[sustran] Ken Livingston WTN Nominations text - for final comment

[eric.britton at ecoplan.org]

Monday, June 14, 2004, Paris, France, Europe

On Wednesday evening I must submit the final text of my nomination for
the 2004 WTN Environment Award.   I present it to you here, inviting
your comments, suggestions and eventual fine-tuning. I have a sever word
limitation, and I also cannot really do too much finger pointing if I am
indeed to make the nomination.  SO this is how I intend to handle it.

And finally, kindest thanks to all of you who have pitched in with such
wise, thought-provoking comments.  If no one else does, I for one am
learning a lot from this exercise.  And if you have not yet pitched in
with your views, now is the time to do it.

Eric Britton

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E. Britton 2004 WTN Environment Award Nomination

Ken Livingston, the Mayor of London, has made an enormous contribution
to quality of life in our cities over the last year by showing the
courage and perspicacity to plan and execute Europe's first major
congestion charging project. Call it a path-showing hands-on application
of the "polluter pays" principle.  It is for this reason that I am proud
to nominate him for the 2004 WTN Environment Award. 

Since February 2003 the city has charged a fee for private automobiles
coming into its central area during weekdays as a way to reduce traffic
congestion, improve quality of life, and raise revenues to fund future
transport improvements. This technology-based project has significantly
reduced traffic congestion in the target area, led to improved bus and
taxi service, started to make life a bit safer for cyclists and
pedestrians, and generates substantial revenues for future improvements.
After a great deal of opposition at the start, public acceptance has
grown and there is now support to expand the program to other parts of
London and other cities in the U.K. 

This is the first road pricing program of its kind in a major European
city.  The mayor's courageous efforts -- and it took considerable
courage since he was from the beginning assailed by political, economic
interests, lobbies, and other forces all assuring him that this project
would be a disaster for the city -- and its success suggests that
congestion pricing has already become more politically feasible
elsewhere. We anticipate that virtually every major city in Europe is
already looking into the possibility of a project of their own along
these lines, adapting and building -- and one would hope improving -- on
the London experience and its lessons. For further details on this
project from the official site see http://www.cclondon.com/  

To check the validity of this nomination, I invited comment and views
from an international panel of recognized transportation, environment
and public policy experts, more than fifty of whom have responded with
their views and comments. Nine out of ten have enthusiastically endorsed
this nomination, indicating that this example will also stimulate new
thinking and much needed innovation in Third World cities as well. For a
full account of this fascinating commentary, please go to
http://newmobility.org, WTN Nomination.

A small number of the respondents, including some leading English
experts with outstanding credentials, pointed up that if this award is
given it should be with the vigorous counsel to Mayor Livingstone that
he continue to pay close attention to managing the system, as opposed to
the old "building your way out of the problem" approach that has led to
many of the mobility and life quality problems that today plague our
cities, London among them. 

I rest my case and this nomination in full agreement with them as well,
and I hope that in the event this award is made we too will express both
our appreciation for his outstanding contribution and our concern for
the future.

Eric Britton, The Commons, EcoPlan International, Paris