[sustran] Fair Transport - comments

[Eric.Britton]

Thanks Anzir,

 

As always your comments are first rate and challenging.  What I have
done just below is that I have stripped our the FT Labeling section in
the latest Jacobs Rule draft - you can see the full thing, today's
version, if you click the Open Blog link on the top menu of
http://www.newmobility.org - which may show a few advances over the
earlier draft notes on this.  I hope that what follows and indeed the
whole schmear will be worthy of further comments and suggestions. This
is collective intelligence at work and that, I am convinced, is our only
way out.

 

Eric Britton 

 

From: Fair Transport -Jacobs' Rules 

(http://newmobilityagenda.blogspot.com/2006/05/fair-transport-jacobs-rul
es-tribute.html)

Fair Transport Labeling 

This is a proposal concerning which we would be grateful to have your
comments: 

Specifically, it presents a kind of eco-labeling concept that has
certain similarities with Fairtrade labeling (see below for a short
definition), but it is entirely focused on the identification and
support of concepts and programs that are able to meet or show
meaningful progress in terms of a certain number of specific performance
and other social, economic and technical parameters. 

Fairtrade labelling is a  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand> brand
designed to allow  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumers> consumers to
identify goods which meet agreed standards. The system involves
independent auditing of producers to ensure standards are met. Companies
offering products that meet the standards are licensed to use the fair
trade label. Standards are set by the independent NGO Fairtrade
Labelling Organizations International on behalf of a number of national
bodies for each type of product. Typically standards cover
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Labor_standard&action=edit>
labor standards,  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_standard>
environmental standards, and stable pricing.

>From  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairtrade>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairtrade (with some slight rearrangement)

Who/what qualifies:

*	Types of vehicles
*	Specific vehicles
*	Power and fuel sources
*	Transportation systems (such as LRT, BRT, paratransit,
carsharing, shared taxi implementation, etc.)
*	Public space and interface projects 
*	Towns, cities, neighborhoods
*	Production systems
*	Innovative programs (Local, regional, etc.)
*	Noteworthy individual contributions
*	Media/productions



Criteria:

*	Jacobs' Rules (and that's all!) 

 

Organization and delivery:

*	Process?
*	Funding?
*	Evaluation/verification?
*	Prizes?
*	International Advisory Council -
<http://www.ecoplan.org/kyoto/challenge/panel.htm>
http://www.ecoplan.org/kyoto/challenge/panel.htm

 

Fair Transport Label credibility:

1. How meaningful is the Fair Transport label?

2. How do we verify that the label standards are met?

3. Is the meaning of the label consistent?

4. Are the label standards publicly available?

5. Is information about the organization publicly available?

6. Is the organization behind the label free from conflict of interest?

7. Was the label developed with broad public and unbiased expert input?

 

Interim Comment: The idea as I see it will not be to try to hand a Fair
Transport label on every half decent project or implementation all over
the place, but rather to begin to create a kind of 'honor role' of
places and ways of doing things that the world needs to know more bout.
Now I am aware that there are plenty of Best Practices et al projects
all over the place, but what may make the Fair Transport Label a
meaningful addition, is that it lends itself to a more explicit, agreed,
respected set of criteria and process.

 

*     *     *

 

 

On Behalf Of Anzir Boodoo
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 12:24 PM
To: NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Fair Transport - comments 

 

Eric,

 

If you are thinking of a "Fair Transport" mark akin to the "Fair  

Trade" mark, there are several additional comments to make which  

relate solely to the mark itself.

 

In the UK, there has been some backlash against the Fairtrade  

Foundation, who administer the mark, with a number of coffee and  

chocolate producers particularly arguing that it is all very well to  

say the trading of a product is done fairly, but that gives no  

guarantee of the quality of the product (for proof of this, see some  

of the lower end Fair Trade products such as some supermarket own  

brands). In addition, the business ethics of the retailer can be seen  

in some eyes to negate buying Fair Trade products from, say, Wal- 

Mart, on an ethical perspective.

 

What this means from the perspective of "Fair Transport" is that in  

theory there are two planes of conflict:

 

1. Are the people in charge of the accreditation trusted?

 

2. Is "Fair" always "Fair" regardless of who is operating the system?  

Are there political or other reasons why something that might  

otherwise be "fair" can justifiably be called "unfair"?

 

Perhaps I am overstating the problem here, but I think it's  

potentially very serious. We could lose a lot of credibility very  

early on if we (perhaps accidentally) upset the bees some people have  

in their bonnets (I don't know how well that lot will translate).

 

To start off with, what I understand that you, Eric, propose here is  

an overarching concept that can be quantified, at least in a way in  

which it is possible to provide an accreditation that will be  

recognised the world over.

 

May I suggest that instead of going down the potentially very  

complicated route of deciding whether this bus service or that  

cycleway package in fairer than the other, that we follow another  

Fairtrade strand that is becoming popular in the UK at least by  

accrediting "Fair Transport Towns" (and cities) where policies and  

the implementation of plans have favoured a people centric approach  

to transport. This would be awarded to the municipality and recognise  

a complete integrated package and "attitude" towards urban transport.

 

Thanks

-- 

Anzir Boodoo MRes MILT Aff. IRO

transcience, 72 Staplehurst, BRACKNELL RG12 8DD

 

 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20060504/a9c8a6a7/attachment.html
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 15768 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20060504/a9c8a6a7/attachment.jpe