From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Fri Nov 4 03:37:05 2005
From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton)
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2005 10:37:05 -0800
Subject: [sustran] "Climate Technology" - Or how to Drown a Fish
Message-ID: <002801c5e0a5$97c0d570$6501a8c0@Home>
Editor?s note: Though I for one have never greatly loved the Kyoto
Treaty, not least because it always struck me as desperately unstrategic
and hence likely to, forgive the awfulness, generate more heat than
light. And indeed it has. That said, I can hardly great the kind of news
that follows here with joy and anticipation of a better world. Of course
as you can see here that even as they step away from the challenge, they
try as usual, as we say in French, to ?drown the fish? by bringing up
all that other stuff on cooperative programs, international
collaboration, and off we go again.
Nothing surprising here though. What canny politicians wish to be held
directly accountable on these tough issues in ways in which their
performance can be objectively judged by the voting public. So gone are
the targets and then dates, and here we are again with good old
technology that is going to come to the rescue. In that infamous ?long
term?, etc. We all know about the ?long term?. Sigh!
Blair Leans Toward Climate Technology, Away From Targets
London, UK, November 2, 2005 (ENS) ? Source:
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2005/2005-11-02-01.asp
British Prime Minister Tony Blair concluded an international conference
on climate change Tuesday in London, saying that technology and science
will provide part of the solution to global warming. He edged away from
reliance on the binding framework and targets of the Kyoto Protocol,
saying these mechanisms made people "very nervous and very worried."
At the conference, energy and environment ministers from 20 countries
met as part of the new G8 Gleneagles Dialogue. The gathering is linked
to the Group of Eight because it was started by leaders at Gleneagles,
Scotland in July, and Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi has asked for a
report on the Dialogue for the Japanese G8 Summit in 2008.
Blair said the evidence of climate change is getting stronger and even
those who once doubted it now accept there are concerns over energy
security and supply. But he recognized the widespread fear that limiting
greenhouse gas emissions will also limit economic growth.
"People fear some external force is going to impose some internal target
on you which is going to restrict your economic growth,? said Blair,
referring to the Kyoto Protocol, under which industrialized countries
must reduced greenhouse gases an average of 5.2 percent by 2012 compared
to 1990 levels.
"The blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country
will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge,"
Blair said. "But all economies know that the only sensible, long-term
way to develop is to do it on a sustainable basis."
The UK itself may not achieve its stated target of a 20 percent
reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010, some analysts say. As gas
prices have gone up, some British electricity producers have switched
back to coal, and the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by motor vehicles
and aircraft increases year by year.
Friends of the Earth last night attacked the Prime Minister?s
questioning of clear targets and frameworks for dealing with global
warming.
"While we welcome Tony Blair?s efforts to keep climate change on the
international agenda, it is important that the Prime Minister remembers
that leadership is about more than warm words," said Friends of the
Earth Executive Director Tony Juniper. "To show real leadership he must
stick to his guns and keep the pressure on the international community
to agree to real action with clear timetables."
"By downplaying clear targets and frameworks," Juniper said, "the Prime
Minister is ignoring calls from UK companies who want a clear framework
to operate within now. There has been a lot of discussion about the
false choice between targets and technologies, but the reality is that
without both we cannot achieve either."
The Gleneagles Dialogue, chaired by Environment Secretary Margaret
Beckett and Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson, focused on energy
and technology, looking at how to move to a low carbon economy and how
soon that goal can be reached.
Both British ministers said the Gleneagles Summit had added momentum to
the international climate change process ahead of the UN Climate Change
Conference in Montreal from November 27 through December 10. For the
first time, this meeting will discuss action on climate change beyond
2012, when the Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas emission limits expire.
Johnson said the Gleneagles Dialogue underlined the broad consensus
needed to tackle climate change, yet maintain economic growth.
"We now need to identify priorities for cooperation, in both the short
and long term. And we need to set a clear context for the private sector
to invest in low carbon technologies with signals that are "loud, long
and legal," Johnson said.
Beckett said considerable progress had been made since Gleneagles under
the UK's G8 Presidency all this year and EU Presidency since July 1. "It
is imperative that we find new ways to cooperate and develop a shared
understanding of how the world can respond to climate change. There is
no greater challenge facing the world," she said.
Beckett pointed to new climate change partnerships agreed in the past
few months with the two most populous developing countries.
British Environment Secretary
Margaret Beckett highlighted new technology agreements with developing
countries. (Photo credit unknown)
"We have used our Presidency of the EU to agree new partnerships with
both China and India on climate change," she said. "I am particularly
pleased that we have agreed to work with China to develop and
demonstrate carbon capture and storage technologies to enable power to
be generated from near-zero emissions coal."
The proposal for a joint EU-China project on Near Zero Emissions Coal
(nZEC) was announced at the EU-China Summit on September 5. This
agreement was reached in recognition that carbon dioxide emissions from
China's increasing coal use are set to double by 2030.
The nZEC project aims to demonstrate coal fired power generation with
carbon capture and storage technology in China by 2020.
Carbon capture and storage involves capturing carbon dioxide from the
combustion process and storing it underground in geological formations
such as aquifiers and depleted oil fields. The technology has the
potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by some 90 percent.
The UK is leading the first phase of the nZEC project and supporting it
with ?3.5 million for a three year feasibility study of different
technology options for the capture of carbon dioxide emissions from
power generation and the potential for geological storage in China.
The UK and India announced the launch of a joint study on how to
reinforce cooperation on energy technology between developed and
developing countries.
The study will identify potential policy, regulatory and financing
barriers to technology cooperation, how to stimulate innovation in both
developed and developing countries, as well as development at the
national and international levels.
As developing countries, India and China are not governed by binding
greenhouse gas targets under the Kyoto Protocol, but both countries have
ratified the protocol and are moving towards limiting the emission of
greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide.
The 20 countries that participated in the Gleneagles Dialogue Tuesday
are the G8: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United
Kingdom, and the United States plus China, Mexico, India, Brazil, South
Africa, Indonesia, Australia, Spain, Poland, Nigeria and South Korea,
and the European Commission.
Ministers were joined by Claude Mandil, executive director of the
International Energy Agency, as well as Ian Johnson and Kathy Sierra,
the World Bank vice presidents for environment and infrastructure. The
IEA and World Bank are presenting an action plan to meet the challenge
of access to reliable and affordable energy within a stable, sustainable
climate.
The World Bank has launched an Energy Investment Framework, which will
be used to pilot large-scale investment in major challenges, such as
power generation and transport systems, in developing countries.
The Framework will include the regional development banks, private
sector banks, insurers and technology companies.
UK Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson said the International
Energy Agency is already working to reduce the barriers to the
development and deployment of low carbon technologies.
"I am very pleased that the International Energy Agency is so closely
involved, bringing to the table its world-renowned expertise on issues
such as hydrogen storage and cleaner coal technology," Johnson said.
"This work informs national technology programs, including the
Department of Trade and Industry's recently launched ?25 million Carbon
Abatement Technology strategy."
The multi-stakeholder Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership
(REEEP) launched by the UK and other partners at the Johannesburg World
Summit on Sustainable Development in August 2002 has grown to include 30
partner governments, G8 Dialogue participants learned.
All the G8 partners except Russia have now signed up, and the United
States has cited REEEP as an important part of its international work on
sustainable energy. The UK plans to invest a further ?5 million pounds
through 2008.
The funding will support projects to develop "robust policies,
favorable, transparent and stable regulatory frameworks, and new forms
of financing to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency," the UK
ministers said.
REEEP already is delivering support to a Bangkok based company to
establish a ? 50 million fund to finance energy efficiency and renewable
energy projects in China, India and Southeast Asia.
At the national level, progress has been made with new energy
legislation in the United States and France that approves stronger
incentives for clean energy, including low-carbon vehicles and more
efficient buildings.
Action has been taken in many countries to improve energy efficiency,
including specific measures to tackle energy waste from appliances on
standby.
The Gleneagles Dialogue participants recognized that support is growing
for the inclusion of the aviation industry into the EU Emissions Trading
Scheme, there is a new voluntary agreement with industry on aviation
fuel consumption in Canada, and research programs in the United States
aim to achieve major technological breakthroughs.
But Friends of the Earth is worried that the urge toward economic
development may overtake the concern about global warming. The campaign
group is calling on the Blair Government to introduce legislation which
would require annual cuts in carbon dioxide emissions of three percent
which they say would bring carbon dioxide emissions back under control.
"Climate change is the most urgent and serious challenge faced by the
global community ? and we need leadership to adapt the global economy to
deal with it," Juniper said. "The Prime Minister?s move away from a
target-based approach could have disastrous consequences."
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From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Sat Nov 5 12:22:44 2005
From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton)
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 19:22:44 -0800
Subject: [sustran] Sneak Preview today at the New Mobility Agenda
Message-ID: <008201c5e1b8$31425530$6501a8c0@Home>
There is a Sneak Preview today at the New Mobility Agenda. You'll see it
on the top menu at http://www.newmobility.org. (Uses QuickTime 7.0)
What is it? See below.
Sneak Preview of CONTESTED STREETS: Breaking NYC Gridlock
Special Sneak Preview: Wednesday, November 17th, 7-9pm at the New 42nd
Street Studios (229 W. 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues).
Duration: 56 minutes.
Contested Streets is a T.A. produced, Cicala Filmworks made documentary
that explores the rich diversity of New York City street life before the
introduction of automobiles and shows how New York can follow the
example of other modern cities that have reclaimed their streets as
vibrant public spaces.
Contested Streets features new footage of reclaimed streets in London,
Paris and Copenhagen and interviews with New York savvy notables such as
Ken Jackson, Mike Wallace, Bob Kiley, Majora Carter, Kathryn Wylde,
Enrique Penalosa, Eric Britton, James Howard Kunstler and many more.
View a 5 minute trailer of the film
.
RSVP now
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From pascaldesmond at eircom.net Tue Nov 8 21:15:55 2005
From: pascaldesmond at eircom.net (Pascal Desmond)
Date: Tue, 08 Nov 2005 12:15:55 +0000
Subject: [sustran] "World Transport Policy & Practice" Volume 11,
Number 2 (2005) now available
Message-ID:
Lancaster, November 8, 2005
Volume 11, Number 2 (2005) of "World Transport Policy & Practice", a
quarterly journal edited by Professor John Whitelegg, is available free of
charge as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file at
http://www.eco-logica.co.uk/WTPPhome.html
Contents of Volume 11, Number 2, 2005:
Opinion Piece: Roadwars?? or: Go Extreme. Go MK.
BY
Joachim Allgaier
An analysis of the regulation & transportation of hazardous waste in the
United States of America
BY
Vereda Johnson King & Basil Coley
Urban road infrastructure policies in Africa: the importance of
mainstreaming pedestrian infrastructure and traffic calming facilities
BY
Marius de Langen
*****
DOWNLOAD ADVICE
If you are using Windows, please ensure that you 'right click' your mouse.
This will download the file to your desktop for viewing off-line. This is
standard Windows procedure for downloading files.
*****
World Transport Policy & Practice
ISSN 1352-7614
Eco-Logica Ltd., 53 Derwent Road, LANCASTER, LA1 3ES. U.K.
telephone +44 1524 63175
Editor: Professor John Whitelegg
Business Manager: Pascal Desmond
http://www.eco-logica.co.uk/WTPPhome.html
From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Thu Nov 10 00:42:05 2005
From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton)
Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 07:42:05 -0800
Subject: [sustran] Bamako Transport meeting
Message-ID: <009a01c5e544$24372de0$6501a8c0@Home>
-----Original Message-----
From: Geoff Edmonds [mailto:Edmondsg@ilo.org]
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 6:15 PM
To: Gender and Transport
Cc: Chris Donnges
Subject: [gatnet] Re: Bamako Transport meeting
Dear Paul,
Like you I have been a silent participant.
What you have been doing on rural tranpsort services would be very
interesting for us especially in relation to the part of our programme
dealing with local level planning and the application of the Integrated
Rural Acessibility Planning tool.
Whilst rural transport services are not necessarily a major problem in
the Asian region there is still a prevailing attitude that if a rural
access is provided the transport services will automatically follow and
this is clearly not the case. As part of our work in Nepal with a World
Bank rural access and infrastructure project we will be conducting a
study of rural transport services. There is also some work recently
completed work in Vietnam by the ADB on the same subject.
If it is available, we would appreciate seeing a copy of your study
report.
Best regards,
Geoff
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Geoff Edmonds
Programme Coordinator
ILO/ASIST-Asia Pacific
P.O. Box 2-349
Bangkok 10200
Thailand
Tel: (66 2) 288 2303
Fax: (66 2) 288 1062
email: edmondsg@ilo.org
>>> paulstarkey@animaltraction.com 08/11/2005 21:24:56 >>>
Dear Mamoeketsi, Mary and GATNET colleagues
I have been following GATNET discussions since they
first started, although I am generally a silent participant.
People have been talking about the forthcoming SSATP
meeting in Bamako. At this, I will be presenting, with members
of a small team contracted to ITC, the results of an
SSATP-commissioned study to develop and test a methodology
for rapidly assessing rural transport services in an a rural area
(region or province). In the participative methodology we have
developed, we have tried to ensure that gender and transport issues
are assessed in relation to existing and potential motorised and
non-motorised transport services. The methodology includes gathering
the views of a wide range of transport users (women and men),
operators and regulatory authorities. The methodology has been
based on the observed a hierarchies of hub-and-spoke transport
systems (village, market town and regional hubs) with survey sampling
related to the remoteness of towns and villages. In all user categories,
at least two out of five informants should be women (with women
transport operators interviewed where this is appropriate).
Testing the methodology in selected regions of Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Tanzania and Zambia has yielded some fascinating
new insights relating to existing rural transport services, and has
highlighted some important gender-related transport issues.
I hope that GATNET members who are participating in the Bamako
meeting will be free to come to the presentation on Rural Transport
Services (on Tuesday 15 Nov, I believe) and contribute to the
discussions.
I look forward to seeing people there.
With good wishes to all
Paul
Paul Starkey
Team Leader, Rural Transport Services Study
Mail: Oxgate, 64 Northcourt Avenue, Reading RG2 7HQ, UK
Tel: 0118-987 2152 Fax: + 44 (0)118-931 4525
Email: p.h.starkey@reading.ac.uk or paulstarkey@animaltraction.com
Website: http://www.animaltraction.com
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From ranjithsd at sltnet.lk Wed Nov 9 17:52:22 2005
From: ranjithsd at sltnet.lk (Ranjith de Silva)
Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2005 14:52:22 +0600
Subject: [sustran] Re: Bamako Transport meeting
In-Reply-To: <009a01c5e544$24372de0$6501a8c0@Home>
Message-ID: <000601c5e50a$e79284e0$9f5c5ecb@rangith74aab7d>
Dear Geoff
IFRTD has done some work on Rural Transport Services. I'm copying this
to Peter Njenga , who would be in a position to provide you with some
information.
Regards.
Ranjith
-----Original Message-----
From: sustran-discuss-bounces+ranjithsd=sltnet.lk@list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+ranjithsd=sltnet.lk@list.jca.apc.org] On
Behalf Of Eric Britton
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 9:42 PM
To: Sustran-discuss@jca.apc.org
Cc: edmondsg@ilo.org
Subject: [sustran] Bamako Transport meeting
-----Original Message-----
From: Geoff Edmonds [mailto:Edmondsg@ilo.org]
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 6:15 PM
To: Gender and Transport
Cc: Chris Donnges
Subject: [gatnet] Re: Bamako Transport meeting
Dear Paul,
Like you I have been a silent participant.
What you have been doing on rural tranpsort services would be very
interesting for us especially in relation to the part of our programme
dealing with local level planning and the application of the Integrated
Rural Acessibility Planning tool.
Whilst rural transport services are not necessarily a major problem in
the Asian region there is still a prevailing attitude that if a rural
access is provided the transport services will automatically follow and
this is clearly not the case. As part of our work in Nepal with a World
Bank rural access and infrastructure project we will be conducting a
study of rural transport services. There is also some work recently
completed work in Vietnam by the ADB on the same subject.
If it is available, we would appreciate seeing a copy of your study
report.
Best regards,
Geoff
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Geoff Edmonds
Programme Coordinator
ILO/ASIST-Asia Pacific
P.O. Box 2-349
Bangkok 10200
Thailand
Tel: (66 2) 288 2303
Fax: (66 2) 288 1062
email: edmondsg@ilo.org
>>> paulstarkey@animaltraction.com 08/11/2005 21:24:56 >>>
Dear Mamoeketsi, Mary and GATNET colleagues
I have been following GATNET discussions since they
first started, although I am generally a silent participant.
People have been talking about the forthcoming SSATP
meeting in Bamako. At this, I will be presenting, with members
of a small team contracted to ITC, the results of an
SSATP-commissioned study to develop and test a methodology
for rapidly assessing rural transport services in an a rural area
(region or province). In the participative methodology we have
developed, we have tried to ensure that gender and transport issues
are assessed in relation to existing and potential motorised and
non-motorised transport services. The methodology includes gathering
the views of a wide range of transport users (women and men),
operators and regulatory authorities. The methodology has been
based on the observed a hierarchies of hub-and-spoke transport
systems (village, market town and regional hubs) with survey sampling
related to the remoteness of towns and villages. In all user categories,
at least two out of five informants should be women (with women
transport operators interviewed where this is appropriate).
Testing the methodology in selected regions of Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Tanzania and Zambia has yielded some fascinating
new insights relating to existing rural transport services, and has
highlighted some important gender-related transport issues.
I hope that GATNET members who are participating in the Bamako
meeting will be free to come to the presentation on Rural Transport
Services (on Tuesday 15 Nov, I believe) and contribute to the
discussions.
I look forward to seeing people there.
With good wishes to all
Paul
Paul Starkey
Team Leader, Rural Transport Services Study
Mail: Oxgate, 64 Northcourt Avenue, Reading RG2 7HQ, UK
Tel: 0118-987 2152 Fax: + 44 (0)118-931 4525
Email: p.h.starkey@reading.ac.uk or paulstarkey@animaltraction.com
Website: http://www.animaltraction.com
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From ibike at ibike.org Thu Nov 10 16:40:57 2005
From: ibike at ibike.org (Ibike/International Bicycle Fund)
Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 23:40:57 -0800
Subject: [sustran] FW: The Cities Enjoy Bicycles Awards
Message-ID: <001e01c5e5ca$1add6a80$0400a8c0@domain.actdsltmp>
-----Original Message-----
From: bicycles [mailto:bicycles@icleijapan.org]
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 12:00 AM
Subject: The Cities Enjoy Bicycles Awards
I contact you to see whether you would be willing to circulate the below
and attached information on the Cities Enjoy Bicycles Awards for
bicycle-friendly city to all your relevant contacts.
