development. My pet
thought for the moment is "decentralized economies" which I think has a lot
to offer (that's my hammer), as it builds on the individual's , or few
individuals selfish interests to change things to the better.
As I see it, perhaps a little cynically, no real progress has been achieved
in the area of environmental concern ( or will be) , except were a limited
number of individuals have seen a selfish interest to improve things. With
affluence there is an interest to protect the local environment etc, but for
global problems the real will to change is small. Thus the leverage point to
change systems is to find the nuclei were a small number of individuals see
an advantage/opportunity to bring in an improvement-that is provide a
qualitatively better service in a less consuming way.
City transport certainly represents a great challenge in this area, but to
me the issue of cars present a totally different problem, and a very
difficult one. They respond to a profound sentiment of humans- personal
freedom of movement and image (like the horse for the legendary cow - boy I
assume, not being American).
It is a bit ironic that much of the traffic jams in cities are created by
these freedom lovers, getting nowhere, but outside the grip of better city
transport systems. In order to change that, one needs to find a substitute,
not only technically for transportation, but for all the imaginary values
-sense of freedom, power, virility etc..
In more general terms I have come to the belief that rather than try to
change whole systems we need to find and demonstrate solutions that are
qualitatively better and offer attractive economic opportunities to
individuals, if successful, these will then "infect " the system and bring
about change from within so to say. Unfortunately for me, in these issues
technology seems to play a lesser part.
best regards Allan
*************************************************************************
Prof Allan Johansson
tel:+358 9 456 6594
fax:+358 9 456 7026
VTT CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY
Industrial Environmental Economics
POB 1401
FIN-02044 VTT
FINLAND
( and International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund
University, Sweden http://www.iiiee.lu.se )
**************************************************************************
In speaking with Oscar Diaz today about the latest TransMilenio ridership
results in Bogota, he mentioned that they are now carrying on onto something
on the order of 600k people a day on 38 kms of busway. Hmm.
Now suppose they had instead decided two years back to build a metro. Where
would they be today? How much would they have spent? How many passengers
would they have already transported? What positive impact on the env would
that choice have had on the city.
Which brings up a suggested little project for anyone who has the wit, time
and desire to give this a whack. Namely, the construction of a "time line"
and a series of order of magnitude benchmarks which would compare say their
TransMilenio project with a recently completed metro in a Third World city.
Year by year comparisons of what happens and what impacts are achieved. And
$ by $. This could be very trenchant and useful indeed.
For more on the TM side, you can contact Oscar at diazoe@... or
(212) 629-80001.
I am sure that we would all be very eager to see how this works out. And
grateful.
With all good wishes,
Eric Britton
The @New Mobility Forum is permanently at http://newmobility.org
The Commons __ technology, economy, society__
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Day phone: +331 4326 1323 Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79
24 hour Fax/Voicemail hotline: +331 5301 2896
IP Videoconference: Ils.austin.polycom.com The Commons
Email: ecoplan.adsl@... URL www.ecoplan.org
I don't have the time or resources to undertake such a project right now,
but for anyone who is interested, one possible comparison would be with the
recently completed Cairo metro system. Since Cairo is so badly polluted with
vehicle emissions, comparisons of emissions savings would also be very
relevant.
Elaine Fletcher
Jerusalem
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Britton <eric.britton@...>
To: alt-transp@... <alt-transp@...>; sustran-discuss@...
<sustran-discuss@...>; transport-partnerships@...
<transport-partnerships@...>; WTP&P List
<WorldTransport@yahoogroups.com>
Date: éåí ùéùé 12 àå÷èåáø 2001 17:56
Subject: [WorldTransport] TransMilenio/Metro comarisons/benchmarks
>In speaking with Oscar Diaz today about the latest TransMilenio ridership
>results in Bogota, he mentioned that they are now carrying on onto
something
>on the order of 600k people a day on 38 kms of busway. Hmm.
>
>Now suppose they had instead decided two years back to build a metro.
Where
>would they be today? How much would they have spent? How many passengers
>would they have already transported? What positive impact on the env would
>that choice have had on the city.
>
>Which brings up a suggested little project for anyone who has the wit, time
>and desire to give this a whack. Namely, the construction of a "time line"
>and a series of order of magnitude benchmarks which would compare say their
>TransMilenio project with a recently completed metro in a Third World city.
>Year by year comparisons of what happens and what impacts are achieved.
And
>$ by $. This could be very trenchant and useful indeed.
>
>For more on the TM side, you can contact Oscar at diazoe@... or
>(212) 629-80001.
>
>I am sure that we would all be very eager to see how this works out. And
>grateful.
>
>With all good wishes,
>Eric Britton
>
>The @New Mobility Forum is permanently at http://newmobility.org
>The Commons __ technology, economy, society__
>Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
>Day phone: +331 4326 1323 Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79
>24 hour Fax/Voicemail hotline: +331 5301 2896
>IP Videoconference: Ils.austin.polycom.com The Commons
>Email: ecoplan.adsl@... URL www.ecoplan.org
>
>
>
>The Journal of World Transport Policy & Practice
>For more information: http://ecoplan.org/wtpp
>To post a message to group: wtpp@egroups.com
>To subscribe: wtpp-subscribe@egroups.com
>To unsubscribe: wtpp-unsubscribe@egroups.com
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
Good morning,
One thing I would like to see in such an assessment would be
the long-term externalized costs of both systems. I'd prefer
not to lose sight of the fact that the externalized costs of
a metro system are almost certainly going to be lower than for
a metro. A densely-exploited metro system does not impose as
large a noise, danger, and pollution burden as an on-street BRT
system. In cases where you're moving upwards of 30,000 of riders
per hour, you're in the realm in which a metro really starts
to make sense, even if you can't afford it right now.
Regards,
J.H. Crawford
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Britton <eric.britton@...>
To: alt-transp@... <alt-transp@...>; sustran-discuss@...
<sustran-discuss@...>; transport-partnerships@...
<transport-partnerships@...>; WTP&P List
<WorldTransport@yahoogroups.com>
Date: éåí ùéùé 12 àå÷èåáø 2001 17:56
Subject: [WorldTransport] TransMilenio/Metro comarisons/benchmarks
>In speaking with Oscar Diaz today about the latest TransMilenio ridership
>results in Bogota, he mentioned that they are now carrying on onto
something
>on the order of 600k people a day on 38 kms of busway. Hmm.
>
>Now suppose they had instead decided two years back to build a metro.
Where
>would they be today? How much would they have spent? How many passengers
>would they have already transported? What positive impact on the env would
>that choice have had on the city.
>
>Which brings up a suggested little project for anyone who has the wit, time
>and desire to give this a whack. Namely, the construction of a "time line"
>and a series of order of magnitude benchmarks which would compare say their
>TransMilenio project with a recently completed metro in a Third World city.
>Year by year comparisons of what happens and what impacts are achieved.
And
>$ by $. This could be very trenchant and useful indeed.
>
>For more on the TM side, you can contact Oscar at diazoe@... or
>(212) 629-80001.
>
>I am sure that we would all be very eager to see how this works out. And
>grateful.
