[sustran] conversation V1 #246

[eric britton]

Hank Ditmar (Hello Hank) says in his opening remarks: >> I have proposed an
approach that seeks (A)  to expand transportation and (B) community choices
and (C) educate folks about the (D) negative impacts of our current lack of
choice and the options that can be made available to them.  An alternate
approach is to attempt to (E) raise the cost of driving to capture its full
environmental and social costs, but each attempt to do so has been met with
intense political opposition.  Can we pursue both agendas?<<

Let me start by commenting fast on that (those A, B, C's being mine).

A - Good.
B - Great!
C. Sounds a little pompous in a societies as rich in bright people and
understanding as ours.
D. Most people do not respond well to negative signals or chastisement
E. Nice job if you can get it.

But you know we have been building up an informed consensus on this
matter -- and a few tangible demonstrations as well -- or the last three
decades now, but in the final analysis is not the problem always pretty much
the same?  I.e., to determine, not so much what is good (or right, or
better), but how do we get from here to there. Now a bunch of us have been
working away at this and thinking about it for a couple of decades now, and
we (and many others, to be more accurate) have come up with a handful of
what we think are rather good "paths" to sustainable transportation.  What
they all have in common is that they are predicated on the belief that
people are smart, but they need a bit of elbow room in order to work out
their own solutions. However this is precisely what the present arrangements
have uniformly prevented them from doing. Knowing this is already a first
step.

So here are a few ideas along these lines that I'd like to put before the
group for information and comment:

1. The use of the Net to put our heads together on these issues: to build
knowledge in many places and, with it, to build a strong consensus.  This
conversation is one such place.  Another very good one is SUSTRAN (the
Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia & the Pacific) which you can
run down at sustran at po.jaring.my. Serious people. Well worth a detour.
(Your recommendations?)

2. The idea of "stopping the music" for a single day and to gather our
collective thoughts on how things might be organized in a non-car wholly
based system.  One mechanism for this is the organization with participation
and negotiation and very careful study, of a Car Free Day. For more on this
you are invited to go to the Car Free Days Forum at
http://www.ecoplan.org/carfreeday/ . It has been pieced together precisely
to help people go from A to B.

3. Likewise the excellent (but usually not very well understood) concept of
carsharing as something that is not only a decent if probably minor and
maybe environmentally reasonable transportation arrangement, but also as
something that can serve as a practical precursor and component of a
sustainable transportation system. Once again, for more on that you can go
to the CarShare Consortium on http://www.ecoplan.org/carshare/ .

4. Finally (not finally really, but after all) there is the concept of
"telecommunications substitutes for transportation".  Now that is a dicey
one that is easy to get wrong fast.  One excellent example of this is all
the thoughtlessness that is being pandered under the label of "Intelligent
(ahem!) Transportation Systems". But life tends to be kind of complex. Truth
is that this generation of technologies does indeed have a great deal to
offer, if only we take the time and trouble to get it right.  Unfortunately
I have no fully up to date first class reference or overview site to point
you to on this. (Our own Sustainable Transportation Emergency Program site
at  http://www.the-commons.org/access/eehome.htm broaches this but does not
really dig in, and though it is old it is at least a start. Likewise if you
have some time to waste you can see what a group of us are trying to do in
Bilbao Spain with these concepts in a practical, hands-on transportation
context.. available at http://www.the-commons.org/ciudades/bilbao2010 ).
However maybe some of you here can point us all in some good directions for
this. Alternatively we might get together and what we might be able to do by
setting up what we call a One-Star-Shop on this important topic on the Net.
But you will let us know about that.

Thanks for this good effort which I follow with real interest.

Eric Britton

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