The Cities Enjoy Bicycles Awards are now calling for entries for 2006 (
deadline December 1, 2005) and we are keen to attract applications from
outstanding local bicycle-friendly projects in Europe and Africa.
I am aware that your organization has promoted sustainable and
people-friendly environments through bicycles use. I would be most grateful
if you could assist us and send out the information on the awards to all
those you think may be interested in applying or indeed knowing more about
the Cities Enjoy Bicycles Awards.
The Cities Enjoy Bicycles Awards have been created for municipal decision
makers to work towards non-motorized mobility and a bicycle-friendly
atmosphere in their communities. In a global partnership for sustainable
urban transport, Shimano, the world's leading bicycle component producer,
and ICLEI, the world's leading association of cities, towns and regions for
sustainable development, have combined forces to promote non-motorized
mobility in cities.
Below and the attached text are letter with information on the awards and
call for entries.
I thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter and look forward
to hearing from you should you have any queries.
Best regards,
Yo Ueno
Cities Enjoy Bicycles Awards Secretariat/ICLEI Japan
Cosmos Aoyama B2F, 5-53-67 Jingumae,
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001, Japan
Tel: +81-3/5464-1906
Fax: +81-3/3797-1906
Email: bicycles@icleijapan.org
*ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability is an international association
of local government and national and regional local government organizations
that have made a commitment to sustainable development. More than 470
cities, towns, counties, and their associations worldwide comprise ICLEI's
growing membership. ICLEI works with these and hundreds of other local
governments through international performance-based, results-oriented
campaigns and programs.
website: http://www.iclei.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cities Enjoy Bicycles Awards are now looking for entries from
inspirational and innovative local bicycle-friendly projects in Europe and
Africa.
We are inviting your community's applications from bicycle-friendly
projects. Please consider taking this great opportunity to showcase your
community's outstanding sustainability initiatives worldwide.
The Cities Enjoy Bicycles Awards have been created for municipal decision
makers to work towards non-motorized mobility and a bicycle-friendly
atmosphere in their communities. In a global partnership for sustainable
urban transport, Shimano, the world's leading bicycle component producer,
and ICLEI, the world's leading association of cities, towns and regions for
sustainable development, have combined forces to promote non-motorized
mobility in cities.
The awards will be presented to the winners at the 2006 ICLEI World Congress
in Cape Town, South Africa, 27 February to 3 March, 2006.
Award winners will receive an invitation, including funding of basic
travel costs for one representative to attend the Local Initiatives Awards
Ceremony at the ICLEI World Congress 2006 (www.iclei.org/worldcongress2006)
A special case study featuring your initiative which will also be
highlighted on ICLEI's Global Website.
The closing date for entries is 1 December, 2005.
For more information, there is a brochure in English and French on the
website. The application forms are also available on our Local Initiatives
Awards website.
Website address: http://www.iclei.org/liawards
We look forward to reading about your local initiatives!
Cities Enjoy Bicycles Awards Secretariat
Cosmos Aoyama B2F, 5-53-67 Jingumae,
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001, Japan
Tel: +81-3/5464-1906
Fax: +81-3/3797-1906
Email: bicycles@icleijapan.org
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From etts at indigo.ie Sat Nov 12 02:21:47 2005
From: etts at indigo.ie (Brendan Finn)
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 17:21:47 -0000
Subject: [sustran] Re: Bamako Transport meeting and rural transport
References: <000601c5e50a$e79284e0$9f5c5ecb@rangith74aab7d>
Message-ID: <009701c5e6e4$65491ef0$0201a8c0@finn>
I have been working in the domain of rural transport and demand-responsive transport for the last 10 years, in a mix of collaborative EU research and demonstration projects, and in local projects in Ireland. Over that period of time we have built up a certain store of knowledge about the users, challenges, needs, solutions, organisational structures, technologies etc. This covers rural, periurban and urban environments, and takes into account also users with special needs.
I don't presume that either the challenges or the solutions in European rural areas are directly transferable to African or Asian environments. I don't presume either that they have nothing in common. After all, we are usually dealing with target people who do not have access to a personal car, have limited or no passenger transport services available, and face many economic, social and personal factors which impact on their quality of life.
Either through this forum or off-line, I would be interested to exchange some knowledge on users, the challenges they face, their needs, and barriers to implementation of solutions which have visible potential. This would allow us to see the extent of convergence or divergence among the rural communities in Europe, Africa and Asia. When that is established, we could see whether there are environments where existing solutions and experience are transferable.
For information, one of the European projects called CONNECT has a Knowledge Library dealing with Flexible Transport, with either access to or reviews of about 250 reference works. You will find it at www.flexibletransport.com If anyone wants to add documents or reviews to the Library, please let me know.
With best wishes,
Brendan Finn.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
>From Brendan Finn, ETTS Ltd. e-mail : etts@indigo.ie tel : +353.87.2530286
----- Original Message -----
From: Ranjith de Silva
To: 'Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport'
Cc: peter.njenga@ifrtd.org
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 8:52 AM
Subject: [sustran] Re: Bamako Transport meeting
Dear Geoff
IFRTD has done some work on Rural Transport Services. I'm copying this to Peter Njenga , who would be in a position to provide you with some information.
Regards.
Ranjith
-----Original Message-----
From: sustran-discuss-bounces+ranjithsd=sltnet.lk@list.jca.apc.org [mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+ranjithsd=sltnet.lk@list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf Of Eric Britton
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 9:42 PM
To: Sustran-discuss@jca.apc.org
Cc: edmondsg@ilo.org
Subject: [sustran] Bamako Transport meeting
-----Original Message-----
From: Geoff Edmonds [mailto:Edmondsg@ilo.org]
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 6:15 PM
To: Gender and Transport
Cc: Chris Donnges
Subject: [gatnet] Re: Bamako Transport meeting
Dear Paul,
Like you I have been a silent participant.
What you have been doing on rural tranpsort services would be very interesting for us especially in relation to the part of our programme dealing with local level planning and the application of the Integrated Rural Acessibility Planning tool.
Whilst rural transport services are not necessarily a major problem in the Asian region there is still a prevailing attitude that if a rural access is provided the transport services will automatically follow and this is clearly not the case. As part of our work in Nepal with a World Bank rural access and infrastructure project we will be conducting a study of rural transport services. There is also some work recently completed work in Vietnam by the ADB on the same subject.
If it is available, we would appreciate seeing a copy of your study report.
Best regards,
Geoff
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Geoff Edmonds
Programme Coordinator
ILO/ASIST-Asia Pacific
P.O. Box 2-349
Bangkok 10200
Thailand
Tel: (66 2) 288 2303
Fax: (66 2) 288 1062
email: edmondsg@ilo.org
>>> paulstarkey@animaltraction.com 08/11/2005 21:24:56 >>>
Dear Mamoeketsi, Mary and GATNET colleagues
I have been following GATNET discussions since they
first started, although I am generally a silent participant.
People have been talking about the forthcoming SSATP
meeting in Bamako. At this, I will be presenting, with members
of a small team contracted to ITC, the results of an
SSATP-commissioned study to develop and test a methodology
for rapidly assessing rural transport services in an a rural area
(region or province). In the participative methodology we have
developed, we have tried to ensure that gender and transport issues
are assessed in relation to existing and potential motorised and
non-motorised transport services. The methodology includes gathering
the views of a wide range of transport users (women and men),
operators and regulatory authorities. The methodology has been
based on the observed a hierarchies of hub-and-spoke transport
systems (village, market town and regional hubs) with survey sampling
related to the remoteness of towns and villages. In all user categories,
at least two out of five informants should be women (with women
transport operators interviewed where this is appropriate).
Testing the methodology in selected regions of Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Tanzania and Zambia has yielded some fascinating
new insights relating to existing rural transport services, and has
highlighted some important gender-related transport issues.
I hope that GATNET members who are participating in the Bamako
meeting will be free to come to the presentation on Rural Transport
Services (on Tuesday 15 Nov, I believe) and contribute to the discussions.
I look forward to seeing people there.
With good wishes to all
Paul
Paul Starkey
Team Leader, Rural Transport Services Study
Mail: Oxgate, 64 Northcourt Avenue, Reading RG2 7HQ, UK
Tel: 0118-987 2152 Fax: + 44 (0)118-931 4525
Email: p.h.starkey@reading.ac.uk or paulstarkey@animaltraction.com
Website: http://www.animaltraction.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
================================================================
SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). Because of the history of the list, the main focus is on urban transport policy in Asia.
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From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Tue Nov 15 01:13:27 2005
From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton)
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 08:13:27 -0800
Subject: [sustran] China's Vicious cycle
Message-ID: <018a01c5e936$5a4e3db0$6401a8c0@Home>
Vicious cycle
Laws against electric bicycles are the latest step in China's move
towards a car culture, fuelling fears of highway chaos and an energy and
pollution crisis, writes Mark O'Neill
To encourage its residents to use bicycles, the French city of Lyon
recently placed 2,000 of them at 175 major sites, which users unlock
with a bank or bus card, pedal to their destination and then park at the
nearest junction.
On July 1, Zhuhai became the first city in China to pass a law banning
electric bicycles on public roads and Beijing plans to follow suit in
January, sparking a storm of protest from the 15 million people who use
them nationwide and fear their cities will ban them.
It's the latest battle in the war between cars and bicycles on the
mainland. Paying scant attention to the lessons learned by European
cities during the past 50 years, China is hurtling with speed and
single-mindedness into the car era, favouring it over bicycles and
motorbikes. It wants to become a car superpower, like the US and Japan,
and sees a booming domestic market as key to that ambition.
But not everyone shares this vision. Economists ask how China will pay
for the imports of oil required. At the moment the mainland is 40 per
cent import -dependent with a level of car ownership about one sixth of
the world average.
Some cyclists say the policy is another example of how the Communist
Party has abandoned the poor in favour of a small elite of large state
firms, private business and foreign multinationals - all makers or users
of motor cars.
Caught in the middle are city planners and academics trying to devise
transport policies for megalopolises that are swelling each year with
new citizens, factories, skyscrapers and congestion.
The current debate centres on electric bicycles, which make an easier
target for car supporters because the number of people using them, at 15
million, is a fraction of the total of 500 million bicycles.
The Zhuhai decision follows bans imposed by the cities of Fuzhou ,
Guangzhou and Wenzhou , but goes further because it was the first to
have its city parliament pass a law imposing the ban. Enraged by the
decision, the China Bicycle Association (CBA) asked a Beijing law firm
to prepare an appeal to the National People's Congress against the
legality of the measure.
The Zhuhai decision was in spite of a public opinion survey in the city
in August last year that found 90 per cent of the 800 respondents in
favour of keeping them on the road.
The city justified the law by saying electric bicycles caused traffic
congestion, pollution through the lead batteries their users discard
every three months and too many accidents - 166 in the first five months
of the year, with two dead and 31 injured, and few compensation payments
because most riders were uninsured.
In response, CBA secretary-general Guo Haiyan said that advanced
countries supported the electric bicycle as environmentally friendly,
with no pollution, low noise and small energy use.
She said it was the riders and not the bicycles who were responsible for
the accidents and that in Shanghai, the city with the largest number,
the accident rate was 0.17 per cent, against 1.6 per cent for cars.
She blamed the congestion on the decision of the Zhuhai government to
abolish special cycle lanes, forcing bicycles to travel in the same
space as pedestrians. On batteries, she said they had a high rate of
reuse and the city needed to set up a recycling facility. The bicycles
use less energy than any other form of transport on the road.
The CBA said an electric bicycle used 1 square metre of road, against
2.3 square metres for a car, and, during one hour, the bicycles could
transport 10,600 people, against 3,600 by car.
China is the world's biggest producer and user of electric bicycles,
with production this year of 10 million, up from 6.7 million last year.
Ms Guo praised the city of Hangzhou , with 280,000 electric bicycles and
growing at 60,000 a year, for not seeking a ban but ways to better
regulate this popular form of transport.
Nowhere is the fight for the roads more fierce than in Shanghai, which
boasts 8 million bicycles, 300,000 electric bicycles, 900,000
motorcycles, 900,000 cars and 10 million pedestrians on the move every
day. One reason why the number of bicycles has risen was the abolition
of a cheap monthly bus ticket in 1994. The congestion is so serious that
the average speed of buses has fallen from 19km/h in 1999 to 10km/h now.
The average road space is 2 square metres per person.
Congestion on the two-subway and one-overhead line became so bad that
the operator raised the minimum fare in September by 50 per cent to
three yuan, with little impact.
Wu Renjian, a transport specialist at the city's Fudan University, said
congestion was so serious that building new roads would not solve the
problem. "It is urgent to change the city's transport structure," he
said.
"The global experience shows that, after the motor car becomes a
consumer product, cities end up favouring public transport. At rush
hour, Paris gives preference to buses, Singapore limits the entry of
cars into the city centre and Seoul and Nagoya promote special bus
lanes," Mr Wu said.
Critics want Beijing to follow the example of Singapore and maintain
high taxes on cars, so they remain a product for the rich.
They accuse government officials of being ignorant of the traffic
problems of the public because they travel in official cars, often with
a police escort that clears the traffic. Yang Xiaoguang, a transport
specialist at Tongji University, calls this the "sedan chair culture" -
a reference to the Qing dynasty when coolies carried officials in
sedans.
Instead, China is now one of the world's most competitive markets, with
more than 100 producers driving prices down and introducing millions of
new buyers.
But one new factor this year has provided the bicycle lobby with a
powerful new weapon - record world oil prices.
Chen Mian, a professor at China Oil University, said if the mainland
became a car society, that would mean 20 times more cars on the roads
than now, which would require consumption of half the world's production
of oil.
"Unless there's an enormous breakthrough in new energy or the technology
of auto engines, it's difficult to imagine how the world could support
such a consumption of petrol," he said.
During the past 10 years, the mainland's domestic oil output has risen
only from 150 million tonnes to 175 million, while demand has soared,
forcing an increasing dependence on imports.
Last year, it consumed 292 million tonnes of oil, of which it imported
123 million, a dependence rate of 42 per cent, paying US$ 34 billion,
making it the single most expensive imported commodity. Of the 292
million tonnes purchased by mainlanders, 35 per cent was consumed by the
transport industry, principally cars.
This year, imports will rise about 5 per cent, with the cost increasing
because of record prices, and will continue to rise, with little
expectation of major new oil discoveries at home.
At present, China has two cars per 100 people, against a world average
of 12.7, 27 in South Korea, 56 in Japan and 78 in the US.
Source: South China Morning Post / WBCSD
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From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Wed Nov 16 20:04:10 2005
From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton)
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 12:04:10 +0100
Subject: [sustran] The dangers of shared taxis in the New Mobility System
Message-ID: <008401c5ea9d$7d383d90$6501a8c0@Home>
Simon Norton writes on this date:
"When one introduces shared taxis one has to guard against the danger that
they take people off buses and trains (or off their feet or bikes) rather
than off cars. If so they will actually increase the number of motor
vehicles, and furthermore unless the system is transparent and available to
casual users (i.e. one doesn't have to live in the area, belong to a club,
or book ages in advance) they may prevent the development of genuinely
comprehensive mobility systems. "
Couple of quick comments on this if you will:
* As long as we insist on thinking of these new ranges of mobility
options as "taxis" (i.e., not viable public transport) we will stay stuck in
the last century -- and all that entails in terms of quality of service and
quality of life. We really need to open up our minds and imaginations on
this score.
* Likewise, if we remain prisoners of the old "binary" mental system
of public (trains, scheduled buses, etc.) and (or rather versus) "private
transport" (by which is meant cars, and not only that really those well more
than half empty privately owned motor vehicles that roam our streets
untrammeled) - we will also continue stay stuck.
* Our 21st century New Mobility System is well equipped at least in
principle to do its job in a fully sustainable way, but it needs all four of
its main pillars: Those two (much improved of course by technology and
organization to do a better job in our towns and cities), plus (c) real
planning and resources to support widest use of 'active transport'. And
then our fourth and until now largely neglected fourth pillar . . .
* Small to medium sized vehicles offering 'car like mobility' (or
better!) in a very wide range of types, based on entrepreneurship and savvy
use of available technology and purveying services that will get people
where they want, when they want without the enormous negative impacts that
we associate with owner-driver (and almost empty) cars in the traffic
stream. This includes new group taxis of various sorts, ride sharing,
carsharing, dial-a-ride, shuttles, line taxis, E&H transport, and the list
goes on and on.
Now all of you here will be well aware of all this -- but the question
remains why has this great idea pretty much stayed in the closet over all
these years (albeit with a fair number of striking demonstrations, but which
never seem to really take off and in the process alter our basic thinking
about transport in cities)?
When I started on my personal transportation odyssey more than three decades
ago, I at one point headed up an international study and brainstorm of just
this kind of system/service, which we then called "paratransit", a name
which since has been co-opted in many places as something specifically
related to more medical or patient transport. I can't this morning lay my
hands on the original graphic which provides an idea of how all these bits
and pieces relate, but here is a rendering which I have just cobbled
together based on that which gives a rough idea (though it leaves out the
modal share monster the private car . . but you get the idea).
*
What I think is terribly striking and really quite disappointing about this
vision of what local transport is or at least should be about in a world, in
a city that wishes itself to be sustainable, is how little progress has been
made on this agenda in the THREE DECADES since we carried out this exercise
and put it in the form of a report that was distributed by the US Dept of
Transportation to more than five thousand people and groups around the
world. The reaction? A deafening silence.
The reason? Well, apparently it seemed just so very inconvenient. To the car
crowd that wants to change nothing and till now has had the resources to
make sure that that is exactly what happens. To the public transport crowd,
who - rightly I think - see themselves as providers of a certain range of
services within a certain kind of business and organizational framework, and
who really are stretched to the extreme just to get their part of the
(important and difficult) job done. The traffic people were up to their
necks in finding ways to whoosh ever more vehicles through the available
street space. The builders and their allies who felt that the solution lies
in increasing the space available to cars. And finally to the various
"authorities" who over the years have cobbled together combinations of laws,
ordinances and regulations which at the end of the day have reinforced this
ghastly, inefficient and basically binary transport system of the not that
regretted twentieth century.
Getting more people into fewer vehicles and getting them where they want to
go in ways that are more comfortable, more efficient and more cost effective
than any of the other alternatives. And of course reinforced by the
regulatory framework to give them privileged access to scarce street space.
In creative working partnerships with the traditional public transport
providers. And stuffed with technologies that are there today and well able
to do their part of the job.