>
>With all good wishes,
>Eric Britton
-- ### --
J.H. Crawford Carfree Cities
postmaster@... Carfree.com
I would like to share this numbers with you
Metro Madrid Passengers/Kilometer 9,918
Metro Santiago Passengers/Kilometer 16,320
Metro Paris Passengers/Kilometer 16,564
TransMilenio Bogotá Passengers/Kilometer 16,575
Best,
Oscar Edmundo Diaz
diazoe@...
----- Original Message -----
From: Eric Britton
To: alt-transp@... ; sustran-discuss@... ;
transport-partnerships@... ; WTP&P List
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 11:31 AM
Subject: [WorldTransport] TransMilenio/Metro comarisons/benchmarks
In speaking with Oscar Diaz today about the latest TransMilenio ridership
results in Bogota, he mentioned that they are now carrying on onto something
on the order of 600k people a day on 38 kms of busway. Hmm.
Now suppose they had instead decided two years back to build a metro. Where
would they be today? How much would they have spent? How many passengers
would they have already transported? What positive impact on the env would
that choice have had on the city.
Which brings up a suggested little project for anyone who has the wit, time
and desire to give this a whack. Namely, the construction of a "time line"
and a series of order of magnitude benchmarks which would compare say their
TransMilenio project with a recently completed metro in a Third World city.
Year by year comparisons of what happens and what impacts are achieved. And
$ by $. This could be very trenchant and useful indeed.
For more on the TM side, you can contact Oscar at diazoe@... or
(212) 629-80001.
I am sure that we would all be very eager to see how this works out. And
grateful.
With all good wishes,
Eric Britton
The @New Mobility Forum is permanently at http://newmobility.org
The Commons __ technology, economy, society__
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Day phone: +331 4326 1323 Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79
24 hour Fax/Voicemail hotline: +331 5301 2896
IP Videoconference: Ils.austin.polycom.com The Commons
Email: ecoplan.adsl@... URL www.ecoplan.org
The Journal of World Transport Policy & Practice
For more information: http://ecoplan.org/wtpp
To post a message to group: wtpp@egroups.com
To subscribe: wtpp-subscribe@egroups.com
To unsubscribe: wtpp-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Almaty, Kazakhstan! Although I'm
currently engaged in work outside the realm of
transportation, someone may wish to undertake a study
of the metro here at some time in the future. The
construction of the (as-yet inoperative) metro here
was begun before the collapse of the Soviet Union and
was frozen due to lack of funding. It seems that
there is a renewed interest in completing the project,
and hopefully the project will be completed in the
not-so-distant future. In the meantime, the air
quality in the city leaves much to be desired as the
number of private vehicles skyrockets. Fortunately,
the nearby Tian-Shan mountains have plenty of fresh
air and provide a much-needed refuge for the city
dwellers.
Best wishes to all,
Andy
--- Eric Britton <eric.britton@...> wrote:
> In speaking with Oscar Diaz today about the latest
> TransMilenio ridership
> results in Bogota, he mentioned that they are now
> carrying on onto something
> on the order of 600k people a day on 38 kms of
> busway. Hmm.
>
> Now suppose they had instead decided two years back
> to build a metro. Where
> would they be today? How much would they have
> spent? How many passengers
> would they have already transported? What positive
> impact on the env would
> that choice have had on the city.
>
> Which brings up a suggested little project for
> anyone who has the wit, time
> and desire to give this a whack. Namely, the
> construction of a "time line"
> and a series of order of magnitude benchmarks which
> would compare say their
> TransMilenio project with a recently completed metro
> in a Third World city.
> Year by year comparisons of what happens and what
> impacts are achieved. And
> $ by $. This could be very trenchant and useful
> indeed.
>
=====
Andrew Offenbacher
Argonne National Laboratory
Nonproliferation Graduate Program Representative
Nuclear Technology Safety Center (Almaty, Kazakhstan)
Office/Fax: 7(3272) 646803
E-mail: aoffenbacher@...
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make a great connection at Yahoo! Personals.
http://personals.yahoo.com
We are setting up a small informal group to mull over and encourage critical
thinking as to Car Free Day strategies and next steps, world wide.
The point of departure in these discussions is a fairly high degree of
dissatisfaction with the actual on-street accomplishments of most of these
efforts thus far -- and to see if we can come up with some clues as to ways
of getting away from today's generally cheery rhetoric about the concept and
on to using the Car Free Day as a strategic instrument to achieve actual
concrete moves to more sustainable transport in cities. A Car Free Day
without visible results of this sort is in our view a fairly trivial
exercise (unless of course it is seen and treated as a explicit step in this
more ambitious direction) .
That at least will be the starting point for these discussions.
If this exercise interests you and you think that you may be able to help us
do a better job with this challenge, please do get in touch. All hands are
welcome.
Eric Britton
The Commons __ technology, economy, society__
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Day phone: +331 4326 1323 Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79
24 hour Fax/Voicemail hotline: +331 5301 2896
IP Videoconference: Ils.austin.polycom.com The Commons
Email: ecoplan.adsl@... URL www.ecoplan.org
eric,
i would love to be involved in any sort of discussions that you and others are
considering. i was in maastricht for their car free day, and with the best will
in the world it was still a bit of a damp squib. What format would these
discussions take? I have spoken to you in the past, about your X cars
discussion papers and so forth, so i will look forward to lively discussions in
the future.
yours
nick pearce
sociology department
lancaster university
lancaster
la1 4yn
> -----Original Message-----
> From: eric.britton@... [SMTP:eric.britton@...]
> Sent: Monday, October 29, 2001 10:55 AM
> To: WTP&P List; WorldCarfreeDays@yahoogroups.com;
> etacarfreeday@eGroups.com; alt-transp@...; Z UTSG Mailing List -
> Cc: hdittmar@...
> Subject: [WorldTransport] critical thinking on Car Free Days
>
> We are setting up a small informal group to mull over and encourage critical
> thinking as to Car Free Day strategies and next steps, world wide.
>
> The point of departure in these discussions is a fairly high degree of
> dissatisfaction with the actual on-street accomplishments of most of these
> efforts thus far -- and to see if we can come up with some clues as to ways
> of getting away from today's generally cheery rhetoric about the concept and
> on to using the Car Free Day as a strategic instrument to achieve actual
> concrete moves to more sustainable transport in cities. A Car Free Day
> without visible results of this sort is in our view a fairly trivial
> exercise (unless of course it is seen and treated as a explicit step in this
> more ambitious direction) .
>
> That at least will be the starting point for these discussions.
>
> If this exercise interests you and you think that you may be able to help us
> do a better job with this challenge, please do get in touch. All hands are
> welcome.
>
> Eric Britton
>
> The Commons __ technology, economy, society__
> Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
> Day phone: +331 4326 1323 Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79
> 24 hour Fax/Voicemail hotline: +331 5301 2896
> IP Videoconference: Ils.austin.polycom.com The Commons
> Email: ecoplan.adsl@... URL www.ecoplan.org
>
>
>
>
>
> The Journal of World Transport Policy & Practice
> For more information: http://ecoplan.org/wtpp
> To post a message to group: wtpp@egroups.com
> To subscribe: wtpp-subscribe@egroups.com
> To unsubscribe: wtpp-unsubscribe@egroups.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Richards [mailto:brianr@...]
