[sustran] Re: [NewMobilityCafe] Re: New Mobility Citizen Poll for Your City- A ProposalforDiscussion

[Todd Alexander Litman]

On the other hand, on-street parking is the most efficient type of 
parking that can be provided. Most off-street spaces only serve a 
single destination and so have low load factors, while on-street 
spaces serve many destinations and have high load factors, and so are 
more efficient overall. Also, off-street spaces require driveways 
which use a portion of the curb and cross sidewalks. For these 
reasons many urban planners now support the provision of a maximum 
number of on-street spaces and a minimum number of off-street spaces 
(for discussion of ways to use parking facilities more efficiently 
see my new report "Parking Management" 
(http://www.vtpi.org/park_man.pdf ) and book "Parking Management Best 
Practices" (http://www.planning.org/bookservice/description.htm?BCODE=APMB ).

If the choice is really between sidewalks and on-street parking I 
would generally choose providing a sidewalk, but it is desirable to 
provide on-street parking where possible.


Best wishes,
-Todd Litman


At 07:01 AM 4/24/2006, Lee Schipper wrote:
>Years ago a good Swedish Transport economist posed the same 
>question. by measuring how much time people spent walking to where
>there was green space, he figured out that providing on-street 
>parking rather than more green space and broader sidewalks led to a real
>economic loss. His advice was to provide parking only in private, 
>commercial areas (he also looked at how much off-street parking cost).
>
>One benefit of such an approach * say every other street in NYCity 
>had no parking...just bays for deliveries here and there * front 
>yards would reappaear
>and children and families could play in the streets more safely!
>
> >>> whook at itdp.org 4/24/2006 9:44:09 AM >>>
>Eric,
>
>
>
>Paul white and i had a related idea over lunch the other day, and we were
>wondering if this has ever been tried.
>
>
>
>What if all the property owners and permanent tenants living along a block
>of urban street were given the choice by the municipality of whether they
>wanted the space in front of their house dedicated to car parking or
>sidewalk?  How many residents would vote for car parking?   It might be done
>something like this.  The department of transport could determine the needed
>road capacity, but the parking units would be a function of ultra local
>democracy.  What if as a result, each permanent resident or registered
>voter, or even just each property tax payer, on a city block got to
>determine the democratic use of the public space in front of their property.
>Since it is currently most of the time dedicated to parking, at least in the
>US, even if only 10% voted to get rid of the parking, that would be 10% of
>the parking units we could reclaim.  On my block i would guess that maybe
>50% would opt for a wider sidewalk. Then a block association could be free
>to contract an architect to redesign the street with that same number of
>units of parking.
>
>
>
>I am wondering if there are any successful examples of this sort of ultra
>local democracy?
>
>
>
>Walter
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org
>[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf
>Of Eric Britton
>Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2006 12:34 PM
>To: NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com; Sustran Resource Centre
>Cc: CarFreeCafe at yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [sustran] New Mobility Citizen Poll for Your City- A Proposal
>forDiscussion
>
>
>
>New Mobility Citizen Poll for Your City- A Proposal for Discussion
>
>
>
>When it comes to creating more viable and fairer transport systems, and
>behind that our real objective: more agreeable and more sustainable cities,
>we have one recurrent problem that we can perhaps deal with if we put our
>heads together.
>
>
>
>As is well known, whenever any given 'soft transport', "public space" or
>some type of "not quite so many cars" initiative is proposed in any given
>place, the first and most striking thing that happens is the howls of
>protest that immediately emerge from  all those who claim that their
>democratic entitlements are being threatened by, as they often like to put
>it, some small group of arrogant bike-happy  technocrats and their fellow
>eco-travelers. And since the media always likes a good cat fight, these
>righteous citizens often dominate the news. For the rest, for you and me and
>others like us, hey! we're the Silent Minority.  The absolutely
>disenfranchised.
>
>
>
>Well, it does not always have to be like that and here is one proposal
>concerning which I would like to invite discussions and refinement - all as
>a prelude to giving this idea a couple of trial runs in one or more
>pioneering cities.
>
>
>
>The idea is to carry out an annual open citizen survey of attitudes and
>preferences concerning transport policy and practice (and the investments
>that go with it) in your city.  The results should be made widely available
>through old and new media, and brought to the fore of the attention of the
>politicians, administrators and policy makers in your city. Here without any
>pretense of it being anything other than a grain of sand to get us going is
>my draft proposal for content for quick mini-survey that can be administered
>by phone, email or on any street corner by volunteers:
>
>
>
>Note to the reader: In a first instance, before digging into the details, I
>would like to ask the members of this fine group: (a) is this an idea that
>is worth pursuing; (b) are there some (better)examples that we should be
>looking at and learning from. Then once we have a feel for this as a useful
>activity, we can then start to see how we might together fine tune a good
>questionnaire and routine.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>1, Draft Mini-survey (for comment and . . . )
>
>All questions where appropriate to be answered simply by a 1 (yes), 0 (don't