Two final qualifiers to all this:
* First that since (a) these vehicles can be purpose designed
(including in terms of emissions, fuel efficiency, safety, etc.) and (b)
since they will be much more intensively used, the fleet will be renewed
more regularly (if we get it right that is), meaning that the vehicles
moving on our streets day after day will increasingly incorporate the best
available technology and performance standards.
* And the last wrinkle on this has to do with job creation. Over the
last fifty years the main thrust of innovation in the pubic transport sector
has been to cut costs through labor-savings. But our new transportation
arrangements are going to use drivers in each of those vehicles (with the
exception of carshare originations, but there too there is a job creation
vector which is not to be ignored), which means that our new mobility system
is going to be a source not only of new kinds and new qualities of mobility
services, but also jobs. No trivial contribution as we try to figure out
collectively what it is we really want of our cities, and our lives.
That's it from a slowly simmering Paris this morning, But not to worry, we
will figure this one out too.
Eric Britton
PS. Every time I see or reproduce that little graphic I think with affection
back to its origins, in the bowels of the Urban Mass Transit Administration
in the early/mid seventies. At the core of the original path-breaking 1975
report "Para-transit: Neglected options for urban mobility" was a working
partnership between the very creative Jimmy Yu of UMTA and the main
author/head of a small team from the Urban Institute, Ron Kirby (to whom I
am copying this note so that he can cross-check me for accuracy). I don't
have a copy of the book handy, but I just checked and you can pick up a copy
today for five dollars or so from Amazon.
Starting in 1974/5 and almost in parallel, I led a small team that spent
some years in pushing out the frontiers both in terms of expanding the range
of services covered and more important I think in retrospect reviewing
developments in Europe in particular ("Paratransit: Survey of International
Experience and Prospects". This led to a continuing cycle of team studies
and projects, which today have taken the form of what you can see in places
like the New Mobility Agenda and subsequently the World Carshare Consortium,
World Car Free Days, the Kyoto World Cities 20/20 Challenge, and on and on.
BTW, I always smile in recalling an "enormous" contribution that I
personally made to the field of paratransit, which in fact was about as
small and negative as one can get.. yet still it made a difference. I
"officially" at UMTA and beyond removed once and forever the hyphen in
para-transit, with the argument that hyphenization in the world of words is
only a half way house until such time that the word reaches full maturity.
Which I felt that by 1975 it had indeed. At least the word itself. ;-)
PPS. The above certainly too long note does not pretend to try to tackle the
full problematique of bringing sustainable mobility to our cities, but
rather just to try to provide some food for thought in answer to Simon
Norton's good challenge. I have to add however that one very important
missing "pillar" in the overall strategy is working with city planners,
developers and local authorities to provide and support more appropriate
grouping of activities and services, as opposed to the worst abuses of
car-based spread patterns. And of course there is the very promising
'communications substitutes for movements" axis which all of you now well,
but let's leave that for another time and place.
The New Mobility Agenda is permanently at http://NewMobility.org
To post messages to list: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe: NewMobilityCafe-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Free group video/voice-conferencing via http://newmobilitypartners.org
_____
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
* Visit your group "NewMobilityCafe
" on the web.
* To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
NewMobilityCafe-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
* Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
Service.
_____
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From carlos.pardo at sutp.org Thu Nov 17 04:56:00 2005
From: carlos.pardo at sutp.org (Carlos F. Pardo)
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 14:56:00 -0500
Subject: [sustran] GTZ document on transport and Millenium Development Goals
Message-ID: <20051116200223.702672BD10@mx-list.jca.ne.jp>
Dear all,
GTZ has published a document on the contributions from the Transport Sector
to the Millenium Development Goals, called "Why Transport Matters". It
ellaborates the nature of transport both as a complement to other sectors,
and as a stimulant for economic growth and poverty reduction in its own
right. It can be downloaded clicking on the following link from the SUTP
website:
www.sutp.org/docs/WhyTransportMatters-locked-8.11.05.pdf
Best regards,
Carlos F. Pardo
Coordinador de Proyecto
GTZ- Proyecto de Transporte Urbano Sostenible para Am?rica Latina y el
Caribe- SUTP LAC
Cr. 14 # 94A-24 of. 409
Bogot? D.C., Colombia
Tel: +57 (1) 635 9048
Fax: +57 (1) 236 2309
Mobile: +57 (3) 15 296 0662
e-mail: carlos.pardo@sutp.org
P?gina: www.sutp.org
- Visite nuestra nueva secci?n de Latinoam?rica y el Caribe en
http://www.sutp.org/esp/espindex.htm
- ?nase al grupo de discusi?n de Transporte Sostenible en Latinoam?rica en
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sutp-lac/join
Web site novo em portugu?s
http://www.sutp.org/PT/PTindex.htm
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From ericbruun at earthlink.net Thu Nov 17 05:21:07 2005
From: ericbruun at earthlink.net (Eric Bruun)
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 15:21:07 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
Subject: [sustran] Re: The dangers of shared taxis in the New Mobility System
Message-ID: <5114600.1132172468326.JavaMail.root@elwamui-muscovy.atl.sa.earthlink.net>
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From ericbruun at earthlink.net Thu Nov 17 05:21:07 2005
From: ericbruun at earthlink.net (Eric Bruun)
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 15:21:07 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
Subject: [sustran] Re: The dangers of shared taxis in the New Mobility System
Message-ID: <5114600.1132172468326.JavaMail.root@elwamui-muscovy.atl.sa.earthlink.net>
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From Pguitink at worldbank.org Thu Nov 17 07:00:24 2005
From: Pguitink at worldbank.org (Pguitink at worldbank.org)
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 23:00:24 +0100
Subject: [sustran] Paulus A. Guitink/Person/World Bank is out of the office.
Message-ID:
I will be out of the office starting 11/16/2005 and will not return until
11/21/2005.
I will be participating in the MK Country Office Retreat. For urgent matters,
please contact the Country Office Reception desk (+389 2 3117 159) which will
know how to reach me.
From ranjithsd at sltnet.lk Thu Nov 17 13:48:32 2005
From: ranjithsd at sltnet.lk (Ranjith de Silva)
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 10:48:32 +0600
Subject: [sustran] Re: Bamako Transport meeting and rural transport
Message-ID: <000001c5eb32$2ba60580$985f5ecb@rangith74aab7d>
Dear Brendan
Thanks for the encouraging news and I am happy know about your interest
in rural transport. You have copied your email to Peter Njenga (IFRTD
South and East Africa Coordinator), Geoff Edmunds and Paul Starkey who
are all great promoters of Rural Transport. Please follow the IFRTD
website for more information and links on various subjects of rural
transport and development.
IFRTD website: www.ifrtd.org
Thank you.
Best wishes!
Ranjith
Ranjith de Silva
Asia Regional Coordinator
International Forum for Rural Transport and Development (IFRTD)
C/o: 319/10, Ramanayaka Mawatha, Erawwala, Pannipitiya,
Sri Lanka.
Phone: +94 11 2842972
Fax: +94 11 2856188
Email: ranjith@ifrtd.org
web: www.ifrtd.org
"The IFRTD is a global network of individuals and organisations working
together towards improved access and mobility for the rural poor in
developing countries"
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From litman at vtpi.org Thu Nov 17 23:03:13 2005
From: litman at vtpi.org (Todd Alexander Litman)
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 06:03:13 -0800
Subject: [sustran] VTPI News - Fall 2005
Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20051117060221.05f43d38@mail.islandnet.com>
-----------
VTPI NEWS
-----------
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
"Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"
------------------------------------
Fall 2005 Vol. 8, No. 3
----------------------------------
The Victoria Transport Policy Institute is an
independent research organization dedicated to
developing innovative solutions to transportation
problems. The VTPI website (http://www.vtpi.org )
has many resources addressing a wide range of
transport planning and policy issues. VTPI also provides consulting services.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ONLINE TDM ENCYCLOPEDIA
========================
The VTPI "Online TDM Encyclopedia"
(http://www.vtpi.org/tdm
) is a comprehensive information resource to help
identify and evaluate innovative management
solutions to transport problems, available for
free on our website. We continually update and
expand the Encyclopedia. We recently added the following chapters:
"Streetscape Improvements: Enhancing Urban
Roadway Design"
(http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm122.htm
). This chapter discusses various ways to improve
urban streetscapes in order to help create more
attractive, accessible, multi-modal communities.
"Emergency Response Transport Management:
Managing Transportation Systems During Disasters"
(http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm124.htm ). This
chapter discusses emergency response
transportation planning and the role mobility
management strategies can play in dealing with disasters.
We are in the process of modifying the format of
large chapters (those more than about 20 pages in
length). They will have a standard, HTM format
chapter which provides summary information, and
we are adding longer, more detailed reports in
PDF format. This allows us to provide more
information in an easier to read format. This has
been done to the following chapters:
"Land Use Evaluation: Evaluating How
Transportation Decisions Affect Land Use
Patterns, and the Economic, Social and
Environmental Impacts That Result"
(http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm104.htm )
"Land Use Impacts on Transport: How Land Use
Patterns Affect Travel Behavior" (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm20.htm )
"Transportation Elasticities: How Prices Affect
Travel Behavior"
(http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm11.htm )
As always, we appreciate feedback. Please let us
know if you have suggestions for improving any of these documents.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEW DOCUMENTS
==============
"Gasoline Price-Elasticity Spreadsheet"
(http://www.vtpi.org/gasoline_elasticity.xls
), by Charles Komanoff
This spreadsheet uses U.S. Department of Energy
data from 2004 through August 2005 to estimate
the short-term price-elasticity of demand for
gasoline. Fuel price increases during this period
provide a natural experiment for measuring this
impact. The analysis shows the elasticity ranges
from -0.01 to -0.23, and averages -0.11 for the
months covered in this spreadsheet, indicating
that a 10% increase in fuel price reduces fuel
consumption and vehicle mileage by about 1% in the short term.
"Lessons From Katrina and Rita: What Major
Disasters Can Teach Transportation Planners"
(http://www.vtpi.org/katrina.pdf )
This paper examines failures in Hurricane Katrina
disaster response and their lessons for
transportation policy and planning in other
communities. It identifies various policy and
planning strategies that can help create a more
efficient, equitable and resilient transport system.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPDATED DOCUMENTS
==============
We have updated several of our existing documents.
"Win-Win Transportation Solutions"
(http://www.vtpi.org/winwin.pdf
). This paper describes several innovative policy
reforms that help solve transportation problems
by removing barriers and market distortions that
encourage inefficient travel behavior.
"Evaluating Research Quality"
(http://www.vtpi.org/resqual.pdf
). This short paper provides guidelines for evaluating research quality.
"Evaluating Criticism of Smart Growth"
(http://www.vtpi.org/sgcritics.pdf
). This paper evaluates various criticisms that
have been raised concerning Smart Growth land use reforms.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE
====================
The following documents have recently been published in professional journals:
Todd Litman, ?Terrorism, Transit and Public
Safety: Evaluating the Risks,? Journal of Public
Transit, Vol. 8, No. 4
(http://www.nctr.usf.edu/jpt/pdf/JPT%208-4S%20Litman.pdf
), 2005, pp. 33-46.
Todd Litman, ?London Congestion Pricing ?
Implications for Other Cities,? CESifo Dice
Report: Journal of Institutional Comparisons,
Vol. 3, No. 3 (http://www.cesifo-group.de/link/40publdice ), Autumn 2005.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPCOMING EVENTS
================
We will be busy at the Transportation Research
Board Annual Meeting (http://www.trb.org ), held
January 22-26 in Washington DC. This annual event
attracts thousands of participants from around
the world, and involves hundreds of sessions,
workshops and committee meetings. Below are
events in which we are scheduled to participate.
For more information see the Annual Meeting
Interactive Program
(http://www.trb.org/am/ip/default.asp?e=68
).
Workshop #132, Congestion Pricing from Soup to
Nuts, Sunday, January 22, 2006, 8:30 AM - 5:00
PM, ("Pricing as a Tool for Demand Management")
#220 Disaster Planning for Low-Income and
Disadvantaged Communities, Monday, 8:00 AM?9:45 AM (Discussant)
#243 Congestion Pricing: Path to the Future,
Monday, 9:30 AM?12:00 PM ("Pay-As-You-Drive
Vehicle Insurance: Implementation, Benefits, and Costs")
#247 Transportation Issues in Major U.S. Cities,
Monday, 9:30 AM?12:00 PM ("Terrorism, Transit,
and Public Safety: Evaluating the Risks")
#389 Identifying Future Transportation Trends
Affecting the Transportation Planning Process:
Issues and Responses, Monday, 7:30 PM?9:30 PM
("The Future Isn't What It Used to Be")
#473 Effectiveness of Transportation Demand
Management Programs: Impacts and Implementation
Issues, Tuesday, 10:15 AM?12:00 PM ("Mobility
Management Traffic Safety Impacts")
ADD40(1) Sustainable Transportation Indicators
Subcommittee, Tuesday, 1:30 PM?3:15 PM
#555 Exploring the Organizational and Human
Components of Crisis Management, Tuesday, 3:45
PM?5:30 PM ("Learning from Katrina and Rita: What Worked, What Didn't?")
#814 Travel Behavior Trends: What Does the Future
Hold?, Thursday, 10:15 AM?12:00 PM ("Changing
Transportation Trends and Their Implications for Transport Planning")
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BEEN THERE ? DONE THAT
=======================
VTPI Executive Director Todd Litman debated smart
growth critic Randal O?Toole over the value of
public transit and transit-oriented development
on September 9th at the Annual Meeting of the
Florida Chapter of the American Planning
Association in St. Petersburg. Mr. Litman
identified various inaccuracies and
misrepresentations in O'Toole's claims, as
discussed in the reports "Evaluating Rail Transit
Criticism"
(http://www.vtpi.org/railcrit.pdf
) and "Evaluating Criticism of Smart Growth"
(http://www.vtpi.org/sgcritics.pdf
). For example, Mr. O'Toole claims that bus
service expansion results in greater ridership
gains than rail expansion, based on his
comparison of selected cities. But his analysis
is biased by the fact that he selected
rapidly-growing bus-based cities while the
rail-based cities were large and mature, and
experienced little or no growth during the
analysis period. This analysis therefore fails to
prove that bus-based transit would increase
ridership more than rail-based systems. In fact,
there is considerable evidence that rail-based
systems have been more effective at increasing transit ridership.
Litman also presented his paper, "Managing
Personal Mobility Devices (PMDs) On Nonmotorized
Facilities"
(http://www.vtpi.org/man_nmt_fac.pdf
) at the Trails and Pathways 2005 National
Symposium held in mid-October in Edmonton, Alberta.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
USEFUL RESOURCES
=================
Below are some new information resources that you may find useful.
CCAP, "Transportation Emissions Guidebook: Land
Use, Transit & Transportation Demand Management,"
Center of Clean Air Policy
(www.ccap.org/guidebook),
2005. This Guidebook provides information on
various smart growth and mobility management
strategies, including rules-of-thumb estimates of
VMT and emission reductions. It includes a
spreadsheet model which calculates total emission
reductions from specific combinations of strategies.
Alta Planning + Design, "Caltrans Pedestrian and
Bicycle Facilities Technical Reference Guide: A
Technical Reference and Technology Transfer
Synthesis for Caltrans Planners and Engineers,"
California Department of Transportation
(www.dot.ca.gov/hq/traffops/survey/pedestrian/TR_MAY0405.pdf),
2005.
This comprehensive guidebook synthesizes
information on non-motorized transportation
planning. It includes information on local,
regional and state planning processes; potential
funding sources; standard and innovative
practices for bicycle facilities; benefits of
non-motorized transportation; safety evaluation;
travel impacts on non-motorized facilities;
examples and case studies; and an extensive
bibliography. It is intended to assist
transportation professionals in accommodating
pedestrians and bicyclists in the roadway system.
"Car-Free Development" module of the Sustainable
Transport Sourcebook, by Lloyd Wright
(http://www.sutp.org/download/carfreemodule.php
). This 220+ page document covers a range of
issues around car-free development, including and
overview of worldwide car-free activities (e.g.
car-free days, car-free housing, large-scale
pedestrianisation), project implementation
guidelines, and many useful information resources.
Walter Hook, Training Course on Non-Motorised
Transport, Sustainable Urban Transport Project
(www.sutp.org/download/trainingmat.php),
2005. This guide provides detailed information
for planners and other stakeholders on why and
how to improve walking and cycling conditions in
both developed and developing countries.
TSG, Measuring Accessibility as Experienced by
Different Socially Disadvantaged Groups,
Transport Studies Group ? University of
Westminster. Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC)
(www.wmin.ac.uk/transport/projects/samp.htm),
2005. This study examines the transportation
needs of various disadvantaged groups, and
provides guidelines and tools for evaluating the
quality of transport services (particularly
public transit services) available to them.
"Traveler Response to Transportation System
Changes" Handbook
(http://www4.trb.org/trb/crp.nsf/All+Projects/TCRP+B-12A,+Phase+II
), TCRP Report 95. This comprehensive set of more
than a dozen reports to date, provides detailed
information on the travel impacts of various
transportation system changes and policy actions,
including transit improvements and fares, road
and parking pricing, parking supply, HOV
facilities, and land use changes and site design
practices. For example, it discusses how changes
in parking fees affect automobile travel, and how
transit fare reductions and HOV facilities can
affect transit ridership, based on extensive
reviews of empirical evidence. Like VTPI's
"On-Line TDM Encyclopedia," TCRP Report 95 was
identified in The Urban Transportation Monitor of
January 21, 2005, as one of "the most essential transportation publications."
Active Living Storybank
The Active Living Network has launched the Active
Living Storybank, a searchable database with more
than 100 projects, programs and initiatives
around the country. All entries promote health
through changes in the built environment, public
policy and education. The Storybank encompasses
all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Guam, and allows
professionals, advocates, community leaders and
others to find examples of Active Living in
action. Search the Active Living Storybank, or
share your story, at: www.activeliving.org
The Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies
http://www.easts.info/publications/journal_proceedings/online.html
The Eastern Asia Society for Transportation
Studies (EASTS) has released its Journal as an
on-line journal. EASTS has organized 6 bi-annual
conferences since 1997, including the latest one
held in Bangkok, Thailand. EASTS publishes
journals of peer reviewed papers and proceedings
of the conference. Eastern Asia is one of the
most dynamic and growing areas in the field of
transportation in the world, and EASTS has been
tackling a wide range of contemporary issues.