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 12:52 PM
To: eric.britton@...
Subject: Future Transport in Cities
Dear Eric,
I'm just writing to let you know that my new book 'Future Transport in
Cities' is now published by Spon Press.
Cities around the world are being wrecked by the ever-increasing burden
oftraffic. A significant part of the problem is the enduring popularity of
the private car - still an attractive and convenient option to many, who
turn a blind eye to the environmental and public health impact. Public
transport has always seemed to take second place to the car,and yet
alternative ways of moving around cities are possible. Measures to improve
public transport, as well as initiatives to encourage walking and cycling,
have been introduced in many large cities to decrease car use, or at least
persuade people to use their cars in different ways.
This book explores many of the measures being tried. It takes the best
examples from around the world, and illustrates the work of those architects
and urban planners who have produced some of the most significant models of
'transport architecture' and city planning. The book examines the ways in
which new systems are evolving, and how these are being integrated into
the urban environment. It suggests a future where it could be mandatory to
provide systems of horizontal movement within large-scale development, using
the analogy of the lift, upon which every high-rise building depends. In so
doing, future cities could evolve without dependence
on the private car.
Kind Regards,
Brian Richards
Brian Richards trained as an architect at Liverpool and Yale and have taught
at the
Architectural Association, and worked in Sweden, the United States, France
and Morocco. I have also worked as a consultant to OECD on pedestrian
movement, and with London Transport on station planning and interchanges.
This is my fourth book on the subject of transport and urban design.
Contents: Part One: The Transport Situation Today.
Part Two: Transport and the Future City.
Part Three: The New Transport Technology.
'Future Transport in Cities' by Brian Richards can be ordered from all good
bookshops at £24.99, or you can order a copy directly by phoning Spon Press
on +44 (0) 1263 343 071, by e-mail: book.orders@... or via the
Internet
www.sponpress.com. Prices including P&P are as follows: UK £26.24, Europe
£27.94, ROW £31.49
In a message dated 10/29/01 5:32:54 AM, n.pearce@... writes:
>i was in maastricht for their car free day, and with the best will
>in the world it was still a bit of a damp squib.
I think you have just described a great place to start the discussions:
what worked and didn't work (in relation to the goal) in various cities and
why?
Dave Brook
November 15, 2001
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* PRINTABLE - The Encyclopedia can now be printed directly by your browser.
Text and images can be copied into word processing files for use in reports
and analysis.
* * * * * *
BACKGROUND
----------
What is TDM?
Transportation Demand Management (TDM) is a general term for strategies
that increase transportation system efficiency. It is a new way to view
transportation problems that greatly expands the menu of possible
solutions. TDM can be applied in tandem with, or as an alternative to, more
conventional responses.
Why Manage Transportation Demand?
There are many reasons to manage transportation demand:
Multiple Benefits
Transportation Demand Management can provide multiple benefits including
congestion reduction, road and parking facility cost savings, consumer
savings, improved transportation choice, road safety, environmental
quality, community livability, efficient land use, and equity. As a result,
total benefits are often much greater than other solutions that only
address one or two problems.
Cost Effective
When all benefits and costs are considered, Transportation Demand
Management is often the most cost effective solution to transportation
problems. TDM can provide significant savings by reducing and deferring the
need to increase road and parking capacity, reducing vehicle operating
costs, and reducing crashes and pollution emissions.
Flexibility
TDM provides a flexible response to many types of transportation problems,
including those that are urgent, temporary, variable or unpredictable. TDM
programs can often be implemented quickly, and can be tailored to a
particular situation and user group. Demand management avoids the risk that
a major capital investment will prove wasteful due to unforeseen changes in
transportation needs.
Consumer Benefits
TDM can provide direct and indirect consumers benefits. Many TDM strategies
use positive incentives. They improve transportation options and provide
new financial savings or other benefits to reduce vehicle use. In addition,
TDM can be a cost effective way to reduce traffic congestion, parking
problems, crash risk and pollution emissions, all of which benefits consumers.
Equity
TDM can help achieve equity objectives. It can result in a fairer
allocation of resources between different demographic and geographic
groups. Many strategies directly benefit people who are economically,
physically or socially disadvantaged by improving transportation options
available to non-drivers.
Economic Justifications
Many Transportation Demand Management strategies reflect Market Principles.
They correct existing market distortions, which increases economic
efficiency, equity and consumer benefits. TDM supports economic development
by increasing productivity and reducing external costs.
Sustainable Transportation
Transportation Demand Management can help create more Sustainable
Transportation. TDM reflects sustainability principles of efficiency and
integration, and can help achieve sustainability objectives including
resource conservation, equity, environmental protection, efficient land
use, and public involvement.
* * * * * *
ABOUT VTPI
The Encyclopedia is produced by the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, an
independent research organization dedicated to developing innovative and
practical tools for solving transportation problems. The VTPI website has
numerous resources addressing a wide range of transport planning and policy
issues. VTPI also provides consulting services.
For more information contact:
Todd Litman, Director
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
1250 Rudlin Street
Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada
Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560
E-mail: litman@...
Website: http://www.vtpi.org
-----------
VTPI NEWS
-----------
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
"Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"
------------------------------------
Fall 2001 Vol. 4, No. 3
----------------------------------
The Victoria Transport Policy Institute is an independent research
organization dedicated to developing innovative solutions to transportation
problems. The VTPI website has many resources addressing a wide range of
transport planning and policy issues. VTPI also provides consulting services.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VTPI ONLINE TDM ENCYCLOPEDIA - EXPANSION AND UPDATE
===================================================
The VTPI "Online TDM Encyclopedia" is a unique and comprehensive Internet
resource to help transportation professionals identify and evaluate
innovative solutions to transportation problems. The Encyclopedia is now
significantly expanded and updated. It has more than 90 chapters with
hundreds of pages of text and thousands of Internet links, providing
convenient information for Transportation Demand Management (TDM) planning,
evaluation and implementation. It is available free at
http://www.vtpi.org/tdm.
NEW CHAPTERS:
· Success Stories: http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm71.htm
This chapter provides information on successful and cost-effective TDM
programs.
· Energy Conservation and Emission Reductions Strategies:
http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm59.htm
This chapter identifies strategies that are particularly effective at
reducing vehicle energy consumption and pollution emissions.
· Livability Strategies: http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm97.htm
This chapter describes strategies that help create more livable
communities. Livability refers to environmental and social qualities that
make a community a desirable place to live, work and visit.
· Congestion Reduction Strategies: http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm96.htm
This chapter describes strategies that are particularly effective at
reducing congestion problems.
· Smart Growth Policy Reforms: http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm95.htm
This chapter describes various planning, regulatory and fiscal reforms that
encourage more efficient land use.
· Resilience and Security: http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm88.htm
This chapter explores the concepts of resilience and security, and their
implications for transportation policy and TDM. Resilience refers to a
system's ability to accommodate variable and unexpected conditions.
Security refers to freedom from danger or fear, and can be considered a
subcomponent of resilience.
· Accessibility: http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm84.htm
This chapter discusses the concept of accessibility and its implications
for transportation planning.