>know), -or -1 (no), which will facilitate aggregation and overview.
>
>
>
>1.      Name
>
>2.      City of residence
>
>3.      M/F
>
>4.      Age: <15; 15-30; 30-65; >65
>
>5.      Do you own/drive a car?
>
>6.      My city government has a coherent, announced transportation policy:
>
>7.      I believe that this is a wise and well executed policy.
>
>8.      We need to spend more money to build more roads and more parking as
>a main transport priority.
>
>9.      We need to give much more attention and spend more money on "soft
>transport" and related life quality initiatives (examples: better support of
>pedestrians and cyclists, traffic calming,  more public transport, new forms
>of shared transport, ITC substitutes for displacement.)
>
>10.  It is possible for people to live here well and easily without having
>their own car.
>
>11.  If they want my vote -- all candidates for local public office should
>take a firm stand on their transportation policies, and issue as part of
>their platform a signed personal statement indicating their support of more
>sustainable  transport  projects and programs.
>
>
>
>Your eventual brief comments or suggestions: ____________________________
>
>____________________________________________________________________________
>____________________________________________________________________________
>____________________________________________________________________________
>____________________________________________________
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>2. How to execute - Thoughts on
>
>
>
>*         This maybe is pushing it for length. If it can't be administered
>in three minutes, it probably will not do the job. Try it out on a couple of
>friends and let us know.
>
>*         There is plenty of evidence that people tend to create and
>administrate questionnaires that one way or another tend to elicit their
>favored response. We should meticulously  avoid doing this, and in our
>selection of questions - and people to be queried. If it ain't neutral, it
>is not worth a lot. So careful, eh?
>
>*         The simple mental model I have for this is an excel table with
>names in columns, etc. All leading to easy sorting and sub-total
>
>*         To have a real impact, it will best be administered at some fixed
>time.
>As examples: on Earth Day, in cooperation with any local Car Free Days,
>European Moblity Week, etc.)
>
>*         The procedures and information should be fully public so that
>there can be no charges of rigging the returns.  (Expect in Belarusia and
>Florida in which it is OK.)
>
>*         Also involve schools, various clubs and groups, senior citizens,
>handicapped, pedestrian and cyclist naturally but also take it into
>hospitals, prisons, old people's homes, jails, and the homeless.
>
>*         Local media partnerships, and even strong involvement by them,
>will be most useful.
>
>*         I would propose that the on-street interviews be carried out on
>one day - but that an entire week be given over to the entire procedures.
>
>*         The results should be publicly announced.
>
>*         And then all those in local government should be asked to comment
>and give their appreciations of what this means. (Note: Our friends in South
>Africa with their first Car Free Days last year did a good job of this which
>we might usefully consult)
>
>*         We propose that this be an annual exercise.
>
>*         And that to the extent possible and sensible, we might want to
>think about questions and formats that are sufficiently parallel to allow us
>to aggregate.
>
>*         BTW, is there or has there ever been anything like this in your
>city? Neighborhood? That we can learn from?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>3. Parallel in-death Survey
>
>
>
>It may be a good idea to have a more in depth survey for those people
>disposed to spend more time with us on this.
>
>
>
>The trick will be to determine who, how, when,  - and how used?
>
>
>
>Here are a few first thoughts on this to get us going:
>
>
>
>*         Employment, social status
>
>*         Where live/where work
>
>*         If it were faster and cheaper to get to work or school by some way
>other than driving a car (in traffic) would you be willing to consider it?
>
>*         When was the last time you took a bus or rail transit?
>
>*         Used a bike to get to work or school?
>
>*        D you think that it might be a good idea for your city to publish
>and maintain a "sustainable transportation webpage" that reports on key
>indicators including traffic deaths and incidents (by gravity and type), CO2
>or other clean air indicators, parametric indicators of infrastructure and
>performance of NMT options, etc.
>
>*        Would you be willing to work, say, 20 hours over a period of one or
>two months.  as a volunteer to support better researched specific projects
>in your neighborhood.
>
>*        Etc.
>
>*        Etc
>
>*
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Check in here via the homepage at http://www.newmobility.org
>To post message to group: NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com
>But please think twice before posting to the group as a whole
>(It might be that your note is best sent to one person?)
>
>
>
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
><*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
>     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewMobilityCafe/
>
><*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>     NewMobilityCafe-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com
>
><*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
>     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>


Sincerely,
Todd Alexander Litman
Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org)
litman at vtpi.org
Phone & Fax 250-360-1560
1250 Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, CANADA
"Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20060424/13b68dbb/attachment-0003.html