NCEF, National Clearninghouse for Educational
Facilities Website
(www.edfacilities.org),
provides information on the development of safe
and healthy schools, including resources on
transportation and parking management strategies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HOLIDAY OFFER
==============
Housesitter wanted for a lovely heritage home
close to downtown Victoria from December 18th
through January 5th. Stay rent free in one of
North America's most walkable and attractive
cities. Must like dogs. For information contact Todd Litman (litman@vtpi.org).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please let us know if you have comments or
questions about any information in this
newsletter, or if you would like to be removed
from our email list. And please pass this
newsletter on to others who may find it useful.
Sincerely,
Todd Alexander Litman
Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org)
litman@vtpi.org
Phone & Fax 250-360-1560
1250 Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, CANADA
?Efficiency - Equity - Clarity?
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From operations at velomondial.net Sat Nov 19 18:57:08 2005
From: operations at velomondial.net (Pascal van den Noort)
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 10:57:08 +0100
Subject: [sustran] Velo Mondial wins a thrid prize in the Energy Globe 2005
In-Reply-To: <20050919065906.ACE552E0FC@mx-list.jca.ne.jp>
Message-ID: <006701c5ecef$9e438090$9600000a@PASCAL>
Velo Mondial gets third prize in the Energy
Globe 2005, Category Air
The Energy Globe Awards are yearly presented to the best-implemented
projects from around the world, which contribute to the protection of the
four basic elements of life, thereby providing valuable assistance in the
preservation of our planet.
This "World Award for Sustainability" is presented in the categories earth,
fire (energy), water and air as well as in the special category youth.
Anyone from anywhere can participate in this unique competition with an
initiative or project that concerns itself with the sustainable and
efficient use of the four elements or -in the field of education - has
stirred and strengthened environmental awareness on a broad level. About 700
projects competed.
Velo Mondial won the award with its Bicycle Friendly Community Program - a
program executed in cooperation with the League of American Bicyclists and
Velo.Info.
Program to improve City Cycling Planning
"Velo Mondial" is an international organisation dedicated to promoting the
use of the bicycle and seeks to increase its integration into the economies
and lifestyles of countries across the world. The project involves
individuals, companies, foundations, associations, networks, local
governments into becoming their cities "bicycle friendly communities" and to
reduce traffic, improve environment, air quality and health, to enhance
physical fitness and quality of life, to strengthen business by creating new
tourism destinations, save city funds for new road infrastructure, etc.
Since starting the project in 2000 about 25 cities from 18 countries have
signed the charter. With the "Velo.Info Tool", which identifies 19
fundamental components necessary for successful cycling planning, member
cities can see and compare their performance through an award in Bronze,
Silver, Gold or Platinum.
www.velomondial.net
www.velo.info
mailto:operations@velomondial.net
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From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Mon Nov 21 23:00:50 2005
From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton)
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 15:00:50 +0100
Subject: [sustran] The one day a year we turn off the economy and talk about it
In-Reply-To: <200511201921.jAKJLaHe025984@britton1.securesites.net>
Message-ID: <01de01c5eea3$fd227160$6401a8c0@Home>
In: 4 days, 9 hours, 14 minutes, 31 second. Check it out at
http://ecoplan.org/ibnd/
Dear New and Mobile Friends,
The coming Friday the 25th is Buy Nothing Day in North America, and the next
day it's BND in the rest of the world. Buy Nothing Day:" The one day a year
we turn off the economy and talk about it" Now this may strike you as a
trivial, excessively puerile and possibly even dangerous and at best quite
unnecessary way to spend 24 hours of your short life. And if you are a
certain kind of economist you are going to argue that to the contrary,
consumption is the motor of the national and international economies - so
that anything that looks it squarely in the eye is, what? Immoral?
Dangerous? Un- (to coin a phrase popular in some Washington circles these
days) -Christian? But we respectfully beg to differ.
And it's for that that each year we spend a bit of time and effort to
provide a conduit of information and, we hope, perspective and insight into
this slowly growing world wide movement. This conduit is called
International Buy Nothing Day and you can visit the full function web site
that we have constructed to support it at http://ecoplan.org/ibnd/. We have
to conclude that it is a pretty interesting source since today, for
instance, we have already by noon had 140 visitors with new ones coming in
about every five minutes.
While the early wave of BN interest was, predictably, in Canada and the
States, the tempo is quickly picking up. Thus as an example here is a list
identifying countries from which people and groups have walked through our
virtual door here in the last week alone.
* Australia
* Belgium
* Canada
* China
* Colombia
* Cyprus
* Czech Republic
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Greece
* Hong Kong
* Hungary
* Lithuania
* Korea, Republic Of
* Mexico
* Netherlands
* New Zealand
* Poland
* Portugal
* Romania
* Russian Federation
* Spain
* Taiwan
* Turkey
* United Kingdom
* United States
If you notice any kinship with the thinking behind our Car Free Days
program, that is probably not altogether accidental. This habit of stepping
back and thinking is one that we believe in firmly.
So dip in, have a look, and if you like get back to us with your ideas ad
suggestions.
And on BND, try to keep that hand from goin into your pocket quite as often
as usual.
;-)
Eric Britton (who will most indubitably do little if any better than you
will.)
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From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Sat Nov 19 00:47:42 2005
From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton)
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2005 16:47:42 +0100
Subject: [sustran] Optimal Planning Through Implementation of Mobility
Management
Message-ID: <03d401c5ec57$6ad23c80$6401a8c0@Home>
OPTIMUM2 stands for "Optimal Planning Through Implementation of Mobility
Management".
http://www.optimum2.org/
Welcome to the OPTIMUM? website
OPTIMUM2 is a European project that has as its aim the improvement of the
accessibility of busy locations in urban areas.
The reason for starting the project is the increasing traffic congestion at
busy locations in urban areas. Building new roads and adding more parking
space is often neither possible nor desirable. The result is locations that
are hard to reach and traffic flooding into the surrounding neighbourhoods.
Attempts to limit the use of cars have as of yet not had the hoped-for
result.
OPTIMUM2 searches for attractive alternatives to cars and has introduced a
user-oriented approach. This transnational project was started to find out
if this approach works, in the UK and the Netherlands as well as in other
countries of North-West Europe. Eight partners will conduct ten trial
projects, to tackle the accessibility issue. For this project, two types of
locations were selected: hospitals and business areas. The project will last
until mid 2008.
The 10 Projects
*
1. Amsterdam: Southern Business Areas
*
2.
Hilversum: Mediapark Business Park
*
3. Colchester: General Hospital
*
4. Lancashire: Teaching Hospitals
*
5. Southwark: Main Business Area
*
6.
Edinburgh: Business Areas & Hospitals
*
7. Exeter: Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital
*
8. Apeldoorn: Gelre Hospitals
*
9. Ede:
Business Area
*
10.
Gouda: Goudse Poort Business Park
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From ericbruun at earthlink.net Tue Nov 22 07:40:55 2005
From: ericbruun at earthlink.net (Eric Bruun)
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 17:40:55 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
Subject: [sustran] Re: The one day a year we turn off the economy and talk
about it
Message-ID: <20605916.1132612855964.JavaMail.root@elwamui-norfolk.atl.sa.earthlink.net>
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From ericbruun at earthlink.net Tue Nov 22 07:40:55 2005
From: ericbruun at earthlink.net (Eric Bruun)
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 17:40:55 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
Subject: [sustran] Re: The one day a year we turn off the economy and talk
about it
Message-ID: <20605916.1132612855964.JavaMail.root@elwamui-norfolk.atl.sa.earthlink.net>
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From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Wed Nov 23 01:30:05 2005
From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton)
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 17:30:05 +0100
Subject: [sustran] Talking New Moblity
Message-ID: <005601c5ef82$010021e0$6401a8c0@Home>
Dear Wonderful Sustran Friends,
In truth I fret about sending on to you all ? busy as you are ? too much
information and too many messages from the lively caf? of our New Mobility
Agenda ( http://www.newmobility.org). Of
course they tend to be less focused in geographic terms, with all that
implies, than the concerns of our Sustran Network, but it?s my position that
the two work rather well together. (In fact if you go to the Agenda, and
click the Talking New Moblity link on the left menu (toward the top), and
from thence to More Great Discussions, you will see that we have Sustran in
a position of honor right up top. In this way, we are trying to make sure
that the people who come and spend some time with us, also have access to
your good messages and information.)
That said, I would like to encourage those of you who have not already done
so to check into the Caf? and to consider signing in. You will note that
there is an email option whereby you do not have to get all the individual
messages, but rather the Daily Digest. This is quite handy and for me at
least saves time. I check it out daily when it comes in, just because it is
very often just so very interesting and useful.
There you have it. A few of you have already jumped on board, and if those
of you who have tried it have anything to share with the others about it,
well that would be most welcome. We do want to be useful.
* * *
By the way, we have just received a message in the caf? from a young Dutch
transportation organizer/activist Stefan Langeveld putting forth in a very
few words what I for one think is a brilliant bit of conceptual problem
solving. He builds on an on-going discussion of Congestion Charging, prop
and con, (you?ll see some of the latest on that after his note) and proposes
a solution which I find at the very least worth having your views on. He
honors in passing Bogot??s Pico y Placa (have a look at
http://ecoplan.org/carfreeday/bogota/pico.htm for some background on how
that works)?and then goes on to propose for our consideration. . . .
Well let me get out of the way here and turn the stage over to Stefan and
the ?Langeveld Option?.
-----Original Message-----
From: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Stefan Langeveld
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 3:12 PM
To: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [NewMobilityCafe] will congestion charge solve anything ?
At peak hours, city roads cannot accommodate bikes, cars and buses and
trams.
Either you try to squeeze out the (less well off) car drivers by CC, or you
look for an effective approach.
The governors of Bogota have solved the problem, in theory. Their Peak Time
Ban for Private Cars passed the referendum (51 % in favour , 34 against ,
oct '00).
Here's my interpretation :
Ban car use during the peak period (30 - 45 or 60 mins.)
Exceptions: emergencies, bus, EV, and maybe any car with 4 or more people.
Additional measure : traffic lights off.
Let's have an experiment with this before considering a congestion charge.
In comparison, the PTB is far easier to implement (thus cheaper) and far
more effective.
Stefan Langeveld
_____
From: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Simon Norton
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 9:56 PM
To: newmobilitycafe@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [NewMobilityCafe] will congestion charge solve anything ?
Of course congestion charging in Stockholm or any other city isn't a magic
wand
which will solve all problems. However the fact that something won't solve
all
problems isn't a case for not doing it, as is implied in the article by
James
Savage, and even more in Gabriel Roth's comment.
London's congestion charge is too limited both in space and time. Within the
last week I experienced near gridlock on a road in an area that is fairly
central, but outside not only the existing congestion charging zone but the
planned western extension. Then yesterday, a Sunday when the charge doesn't
operate, I experienced further holdups in Central London and nearly missed a
key
connection as a result, which would have delayed me a whole hour.
As far as pollution issues are concerned, buying clean cars does NOT reduce
pollution. What reduces pollution is scrapping dirty cars.
And all cars of whatever type contribute to the degradation of the urban
environment that discourages walking and cycling. This brings me to
Alexandra
Hamilton's question.
I think that a useful rule of thumb is that it is reasonable to expect
people to
walk up to 2 miles or to cycle up to 5 miles. But, as others have said, this
depends on conditions.
However, as far as I'm concerned, cycling in traffic-infested roads is akin
to
walking through a safari park. That's my personal view, but I suspect that
it is
shared by more people than cycling advocates think, and the latter will
never
succeed in promoting cycling until they realise that many people don't want
to
cycle in heavy traffic and it isn't reasonable to expect them to.
Walking is less of a problem because one's segregated from the traffic most
of
the time. For an attractive off-road route I'd be willing to do more than 2
miles. But even 2 miles is too long
(a) When one has to stop frequently at intersections where motor traffic has
overall priority, or
(b) When one's tired.
(a) applies in many parts of London, though not in my home city (Cambridge),
where I live about 2 miles from the railway station. Normally I walk there
from
my home -- partly because the bus link, though fairly frequent in the
daytime,
is too slow to offer much advantage. But, because of (b), I strongly resent
those times when I have to walk back late at night because the evening buses
are
so poor (last one is at 23.05, and before that they are only every half an
hour).
>From the station to my office is over 2 miles, and there isn't a direct bus.
During Monday to Friday until about 19.30 there's a bus which involves 13
minutes walk at one end and 4 at the other. At other times the journey is
sufficiently tedious that I avoid it. There used to be a nice route through
the
Botanic Gardens and college grounds, but nowadays it is blocked by locked
gates.
If we managed to secure significant (50% is the target I like to quote)
reductions in traffic levels through congestion charging, or by any other
means,
I am sure that many more people would start walking and cycling --
particularly
if some of the released roadspace was taken from motorists and reallocated
to
these people.
Incidentally, the guidelines for schoolchildren in the UK are that they are
entitled to transport when the nearest school which has a place for them is
over 2 miles away, for younger children, and over 3 miles away for older
ones (I
think that the critical age is 8).
Simon Norton
----
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Britton [mailto:eric.britton@ecoplan.org]
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2005 1:16 PM
Subject: Congestion charge will solve nothing
Published: 18th November 2005 -
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=2521&date=20051118
Congestion charge will solve nothing
Driving a car into central Stockholm is about to get expensive, and people
aren?t happy. Polls show that the majority of voters are against the trial
of congestion charging that starts in January, but there is surely a case
for encouraging people to use their cars less. Question is ? why single out
Stockholmers?
There are plenty of reasons for introducing road tolls ? reduced traffic on
the roads gives cleaner air, a more pleasant environment and makes it easier
to get around.
But on a political level, they are being introduced in Stockholm because the
Green Party made it a condition for supporting the Sweden?s Social Democrat
government after the 2002 election.
Many here have compared the introduction of congestion charging in Stockholm
to the road tolls introduced in London in 2001. Mayor Annika Billstr?m said
she wanted to learn from London?s experiences when starting to charge
motorists in the Swedish capital.
I moved to Stockholm from London just after congestion charges were
introduced there, and it?s worth pointing out two obvious but crucial
differences between the two cities.
In Stockholm, rush hour is still what it says on the box ? commuters face
delays for brief periods (and over short distances) in the morning and the
evening; in pre-toll central London, rush ?hour? seemed to last all day,
with lines of slow moving traffic continuing for mile after mile.
Another difference is that Stockholm already has relatively efficient public
transport; London?s transport system was creaking at the seams.
But there is no doubt that less traffic is good for the environment, both at
a local and at a global level. We may like using our cars ? indeed, many
people depend on them ? but we need to drastically reduce their impact on
the environment, not least by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide they
release into the atmosphere.
This is not going to be tackled by singling out motorists in big cities ? it
is something that needs to take in the bigger picture.
Indeed, in some ways Sweden is ahead of the field in the way it deals with
this. At a recent European conference on clean fuels held in Stockholm,
experts said Sweden was at the cutting edge ? 20,000
environmentally-friendly cars are expected to be sold here next year, more
per capita than any other European country.
But perhaps if Sweden is really going to make its contribution to reducing
the impact of cars on the environment, it should look at another idea being
floated in the UK at the moment: road pricing across the country.
This idea, to tax people depending on how much they drive, could really make
people think about alternatives such as car sharing, and lead to increased
pressure for improved public transport. Greenpeace has suggested that
drivers of ?clean cars? should get a reduction on the tax, while drivers of
gas guzzling 4x4s (and Green Party activists in their 1970s Volkswagens)
could pay extra.
So instead of slamming taxes on motorists in Stockholm, why not make
everyone pay for the real damage done to the environment?
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From carlos.pardo at sutp.org Wed Nov 23 01:58:55 2005
From: carlos.pardo at sutp.org (Carlos F. Pardo)
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 11:58:55 -0500
Subject: [sustran] =?iso-8859-1?Q?Pico_y_placa_Bogot=E1-_the_evolution_and?=
=?iso-8859-1?Q?_further_comments?=
In-Reply-To: <005601c5ef82$010021e0$6401a8c0@Home>
Message-ID: <20051122165903.405D62DF3E@mx-list.jca.ne.jp>
The pico y placa in Bogot? is a good idea as long as it is properly managed.
The complete evolution of the idea and its consequences is the following:
General rule: Cars will be banned from peak hour traffic depending on the
day of the week and the last number of their license plate.
1. First exercise: cars are banned from 7:00- 9:00 am and 5:00-7:00 pm
from Monday through Friday, according to the following rule:
a. Monday: license plates that end in 1-2-3-4
b. Tuesday: license plates that end in 5-6-7-8
c. Wednesday: license plates that end in 9-0-1-2
d. Thursday: license plates that end in 3-4-5-6
e. Friday: license plates that end in 7-8-9-0
Consequences of the first exercise:
i. Car volumes are redistributed throughout the hours
adjacent to peak hours, balancing all-day traffic (this is why they made it
on peak hours only)
ii. Illegal vendors would sell black stickers to turn 3?s
into 8?s, 1?s into 4,s ,etc (those were quickly taken out of the street)
iii. When citizens would buy a car, they would negotiate
with the car dealer to get a license plate that would not end in 7-8-9-0
(Friday, partytime).
2. First reformulation of the exercise: some minor changes:
a. License plate numbers are not negotiable for new cars.
b. Numbers for each day are shifted two spots (e.g. Monday is 3-4-5-6,
Tuesday 7-8-9-0, etc), and the rule changes every certain time (I?m not
sure, I think it changes every month or two). People with their
Friday-I-can-ride license plates are angry.
c. Since a significant number of cars in Bogot? are registered outside
of the city (e.g. taxes are given to suburbs instead of the city where they
are being used), cars registered outside of Bogot? are banned from 6:30-
9:00 am and 4:30- 7:00 pm (this results in a rapid increase of vehicles
registered in Bogot?).
3. Second reformulation of the exercise:
a. The banning is expanded to vehicles one hour more (e.g.
Bogot?-registered vehicles are banned 6:00-9:00 am, others from 5:30!!).
I guess few people have known this evolution. In my opinion, most ideas were
great and regulation of the activity has been properly made, EXCEPT in the
last change (banning from 6 am, 5:30 am). This hour shift was ridiculously
excessive and did not redistribute the car volumes to ?earlier than the peak
hour?, but all to ?later than peak hour? doubling the volumes and actually
shifting the peak hour to after 9am (all this is better explained through a
graph of daily volumes).
Also, another problem with the pico y placa was the perverse effect:
congestion -> pico y placa -> less congestion -> more cars were bought ->
congestion WITH pico y placa -> what to do? What I mean with this is that
the pico y placa was merely implemented since the beginning as an economic
instrument but never explained to the public properly. People still feel
that the idea behind traffic management is to move faster in any mode,
instead of restricting unsustainable modes? circulation and shifting people
towards other modes of transport. For example, if the pico y placa would
have been well explained, the expansion of the ban to 6:00 am would have
moved car users to TransMilenio or bicycles (which it didn?t).