· Wit and Humor: http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm94.htm
To add a little fun we include jokes in some chapters. We try to find ones
that relate to transportation and demand management, but some we just think
are funny. The jokes are introduced in this chapter. Follow the link to the
punchline.
UPDATED CHAPTERS:
Many chapters have been updated. In particular, see revised chapters on
nonmotorized transportation (walking, cycling, universal access and
small-wheeled transport), parking management, road pricing, equity, and
evaluation methods.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEW & UDATED REPORTS
====================
The following new documents are posted at the VTPI website:
http://www.vtpi.org.
"Efficient Vehicles Versus Efficient Transportation: Comprehensive
Comparison of Fuel Efficiency Standards and Transportation Demand Management"
Strategies that increase vehicle fuel efficiency reduce per-mile vehicle
operating costs, increasing annual vehicle mileage. This "rebound effect"
typically offsets 20-30% of long-term energy conservation, so a 10%
increase in average fuel efficiency causes a 2-3% increase in vehicle
mileage, resulting in net fuel savings of 7-8%. The additional vehicle
mileage imposes a number of costs on society, including increased traffic
congestion, road and parking facility costs, crashes, and some
environmental impacts. TDM-based emission reduction strategies reduce total
vehicle mileage and therefore provide additional benefits. These
mileage-related impacts are significant compared with fuel savings
benefits. Emission reduction strategies that increase total vehicle mileage
by even a small amount may be harmful to society overall, while those that
also reduce vehicle mileage can provide far greater total benefits.
End-0f-The-Trip Facility Design Program Materials
-------------------------------------------------
The excellent information sheets on bicycle parking facilities listed below
were produced by Rick Browning for the Oregon Department of Environmental
Quality. The ODEQ gave permission to post them at the VTPI website:
"Installing Secure and Convenient Bike Racks" (www.vtpi.org/bp1.pdf)
"Providing Covered Bike Parking" (www.vtpi.org/bp2.pdf)
"Bike Parking in Public Areas" (www.vtpi.org/bp3.pdf)
"Indoor Bicycle Parking" (www.vtpi.org/bp4.pdf)
"Lockers, Showers and Changing Rooms" (www.vtpi.org/bp5.pdf)
Variable Work Hours Guide
-------------------------
"Variable Work Hours: An Implementation Guide for Employers"
(www.vtpi.org/vwh.pdf).
This excellent guidebook was also produced for the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality, and is posted with permission. Thanks to the ODEQ
for their generosity!
"Bicycling Renaissance in North America? Recent Trends and Alternative
Policies to Promote Bicycling," by John Pucher, Charles Komanoff, and Paul
Schimek, originally published in Transportation Research A, Vol. 33, No.
7/8, 1999.
Over the past two decades, the number of bicycle trips in the United States
has doubled. Since 48% of trips by all modes in American cities are shorter
than three miles, the potential for further growth in bicycling seems
enormous. So far, efforts to promote bicycling have focused on building
bike paths and bike lanes. Although necessary, separate cycling facilities
must be complemented by a comprehensive program to make all roads bikeable,
through both physical adaptations and enforcement of cyclists' right to use
the road. Bicycling in Canada and especially the United States is impeded
by the lack of a tradition of cycling for utilitarian purposes, and by the
marginal legal, cultural and infrastructure status of cyclists in both
countries' automobile-based transport systems.
"Cycling Safety on Bikeways vs. Roads," by John Pucher, reply to John
Forester's Spring 2001 Transportation Quarterly article "The Bikeway
Controversy."
This short article, published in the Autumn 2001 issue of Transportation
Quarterly, replies to arguments by John Forester opposing all separate
facilities and other special provisions for cyclists, written in response
to the Pucher and Dijkstra summer 2000 TQ article listed above.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE
===================
Below are articles published in professional journals:
Todd Litman, "Win-Win Transportation Management Strategies: Cooperation for
Economic, Social and Environmental Benefits," in Bringing Business On
Board; Sustainable Development and B-School Curriculum (P.N.Nemetz ed.),
UBC Press (www.ubcpress.ca), 2002, pp. 293-308. Also published in the
Journal of Business Administration and Policy Analysis, Vol. 27-29, 1999-2001.
Todd Litman, "Generated Traffic: Implications for Transport Planning," ITE
Journal, Vol. 71, No. 4, Institute of Transportation Engineers
(www.ite.org), April 2001, pp. 38-47.
Todd Litman, "What's It Worth? Life Cycle and Benefit/Cost Analysis for
Evaluating Economic Value," Presented at Internet Symposium on Benefit-Cost
Analysis, Transportation Association of Canada (www.tac-atc.ca), 2001;
available at VTPI (http://www.vtpi.org).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPCOMING EVENTS
===============
TRB Annual Meeting
------------------
The Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, held each January in
Washington DC, attracts thousands of transportation professionals to share
information and plan research activities. For information see the TRB
website at http://www.trb.org).
Todd Litman will present the following papers at the 2002 Annual Meeting:
"Efficient Vehicles Versus Efficient Transportation: Comprehensive
Comparison of Fuel Efficiency Standards and Transportation Demand
Management," paper 02-3330, Poster Session 208, Monday, January 14,
2:30-5:30pm, Hilton Exhibit Hall.
"Online TDM Encyclopedia; A Practical Tool for Identifying Innovative
Solutions to Transportation Problems," paper 02-2888, Poster Session 340,
Tuesday, January 15, 9:00am-12:00pm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONSULTING
==========
We are involved in several interesting consulting projects:
Rail Transit Evaluation
-----------------------
This project involves evaluating the potential economic, social and
environmental benefits of a light rail system in the Victoria, BC region.
(Client: Capital Area Regional Rail Initiative Group.)
Transportation Energy Conservation Evaluation
----------------------------------------------
This project is a review of best practice in energy efficiency, energy
conservation and use of renewables in the transport sector and to identify
those programmes that would be most appropriate for implementation by the
New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority. (Project Manager:
Booz-Allen & Hamilton, New Zealand. Client: EECA, New Zealand.)
Pay-As-You-Drive Vehicle Insurance Implementation Study
------------------------------------------------------
We are helping to develop program guidelines and promotional materials for
Pay-As-You-Drive (distance-based) automobile insurance. (Project Manager:
ICF Consulting. Client: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Time Period:
May to December 2001).
Parking Management Study
------------------------
Worked with a multi-disciplinary team to develop a comprehensive parking
management plan for a commercial center in the Vancouver region.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OTHER NEWS:
===========
Residential Parking Guide
-------------------------
Ryan Russo, "Planning for Residential Parking: A Guide For Housing
Developers and Planners," Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern
California (www.nonprofithousing.org) and the Berkeley Program on Housing
and Urban Policy (http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu), 2001. This new Internet
document contains information on many strategies for reducing parking costs
and problems. (Also see the "Parking Solutions" chapter of our Online TDM
Encyclopedia at http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm72.htm.)
* Parking Cash-Out Tax Policy
------------------------------
The U.S. federal tax code now makes it easier to "cash out" parking, which
means that employers can offer employees tax exempt transit benefits or
cash as an alternative to subsidized parking. For information see:
Commuter Choice website (http://www.commuterchoice.com)
Federal Transit Administration Commuter Choice website
(http://www.fta.dot.gov/library/policy/cc/cc.html)
"Commuter Financial Incentives" chapter of our Online TDM Encyclopedia
(http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm8.htm.)
