[sustran] 20:20 Century Transport Icons - Cut 1 of idea for a cooperative

[eric.britton at ecoplan.org]

Dear Friends,

My idea is to post this on a handful of our most authoritative discussion
sites to see what it might engender.  Any comments or suggestions for me
before I put it out for slaughter.

eric
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20:20 CENTURY TRANSPORT ICONS
- Cut 1 of idea for a cooperative knowledge building exercise on the Web -

What's a 20th century transportation icon?  Let me list a few of the longer
range variety, though what I propose here is to concentrate on local
transport concepts:

* Bullet Train
* Concord(e)
* Interstate Highway system
* Autobahn
* DC3
* Trans-Siberian Express (wrong century?)
* Graf Zeppelin

You get the idea.  The idea is that the "icon" is somehow so striking that
once the concept is understood or, better yet, convincingly demonstrated,
that it  makes a new crease in the collective brain with the result that all
of us begin to think differently about our topic. Or... they somehow change
the landscape of transportation thinking and practice.

Now.... What I would like to propose if any of you are up to it is to
develop in the first instance a simple listing, having in mind that we might
at some point want to draw a line and select the "top 20" for eventual
closer scrutiny. For it to make any sense to most people, it will probably
be appropriate that for each there be some sort of brief all-comer
explanation, maybe a picture or two, and a bibliography of sources that have
managed to get out of the fog and shed some real light on what's going on,
and what should be going on.

To get the ball rolling, I am going to start here with a purposely mixed
list... with the idea of somehow engendering thoughtfulness, discussion and
feedback.. all to the greater good.  Also I have stuck in a few Web sites
which may be useful for those who do not already know them.

1. Bottlenecking (on purpose, as a strategy)
2. Carsharing  (http://www.ecoplan.org/carshare,
http://www.bremen.de/info/agenda21/carfree/greengame.html)
3. Carte Orange (i.e., intermodal transit pass)
4. Collectivos
5. Curitiba
(http://www.curitiba.pr.gov.br/Ingles/Solucoes/Transporte/index.html)
6. Dial-a-Ride
7. Dutch/Danish bicycles
8. Gothenburg traffic cells
9. Gridlock
10. ITS
11. Mexico City
12. Monorails
13. Musée d'Orsay (http://www.smartweb.fr/orsay/)
14. Networks that work (http://malaysiakini.com/sustran/,
http://www.ecoplan.org/access, et al)
15. Paratransit
16. Paris Metro
(http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Paris/Paris_metro.shtml --great idea
but then again it's not 1900 any more)
17. Parking supply reduction
18. PRT (nice try)
19. Rickshaws
20. Smart
21. Tramway insistence (N. Europe)
22. Transit portals (http://www.sytadin.tm.fr/)
23. Woonerf
(http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~la362/allimagecategories/streets/thumbnails/st
reetsthumbnail.html)
24. Zurich Ubahn (A wonderful benchmark project and example for us all)

That should give you a flavor... and maybe some ideas that we can
incorporate before we put this out for potshots.