I hope all this is clear, as this is a great idea that needs some
refinement. Best regards,
Carlos F. Pardo
Coordinador de Proyecto
GTZ- Proyecto de Transporte Urbano Sostenible para Am?rica Latina y el
Caribe- SUTP LAC
Cr. 14 # 94A-24 of. 409
Bogot? D.C., Colombia
Tel: +57 (1) 635 9048
Fax: +57 (1) 236 2309
Mobile: +57 (3) 15 296 0662
e-mail: carlos.pardo@sutp.org
P?gina: www.sutp.org
- Visite nuestra nueva secci?n de Latinoam?rica y el Caribe en
http://www.sutp.org/esp/espindex.htm
- ?nase al grupo de discusi?n de Transporte Sostenible en Latinoam?rica en
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sutp-lac/join
Web site novo em portugu?s
http://www.sutp.org/PT/PTindex.htm
_____
De: sustran-discuss-bounces+carlos.pardo=sutp.org@list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+carlos.pardo=sutp.org@list.jca.apc.org] En
nombre de Eric Britton
Enviado el: Martes, 22 de Noviembre de 2005 11:30 a.m.
Para: Sustran-discuss@jca.apc.org
Asunto: [sustran] Talking New Moblity
Dear Wonderful Sustran Friends,
In truth I fret about sending on to you all ? busy as you are ? too much
information and too many messages from the lively caf? of our New Mobility
Agenda ( http://www.newmobility.org). Of
course they tend to be less focused in geographic terms, with all that
implies, than the concerns of our Sustran Network, but it?s my position that
the two work rather well together. (In fact if you go to the Agenda, and
click the Talking New Moblity link on the left menu (toward the top), and
from thence to More Great Discussions, you will see that we have Sustran in
a position of honor right up top. In this way, we are trying to make sure
that the people who come and spend some time with us, also have access to
your good messages and information.)
That said, I would like to encourage those of you who have not already done
so to check into the Caf? and to consider signing in. You will note that
there is an email option whereby you do not have to get all the individual
messages, but rather the Daily Digest. This is quite handy and for me at
least saves time. I check it out daily when it comes in, just because it is
very often just so very interesting and useful.
There you have it. A few of you have already jumped on board, and if those
of you who have tried it have anything to share with the others about it,
well that would be most welcome. We do want to be useful.
* * *
By the way, we have just received a message in the caf? from a young Dutch
transportation organizer/activist Stefan Langeveld putting forth in a very
few words what I for one think is a brilliant bit of conceptual problem
solving. He builds on an on-going discussion of Congestion Charging, prop
and con, (you?ll see some of the latest on that after his note) and proposes
a solution which I find at the very least worth having your views on. He
honors in passing Bogot??s Pico y Placa (have a look at
http://ecoplan.org/carfreeday/bogota/pico.htm for some background on how
that works)?and then goes on to propose for our consideration. . . .
Well let me get out of the way here and turn the stage over to Stefan and
the ?Langeveld Option?.
-----Original Message-----
From: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Stefan Langeveld
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 3:12 PM
To: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [NewMobilityCafe] will congestion charge solve anything ?
At peak hours, city roads cannot accommodate bikes, cars and buses and
trams.
Either you try to squeeze out the (less well off) car drivers by CC, or you
look for an effective approach.
The governors of Bogota have solved the problem, in theory. Their Peak Time
Ban for Private Cars passed the referendum (51 % in favour , 34 against ,
oct '00).
Here's my interpretation :
Ban car use during the peak period (30 - 45 or 60 mins.)
Exceptions: emergencies, bus, EV, and maybe any car with 4 or more people.
Additional measure : traffic lights off.
Let's have an experiment with this before considering a congestion charge.
In comparison, the PTB is far easier to implement (thus cheaper) and far
more effective.
Stefan Langeveld
_____
From: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Simon Norton
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 9:56 PM
To: newmobilitycafe@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [NewMobilityCafe] will congestion charge solve anything ?
Of course congestion charging in Stockholm or any other city isn't a magic
wand
which will solve all problems. However the fact that something won't solve
all
problems isn't a case for not doing it, as is implied in the article by
James
Savage, and even more in Gabriel Roth's comment.
London's congestion charge is too limited both in space and time. Within the
last week I experienced near gridlock on a road in an area that is fairly
central, but outside not only the existing congestion charging zone but the
planned western extension. Then yesterday, a Sunday when the charge doesn't
operate, I experienced further holdups in Central London and nearly missed a
key
connection as a result, which would have delayed me a whole hour.
As far as pollution issues are concerned, buying clean cars does NOT reduce
pollution. What reduces pollution is scrapping dirty cars.
And all cars of whatever type contribute to the degradation of the urban
environment that discourages walking and cycling. This brings me to
Alexandra
Hamilton's question.
I think that a useful rule of thumb is that it is reasonable to expect
people to
walk up to 2 miles or to cycle up to 5 miles. But, as others have said, this
depends on conditions.
However, as far as I'm concerned, cycling in traffic-infested roads is akin
to
walking through a safari park. That's my personal view, but I suspect that
it is
shared by more people than cycling advocates think, and the latter will
never
succeed in promoting cycling until they realise that many people don't want
to
cycle in heavy traffic and it isn't reasonable to expect them to.
Walking is less of a problem because one's segregated from the traffic most
of
the time. For an attractive off-road route I'd be willing to do more than 2
miles. But even 2 miles is too long
(a) When one has to stop frequently at intersections where motor traffic has
overall priority, or
(b) When one's tired.
(a) applies in many parts of London, though not in my home city (Cambridge),
where I live about 2 miles from the railway station. Normally I walk there
from
my home -- partly because the bus link, though fairly frequent in the
daytime,
is too slow to offer much advantage. But, because of (b), I strongly resent
those times when I have to walk back late at night because the evening buses
are
so poor (last one is at 23.05, and before that they are only every half an
hour).
>From the station to my office is over 2 miles, and there isn't a direct bus.
During Monday to Friday until about 19.30 there's a bus which involves 13
minutes walk at one end and 4 at the other. At other times the journey is
sufficiently tedious that I avoid it. There used to be a nice route through
the
Botanic Gardens and college grounds, but nowadays it is blocked by locked
gates.
If we managed to secure significant (50% is the target I like to quote)
reductions in traffic levels through congestion charging, or by any other
means,
I am sure that many more people would start walking and cycling --
particularly
if some of the released roadspace was taken from motorists and reallocated
to
these people.
Incidentally, the guidelines for schoolchildren in the UK are that they are
entitled to transport when the nearest school which has a place for them is
over 2 miles away, for younger children, and over 3 miles away for older
ones (I
think that the critical age is 8).
Simon Norton
----
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Britton [mailto:eric.britton@ecoplan.org]
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2005 1:16 PM
Subject: Congestion charge will solve nothing
Published: 18th November 2005 -
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=2521&date=20051118
Congestion charge will solve nothing
Driving a car into central Stockholm is about to get expensive, and people
aren?t happy. Polls show that the majority of voters are against the trial
of congestion charging that starts in January, but there is surely a case
for encouraging people to use their cars less. Question is ? why single out
Stockholmers?
There are plenty of reasons for introducing road tolls ? reduced traffic on
the roads gives cleaner air, a more pleasant environment and makes it easier
to get around.
But on a political level, they are being introduced in Stockholm because the
Green Party made it a condition for supporting the Sweden?s Social Democrat
government after the 2002 election.
Many here have compared the introduction of congestion charging in Stockholm
to the road tolls introduced in London in 2001. Mayor Annika Billstr?m said
she wanted to learn from London?s experiences when starting to charge
motorists in the Swedish capital.
I moved to Stockholm from London just after congestion charges were
introduced there, and it?s worth pointing out two obvious but crucial
differences between the two cities.
In Stockholm, rush hour is still what it says on the box ? commuters face
delays for brief periods (and over short distances) in the morning and the
evening; in pre-toll central London, rush ?hour? seemed to last all day,
with lines of slow moving traffic continuing for mile after mile.
Another difference is that Stockholm already has relatively efficient public
transport; London?s transport system was creaking at the seams.
But there is no doubt that less traffic is good for the environment, both at
a local and at a global level. We may like using our cars ? indeed, many
people depend on them ? but we need to drastically reduce their impact on
the environment, not least by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide they
release into the atmosphere.
This is not going to be tackled by singling out motorists in big cities ? it
is something that needs to take in the bigger picture.
Indeed, in some ways Sweden is ahead of the field in the way it deals with
this. At a recent European conference on clean fuels held in Stockholm,
experts said Sweden was at the cutting edge ? 20,000
environmentally-friendly cars are expected to be sold here next year, more
per capita than any other European country.
But perhaps if Sweden is really going to make its contribution to reducing
the impact of cars on the environment, it should look at another idea being
floated in the UK at the moment: road pricing across the country.
This idea, to tax people depending on how much they drive, could really make
people think about alternatives such as car sharing, and lead to increased
pressure for improved public transport. Greenpeace has suggested that
drivers of ?clean cars? should get a reduction on the tax, while drivers of
gas guzzling 4x4s (and Green Party activists in their 1970s Volkswagens)
could pay extra.
So instead of slamming taxes on motorists in Stockholm, why not make
everyone pay for the real damage done to the environment?
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From cvegjl at nus.edu.sg Wed Nov 23 12:15:57 2005
From: cvegjl at nus.edu.sg (Guevarra, Joselito Lomada)
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2005 11:15:57 +0800
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?RE=3A_=5Bsustran=5D_Pico_y_placa_Bogot=E1-_the_evolution_a?=
=?iso-8859-1?Q?nd_further_comments?=
Message-ID: <3D3B87A787D2FF4AAA02394FEFA07AA3A508CD@MBOX03.stf.nus.edu.sg>
Dear Carlo and all,
A similar scheme is in place in the Philippines for quite a few years now. It's called the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Scheme (UVVRS) but is more popularly known as "color coding" which is a misnomer really. This being implemented by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), a government agency tasked with transportation & traffic management among other things. Cars are banned on major roads, arterials, highways and expressways according to the following rule:
* Cars with license plates ending in 1 - 2 are banned on Mondays; 3 - 4 on Tuesdays; 5-6 Wednesdays; 7-8 Thursdays; and 9-0 Fridays.
* The time of the ban is from 7am to 7pm. There is a window from 10am - 3pm when the banned vehicles can travel although some municipalities in Metro Manila have not implemented this exemption so you will still get caught in those areas.
Problems with the system include:
* It doesn't deal with the evening peak of 7-9pm. So you'll spend hours in evening traffic just to travel a few kilometers.
* Because cars are relatively cheap in the Philippines, people buy 2 or more cars with different ending number license plates to escape the ban.
* The capacity to implement such a scheme in such a wide area as Metro Manila is extremely lacking. As such, you'll see banned vehicles still traveling on the roads because there's nobody to apprehend them.
* Corruption. This is a big problem. With the low salary of policemen and the so called "traffic aides" they are easily bribed by those caught.
* People can actually buy "custom" plates from the Land Transportation Office itself! They can choose what to put in the license plates. So for example, I can put there my initials and my birthday - JLG 924. It does cost a bit of money though. But car dealers nowadays can offer likely buyers a choice of which ending number they can have on their license plates.
The scheme never really delivered on its promise in reducing congestion and car usage. Congestion in Metro Manila today is getting worse every single year. Why? In my view, it's because we have a very inefficient and pollutive public transportation system that people don't like to ride in. And people see cars more of a necessity to move around freely and conveniently. As a result, car ownership is increasing because those who have will buy more and those who can afford to buy only one will choose to keep their cars as long as possible. Just go out to the road and you can see lots of cars more than 10 years old! More importantly it's exacerbating an already terrible pollution problem in the Metro.
It was a promising system but the government just didn't quite get it right. And that's an understatement.
Cheers,
Joselito L. Guevarra
Research Engineer
Highway/Traffic Lab
National University of Singapore
_____
From: sustran-discuss-bounces+cvegjl=nus.edu.sg@list.jca.apc.org [mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+cvegjl=nus.edu.sg@list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf Of Carlos F. Pardo
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2005 12:59 AM
To: 'Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport'
Cc: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [sustran] Pico y placa Bogot?- the evolution and further comments
The pico y placa in Bogot? is a good idea as long as it is properly managed. The complete evolution of the idea and its consequences is the following:
General rule: Cars will be banned from peak hour traffic depending on the day of the week and the last number of their license plate.
1. First exercise: cars are banned from 7:00- 9:00 am and 5:00-7:00 pm from Monday through Friday, according to the following rule:
a. Monday: license plates that end in 1-2-3-4
b. Tuesday: license plates that end in 5-6-7-8
c. Wednesday: license plates that end in 9-0-1-2
d. Thursday: license plates that end in 3-4-5-6
e. Friday: license plates that end in 7-8-9-0
Consequences of the first exercise:
i. Car volumes are redistributed throughout the hours adjacent to peak hours, balancing all-day traffic (this is why they made it on peak hours only)
ii. Illegal vendors would sell black stickers to turn 3's into 8's, 1's into 4,s ,etc (those were quickly taken out of the street)
iii. When citizens would buy a car, they would negotiate with the car dealer to get a license plate that would not end in 7-8-9-0 (Friday, partytime).
2. First reformulation of the exercise: some minor changes:
a. License plate numbers are not negotiable for new cars.
b. Numbers for each day are shifted two spots (e.g. Monday is 3-4-5-6, Tuesday 7-8-9-0, etc), and the rule changes every certain time (I'm not sure, I think it changes every month or two). People with their Friday-I-can-ride license plates are angry.
c. Since a significant number of cars in Bogot? are registered outside of the city (e.g. taxes are given to suburbs instead of the city where they are being used), cars registered outside of Bogot? are banned from 6:30- 9:00 am and 4:30- 7:00 pm (this results in a rapid increase of vehicles registered in Bogot?).
3. Second reformulation of the exercise:
a. The banning is expanded to vehicles one hour more (e.g. Bogot?-registered vehicles are banned 6:00-9:00 am, others from 5:30!!).
I guess few people have known this evolution. In my opinion, most ideas were great and regulation of the activity has been properly made, EXCEPT in the last change (banning from 6 am, 5:30 am). This hour shift was ridiculously excessive and did not redistribute the car volumes to "earlier than the peak hour", but all to "later than peak hour" doubling the volumes and actually shifting the peak hour to after 9am (all this is better explained through a graph of daily volumes).
Also, another problem with the pico y placa was the perverse effect: congestion -> pico y placa -> less congestion -> more cars were bought -> congestion WITH pico y placa -> what to do? What I mean with this is that the pico y placa was merely implemented since the beginning as an economic instrument but never explained to the public properly. People still feel that the idea behind traffic management is to move faster in any mode, instead of restricting unsustainable modes' circulation and shifting people towards other modes of transport. For example, if the pico y placa would have been well explained, the expansion of the ban to 6:00 am would have moved car users to TransMilenio or bicycles (which it didn't).
I hope all this is clear, as this is a great idea that needs some refinement. Best regards,
Carlos F. Pardo
Coordinador de Proyecto
GTZ- Proyecto de Transporte Urbano Sostenible para Am?rica Latina y el Caribe- SUTP LAC
Cr. 14 # 94A-24 of. 409
Bogot? D.C., Colombia
Tel: +57 (1) 635 9048
Fax: +57 (1) 236 2309
Mobile: +57 (3) 15 296 0662
e-mail: carlos.pardo@sutp.org
P?gina: www.sutp.org
- Visite nuestra nueva secci?n de Latinoam?rica y el Caribe en http://www.sutp.org/esp/espindex.htm
- ?nase al grupo de discusi?n de Transporte Sostenible en Latinoam?rica en http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sutp-lac/join
Web site novo em portugu?s http://www.sutp.org/PT/PTindex.htm
_____
De: sustran-discuss-bounces+carlos.pardo=sutp.org@list.jca.apc.org [mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+carlos.pardo=sutp.org@list.jca.apc.org] En nombre de Eric Britton
Enviado el: Martes, 22 de Noviembre de 2005 11:30 a.m.
Para: Sustran-discuss@jca.apc.org
Asunto: [sustran] Talking New Moblity
Dear Wonderful Sustran Friends,
In truth I fret about sending on to you all - busy as you are - too much information and too many messages from the lively caf? of our New Mobility Agenda (http://www.newmobility.org ). Of course they tend to be less focused in geographic terms, with all that implies, than the concerns of our Sustran Network, but it's my position that the two work rather well together. (In fact if you go to the Agenda, and click the Talking New Moblity link on the left menu (toward the top), and from thence to More Great Discussions, you will see that we have Sustran in a position of honor right up top. In this way, we are trying to make sure that the people who come and spend some time with us, also have access to your good messages and information.)
That said, I would like to encourage those of you who have not already done so to check into the Caf? and to consider signing in. You will note that there is an email option whereby you do not have to get all the individual messages, but rather the Daily Digest. This is quite handy and for me at least saves time. I check it out daily when it comes in, just because it is very often just so very interesting and useful.
There you have it. A few of you have already jumped on board, and if those of you who have tried it have anything to share with the others about it, well that would be most welcome. We do want to be useful.
* * *
By the way, we have just received a message in the caf? from a young Dutch transportation organizer/activist Stefan Langeveld putting forth in a very few words what I for one think is a brilliant bit of conceptual problem solving. He builds on an on-going discussion of Congestion Charging, prop and con, (you'll see some of the latest on that after his note) and proposes a solution which I find at the very least worth having your views on. He honors in passing Bogot?'s Pico y Placa (have a look at http://ecoplan.org/carfreeday/bogota/pico.htm for some background on how that works)-and then goes on to propose for our consideration. . . .
Well let me get out of the way here and turn the stage over to Stefan and the "Langeveld Option".
-----Original Message-----
From: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com [mailto:NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Stefan Langeveld
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 3:12 PM
To: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [NewMobilityCafe] will congestion charge solve anything ?
At peak hours, city roads cannot accommodate bikes, cars and buses and trams.
Either you try to squeeze out the (less well off) car drivers by CC, or you look for an effective approach.
The governors of Bogota have solved the problem, in theory. Their Peak Time Ban for Private Cars passed the referendum (51 % in favour , 34 against , oct '00).
Here's my interpretation :
Ban car use during the peak period (30 - 45 or 60 mins.)
Exceptions: emergencies, bus, EV, and maybe any car with 4 or more people.
Additional measure : traffic lights off.
Let's have an experiment with this before considering a congestion charge. In comparison, the PTB is far easier to implement (thus cheaper) and far more effective.