Transportation Elasticity Database
----------------------------------
The Australian Bureau of Transport Economics has produced a comprehensive
"Transport Elasticities Database Online"
(http://dynamic.dotrs.gov.au/bte/tedb/index.cfm), which contains
approximately 200 separate bibliographic references and 400 table entries
from international literature on transportation elasticities. (Also see the
"Transport Elasticities" chapter of our Online TDM Encyclopedia at
http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm11.htm.)
* Pay-As-You-Drive Insurance
=============================
The Federal Highway Administration's Value Pricing Pilot Program is now
providing funding for before/after PAYD insurance simulation pilots in
Georgia and Massachusetts. The Georgia pilot will, after gathering baseline
data, provide payments to participating households that reduce their
vehicle travel, and thus their crash exposure. In a second phase, payments
will be provided to households that reduce all crash exposure factors
(vehicle mileage, risky driving behavior, and driving in dangerous
corridors and at risky times). A similar pilot simulation is being
conducted in Massachusetts. In addition to gathering before and after data,
this simulation is designed to provide the Massachusetts Division of
Insurance with the data it needs to allow PAYD insurance to be offered on a
permanent basis.
For more information on the Value Pricing program contact Allen Greenberg,
Federal Highway Administration Office of Policy, at 202-366-2425 or
Allen.Greenberg@.... For more information on vehicle insurance
price reform see the "Pay-As-You-Drive-Insurance" chapter of our Online TDM
Encyclopedia (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm79.htm). Contact VTPI is you would
like to receive updates on PAYD insurance issues.
* Moving Beyond Planning: Implementing Transportation Solutions
=================================================================
March 6 - 8, 2002, Harbour Centre, Downtown Vancouver, B.C.
The first national Canadian conference on Transportation Demand Management
(TDM) for transportation professionals, workplace TDM coordinators,
policy-makers, business leaders, and community organizations from across
Canada and the Pacific Northwest.
Sample presentation and workshop topics:
· Promotional and social marketing techniques for the workplace.
· Economic tools & innovative strategies.
· Workplace incentive programs.
· Transportation Management Associations (TMAs).
· Parking management strategies and policies.
· Integrating TDM principles into land use planning.
· U-Pass programs.
Speakers Include:
* Don Chen, Executive Director, Smart Growth America
* Beth Johnson, Former Chair of the GVRD Transportation and Strategic
Planning Committee, and former board member of the Federation of Canadian
Municipalities.
* Eric Mann, LA Bus Rider's Union
* Cynthia Thompson, City of Portland
* David Collenette, Minister of Transport
* Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Policy Institute
Presented by:
B.E.S.T. (Better Environmentally Sound Transportation) (http://www.best.bc.ca)
Sponsored by:
Transport Canada
BC Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection
TransLink
Washington State Ridesharing Organization
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
For more information:
http://www.best.bc.ca/conference
Joy Schellenberg
Conference Coordinator
604-736-4374
joys@... <mailto:joys@...>
UBC Chair in Sustainable Urban Transportation
---------------------------------------------
The University of British Columbia is seeking applications for the J.
Armand Bombardier Chair in Urban Transportation. This new position will
provide leadership to UBC's research and teaching on sustainable urban
transportation and spearhead the development of new capability in this
area. The tenured position is jointly established in the School of
Community and Regional Planning (SCARP) and the Sustainable Development
Research Institute (SDRI). Candidates will have an established record of
research focusing on urban transportation systems from the broad and
integrative perspective of sustainability in its technological, economic,
environmental, social and political-institutional dimensions. Within this
context applicants will be knowledgeable about transportation technology
and demand-side management and have research interests and experience in
policy analysis and implementation, methods of policy assessment, transport
modeling, and multistakeholder processes. The competition closes on January
31, 2002 and the position is available immediately. Salary and rank will be
negotiated on the basis of qualifications and experience. Information is
available at http://www.scarp.ubc.ca,http://www.chs.ubc.ca and
http://www.sdri.ubc.ca
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please let us know if you have comments or questions about any information
in this newsletter, or if you would like to be removed from our mailing
list. And please pass this newsletter on to others who may find it useful.
Sincerely,
Todd Litman, Director
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
"Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"
1250 Rudlin Street
Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada
Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560
E-mail: litman@...
Website: http://www.vtpi.org
Lancaster & Paris
December 2001
World Transport Policy & Practice, a quarterly journal edited by
Professor John Whitelegg, is available free of charge on The Commons as
Adobe Acrobat PDF files [http://www.ecoplan.org/wtpp/wt_index.htm]. This
policy of free subscription to students, non-profit pubic interest
groups, unemployed individuals and those in the developing countries
will help it to
reach a wider readership, encompassing advocates and activists as
well as academics and advisers.
Please REPLY to this message if you no longer wish to receive these
quarterly announcements OR if you have received duplicates.
We have just placed Volume 7, Number 3, 2001 on the internet at
[http://www.ecoplan.org/wtpp/wt_index.htm]. Note that it is 3.7 MB.
Alternatively, you may download a 200 kB image-free version.
*** If you have difficulty in downloading the file,
*** please contact [mailto:eric.britton@...]
We recommend that you use MS Internet Explorer or Netscape 6.1 or better
to
access the website.
Contents of Volume 7, Number 3, 2001:
Editorial
Philine Gaffron
Promoting cycling in the U.K. - Problems experienced by the
practitioners
Marcus Jones
Local Transport Plans, Planning Policy Guidance & Cycling policy:
Issues & future challenges
Hugh McClintock
Planning for more cycling: the York experience bucks the trend
James Harrison
Guidelines for a safety audit of bikeway systems
Cameron T. Matwie & John F. Morrall
Translating cycling policy into cycling practice
Tim Ryley
Another look at Germany's bicycle boom: implications for local
transportation policy & planning strategy in the U.S.A.
Heath Maddox
A Nicaraguan Street Clash
Joe Grengs
Shanghai: The greatest cycling city in the world?
Annemarie de Boom, Richard Walker & Rob Goldup
World Transport Policy & Practice
ISSN 1352-7614
Eco-Logica Ltd., 53 Derwent Road, LANCASTER, LA1 3ES. U.K.
telephone +44 1524 63175 fax +44 1524 848340
Editor: Professor John Whitelegg [mailto:ecologic@...]
Business Manager: Pascal Desmond [mailto:pascal@...]
http://www.ecoplan.org/wtpp/wt_index.htm
I thought this might interest at least some of you, so here it is.
eb, The Commons, Paris
-----Original Message-----
From: INTA [mailto:intainfo@...]
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2001 10:11 AM
To: wtpp-editors@...
Subject: INTA international conference 'Regeneration of Station Areas',
France, September 2002
Dear Editor,
The (re)development of station areas is both an urgent and a complex
issue in many cities. Most of these regeneration projects have as
objectives a better use of important public land frozen by inadequate
transport infrastructure, the improvement of the function of
transportation junctions and the intensification and extension of
activities around the station area so that it becomes an integrated part
of the urban fabric.
