[sustran] Re: WorldTransport Forum "The Future Intelligent Transport Systems initiative" - one more short-sighted interest-fed government-industry boondoggle

[Andrew Curry]

Eric

I need to declare an interest here before I start to respond: I was one of
the futures consultants who worked with the UK Foresight, which is an
independent body inside the Department of Trade and Industry, to create
(with a wide range of stakeholders) the scenarios component of the
Intelligent Infrastructure Systems project. All the outputs are now online
at www.foresight.gov.uk. I'm responding here personally rather than
professionally.

Full disclosure over. The ITS contracts are only a part of the work being
done to develop transport policy in the context of future constraints. The
soft systems work which underpins the scenarios (which wasn't done by me) is
robust and challenging - and looks at the whole context. A number of the
stakeholders and advisers - including some well-respected social scientists
- ensured that the agenda of the project was as much about alternatives to
mobility as easing/encouraging mobility. Without getting into the detail of
the four scenarios of themselves, at the heart of each of them is a
different 'core driver' of transport use and policy; from ICT innovation, to
built environment, to high resource cost, to carbon controls/road rationing.

I also know, through my work (and therefore can't say much more) that the
Department of Transport is engaging with other government departments in the
UK to try to develop a cross-government view of future transport policy
which extends well beyond the relatively narrow part of the work which was
mentioned at the ITS. But the Intelligent Transport Systems Congress isn't
really the right place to talk about the other stuff.

Eric, if you've looked at the scenarios and systems work, and the science
summaries, I'm happy to have a debate about whether it covers the right sort
of areas. If you haven't, would you like to do that?

With best wishes

Andrew Curry

On 10/10/06, Eric Britton <eric.britton at ecoplan.org> wrote:
>
>  PS: Harsh criticism as this may seem, my goal here is a very positive
> one. Read on.
>
>
>
> *Boondoggle*: Hate to say it John but to my mind this is but one more
> short-sighted interest-fed government-industry boondoggle: in short the
> winners are once again circling their wagons and gaily divvying up the
> accumulating spoils while the planet and the well being of ordinary people
> continue to come under grave attack every day as the establishment continues
> in all impunity to ignore the real bottom line. Which believe me is not
> "intelligent" transport systems.
>
>
>
> *Oops*: The fact that such a program is further interest-driven by members
> of the academic community, who to my mind should have a far deeper
> understanding of the gravity of the situation we face in this sector and its
> many components and spin-offs, is, in its own way, quite grave.  Dear
> academic colleagues. May I respectfully ask that you step back from this
> kind of thing until we have made at least some palpable progress on the
> terrible matters at hand.  Your intellect, skills and energy are much needed
> on far more important things.
>
>
>
> *Syndrome*: This is part of a larger syndrome to which we have
> collectively subscribed without quite realizing it. Namely, our sector has
> fallen victim to an egregious Cartesian tendency to parcelize the whole into
> many bits and pieces beyond the limits of any common sense (just look at the
> organigram of any ministry of transport to see how that works) and then
> sub-optimize this and that with gay abandon. Thus we have roads and streets
> that have been optimized through construction and yes! electronics for speed
> and throughput, when the communities around them have quite a different set
> of requirements. And what could be a better indication of this than our
> exchanges of yesterday on the subject of the New York times article  'Delays
> mire U.S. road project in Aceh '  look at Robert Cowherd's telling
> comments on this in the morning mails here. (And BTW, can anyone think of a
> good name for this syndrome?)
>
>
>
> *Refocus*: The fact is that we are now at a fork in the road, and if there
> is any one thing that can help us make a choice as to where we are now going
> to invest our energies and brilliance, it is to the following simple
> question which to my mind should stand first in line every time any public
> authority is going to use our hard earned taxpayer money (it's ours, not
> theirs) to fund stuff that is going to shape the future. "What can be done
> via this line of action (in their case ITS) so that we can put those
> technologies to use in THE NEXT TWO TO THREE YEARS TO GET VISIBLE RESULTS
> AND PATTERNS OF POLICY AND PRACTICE THAT CAN BE REPLCIATED BROADLY AND AT
> LOW COST WORLD WIDE.  And if your program is not structured to respond to
> this usefully, then out it goes. We can look at the long term when we have
> some breathing space. But this is not the situation in October 2006 and will
> not be surly for the remainder of this decade.
>
>
>
> So off you go Department for Transport, Department of Trade and Industry
> and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and all your good
> friends from industry: redline your mandate along these lines and you have
> something really useful there.  Keep us informed. We too are part of the
> solution. Work with us on it.
>
>
>
> Eric Britton
>
>
>
> PS2. Dear colleagues. Am I horribly wrong in this? If so it would not be
> the first time. So let me put it in front of our various peer groups here so
> that we can get different views on this.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> A radical new approach to funding highly innovative and wide ranging
>
> research into key long term transport issues was announced yesterday by
>
> Minister for Transport Stephen Ladyman and Lord Sainsbury, DTI Minister
>
> for Science and Innovation, at the Intelligent Transport Systems World
>
> Congress in London.
>
>
>
>
>
> The new approach to research is expected to result in far greater
>
> Advances than simply awarding funding to a single organisation. It will
> allow a
>
> small number of consortia with wide ranging expertise to work in
>
> collaboration to tackle some of the major transport challenges we face
>
> over the next decade.
>
>
>
>
>
> The Department for Transport, Department of Trade and Industry and the
>
> Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council will jointly provide
>
> £9 million of funding, with a further £3 million expected from industry
>
> itself.
>
>
>
> The Future Intelligent Transport Systems initiative is intended to
>
> stimulate new ideas, concepts, products or services that will:
>
>
>
>     * Further improve safety on our roads by reducing collisions,
>
>  casualties and deaths;
>
>
>
>     * Result in better, more reliable, accessible and safer public
>
>  transport services;
>
>
>
>     * Lead to even greater efficiency in the road freight industry;
>
>
>
>     * Improve road network management; and,
>
>
>
>     * Provide better travel information, allowing travellers to make
>
>  informed choices on how and when to travel.
>
>
>
> Further details can be found within the call for Expressions of
>
> Interest to participate, which can be found at:
>
> <
> http://www.dti.gov.uk/innovation/tech-priorities-uk/innovation_platforms/page33795.html
> http://www.dti.gov.uk/innovation/tech-priorities-uk/innovation_platforms/page33795.html
>
>
>
>
>
> Jon Maybury
>
> Innovation Platform Manager
>
>
>
> Intelligent Transport Systems
>
> Department of Trade and Industry
>
> Office of Science and Innovation (OSI)
>
> 151 Buckingham Palace Road,
>
> London SW1W 9SS
>
>
>
> Tel: 0207 215 1196
>
> Mobile: 07810 558891
>
> Home Office: 01252 819610
>
> Email: <mailto:jon.maybury at dti.gsi.gov.uk <jon.maybury at dti.gsi.gov.uk>
> jon.maybury at dti.gsi.gov.uk
>
> Email (on the move):
>
> <mailto:jmaybury1 at googlemail.com <jmaybury1 at googlemail.com>
> jmaybury1 at googlemail.com
>
>
>
> Web: <
> http://www.dti.gov.uk/innovation/tech-priorities-uk/innovation_platfor
>
> ms/index.htmlhttp://www.dti.gov.uk/innovation/tech-priorities-uk/innov
>
> ation_platforms/index.html
>
>
>
>
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email from Andrew Curry
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