Stefan Langeveld
_____
From: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com [mailto:NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Simon Norton
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 9:56 PM
To: newmobilitycafe@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [NewMobilityCafe] will congestion charge solve anything ?
Of course congestion charging in Stockholm or any other city isn't a magic wand
which will solve all problems. However the fact that something won't solve all
problems isn't a case for not doing it, as is implied in the article by James
Savage, and even more in Gabriel Roth's comment.
London's congestion charge is too limited both in space and time. Within the
last week I experienced near gridlock on a road in an area that is fairly
central, but outside not only the existing congestion charging zone but the
planned western extension. Then yesterday, a Sunday when the charge doesn't
operate, I experienced further holdups in Central London and nearly missed a key
connection as a result, which would have delayed me a whole hour.
As far as pollution issues are concerned, buying clean cars does NOT reduce
pollution. What reduces pollution is scrapping dirty cars.
And all cars of whatever type contribute to the degradation of the urban
environment that discourages walking and cycling. This brings me to Alexandra
Hamilton's question.
I think that a useful rule of thumb is that it is reasonable to expect people to
walk up to 2 miles or to cycle up to 5 miles. But, as others have said, this
depends on conditions.
However, as far as I'm concerned, cycling in traffic-infested roads is akin to
walking through a safari park. That's my personal view, but I suspect that it is
shared by more people than cycling advocates think, and the latter will never
succeed in promoting cycling until they realise that many people don't want to
cycle in heavy traffic and it isn't reasonable to expect them to.
Walking is less of a problem because one's segregated from the traffic most of
the time. For an attractive off-road route I'd be willing to do more than 2
miles. But even 2 miles is too long
(a) When one has to stop frequently at intersections where motor traffic has
overall priority, or
(b) When one's tired.
(a) applies in many parts of London, though not in my home city (Cambridge),
where I live about 2 miles from the railway station. Normally I walk there from
my home -- partly because the bus link, though fairly frequent in the daytime,
is too slow to offer much advantage. But, because of (b), I strongly resent
those times when I have to walk back late at night because the evening buses are
so poor (last one is at 23.05, and before that they are only every half an
hour).
>From the station to my office is over 2 miles, and there isn't a direct bus.
During Monday to Friday until about 19.30 there's a bus which involves 13
minutes walk at one end and 4 at the other. At other times the journey is
sufficiently tedious that I avoid it. There used to be a nice route through the
Botanic Gardens and college grounds, but nowadays it is blocked by locked gates.
If we managed to secure significant (50% is the target I like to quote)
reductions in traffic levels through congestion charging, or by any other means,
I am sure that many more people would start walking and cycling -- particularly
if some of the released roadspace was taken from motorists and reallocated to
these people.
Incidentally, the guidelines for schoolchildren in the UK are that they are
entitled to transport when the nearest school which has a place for them is
over 2 miles away, for younger children, and over 3 miles away for older ones (I
think that the critical age is 8).
Simon Norton
----
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Britton [mailto:eric.britton@ecoplan.org]
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2005 1:16 PM
Subject: Congestion charge will solve nothing
Published: 18th November 2005 - http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=2521&date=20051118
Congestion charge will solve nothing
Driving a car into central Stockholm is about to get expensive, and people aren't happy. Polls show that the majority of voters are against the trial of congestion charging that starts in January, but there is surely a case for encouraging people to use their cars less. Question is - why single out Stockholmers?
There are plenty of reasons for introducing road tolls - reduced traffic on the roads gives cleaner air, a more pleasant environment and makes it easier to get around.
But on a political level, they are being introduced in Stockholm because the Green Party made it a condition for supporting the Sweden's Social Democrat government after the 2002 election.
Many here have compared the introduction of congestion charging in Stockholm to the road tolls introduced in London in 2001. Mayor Annika Billstr?m said she wanted to learn from London's experiences when starting to charge motorists in the Swedish capital.
I moved to Stockholm from London just after congestion charges were introduced there, and it's worth pointing out two obvious but crucial differences between the two cities.
In Stockholm, rush hour is still what it says on the box - commuters face delays for brief periods (and over short distances) in the morning and the evening; in pre-toll central London, rush 'hour' seemed to last all day, with lines of slow moving traffic continuing for mile after mile.
Another difference is that Stockholm already has relatively efficient public transport; London's transport system was creaking at the seams.
But there is no doubt that less traffic is good for the environment, both at a local and at a global level. We may like using our cars - indeed, many people depend on them - but we need to drastically reduce their impact on the environment, not least by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide they release into the atmosphere.
This is not going to be tackled by singling out motorists in big cities - it is something that needs to take in the bigger picture.
Indeed, in some ways Sweden is ahead of the field in the way it deals with this. At a recent European conference on clean fuels held in Stockholm, experts said Sweden was at the cutting edge - 20,000 environmentally-friendly cars are expected to be sold here next year, more per capita than any other European country.
But perhaps if Sweden is really going to make its contribution to reducing the impact of cars on the environment, it should look at another idea being floated in the UK at the moment: road pricing across the country.
This idea, to tax people depending on how much they drive, could really make people think about alternatives such as car sharing, and lead to increased pressure for improved public transport. Greenpeace has suggested that drivers of 'clean cars' should get a reduction on the tax, while drivers of gas guzzling 4x4s (and Green Party activists in their 1970s Volkswagens) could pay extra.
So instead of slamming taxes on motorists in Stockholm, why not make everyone pay for the real damage done to the environment?
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From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Wed Nov 23 18:58:16 2005
From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton)
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2005 10:58:16 +0100
Subject: [sustran] Driving the argument home (BBC News reports that Carlessa
is still alive and well, and apparently has a sister witch!) )
Message-ID: <005701c5f014$7097dce0$6401a8c0@Home>
Editor's note: This is from our every-trick-in-the-book dept. You'll find
the original of this with illustrations at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4459056.stm. (And kind thanks to Robert
Moskowitz for the heads-up). For my part I am glad to see the Road Witch is
still alive and well in Oz. We took her there a few years ago in our
cooperative UNCFD project in Fremantle in 2002, where she was actually out
on the street and doing her wacky stuff with the help of a band of carousing
children during the city's . Her name is Carlessa and she is, as it happens
a very good witch indeed. She lives in the virtual sky at
www.carlessa.com, but at the moment she is moving
to a new house so you will have to wait until she settles down.)
Ted Deman's 'folk traffic-calming' Road-Witch has a life all of her own and
can be visited at
http://www.wormworks.com/roadwitch/index.html. (Moral of the story: You can
never have too many good witches.)
Driving the argument home (BBC News )
By Sean Coughlan, BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4459056.stm
A campaign is under way to lower speed limits to 20mph in urban areas, but
what's going to make drivers slow down? A bossy road sign, a hump in the
road or a three-piece suite parked in the road?
There's no reason that traffic calming should be boring or without a sense
of humour, says children's author and traffic campaigner, Ted Dewan.
And using his Oxford residential street as a test laboratory, Mr Dewan has
been working on more creative ways to reduce traffic speed.
"People are too used to being scolded by warning signs telling them about
lethal speed and driving. It's like 'tell me something new'. But they're not
used to having their wit engaged," he says.
So in a spirit that combines a sense of entertainment with a serious intent,
he has come up with the idea of "folk traffic calming".
This is where art installations meet road safety, a kind of sleeping
policeman that's been influenced by Damien Hirst.
'We live here'
These type of "DIY traffic-calming happenings" are described by their
creator as "roadwitches" and have included an 11-feet high rabbit, a big bed
(for a sleeping policeman), a Casualty-style fake crash scene for Halloween
and the setting up of a living room in the middle of the road.
"There's an element of fun and mischief, but underneath is the ambition to
encourage people to re-examine how roads are used," says Mr Dewan.
"With the living room, it was the most direct way of saying 'We live here.
This is our living space.'"
And he says that residents really enjoyed the strangeness of being able to
relax outside in their own street, rather than feel it was a place only
belonging to the cars that race up and down it.
Residents had forgotten what it was like to have a street without the usual
high-volume and low-courtesy of passing traffic.
Initially the street was legally closed, to allow the setting up of this
outdoor living room, including such middle-England touches as a standard
lamp.
It was then re-arranged to allow traffic to pass through, but Mr Dewan says
the reactions of motorists showed how motorists expect nothing to stand in
their way.
'Psychotic'
"A driver of a 4x4 didn't so much disapprove - he was too crazed and violent
for that. He seemed to be made psychotic by the idea that roads could exist
for anything other than him to drive on," he says.
This motorist deliberately drove into pieces of the living room furniture
and then called the council to demand that they shift whatever was left
lying in the road.
There were gender differences too, says Mr Dewan. Male drivers didn't seem
to like the idea of driving across the carpet. But female drivers were less
sympathetic and more aggressive, with a stronger "get out of my way
attitude".
It's this sense of entitlement that he says he wants to challenge - leaving
a 4x4 blocking half the street is called parking but a couple of chairs and
a magazine rack put in the same place is seen as a senseless provocation.
"My daughter isn't allowed to throw snowballs at school, because it's
considered too dangerous. But it's meant to be acceptable that she can walk
home only inches away from cars driving at lethal speeds. There is something
weird about this, a deep cultural bias."
'Selfish'
As the owner of two cars, Mr Dewan says he's far from being anti-motorist,
but he wants "mutual respect" between drivers and pedestrians and to stop
the "deluded, selfish" way that traffic has come to dominate urban spaces.
Mr Dewan has plans to extend the roadwitch concept, sending the message that
there are "creative, non-confrontational" ways that residents can control
what's going on in their own roads - and to assert that roads do not only
belong to drivers.
And Tuesday also marks a national day of campaigning by Transport 2000 to
support a lower speed limit for residential areas. The "20's Plenty"
campaign says a 20mph limit on residential streets would mean a two-thirds
reduction in the number of children killed or injured by cars.
Linda Beard, Transport 2000's streets and traffic campaigner, says that "at
the moment, we're failing to protect people, especially children, from
traffic".
Road mosaic
The use of such lower speed limits in some residential areas is supported by
the RAC Foundation, but executive director Edmund King says it has to be
part of a balance - with sufficient through-routes to prevent traffic
grinding to a halt.
"We support well-planned home zones, but mobility is also important and
there have to be streets for movement, where people can go about their
business," he says.
Mr King is also sympathetic to more imaginative approaches to traffic
calming, and he points to street designs constructed to show drivers that
they are entering a residential area.
This might be different coloured road surfaces, or a mosaic embedded in the
road showing the street name or a gateway giving the impression that you are
about to drive through a place where people are living.
"There needs to be something more creative than just a bump in the road," he
says
From:
Ted Dewan
To:
headwitch@roadwitch.org.uk
Subject:
Roadwitch on bbc online today
Dear neighbours and interested folks,
The Roadwitch Trial campaign is on the front page of BBC news online. I dont
know how long it will be there, but it's there today, 22 November, aka
National '20 is Plenty' campaign day.
Roadwitch website numbers are hitting the roof and it's only been online for
a few hours.
If you miss the piece, I'm archiving it and will post it on
roadwitch.org.uk if I can get permission from the
BBC.
See it on http://news.bbc.co.uk/ (it's bottom left) or if you want to go
directly to the article, it's on http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4459056.stm
Ted Dewan
ted.dewan@wormworks.com
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From diazoe at aolpremium.com Fri Nov 25 07:54:53 2005
From: diazoe at aolpremium.com (Oscar Edmundo Diaz)
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2005 17:54:53 -0500
Subject: [sustran] =?iso-8859-1?Q?_Re=3A_=5BNewMobilityCafe=5D_Pico_y_plac?=
=?iso-8859-1?Q?a_Bogot=E1-_the_evolution_and_further_comments?=
In-Reply-To: <1132739577_29519@pasteur>
Message-ID: <0IQH000J7EBR0A04@vms042.mailsrvcs.net>
Dear All,
Some clarifications about the system below in CAPS
Best regards,
Oscar Edmundo Diaz
Executive Director
Por el Pa?s que Queremos Foundation
Avenida 13 N? 100-12, Oficina 1101
Bogot?, DC, COLOMBIA
Tel: +(57-1) 635-1571/49/38 - Fax: +(57-1) 635-1649 - US Mobile: (1-917)
892-2056
URL: www.porelpaisquequeremos.com -
Alternate e-mail: diazoe@itdp.org
_____
From: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com [mailto:NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Carlos F. Pardo
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 11:59 AM
To: 'Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport'
Cc: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [NewMobilityCafe] Pico y placa Bogot?- the evolution and further
comments
The pico y placa in Bogot? is a good idea as long as it is properly managed. The
complete evolution of the idea and its consequences is the following:
General rule: Cars will be banned from peak hour traffic depending on the day of
the week and the last number of their license plate.
1. First exercise: cars are banned from 7:00- 9:00 am and 5:00-7:00 pm from
Monday through Friday, according to the following rule:
a. Monday: license plates that end in 1-2-3-4
b. Tuesday: license plates that end in 5-6-7-8
c. Wednesday: license plates that end in 9-0-1-2
d. Thursday: license plates that end in 3-4-5-6
e. Friday: license plates that end in 7-8-9-0
Consequences of the first exercise:
i. Car volumes are redistributed throughout the hours
adjacent to peak hours, balancing all-day traffic (this is why they made it on
peak hours only)
[OED] ACTUALLY THE MAIN REASON TO DO IT ONLY AT PEAK HOURS, WAS TO AVOID PEOPLE
BUY A SECOND CAR. WHEN CAR RESTRICTIONS ARE FOR THE ENTIRE DAY PEOPLE BUY A
SECOND CAR, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED IN MEXICO, SAO PAULO, SANTIAGO, ETC. BEFORE WE
STRUCTURED THE PICO Y PLACA WE DID RESEARCH OF OTHER EXPERIENCES, THAT HELPED US
COME WITH THIS SCHEME
ii. Illegal vendors would sell black stickers to turn 3?s into
8?s, 1?s into 4,s ,etc (those were quickly taken out of the street)
[OED] I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THIS, AT THE BEGINNING AND THINKING THAT THESE LIKE
THIS COULD HAPPEN, THE SCHEME WAS PROTECTED WITH A STICKER THAT HAS TO BE PLACED
IN THE FRONT
iii. When citizens would buy a car, they would negotiate with
the car dealer to get a license plate that would not end in 7-8-9-0 (Friday,
partytime).
2. First reformulation of the exercise: some minor changes:
a. License plate numbers are not negotiable for new cars.
b. Numbers for each day are shifted two spots (e.g. Monday is 3-4-5-6,
Tuesday 7-8-9-0, etc), and the rule changes every certain time (I?m not sure, I
think it changes every month or two). People with their Friday-I-can-ride
license plates are angry.
[OED] THE SHIFT IS MADE ANNUALLY AND EVEN THOUGH PEOPLE THAT GET IT ON FRIDAY
COMPLAINS A LITTLE, AT THE THIS SHIFT MAKES THE SCHEME MORE EQUAL
c. Since a significant number of cars in Bogot? are registered outside of
the city (e.g. taxes are given to suburbs instead of the city where they are
being used), cars registered outside of Bogot? are banned from 6:30- 9:00 am and
4:30- 7:00 pm (this results in a rapid increase of vehicles registered in
Bogot?).
3. Second reformulation of the exercise:
a. The banning is expanded to vehicles one hour more (e.g.
Bogot?-registered vehicles are banned 6:00-9:00 am, others from 5:30!!).
I guess few people have known this evolution. In my opinion, most ideas were
great and regulation of the activity has been properly made, EXCEPT in the last
change (banning from 6 am, 5:30 am). This hour shift was ridiculously excessive
and did not redistribute the car volumes to ?earlier than the peak hour?, but
all to ?later than peak hour? doubling the volumes and actually shifting the
peak hour to after 9am (all this is better explained through a graph of daily
volumes).
Also, another problem with the pico y placa was the perverse effect: congestion
-> pico y placa -> less congestion -> more cars were bought -> congestion WITH
pico y placa -> what to do? What I mean with this is that the pico y placa was
merely implemented since the beginning as an economic instrument but never
explained to the public properly. People still feel that the idea behind traffic
management is to move faster in any mode, instead of restricting unsustainable
modes? circulation and shifting people towards other modes of transport. For
example, if the pico y placa would have been well explained, the expansion of
the ban to 6:00 am would have moved car users to TransMilenio or bicycles (which
it didn?t).
[OED] I ABSOLUTELY DISAGREE WITH THESE TWO COMMENTS:
- OUR GOAL IS THAT BY THE YEAR 2015 ALL CARS ARE BANNED DURING PEAK HOURS, THREE
HOURS IN THE MORNING AND THREE HOURS IN THE AFTERNOON. WE EVEN PASSED A
REFERENDUM ASKING PEOPLE IF THEY WANTED ALL CARS BANNED BY THE YEAR 2015, EVEN
THOUGH THE MAJORITY VOTED IN FAVOR, THERE IS STILL A LEGAL DISCUSSION IF IT GOT
ENOUGH VOTES TO BE VALID.
- THERE IS NO PROOF THAT PEOPLE HAVE BOUGHT A SECOND CAR TO AVOID PICO Y PLACA,
WHAT HA HAPPENED IS THAT TRANSMILENIO HAS GOTTEN MORE PASSENGERS, TODAY 20% OF
TRANSMILENIO USERS OWN A CAR. 10% OF THEM PERMANENTLY LEAVE THE CAR AT HOME AND
THE OTHER 10% DO IT WHEN THEY HAVE PICO Y PLACA. MANY PEOPLE ALSO BIKE WHEN
THEY HAVE PICO Y PLACA
- YOU CAN TELL THE SUCCESS OF PICO Y PLACA WHEN YOU TRY TO DRIVE ON A SATURDAY,
TRAFFIC IS REALLY BAD, EXTREMELY CONGESTED, AND YOU CAN TELL THAT IF PICO Y
PLACA HAD NOT BEEN IMPLEMENTED THAT WOULD BE THE TRAFFIC EVERYDAY.
- TRANSMILENIO OR THE BIKE PATHS BY THEMSELVES ARE NOT USEFUL, YOU NEED CAR
RESTRICTION MEASURES TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO BIKE OR TAKE PUCLIC TRANSPORT, BUT
ALSO TRAFFIC JAMS ARE USEFUL TO DO ACHIEVE THESE GOALS. WHEN MOTORISTS REALIZE
THAT IT IS FASTER TO TAKE TRANSMILENIO RATHER THAN BEING IN A TRAFFIC JAM, THEY
SHIFT. MANY PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY REALIZED THAT AND DURING THE DAY WHEN THEY HAVE
TO GO FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER THEY TAKE TRANSMILENIO BECAUSE IT?S FASTER THAN
DRIVING.