For example, the Dutch National Spatial Planning Agency (RPD) is
presently carrying out major key projects for (re)developing railways
tracks and stations in the centre of six large cities. Similar projects
are at different stage of design or implementation in other industrial
countries.
The importance of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in urban
regeneration projects has been recognised by the European Union. The
European Ministers for Metropolitan Policy deliberated on how to promote
more fruitful co-operation between the public and private sector. Given
its size and its different partners (government organisations at
different level, transport agencies, real estate developers, etc.) PPPs
or Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) are a crucial element in
implementing the regeneration of station areas.
To address these particular dimensions of regeneration INTA organises an
international seminar to exchange on the instruments for an effective
implementation of this complex and multi partners regeneration projects.
Therefore, I hope you will be willing to assist us in identifying
appropriate officials in your organisation who are responsible for the
urban regeneration, transport and public-private partnership.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours sincerely
Michel Sudarskis
Secretary General
INTA - the international network for urban development
Nassau Dillenburgstraat 44
2596 AE Den Haag
The Netherlands
Tel: +31-70-3244526
Fax: +31-70-3280727
intainfo@...
http://www.inta-net.org
INTA is an international network encouraging the exchange of
information, experience and best practices on urban development and
renewal across the world. It's missions are:
- to act as an international forum and network for the collection,
exchange and sharing of information and ideas on best practice in the
development and growth of urban areas
- to contribute to the world debate on urban development and
regeneration
- to promote public private partnerships on urban issues
- to shape appropriate public and private sector policies for urban and
regional development.
Emphasis is on practical and realistic experiences which result in the
improvement of urban areas for all inhabitants through proper
application by the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.
For those of us who are serious concerned with advancing the
sustainability agenda in cities, there is something very interesting that is taking
shape in Stockholm for the next six months.
The program in question is the Stockholm Partnerships for
Sustainable Cities. It is a multi-part event which includes a first class
interactive web site, an international competition for outstanding sustainability
projects in cities world wide, and in the first week of June in Stockholm an
Expo of the best of these projects together with a wide-open what you may think
of as a conference until you see the way they have decided to bring people together
to share ideas and learn from each other. For more on this, I’d like to
invite you to have a look at their excellent web site at www.partnerships.stockholm.se/.
My reason for getting in touch with you on this is to see if
you can help us get the
word out to cities and teams around the world that are leading the way with pattern-breaking
projects in many areas which are helping achieve more sustainable and more
socially just cities that are healthy and happy places for our children to grow
up, learn and prosper in. So if you happen to know of projects or teams working
with concrete projects that may not only be interesting in and of themselves in
the place where they are being develop, but which also may have good potential
for low cost replication in other places, anything that you can do to begin
them into the Stockholm Partnerships Cities Innovation Knowledge will be most
appreciated. And while we are of course interested in the more familiar
potential North/South transfer possibilities, it is the South/South transfers
that are among our greatest concerns. (And from my particular
perspective, anything that can serve as a South/North teaching and information
exchange tool will be particularly welcome and most timely.)
Why should anybody take the time to add their project to
this World Knowledge Base of Sustainable Cities Innovations? Well because
sometimes international acknowledgment can be a big help in generating local
understanding and support of your concept. And because it is, I believe,
an interesting learning process in itself, as you look through and understand
what others are trying to do to break the old patterns of
unsustainability. And finally, because this database is going to be
maintained in the future and will certainly provide a valuable resource for
others who can in this way benefit from your experience. I perhaps should
add that the fifty Finalist projects will all be invited to come to Stockholm
for the June events, and if it is a team from a developing country without a
budget, the organizers are going to try to find a way to lend a hand.
You may also have other interested people, lists and
networks with whom you can share this information. And if that would not
be too much trouble, it would be much appreciated by all of us who are working
to make this the kind of success of which we are much in need, North and South.
With all good wishes to you and your families for a happy
and healthy 2002,
Eric
PS. We are also on the lookout for a certain number of what
I think of as “Pattern Break Concept Nominations”, ideas that may
have been around for a number of years but which are still leading the way to
sustainability in practice and in thinking in many places. Examples of
the sort of thing I have in mind which stem from the traffic/transport/cities
side might include:
·The Dutch
Woonerf (1968, Gronigen, The
Netherlands)
The Swedish Färdtjänst
handicapped transport system (also known as STS, Special Transport
Services) (1968, Gothenburg, Sweden?)
·Carsharing
– as an emerging world movement (multiple origins, tracing back to early
seventies, with no one behind it other than entrepreneurship and good sense)
·The Danish City
Engineer Copenhagen Model in 1968 – “wherever you spot a bottleneck
in the traffic, make it worse”
·The Amsterdam
White Bicycle and its descendants (Luud Schimmelpennink, 1967?)
Thus if you have either further examples or, better yet,
leads as to people or groups who are in a good position to make these
nominations, it would be a great help. Kind thanks in any event.
The Commons __ technology, economy, society__
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Re: Kathmandu
anti-public transport even-odd rule during SAARC’s summit (oringal annoucment
follows below)
Ladies, Gentlemen, Others,
Might we not at Sustran, World Transport and our many extensions
not get together and see if we can cobble together and offer the authors of this
fabulous piece of legislation some high profile international booby prize? Let's
see, what might we call it? The 2002 Taliban World Environment Prize? (Also
known perhaps as the LLEA - “Last Laugh Environment Award”?)
Okay, there may be something slightly wrong with that title and
I am sure that you all can do better. But the only way that I can think of to
bring the necessary pressure on this world level sad dumbness -- would be to see
if we can laugh them out of it.
Then if it actually works we might even think about institutionalizing
it? We could even present it as an instrument of socio-technical change to the Johannesburg
Summit in September. (And if it actually works, someone might even nominate it
for one of the true international awards for accomplishment at the Stockholm
Partnerships for Sustainable Cities – www.partnerships.stockholm.se/.)
Could we network this?
Refreshingly yours,
Eric Britton
PS. And your nominations
for the 2002 Stockholm Partnerships Awards?
Chair of the Stockholm
Partnerships Jury
www.partnerships.stockholm.se/
The Commons __
technology, economy, society__
Le Frene, 8/10 rue
Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Day phone: +331 4326
1323 Mobile: +336 8096 7879
24 hour Fax/Voicemail
hotline: +1 888 677-4866
http://ecoplan.org/
IP Videoconference: 193.251.38.219
Subject: [sustran] Fwd: Kathmandu
anti-public transport even-odd rule during SAARC summit
An interesting item seen in
Clean Energy NEWS
Vol. 2, Number 6, January
8, 2002
...
Even/Odd Rule: A
Discriminating Transportation Policy
During the recent SAARC
Summit, held in Kathmandu,
the government introduced the even/odd system, where vehicles with even number
plates are allowed to enter the city on even numbered days and odd numbered
vehicles in odd days, to control the number of vehicles within Ring Road.
Although similar systems have been successfully introduced in many other cities
where congestion is a problem, the one in Kathmandu
was different in that only public vehicles had to follow this new rule while
private vehicles were free to enter the city whenever they wanted. Usually it
is the other way around. Restricting the access of private vehicles encourages
the use of public transportation and thus reducing congestion and pollution
while ensuring that people have access to affordable transportation services.
