[sustran] "a self-serving essay that advocates the author's strong interest in 'sustainable', demand & auto-reducing activities".

[EcoPlan, Paris]

Dear Sustran Colleagues, 

 

Oh dear. I would like to comment on the following rather too lively
statement made by Dr. Schneider when he writes in criticism of Todd Litman's
policy piece kindly shared with us, "The Future Isn't What It Used To Be",
the following words, characterizing it as: "a self-serving essay that
advocates the author's strong interest in 'sustainable', demand &
auto-reducing activities".  (I like that: "Self-serving", "sustainable".
That's rich. Har. Har. Har.  Oops. Back to proper behaviour Eric old boy.)

 

First I find this unacceptable in this forum on the grounds of sheer
emptiness, rudeness and uncollegial language.  Second, I strongly feel that
the technologies which Dr. Schneider reports on and advocates are well
outside of the time scope, quite possibly of the Sustran community and
certainly of the New Mobility Agenda. 

 

For our part - the New Mobility Cafe at http://newmobility.org -- the day
that he or anyone else can present to this forum solid cost and time of
construction information based on actual operational experience, with
sponsors who are ready to invest the money needed to make them work in some
city (not promises mind you, committed funding with the usual contractual
guarantees that we expect of any supplier to the sector), we will be pleased
to share this information with the forum as a whole.  In the meantime, as
moderator of this forum I will exercise my right to exclude any future
communications which do not pass this test, on the grounds of protecting the
time of those busy colleagues who come to this forum for insight and
discussions on the subject of sustainable mobility measures capable of
making a difference in the one to seven years directly ahead. 

 

What I would like to invite however are any critical remarks on this
position that any of you may care to share with me or us all.

 

All that said it is only fair to point out that Dr. Schneider's life work
encompasses many courageous and unbending years of work in promoting
potentially innovative but as yet unproven "Automated People Mover and
similar freight systems using some type of exclusive and elevated guideway".
If this approach intersts you permit me to refer you to Professor
Schneider's very complete information site at
http://faculty.washington.edu/~jbs/itrans/siteindx.htm, and from whence you
will find copious information on other sites and programs given over to this
class of system, for which I am sure we all hope the very best.

 

Eric Britton

 

PS. I do hope that you will excuse me for the above parenthetic comment.
But those of you who now me understand that this sort of thing takes me over
from time to time.  I shall try to get better in 2005.

  

The Commons: Open Society Sustainability Initiative at www.ecoplan.org


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

 

Free call via Skype.com. Click here. <callto://ericbritton/> 

Free video/voice conferencing available at http://newmobilitypartners.org
<http://www.ericbrittononline.com/>    

T: +331 4326 1323          Fax/Voicemail hotline: +331 5301 2896

E: mailto:eric.britton at ecoplan.org  E Back-up: mail at ericbritton.org   

            - Outgoing mail certified Virus Free. Checked by Norton
Anti-Virus

 

The Commons Open Society Sustainability Initiative: Seeking out and
supporting new sustainability concepts for business, entrepreneurs,
activists, community groups, and government; a thorn in the side of hesitant
administrators and politicians; and through our joint efforts, energy and
personal choices, placing them and ourselves firmly on the path to a more
sustainable and more just society 

 

 

 

 

 

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Jerry Schneider [mailto:jbs at peak.org]

> Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2004 2:27 PM

> To: policy at advancedtransit.org; seattleprt at yahoogroups.com

> Subject: [atraPolicy] "The Future Isn't What It Used To Be"

> 

> Be sure to read the page on "new technologies" - it completely ignores
what is going on in the real > > > world and I see it as part of a
self-serving essay that advocates the author's strong interest in > > > >
"sustainable", demand & auto-reducing activities. Much of the content is
worth reading but his bias > > > against building anything new and different
is very apparent. 

 

> If you are so inclined, give him some feedback. It seems to me that those
interested in innovations are > being bashed from above (i.e. LRT, maglev,
monorail) and ignored from below (sustainable-automobility > > reduction
people) although I've recently seen some bashing from below as well. 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/private/sustran-discuss/attachments/20041230/8d997fb4/attachment.html