BEST,
OED
I hope all this is clear, as this is a great idea that needs some refinement.
Best regards,
Carlos F. Pardo
Coordinador de Proyecto
GTZ- Proyecto de Transporte Urbano Sostenible para Am?rica Latina y el Caribe-
SUTP LAC
Cr. 14 # 94A-24 of. 409
Bogot? D.C., Colombia
Tel: +57 (1) 635 9048
Fax: +57 (1) 236 2309
Mobile: +57 (3) 15 296 0662
e-mail: carlos.pardo@sutp.org
P?gina: www.sutp.org
- Visite nuestra nueva secci?n de Latinoam?rica y el Caribe en
http://www.sutp.org/esp/espindex.htm
- ?nase al grupo de discusi?n de Transporte Sostenible en Latinoam?rica en
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sutp-lac/join
Web site novo em portugu?s
http://www.sutp.org/PT/PTindex.htm
_____
De: sustran-discuss-bounces+carlos.pardo=sutp.org@list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+carlos.pardo=sutp.org@list.jca.apc.org] En
nombre de Eric Britton
Enviado el: Martes, 22 de Noviembre de 2005 11:30 a.m.
Para: Sustran-discuss@jca.apc.org
Asunto: [sustran] Talking New Moblity
Dear Wonderful Sustran Friends,
In truth I fret about sending on to you all ? busy as you are ? too much
information and too many messages from the lively caf? of our New Mobility
Agenda ( http://www.newmobility.org). Of course
they tend to be less focused in geographic terms, with all that implies, than
the concerns of our Sustran Network, but it?s my position that the two work
rather well together. (In fact if you go to the Agenda, and click the Talking
New Moblity link on the left menu (toward the top), and from thence to More
Great Discussions, you will see that we have Sustran in a position of honor
right up top. In this way, we are trying to make sure that the people who come
and spend some time with us, also have access to your good messages and
information.)
That said, I would like to encourage those of you who have not already done so
to check into the Caf? and to consider signing in. You will note that there is
an email option whereby you do not have to get all the individual messages, but
rather the Daily Digest. This is quite handy and for me at least saves time. I
check it out daily when it comes in, just because it is very often just so very
interesting and useful.
There you have it. A few of you have already jumped on board, and if those of
you who have tried it have anything to share with the others about it, well that
would be most welcome. We do want to be useful.
* * *
By the way, we have just received a message in the caf? from a young Dutch
transportation organizer/activist Stefan Langeveld putting forth in a very few
words what I for one think is a brilliant bit of conceptual problem solving. He
builds on an on-going discussion of Congestion Charging, prop and con, (you?ll
see some of the latest on that after his note) and proposes a solution which I
find at the very least worth having your views on. He honors in passing
Bogot??s Pico y Placa (have a look at
http://ecoplan.org/carfreeday/bogota/pico.htm for some background on how that
works)?and then goes on to propose for our consideration. . . .
Well let me get out of the way here and turn the stage over to Stefan and the
?Langeveld Option?.
-----Original Message-----
From: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com [mailto:NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Stefan Langeveld
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 3:12 PM
To: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [NewMobilityCafe] will congestion charge solve anything ?
At peak hours, city roads cannot accommodate bikes, cars and buses and trams.
Either you try to squeeze out the (less well off) car drivers by CC, or you look
for an effective approach.
The governors of Bogota have solved the problem, in theory. Their Peak Time Ban
for Private Cars passed the referendum (51 % in favour , 34 against , oct '00).
Here's my interpretation :
Ban car use during the peak period (30 - 45 or 60 mins.)
Exceptions: emergencies, bus, EV, and maybe any car with 4 or more people.
Additional measure : traffic lights off.
Let's have an experiment with this before considering a congestion charge. In
comparison, the PTB is far easier to implement (thus cheaper) and far more
effective.
Stefan Langeveld
_____
From: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com [mailto:NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Simon Norton
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 9:56 PM
To: newmobilitycafe@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [NewMobilityCafe] will congestion charge solve anything ?
Of course congestion charging in Stockholm or any other city isn't a magic wand
which will solve all problems. However the fact that something won't solve all
problems isn't a case for not doing it, as is implied in the article by James
Savage, and even more in Gabriel Roth's comment.
London's congestion charge is too limited both in space and time. Within the
last week I experienced near gridlock on a road in an area that is fairly
central, but outside not only the existing congestion charging zone but the
planned western extension. Then yesterday, a Sunday when the charge doesn't
operate, I experienced further holdups in Central London and nearly missed a key
connection as a result, which would have delayed me a whole hour.
As far as pollution issues are concerned, buying clean cars does NOT reduce
pollution. What reduces pollution is scrapping dirty cars.
And all cars of whatever type contribute to the degradation of the urban
environment that discourages walking and cycling. This brings me to Alexandra
Hamilton's question.
I think that a useful rule of thumb is that it is reasonable to expect people to
walk up to 2 miles or to cycle up to 5 miles. But, as others have said, this
depends on conditions.
However, as far as I'm concerned, cycling in traffic-infested roads is akin to
walking through a safari park. That's my personal view, but I suspect that it is
shared by more people than cycling advocates think, and the latter will never
succeed in promoting cycling until they realise that many people don't want to
cycle in heavy traffic and it isn't reasonable to expect them to.
Walking is less of a problem because one's segregated from the traffic most of
the time. For an attractive off-road route I'd be willing to do more than 2
miles. But even 2 miles is too long
(a) When one has to stop frequently at intersections where motor traffic has
overall priority, or
(b) When one's tired.
(a) applies in many parts of London, though not in my home city (Cambridge),
where I live about 2 miles from the railway station. Normally I walk there from
my home -- partly because the bus link, though fairly frequent in the daytime,
is too slow to offer much advantage. But, because of (b), I strongly resent
those times when I have to walk back late at night because the evening buses are
so poor (last one is at 23.05, and before that they are only every half an
hour).
>From the station to my office is over 2 miles, and there isn't a direct bus.
During Monday to Friday until about 19.30 there's a bus which involves 13
minutes walk at one end and 4 at the other. At other times the journey is
sufficiently tedious that I avoid it. There used to be a nice route through the
Botanic Gardens and college grounds, but nowadays it is blocked by locked gates.
If we managed to secure significant (50% is the target I like to quote)
reductions in traffic levels through congestion charging, or by any other means,
I am sure that many more people would start walking and cycling -- particularly
if some of the released roadspace was taken from motorists and reallocated to
these people.
Incidentally, the guidelines for schoolchildren in the UK are that they are
entitled to transport when the nearest school which has a place for them is
over 2 miles away, for younger children, and over 3 miles away for older ones (I
think that the critical age is 8).
Simon Norton
----
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Britton [mailto:eric.britton@ecoplan.org]
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2005 1:16 PM
Subject: Congestion charge will solve nothing
Published: 18th November 2005 -
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=2521&date=20051118
Congestion charge will solve nothing
Driving a car into central Stockholm is about to get expensive, and people
aren?t happy. Polls show that the majority of voters are against the trial of
congestion charging that starts in January, but there is surely a case for
encouraging people to use their cars less. Question is ? why single out
Stockholmers?
There are plenty of reasons for introducing road tolls ? reduced traffic on the
roads gives cleaner air, a more pleasant environment and makes it easier to get
around.
But on a political level, they are being introduced in Stockholm because the
Green Party made it a condition for supporting the Sweden?s Social Democrat
government after the 2002 election.
Many here have compared the introduction of congestion charging in Stockholm to
the road tolls introduced in London in 2001. Mayor Annika Billstr?m said she
wanted to learn from London?s experiences when starting to charge motorists in
the Swedish capital.
I moved to Stockholm from London just after congestion charges were introduced
there, and it?s worth pointing out two obvious but crucial differences between
the two cities.
In Stockholm, rush hour is still what it says on the box ? commuters face delays
for brief periods (and over short distances) in the morning and the evening; in
pre-toll central London, rush ?hour? seemed to last all day, with lines of slow
moving traffic continuing for mile after mile.
Another difference is that Stockholm already has relatively efficient public
transport; London?s transport system was creaking at the seams.
But there is no doubt that less traffic is good for the environment, both at a
local and at a global level. We may like using our cars ? indeed, many people
depend on them ? but we need to drastically reduce their impact on the
environment, not least by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide they release
into the atmosphere.
This is not going to be tackled by singling out motorists in big cities ? it is
something that needs to take in the bigger picture.
Indeed, in some ways Sweden is ahead of the field in the way it deals with this.
At a recent European conference on clean fuels held in Stockholm, experts said
Sweden was at the cutting edge ? 20,000 environmentally-friendly cars are
expected to be sold here next year, more per capita than any other European
country.
But perhaps if Sweden is really going to make its contribution to reducing the
impact of cars on the environment, it should look at another idea being floated
in the UK at the moment: road pricing across the country.
This idea, to tax people depending on how much they drive, could really make
people think about alternatives such as car sharing, and lead to increased
pressure for improved public transport. Greenpeace has suggested that drivers of
?clean cars? should get a reduction on the tax, while drivers of gas guzzling
4x4s (and Green Party activists in their 1970s Volkswagens) could pay extra.
So instead of slamming taxes on motorists in Stockholm, why not make everyone
pay for the real damage done to the environment?
The New Mobility Agenda is permanently at http://NewMobility.org
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From mrco at adb.org Fri Nov 25 16:02:27 2005
From: mrco at adb.org (mrco at adb.org)
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2005 15:02:27 +0800
Subject: [sustran] Better Air Quality (BAQ) 2006 will be held in Yogyakarta,
Indonesia (13-15 September 2006)
Message-ID:
Dear all,
A Memorandum of Agreement was signed this morning by Rachmat Witoelar,
Honorable State Minister of the Ministry of Environment; Sultan Sri Sultan
Hamengkubuwono X, Governor of the Yogyakarta Special Region represented by
Paku Alam IX, Vice Governor of Yogyakarta; Herry Zudianto, Mayor of
Yogyakarta City; and Cornie Huizenga, Head of the Secretariat of the Clean
Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) to formally launch their joint
cooperation in organizing the Better Air Quality (BAQ) 2006 workshop from
13-15 September 2006.
Read the official press release:
http://www.cleanairnet.org/baq2006/1757/propertyvalue-26756.html
BAQ 2006 is is expected to gather over 800 air quality policymakers,
expert and scientists worldwide to explore new ways to prevent and reduce
air pollution in their respective cities and countries.
Details of BAQ 2006 are available on our official website, which was also
launched today: http://www.baq2006.org
BAQ 2006 Theme
--------------
The theme of BAQ 2006 is called a "Celebration of Efforts" to highlight
the success stories that Asian countries, cities and communities have
achieved over the last years in addressing air pollution while at the same
time highlighting the efforts that are still ahead in improving air
quality in Asia.
The focus of the workshop will be on urban air quality management in Asian
cities and will address air pollution from mobile, stationary and area
sources. Attention will be given to long range transport of air pollution
for its impact on urban air quality. BAQ 2006 will continue the
discussions from BAQ 2004 on the linkages between urban air quality
management and climate change mitigation and the manner in which these two
processes can become mutually reinforcing.
Main Objectives
---------------
BAQ 2006 will bring together air quality policymakers, experts, and
scientists from Asia and the rest of the world to explore new ways to
prevent and reduce air pollution in their respective cities and countries.
The workshop will focus on urban air pollution from mobile, stationary and
area sources but will also discuss how transboundary air pollution affects
air quality in the cities of Asia. BAQ 2006 will assess how climate change
mitigation measures and urban air quality can be combined to increase the
effectiveness of both approaches.
Best Practices Exhibit
----------------------
BAQ 2006 provides an ideal forum for participants and organizations to
share and showcase air quality management success stories from their
respective cities and countries. Through exhibits, poster displays and
one-on-one interaction, the "Best Practices in Air Quality Management
Exhibition" will help cities and communities highlight efforts to control
or prevent urban air pollution. CAI-Asia local networks and members will
be invited to mount a small exhibit to share their work with the other BAQ
2006 participants.
See http://www.cleanairnet.org/baq2006/1757/article-70000.html
Call for Abstracts
------------------
The program of BAQ 2006 is still in the development stage, but the BAQ
organizing committee welcomes you to provide your inputs. We are now
accepting abstracts for inclusion in either the plenary, sub-plenary,
sub-workshop, or best practices exhibit. Abstracts can be either technical
or policy related. Deadline for submission is on 15 February 2006.
For more information, go to
http://www.cleanairnet.org/baq2006/1757/propertyvalue-26754.html
"Art for Air" (A4A)
-------------------
One picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes. And so for the
first time in the history of the Better Air Quality workshops, the BAQ
organizing committee will be holding an "Art for Air" (A4A) regional art
competition. The contest is open to both children and adults, with cash
prizes for both categories. The theme of the "Art for Air" competition
should be on celebrating the ways we can clean up the air in our cities.
Registration is free, and contestants can submit as many entries as they
want. Deadline is also on 15 February 2006.
For details, go to
http://www.cleanairnet.org/baq2006/1757/article-69952.html
1st Governmental Meeting
------------------------
Planning is also ongoing for the organization of the first Asian
Governmental Meeting on Urban Air Quality in Asia. This governmental
meeting, which is scheduled to be conducted in conjunction with BAQ 2006,
will be co-hosted by the Ministry of Environment, the United Nations
Environment Program, and CAI-Asia. The objective of the meeting is to
support the efforts of Asian governments to arrive at more optimal air
pollution abatement strategies.
Go to http://www.cleanairnet.org/baq2006/1757/propertyvalue-26755.html for
more information.
Next steps for interested parties
---------------------------------
To receive updates and important announcements about BAQ 2006, please
visit our website (http://www.baq2006.org) and submit your name and email
address using the subscription form at the lower left corner of the
webpage ("Stay informed about BAQ 2006").
For specific inquiries about sponsorship packages and opportunities to
join as a supporting organization, contact Cornie Huizenga,
chuizenga@adb.org, and Glynda Bathan, gbathan@adb.org.
We hope to see you in Yogyakarta. Do join us in our commitment for better
air in Asia!
Warm Regards,
BAQ 2006 Organizing Committee
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From carlos.pardo at sutp.org Fri Nov 25 22:25:59 2005
From: carlos.pardo at sutp.org (Carlos F. Pardo)
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2005 08:25:59 -0500
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?RE:_=5Bsustran=5D__Re:_=5BNewMobilityCafe=5D_Pico_y_placa_?=
=?iso-8859-1?Q?Bogot=E1-_the_evolution_and_further_comments?=
In-Reply-To: <0IQH000J7EBR0A04@vms042.mailsrvcs.net>
Message-ID: <20051125132620.A735B2D958@mx-list.jca.ne.jp>
The only perfect city in the world was Atlantis, and they still haven?t
found it
I guess I mean that Bogot? is a best practice but not a golden
template.
(for further info, see Plato ? Timeaus and Critias)
Carlos F. Pardo
_____
De: sustran-discuss-bounces+carlos.pardo=sutp.org@list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+carlos.pardo=sutp.org@list.jca.apc.org] En
nombre de Oscar Edmundo Diaz
Enviado el: Jueves, 24 de Noviembre de 2005 05:55 p.m.
Para: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com; 'Asia and the Pacific sustainable
transport'
Asunto: [sustran] Re: [NewMobilityCafe] Pico y placa Bogot?- the evolution
and further comments
Dear All,
Some clarifications about the system below in CAPS
Best regards,
Oscar Edmundo Diaz
Executive Director
Por el Pa?s que Queremos Foundation
Avenida 13 N? 100-12, Oficina 1101
Bogot?, DC, COLOMBIA
Tel: +(57-1) 635-1571/49/38 - Fax: +(57-1) 635-1649 - US Mobile: (1-917)
892-2056
URL: www.porelpaisquequeremos.com -
Alternate e-mail: diazoe@itdp.org
_____
From: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Carlos F. Pardo
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 11:59 AM
To: 'Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport'
Cc: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [NewMobilityCafe] Pico y placa Bogot?- the evolution and further
comments
The pico y placa in Bogot? is a good idea as long as it is properly managed.
The complete evolution of the idea and its consequences is the following:
General rule: Cars will be banned from peak hour traffic depending on the
day of the week and the last number of their license plate.
1. First exercise: cars are banned from 7:00- 9:00 am and 5:00-7:00 pm
from Monday through Friday, according to the following rule:
a. Monday: license plates that end in 1-2-3-4
b. Tuesday: license plates that end in 5-6-7-8
c. Wednesday: license plates that end in 9-0-1-2
d. Thursday: license plates that end in 3-4-5-6
e. Friday: license plates that end in 7-8-9-0
Consequences of the first exercise:
i. Car volumes are redistributed throughout the hours
adjacent to peak hours, balancing all-day traffic (this is why they made it
on peak hours only)
[OED] ACTUALLY THE MAIN REASON TO DO IT ONLY AT PEAK HOURS, WAS TO AVOID
PEOPLE BUY A SECOND CAR. WHEN CAR RESTRICTIONS ARE FOR THE ENTIRE DAY
PEOPLE BUY A SECOND CAR, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED IN MEXICO, SAO PAULO,
SANTIAGO, ETC. BEFORE WE STRUCTURED THE PICO Y PLACA WE DID RESEARCH OF
OTHER EXPERIENCES, THAT HELPED US COME WITH THIS SCHEME
ii. Illegal vendors would sell black stickers to turn 3?s
into 8?s, 1?s into 4,s ,etc (those were quickly taken out of the street)
[OED] I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THIS, AT THE BEGINNING AND THINKING THAT THESE
LIKE THIS COULD HAPPEN, THE SCHEME WAS PROTECTED WITH A STICKER THAT HAS TO
BE PLACED IN THE FRONT
iii. When citizens would buy a car, they would negotiate
with the car dealer to get a license plate that would not end in 7-8-9-0
(Friday, partytime).
2. First reformulation of the exercise: some minor changes:
a. License plate numbers are not negotiable for new cars.
b. Numbers for each day are shifted two spots (e.g. Monday is 3-4-5-6,
Tuesday 7-8-9-0, etc), and the rule changes every certain time (I?m not
sure, I think it changes every month or two). People with their
Friday-I-can-ride license plates are angry.
[OED] THE SHIFT IS MADE ANNUALLY AND EVEN THOUGH PEOPLE THAT GET IT ON
FRIDAY COMPLAINS A LITTLE, AT THE THIS SHIFT MAKES THE SCHEME MORE EQUAL
c. Since a significant number of cars in Bogot? are registered outside
of the city (e.g. taxes are given to suburbs instead of the city where they
are being used), cars registered outside of Bogot? are banned from 6:30-
9:00 am and 4:30- 7:00 pm (this results in a rapid increase of vehicles
registered in Bogot?).