In Kathmandu,
however, the system caused a lot of inconvenience to people who have to depend
on public transportation services.
A recent study conducted by
the Kathmandu Valley Mapping Programme of Kathmandu Metropolitan City,
estimated that public transport vehicles accounted for only about 17.5 percent
of the total vehicle kilometer performance on the urban road network in Kathmandu
but they carried 60 percent of all passengers. This indicates that the new
policy reduced the congestion by only about 17.5 percent while causing
inconvenience to 60 percent of the commuters.
The Coalition for Clean
Environment (CCE), a network of 12 environment groups, has lodged a letter of
protest in DoTM and Traffic Police Office against the new system, which
discriminates against public transportation. Initially the government had
announced that the new even/odd rule would be applicable to all vehicles. This
is logical, but later private vehicles were spared from the rule probably to satisfy
the rich and powerful sections of our society. Even the environmentally
friendly vehicles like Safa Tempos have been restricted to ply on the occasion
of SAARC Summit. CCE strongly feels that this is discriminatory rule and should
not be continued in its present form.
The Department of Transport
Management is studying the possibility of having the even/odd system in Kathmandu
permanently even after the SAARC summit. ...
Edited by Bhushan Tuladhar,
Anil K. Raut, and Bimal Aryal
Clean Energy Nepal (CEN) and
Martin Chautari (MC) are independent, not-for-profit organizations working in
the field of Energy and Environment.
Dear Friends,
The city of Bogota Colombia has just held its third Car Free Day, this
time in collaboration with a number of other Colombian and Latin
American cities, thanks to the cooperation of the United Nations Car
Free Days Program. The UN program is seen as a hands-on effort to show
how practical on-street solutions to the changes of sustainable
transport exist – with a view to a major presentation on the results to
the forthcoming Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development.
You will find full details with all the results on the United Nations
Car Free Days Program site at http://www.uncfd.org
<http://www.uncfd.org/> . Click 2002 Events and then Colombia. There
already is quite a body of useful information there (much of it in
Spanish) and more will be added this week (much of which in English).
In addition you may find some interest in the attached UP release which
our colleague Oscar Edmundo Diaz from ITDP has kindly forwarded to us.
There is now the intriguing question of where to hold the NEXT United
Nations Car Free Days regional program and Car Free Day demonstration.
The goal will be to work with a single main host city (as we did this
first time with Bogota), and then bring in the mayors and others from
other major (and smaller) cities in the region to observe and confer, in
the context of a cooperative event along these lines of that carried out
in Bogota. The hope is to do this in the months immediately ahead.
Are any of you interested perhaps in getting involved in some way in
this? If so, please get in touch.
With all good wishes,
Eric Britton
Senior International Advisor
United Nations Car Free Days Program at http://www.uncfd.org
The Commons __ technology, economy, society__
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Day phone: +331 4326 1323 Mobile: +336 8096 7879
24 hour Fax/Voicemail hotline: +1 888 677-4866 http://ecoplan.org/
IP Videoconference: 193.252.199.213
Email: ecoplan.adsl@... URL www.ecoplan.org
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
COLOMBIA'S NO-CAR DAY A SUCCESS
By Associated Press Feb 7, 2002
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - In a program that's set to spread to other
countries, millions of Colombians hiked, biked, skated or took the bus
to work during a car-free on Feb. 7, leaving the streets of this capital
city eerily devoid of traffic jams.
The weather, which has been sunny and crisp in recent days, did not
cooperate with Bogota's "Day Without Cars." Roiling gray clouds dumped
occasional rain showers on Bogota, which is perched 8,500 feet above sea
level in an Andean plain. "The rain hasn't stopped people from
participating," said Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus, who pedaled over to
the residence of the ambassador of Holland, Teunis Kamper, for a joint
ride. Before the two set off together, a reporter asked Kamper if he had
exercised to prepare for Thursday. "I'm Dutch," the beaming ambassador
said. "I was practically born on a bike."
Rifle-toting soldiers - part of enforced security to ward off stepped up
rebel attacks in past weeks - watched packs of cyclists and people on
inline skates weave past. "I thought I was at Venice Beach or
something," said an American oil executive, who normally is chauffeured
to work with a bodyguard, but who chose to walk on Thursday. One
policeman watched with amusement as a novice inline skater had a hard
landing on his rear, then helped the embarrassed man to his feet.
Around midday, the sun broke through, the clouds lifting from emerald
mountains on the edge of Bogota. It was the third straight year cars
have been banned - with only buses and taxis permitted - for one day in
this capital city of 7 million. The goal is to promote alternative
transportation and reduce smog. Violators faced $25 fines.
For the first time, two other Colombian cities, Cali and Valledupar,
joined the event. "It's a good opportunity to take away stress and lower
air pollution," said businessman Carlos Arturo Plaza, 48, as he rode a
two-seat bicycle with his wife in Bogota.
Municipal authorities from other countries came to Bogota to see the
event, and were enthusiastic. "These people are generating a
revolutionary change, and this is crossing borders," said Enrique Riera,
the mayor of Asuncion, Paraguay. Mayor Alberto Gallardo of Ovalle,
Chile, said his town planned to adopt a day without cars.
Bike repairmen waited along paths and roads to fix flat tires and
tighten loose screws. Bikes ranged from sleek 18-gear mountain bikes to
ancient pedal pushers with peeling paint and bald tires.
The day without cars is part of an improvement campaign that began in Bogota in
the mid-1990s. It has seen the construction of 118 miles of bicycle paths -
the most of any Latin American city, according to Mockus. Parks and
sports centers have also bloomed throughout the city; uneven, pitted
sidewalks have been replaced by broad, smooth sidewalks; rush-hour
restrictions have dramatically cut traffic; and new restaurants and
upscale shopping districts have cropped up.
In my earlier note on this today, I neglected to mention that there was
a very important, low cost technology component to the Bogotá Practicum,
concerning which some of you may wish to know more.
The technology is IP videoconferencing, and it was used to provide a
permanent hookup between Paris and the Bogota sessions over two f the
three days of the UN workshop for the mayors. The marginal cost was
zero, and the results.. well, they were nothing short of spectacular.
If any of you want to know more, get in touch and we can send on several
short reports that were prepared on this.
Eric Britton
Senior International Advisor
United Nations Car Free Days Program at http://www.uncfd.org
The Commons __ technology, economy, society__
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Day phone: +331 4326 1323 Mobile: +336 8096 7879
24 hour Fax/Voicemail hotline: +1 888 677-4866
http://ecoplan.org/ IP Videoconference: 193.252.199.213
Email: ecoplan.adsl@... URL www.ecoplan.org
Paris, Thursday, April 11, 2002
Dear Friends,
This is to let you know that the web site in support of the Fremantle
Car Free Day and the Asia/Pacific Regional Practicum for mayors and city
representatives is now fully on line. And as you will see if you check
into the site in the next seconds ;-) there are something like 27 days,
9 hours and 21 minutes until the doors open on this first United Nations
Car Free Days Programme event in the region.
Up to now, the contact effort has primarily been confined to mayors and
groups in the Australia/New Zealand area, as a first wave effort to
ensure that there was going to be a sound background of support there
and in the process ensure that the Practicum element was going to have
interesting and capable participants. It is now time however to spread
our wings and to see if we can extend the participants list to bring in
mayors and their representative of a number of the towns and cities in
the Asian region.
