[sustran] "Brainpower needed" - Report and commentary

[eric.britton at ecoplan.org]

Re:  Brainpower Needed - Report And Commentary

First of all, a note of real thanks to the several dozen of you who
responded with not only your ideas and thought provoking suggestions, but
also for your words of encouragement and support.  Thank you.

Certainly this can be counted a highly  productive and encouraging exercise
when we consider that to date ideas and responses have been received from
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary,
India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan,, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand,
Peru, Philippines, Spain, Sweden, UK, the UNDP, and, yes indeed, even the
good old United States of America.  Wouldn't you say that this list goes a
long way to showing how this idea is finally beginning to take hold?

And what about this for a list?

21st Century Transport Day
A Day To Breath
A Day Without Congestion
Air and Noise Pollution Free Day
Alternate Transport Day
Alternative Traffic Day
Better Transport With Less Traffic
Beyond Barriers
Bird Singing Day
Breath Easy Day
Breath-Free Day
Car Conscious Day
Car Free Sundays
Car Rest Day ("Your car also deserves a rest")
City Revival Day
Clean Air Day
Clean Monday (If it happens to be Monday - Or Green Tuesday / Clean Tuesday
if it happens to be Tuesday etc.)
Clean Motion Day
Clean Transport Day
Clean Travel Day
Community Transport Day
Congestion Relief Day
Day By Foot
Drive-Less Day
Enhanced Transport Day
Enjoy Moving
Enjoyable Transport Day
Entertaining Transport Day
Face Freedom Day
Fair Mobility Day
Flower Smelling Day
Free Moving Day
Free One's Selves From Cars
Free Ride Day
Free The Environment From Its Pollutants
Friendly Transport Day
Funny Transport Day
Future Displacement
Future Moving
Future Transport Day
Go! Clean Day
Go! Green Day
Green Monday
Green Transport  Day
Greener Transport  Day
Green Travel Day
Harmless Transport Day
Healthy And Happy Day
Healthy Transport Day
Human Powered Day
Human Transport Day
Independence Day
Innovative Transport Day
Leave-Your-Car Day
Less Traffic Day
Liveable Transport Day
Lose it and Move it
Neighbourhood Day
No Gas Day
No Smog Day
People's Transport Day
Quiet Transport (Mobility?) Day
Really Enjoy Moving
Restful (Mobility) Transport Day
Ride & Walk Day
Road Rage Elimination Day
See Your City Day
Sleeping Car Day
Sleeping Restful (Mobility) Transport Day
Strive Not To Drive Day
Sustainable Transport Day
Traffic Free Day
Traffic Peace Day
Traffic Reduction Day
Traffic Silence Day
Transportation Of The People, For The People, By The People
Travel Clean Day
Travel Green Day
Travel To Work Awareness Day
True Transportation Enjoyment"
True Transportation Joy
UnCar Day
Unclog The Arteries Day
Urban Community Day
Walk & Ride Day
Walking and Bicycling Makes (You) Environment Friendly Day
World Car-Free Day

And then, most finally, from Murray Matson in Australia, the ever so
restrained suggestion, "Death to the Car Day". (That should be an easy one
to sell.)

Now to some this may perhaps not be a particularly interesting enumeration,
but I for one find it not only fascinating but also well worth inspection
and pondering. What is it that we are trying to say?  What are we attempting
to get at with this idea of a day without cars?  What indeed does this mean
to people? This list, coming from many people and places as it does, can
help us to understand not only what may or may not be an apt name for what
we wish to do, but also the nature of the challenge before us. A huge world
out there, with perhaps some common needs but also an enormous variety of
perceptions and values.  That's the challenge we face.

But where does that leave us now, at least here in this site and program?
Well as it happens (and I do hope that you will not be disappointed), just
about at where we started.  One of our respondents (Gerry Hawkes of Bike
Track, Inc. in Woodstock, Vermont) made the point this way: "It seems hard
to beat the name "Car Free Day" since that is really what we are looking for
and since it also makes one think of a 'Care Free Day'."

Indeed, "that is really what we are looking for..", so,] for now at least,
we end up right where we began and for better or worse with Car Free Day,
which is our choice since that very specifically is the goal which we are
targeting: a day without cars, an opportunity to see our city as it might
be, a window on the future, an exercise in popular democracy.

Certainly to the extent that one (but only one) of our near term goals is to
find support for such a project in the United States, this choice of title
is not one that will necessarily endear us to the more chary bureaucracies
with their Realpolitik attitudes toward the economic interests and lobbies
which at least some of them seem to feel are more important than the
interests of the citizens who pay their salaries.  That's a pity since the
facts in this case call for a more realistic and more responsible appraisal
of what is going on.  The simple fact is that cars, lots of cars, simply do
not work well in cities, and that, knowing this, we should be prepared to
seek out and develop new arrangements and mobility solutions.  This shifts
the economic ground in this particular portion of the market from the
production and sales of today's cars to new kinds of vehicles and, above
all, new packages of services. And even the bureaucracies should be able to
spot this, never mind those groups who today make and support all those
single occupancy vehicles that have little or no place in our cities.

But we can also spot this: if the bureaucracies cannot come to grips with
this in their more traditional, established way of weighing the public
interest and deciding what to do next, then they may need a little help.
And that is what the several thousand people who now come in and share ideas
and information on this and other specialized public interest forums are
well equipped to offer them.  This is no time for us to be shy about all
this.  With the help of the new media, we are making important inroads on
this new form of knowledge building and activism,  so let us stay on top of
these issues and keep pushing for these good ideas and fine learning
opportunities. If we continue to work together on our common agenda, the old
attitudes and inertia well simply give way. Better ideas will win out.

And again my sincerest thanks for all these great responses.

Eric Britton

P.S. All of the original responses to and discussions of this call for ideas
can be found in the eGroups component of our site, which you can get to by
going first to http://www.ecoplan.org/carfreeday/, and from thence clicking
the "@World Commentary" link on the menu.

PPS. More on Bogotá and Italy to follow shortly.


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