[sustran] Re: WBCSD & the auto industry - part of the solution, but how?

[Robert Cowherd]

Of course reducing the impact of individual automobiles is a worthy
goal. However, investments in lowering impacts threaten to only make
matters worse if they merely serve to rationalize rising automobile
use.  

I have yet to delve into Mobility 2003 but I'm concerned in general by
the missing analysis of the considerable spatial impacts of transport
choices and in particular that Goal Six: "Narrow mobility opportunity
divides" can be taken as a euphemism for expanding markets for
automobiles to the developing world. 

To the extent that this report displaces concern over land use impacts
of automobility it deserves to be confronted by a more serious and
broadly considered analysis. 

Robert Cowherd
Rhode Island School of Design
+1 617 491-8198


eric.britton at ecoplan.org wrote:
> Wednesday, July 07, 2004, Paris, France, Europe
> 
>  
> 
> Our old friend and colleague, Ken Orski, formerly the original
> caretaker
> of the urban transport environment of the OECD's environment unit
> years
> ago when it was just getting started, has just kindly shared  with us
> an
> abstract of and commentary on the just published report of the WBCSD.
> His closing phrase caught my attention, and I would like to invite
> commentary on it here.  He writes: 
> 
>  
> 
> "While it is too early to predict the report's longer term influence,
> the sponsoring companies  clearly hope that their initiative will, at
> the very least, help to establish the auto industry's sincerity and
> good
> faith in trying to come to grips with the impact of its activities on
> the environment."
> 
>  
> 
> Now, I for one get no great pleasure in bashing the auto or energy
> industry - indeed I think it's a pretty dumb and counter-productive
> thing to do since one way or another they are also part of the
> solution
> (indeed they are important clients for my personal consulting work as
> I
> keep trying to edge them toward a more truly proactive approach in
> helping create and advance the New Mobility Agenda - I am not that
> reassured about either  (a) the usefulness or (b) the sincerity and
> good
> faith - precisely! - of their participation in this particular
> exercise.
> 
> 
>  
> 
> I have my own thoughts on this as you can imagine, but I would be
> interested to hear what others of you might have to say.  Indeed,
> isn't
> the main issue behind this from our shared perspectives here is that
> we
> need to make them part of the solution.  There can be no doubt about
> that.  The question of course is: will they do it without firm
> leadership from the public policy end.  And if so, what form should
> that
> take?  (I attach to this note our short  original 'mission statement'
> for The Commons which goes back now to several decades.  Still pretty
> much the way it looks around here.)
> 
>  
> 
> Eric Britton
> 
> The Commons, Paris
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> " The Commons: Increasing the uncomfort zone for hesitant
> administrators
> and politicians, pioneering new concepts for activists, community
> groups, entrepreneurs and business, 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."
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> 


	
		
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