You may well ask: what is there to be learned by looking at how a small
town on the coast of a prosperous place like Australia in its attempt to
find a way to move toward a more sustainable mobility system, including
by just taking comes of the cars off of some of the streets for a few
hours. Is not an example like the Bogota project that was at the center
of the first UN CFD Practicum in February much more to the point for our
Third World cities, many of which are fast sinking under the weight of
their egregiously unsustainable transport arrangements?
The answer may surprise you. It is our view at any rate that there is
in fact a great deal to be learned by versatile minds from the sort of
bottom up, almost neighborhood approach that our Australian friends are
taking in this case. There may be cities in the Third World that are
going to be able to follow the Bogota example right out of the box and
rip 800, 00 cars off the road for most of a working day. But there risk
to be many more than are going to have to try to find something rather
different, and perhaps a bit ‘softer’. For them, there is quite
possibly a lot to be learned in Fremantle.
And wouldn’t you believe it, but there is not as yet any money earmarked
to pay for the transport and lodging of our visiting mayors and
representatives from the Third World. But I hope that will not stop you
in your efforts to get this message out and expressions of interest
rolling in. Because I am confident that if we begin to have concrete
expressions of interest from people in Third World cities, we shall be
able to dig up the funding support that is going to be needed to bring
them to Fremantle for the events. Most often in these cases of course,
they start with the money and then the people come. But in this case I
am betting that if we start with the good idea and the right people, we
will be able to find the support to make it work. Quite possibly with
your good support.
If you have any questions on all this, you know where to turn. And if I
can’t handle them myself, I will at least be able to channel them on to
someone who should be able to give you satisfaction.
With all good wishes,
Eric Britton
PS. We are also keen on inviting mayors and their representatives from
North American cities who are eager to look at what we believe to be a
most relevant example. So if you can share this note with your networks
there, this would be most appreciated. And it is all in a great cause.
Senior International Advisor
United Nations Car Free Days Program at http://www.uncfd.org
The Commons __ technology, economy, society__
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Day phone: +331 4326 1323 Mobile: +336 8096 7879
24 hour Fax/Voicemail hotline: +1 888 677-4866 http://ecoplan.org/ IP
Videoconference: 193.252.199.213
Email: ecoplan.adsl@... URL www.ecoplan.org
Can anyone help Takatsugu ?
Subject: data regarding to city energy and air pollution performance and
the transportation network
-----Original Message-----
From: Takatsugu Kobayashi [mailto:tk0126@...]
Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 8:52 PM
To: wtpp-editors@...
Subject: Urgent Help please for my project
To whom it may concern:
I am currently a first year master student at Yale School of Forestry
and
Environmental Studies studying urban environmental planning and
management.
My primary interest is the linkage between the transportation network
and
people's transport modal choices, therby impacting energy use and air
pollution concentrations in the urban areas. I am currently collecting
and
analyzing the datasets of the cities selected based on the website
http://www.metroplanet.net. My project is based on the assumption that
the
more mobililty the transportation network provides the residents, the
more
energy-effieciency and less air pollution concentrations each urban city
can
attain. Due to the global trend of heavy dependence on the automobiles
have
impacted the urban areas. I would like to explore the above trends in
the
cities I selected and compare the city performance, and hopefully make a
recommendation on the transportation planning to enhance the city
ecological
performance.
Hence, I wonder if you or any institution you might know have any pieces
of
data regarding to the city energy and air pollution performance and the
transnportation network (e.g. the number of stations available in each
area
of the urbanized city settings: Central Business District, Inner City,
and
Suburban City Area, the number of tranfer stations, and so on) I truly
appreciate if you could help me with the data or refer my project to any
one
you know that specialize in the urban transportation/environmental
planning
agencies.
I appreciate your time.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
------------------------------------------
Takatsugu Kobayashi
Candidate for Master in Environmental Management
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
takatsugu.kobayashi@...
------------------------------------------
Takatsugu,
The good news is that there probably is a database that at least could
begin to meet your needs: the Newman and Laube ("Millenium Cities")
Database. They've looked at 100 cities around the globe, and partitioned
city-regions along the same lines as you have suggested. The bad news is
that it isn't cheap; it costs about 1000 euro, so you'd probably have to
convince your department to buy it. It's available from the
International Association of Public Transport (UITP).
I'm not sure I completely understand what you describe as the underlying
assumptions of this project, but they may not be valid. You say that
your assumption is that more "mobility" leads to more energy efficiency
and less air pollutant emissions. You will need to clearly define what
you mean by "mobility" and "energy efficiency" in order for that
assumption to have any meaning. Many people (mistakenly) use the terms
"mobility" and "accessibility" interchangeably. If you actually mean
"accessibility" (i.e. enhancing the capacity of households to access
goods, services, information, and activities) then your assumptions may
make sense, depending on how you measure accessibility. If you mean
mobility in its literal sense (i.e. enhancing the ability of people to
move around), then your assumption is much more problematic. If people
need to travel more to meet their daily needs, then a reduction in
per-mile-driven emissions of CO2 and local pollutants may not translate
into an actual reduction per capita or per unit of GDP. (Again, how are
you measuring energy efficiency?)
Roger Gorham
On Mon, 15 Apr 2002, Eric Britton wrote:
> Can anyone help Takatsugu ?
>
> Subject: data regarding to city energy and air pollution performance and
> the transportation network
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Takatsugu Kobayashi [mailto:tk0126@...]
> Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 8:52 PM
> To: wtpp-editors@...
> Subject: Urgent Help please for my project
>
> To whom it may concern:
>
> I am currently a first year master student at Yale School of Forestry
> and
> Environmental Studies studying urban environmental planning and
> management.
> My primary interest is the linkage between the transportation network
> and
> people's transport modal choices, therby impacting energy use and air
> pollution concentrations in the urban areas. I am currently collecting
> and
> analyzing the datasets of the cities selected based on the website
> http://www.metroplanet.net. My project is based on the assumption that
> the
> more mobililty the transportation network provides the residents, the
> more
> energy-effieciency and less air pollution concentrations each urban city
> can
> attain. Due to the global trend of heavy dependence on the automobiles
> have
> impacted the urban areas. I would like to explore the above trends in
> the
> cities I selected and compare the city performance, and hopefully make a
> recommendation on the transportation planning to enhance the city
> ecological
> performance.
>
> Hence, I wonder if you or any institution you might know have any pieces
> of
> data regarding to the city energy and air pollution performance and the
> transnportation network (e.g. the number of stations available in each
> area
> of the urbanized city settings: Central Business District, Inner City,
> and
> Suburban City Area, the number of tranfer stations, and so on) I truly
> appreciate if you could help me with the data or refer my project to any
> one
> you know that specialize in the urban transportation/environmental
> planning
> agencies.
>
> I appreciate your time.
>
> Thank you very much.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> ------------------------------------------
> Takatsugu Kobayashi
> Candidate for Master in Environmental Management
> Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
> takatsugu.kobayashi@...
> ------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
> The Journal of World Transport Policy & Practice
> For more information: http://ecoplan.org/wtpp
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