3. Second reformulation of the exercise:
a. The banning is expanded to vehicles one hour more (e.g.
Bogot?-registered vehicles are banned 6:00-9:00 am, others from 5:30!!).
I guess few people have known this evolution. In my opinion, most ideas were
great and regulation of the activity has been properly made, EXCEPT in the
last change (banning from 6 am, 5:30 am). This hour shift was ridiculously
excessive and did not redistribute the car volumes to ?earlier than the peak
hour?, but all to ?later than peak hour? doubling the volumes and actually
shifting the peak hour to after 9am (all this is better explained through a
graph of daily volumes).
Also, another problem with the pico y placa was the perverse effect:
congestion -> pico y placa -> less congestion -> more cars were bought ->
congestion WITH pico y placa -> what to do? What I mean with this is that
the pico y placa was merely implemented since the beginning as an economic
instrument but never explained to the public properly. People still feel
that the idea behind traffic management is to move faster in any mode,
instead of restricting unsustainable modes? circulation and shifting people
towards other modes of transport. For example, if the pico y placa would
have been well explained, the expansion of the ban to 6:00 am would have
moved car users to TransMilenio or bicycles (which it didn?t).
[OED] I ABSOLUTELY DISAGREE WITH THESE TWO COMMENTS:
- OUR GOAL IS THAT BY THE YEAR 2015 ALL CARS ARE BANNED DURING PEAK HOURS,
THREE HOURS IN THE MORNING AND THREE HOURS IN THE AFTERNOON. WE EVEN PASSED
A REFERENDUM ASKING PEOPLE IF THEY WANTED ALL CARS BANNED BY THE YEAR 2015,
EVEN THOUGH THE MAJORITY VOTED IN FAVOR, THERE IS STILL A LEGAL DISCUSSION
IF IT GOT ENOUGH VOTES TO BE VALID.
- THERE IS NO PROOF THAT PEOPLE HAVE BOUGHT A SECOND CAR TO AVOID PICO Y
PLACA, WHAT HA HAPPENED IS THAT TRANSMILENIO HAS GOTTEN MORE PASSENGERS,
TODAY 20% OF TRANSMILENIO USERS OWN A CAR. 10% OF THEM PERMANENTLY LEAVE THE
CAR AT HOME AND THE OTHER 10% DO IT WHEN THEY HAVE PICO Y PLACA. MANY
PEOPLE ALSO BIKE WHEN THEY HAVE PICO Y PLACA
- YOU CAN TELL THE SUCCESS OF PICO Y PLACA WHEN YOU TRY TO DRIVE ON A
SATURDAY, TRAFFIC IS REALLY BAD, EXTREMELY CONGESTED, AND YOU CAN TELL THAT
IF PICO Y PLACA HAD NOT BEEN IMPLEMENTED THAT WOULD BE THE TRAFFIC EVERYDAY.
- TRANSMILENIO OR THE BIKE PATHS BY THEMSELVES ARE NOT USEFUL, YOU NEED CAR
RESTRICTION MEASURES TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO BIKE OR TAKE PUCLIC TRANSPORT,
BUT ALSO TRAFFIC JAMS ARE USEFUL TO DO ACHIEVE THESE GOALS. WHEN MOTORISTS
REALIZE THAT IT IS FASTER TO TAKE TRANSMILENIO RATHER THAN BEING IN A
TRAFFIC JAM, THEY SHIFT. MANY PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY REALIZED THAT AND DURING
THE DAY WHEN THEY HAVE TO GO FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER THEY TAKE
TRANSMILENIO BECAUSE IT?S FASTER THAN DRIVING.
BEST,
OED
I hope all this is clear, as this is a great idea that needs some
refinement. Best regards,
Carlos F. Pardo
Coordinador de Proyecto
GTZ- Proyecto de Transporte Urbano Sostenible para Am?rica Latina y el
Caribe- SUTP LAC
Cr. 14 # 94A-24 of. 409
Bogot? D.C., Colombia
Tel: +57 (1) 635 9048
Fax: +57 (1) 236 2309
Mobile: +57 (3) 15 296 0662
e-mail: carlos.pardo@sutp.org
P?gina: www.sutp.org
- Visite nuestra nueva secci?n de Latinoam?rica y el Caribe en
http://www.sutp.org/esp/espindex.htm
- ?nase al grupo de discusi?n de Transporte Sostenible en Latinoam?rica en
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sutp-lac/join
Web site novo em portugu?s
http://www.sutp.org/PT/PTindex.htm
_____
De: sustran-discuss-bounces+carlos.pardo=sutp.org@list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+carlos.pardo=sutp.org@list.jca.apc.org] En
nombre de Eric Britton
Enviado el: Martes, 22 de Noviembre de 2005 11:30 a.m.
Para: Sustran-discuss@jca.apc.org
Asunto: [sustran] Talking New Moblity
Dear Wonderful Sustran Friends,
In truth I fret about sending on to you all ? busy as you are ? too much
information and too many messages from the lively caf? of our New Mobility
Agenda ( http://www.newmobility.org). Of
course they tend to be less focused in geographic terms, with all that
implies, than the concerns of our Sustran Network, but it?s my position that
the two work rather well together. (In fact if you go to the Agenda, and
click the Talking New Moblity link on the left menu (toward the top), and
from thence to More Great Discussions, you will see that we have Sustran in
a position of honor right up top. In this way, we are trying to make sure
that the people who come and spend some time with us, also have access to
your good messages and information.)
That said, I would like to encourage those of you who have not already done
so to check into the Caf? and to consider signing in. You will note that
there is an email option whereby you do not have to get all the individual
messages, but rather the Daily Digest. This is quite handy and for me at
least saves time. I check it out daily when it comes in, just because it is
very often just so very interesting and useful.
There you have it. A few of you have already jumped on board, and if those
of you who have tried it have anything to share with the others about it,
well that would be most welcome. We do want to be useful.
* * *
By the way, we have just received a message in the caf? from a young Dutch
transportation organizer/activist Stefan Langeveld putting forth in a very
few words what I for one think is a brilliant bit of conceptual problem
solving. He builds on an on-going discussion of Congestion Charging, prop
and con, (you?ll see some of the latest on that after his note) and proposes
a solution which I find at the very least worth having your views on. He
honors in passing Bogot??s Pico y Placa (have a look at
http://ecoplan.org/carfreeday/bogota/pico.htm for some background on how
that works)?and then goes on to propose for our consideration. . . .
Well let me get out of the way here and turn the stage over to Stefan and
the ?Langeveld Option?.
-----Original Message-----
From: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Stefan Langeveld
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 3:12 PM
To: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [NewMobilityCafe] will congestion charge solve anything ?
At peak hours, city roads cannot accommodate bikes, cars and buses and
trams.
Either you try to squeeze out the (less well off) car drivers by CC, or you
look for an effective approach.
The governors of Bogota have solved the problem, in theory. Their Peak Time
Ban for Private Cars passed the referendum (51 % in favour , 34 against ,
oct '00).
Here's my interpretation :
Ban car use during the peak period (30 - 45 or 60 mins.)
Exceptions: emergencies, bus, EV, and maybe any car with 4 or more people.
Additional measure : traffic lights off.
Let's have an experiment with this before considering a congestion charge.
In comparison, the PTB is far easier to implement (thus cheaper) and far
more effective.
Stefan Langeveld
_____
From: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Simon Norton
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 9:56 PM
To: newmobilitycafe@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [NewMobilityCafe] will congestion charge solve anything ?
Of course congestion charging in Stockholm or any other city isn't a magic
wand
which will solve all problems. However the fact that something won't solve
all
problems isn't a case for not doing it, as is implied in the article by
James
Savage, and even more in Gabriel Roth's comment.
London's congestion charge is too limited both in space and time. Within the
last week I experienced near gridlock on a road in an area that is fairly
central, but outside not only the existing congestion charging zone but the
planned western extension. Then yesterday, a Sunday when the charge doesn't
operate, I experienced further holdups in Central London and nearly missed a
key
connection as a result, which would have delayed me a whole hour.
As far as pollution issues are concerned, buying clean cars does NOT reduce
pollution. What reduces pollution is scrapping dirty cars.
And all cars of whatever type contribute to the degradation of the urban
environment that discourages walking and cycling. This brings me to
Alexandra
Hamilton's question.
I think that a useful rule of thumb is that it is reasonable to expect
people to
walk up to 2 miles or to cycle up to 5 miles. But, as others have said, this
depends on conditions.
However, as far as I'm concerned, cycling in traffic-infested roads is akin
to
walking through a safari park. That's my personal view, but I suspect that
it is
shared by more people than cycling advocates think, and the latter will
never
succeed in promoting cycling until they realise that many people don't want
to
cycle in heavy traffic and it isn't reasonable to expect them to.
Walking is less of a problem because one's segregated from the traffic most
of
the time. For an attractive off-road route I'd be willing to do more than 2
miles. But even 2 miles is too long
(a) When one has to stop frequently at intersections where motor traffic has
overall priority, or
(b) When one's tired.
(a) applies in many parts of London, though not in my home city (Cambridge),
where I live about 2 miles from the railway station. Normally I walk there
from
my home -- partly because the bus link, though fairly frequent in the
daytime,
is too slow to offer much advantage. But, because of (b), I strongly resent
those times when I have to walk back late at night because the evening buses
are
so poor (last one is at 23.05, and before that they are only every half an
hour).
>From the station to my office is over 2 miles, and there isn't a direct bus.
During Monday to Friday until about 19.30 there's a bus which involves 13
minutes walk at one end and 4 at the other. At other times the journey is
sufficiently tedious that I avoid it. There used to be a nice route through
the
Botanic Gardens and college grounds, but nowadays it is blocked by locked
gates.
If we managed to secure significant (50% is the target I like to quote)
reductions in traffic levels through congestion charging, or by any other
means,
I am sure that many more people would start walking and cycling --
particularly
if some of the released roadspace was taken from motorists and reallocated
to
these people.
Incidentally, the guidelines for schoolchildren in the UK are that they are
entitled to transport when the nearest school which has a place for them is
over 2 miles away, for younger children, and over 3 miles away for older
ones (I
think that the critical age is 8).
Simon Norton
----
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Britton [mailto:eric.britton@ecoplan.org]
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2005 1:16 PM
Subject: Congestion charge will solve nothing
Published: 18th November 2005 -
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=2521&date=20051118
Congestion charge will solve nothing
Driving a car into central Stockholm is about to get expensive, and people
aren?t happy. Polls show that the majority of voters are against the trial
of congestion charging that starts in January, but there is surely a case
for encouraging people to use their cars less. Question is ? why single out
Stockholmers?
There are plenty of reasons for introducing road tolls ? reduced traffic on
the roads gives cleaner air, a more pleasant environment and makes it easier
to get around.
But on a political level, they are being introduced in Stockholm because the
Green Party made it a condition for supporting the Sweden?s Social Democrat
government after the 2002 election.
Many here have compared the introduction of congestion charging in Stockholm
to the road tolls introduced in London in 2001. Mayor Annika Billstr?m said
she wanted to learn from London?s experiences when starting to charge
motorists in the Swedish capital.
I moved to Stockholm from London just after congestion charges were
introduced there, and it?s worth pointing out two obvious but crucial
differences between the two cities.
In Stockholm, rush hour is still what it says on the box ? commuters face
delays for brief periods (and over short distances) in the morning and the
evening; in pre-toll central London, rush ?hour? seemed to last all day,
with lines of slow moving traffic continuing for mile after mile.
Another difference is that Stockholm already has relatively efficient public
transport; London?s transport system was creaking at the seams.
But there is no doubt that less traffic is good for the environment, both at
a local and at a global level. We may like using our cars ? indeed, many
people depend on them ? but we need to drastically reduce their impact on
the environment, not least by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide they
release into the atmosphere.
This is not going to be tackled by singling out motorists in big cities ? it
is something that needs to take in the bigger picture.
Indeed, in some ways Sweden is ahead of the field in the way it deals with
this. At a recent European conference on clean fuels held in Stockholm,
experts said Sweden was at the cutting edge ? 20,000
environmentally-friendly cars are expected to be sold here next year, more
per capita than any other European country.
But perhaps if Sweden is really going to make its contribution to reducing
the impact of cars on the environment, it should look at another idea being
floated in the UK at the moment: road pricing across the country.
This idea, to tax people depending on how much they drive, could really make
people think about alternatives such as car sharing, and lead to increased
pressure for improved public transport. Greenpeace has suggested that
drivers of ?clean cars? should get a reduction on the tax, while drivers of
gas guzzling 4x4s (and Green Party activists in their 1970s Volkswagens)
could pay extra.
So instead of slamming taxes on motorists in Stockholm, why not make
everyone pay for the real damage done to the environment?
The New Mobility Agenda is permanently at http://NewMobility.org
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From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Tue Nov 29 06:36:31 2005
From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton)
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:36:31 +0100
Subject: [sustran] The Sustainable Transport Debate of Principal Voices
Message-ID: <048b01c5f463$cd143380$6401a8c0@Home>
I would like to invite comment here on this contribution, one of the four which are intended to represent the core of the Principal Voices Sustainable Transport Dialogue. (See http://www.principalvoices.com/mexicocity.html for details). Leif Johansson is President and CEO of the Volvo Group (I would remind you that they mainly make busses and trucks, no longer cars). My question to you ? and to him since I invite you to coy your remarks to Stan Stalnaker (email above) who is organizing this event ? is how useful is his approach to the real challenges of sustainable mobility and well being in cities.
The Sustainable Transport Debate of Principal Voices
Introduced by Cornelis Van der Bom, President of Shell Mexico, and Nancy Kete , Director of EMBARQ, and moderated by CNN's Michael Holmes and Robert Friedman of FORTUNE Magazine, the discussion will focus on the issue of sustainable transport, with a particular emphasis on transport policy within urban environments. In what promises to be a fascinating and wide-ranging debate four 'principal voices' will share their views on this most complex and important of subjects: Adriana Lobo of Mexico City's Center for Sustainable Transport; Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum, Secretary of the Environment for Mexico City; Ellatuvalapil Sreedharan, MD of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation; and aviation expert Hugh Somerville.
Leif Johansson on a systematic approach to the future of transport
Q: The world increasingly relies on mobility, yet we must find ways to reduce its side effects?from pollution to urban sprawl and resource degradation. Where are the bridges between the two, and what specific initiatives can meet the need of the modern world: increased mobility with decreased harm to our surroundings?
A: Like many others, we have found that existing transport systems cannot meet current requirements. This represents a serious problem, considering how rapidly transport needs are growing as production becomes increasingly dependent upon just-in-time deliveries, urbanization gathers pace, particularly in the expanding economies of Asia, and as global trade increases.
We must deal with this growing need, while simultaneously planning the development of sustainable and efficient transport. This is essential for future economic growth.
In parallel with all the efforts being made to develop alternative drivelines and fuels, we at the Volvo Group feel that an initial step could be taken by establishing a systematic approach to transport.
By facilitating a systematic approach, the different types of transport involved could form parts of the same transport chain. This would make the entire transport system more efficient and reduce environmental impact.
The key is to stop focusing on each individual form of transport and to focus instead on a totality in which each form of transport plays its own important role and complements the rest. That is not what is happening today, as it is clearly illustrated within the EU.
Currently, different forms of transport are considered to be in competition with each other. We lose in purely economic terms, while simultaneously missing out on considerable potential environmental gains.
Establishing a systematic approach to transport is not easily achieved. It is a complex task, which will require cooperation between politicians, legislators, the industry, the scientific community and other stakeholders concerned. Trade blocks and nations must cooperate, as well as regions and cities at a local level.
Overall political decisions must be taken where long-term planning and major investments in infrastructure are required. This applies particularly to heavy road shipments that stand still in traffic jams, to inefficient and fragmented railway systems and to harbors that have reached their capacity ceiling.
Within the foreseeable future, we must also make the transition from fossil fuels to other alternatives, which will require new distribution systems for different types of fuels and, consequently, major investments.
However, there are measures that can be rapidly implemented to improve and streamline existing infrastructure.
In Europe, an effective but relatively simple measure, that would not require major investments, would be to increase the maximum permissible vehicle length on selected highways. This would decrease the number of trucks while the volume of goods would remain the same. Studies show that an extended maximum vehicle length of 25 meters would make it possible to reduce the number of shipments by a full 33% and emissions by slightly more than 30%.
Another relatively simple solution would be to enhance collective traffic by means of Bus Rapid Transport Systems, which have gained a strong foothold in South America as a result of their flexibility, cost-efficiency and increased safety.
The great advantage of this system over a subway is that it can offer the same standard of exclusive lanes, efficient terminals, high schedule frequency, modern information systems and advance ticket purchasing but with considerably lower investment costs. It allows routes to be adapted at relatively low cost as the city develops.
Since the buses return to the same depot after completing their route, they can readily be run on local alternatives to fossil fuels.
It should go without saying that I have enormous respect for the difficulties involved in introducing a systematic approach to the transport sector. It is difficult in Europe and, naturally, even more difficult on a global scale. I am personally convinced, however, that it is absolutely necessary to do so. We cannot afford to wait any longer, neither from the point of view of economic growth nor that of the environment. The decisions needed for this will require courage and a long-term vision.
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From et3 at et3.com Wed Nov 30 03:54:53 2005
From: et3 at et3.com (Daryl Oster)
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 13:54:53 -0500
Subject: [sustran] Re: The Sustainable Transport Debate of Principal Voices
In-Reply-To: <048b01c5f463$cd143380$6401a8c0@Home>
Message-ID: <200511291855.jATIssNJ019400@njbrsmtp1.vzwmail.net>
We will be leaving Florida on 2 December, to visit several et3 licensees
(and other persons and companies interested in ETT) along the East Coast
between Florida and Boston. We must be back on 20 December. If any of you
are interested in meeting, let us know and perhaps we can arrange a time and
place.
Daryl Oster
(c) 2005? all rights reserved.? ETT, et3, MoPod, "space travel on earth"
e-tube, e-tubes, and the logos thereof are trademarks and or service marks
of et3.com Inc.? For licensing information contact:?POB 1423, Crystal River
FL 34423-1423? (352)257-1310, et3@et3.com , www.et3.com
From operations at velomondial.net Wed Nov 30 22:42:33 2005
From: operations at velomondial.net (Velo Mondial)
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 14:42:33 +0100
Subject: [sustran] Velo Mondial wins "World Award for Sustainability"
Message-ID: <05a630e57e20e36ebc6a730e171741e7@pascal>
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