[sustran] Re: Old Mobility rules - 5 kinds of cities

Sujit Patwardhan sujitjp at gmail.com
Thu Jan 25 15:53:02 JST 2007


25 January 2007



Thanks Eric for this excellent exercise. Pune I would say is in Category 3
and somewhat stuck there. I will write in some detail soon.
Warm regards,
--
Sujit




On 1/25/07, eric.britton at free.fr <eric.britton at free.fr> wrote:
>
> I should like to propose to you a thinking exercise. It works like this.
>
> Looking at them from a sustainability or Old/New Mobility perspective, I
> would
> propose that there are basically five gross categories of cities in the
> world
> today. Moreover, it's my guess that as you work your way down this list
> you find
> that the number of cities in each progressive category grows much smaller.
>
> Here it is in a nutshell, with "worse" of course meaning more traffic,
> more CO2
> et al each year.
>
> Category 1.     Those cities who are doing nothing, getting worse fast,
> and
> don't seem to care
>
> Category 2.     Those doing nothing, getting worse. . .  but who are
> starting to
> worry. And who just don't know what to do about it.
>
> Category 3.     Those who overall are continuing to do worse (i.e., who
> continue
> to have growing traffic, more CO2, etc.), but have started to do a few
> better
> things - examples, building some pedestrianization, cycling paths, buying
> more
> buses, improved intermodal links, traffic engineering to smooth flows and
> provide most consistent speeds.  And above all talking a lot about it. But
> who
> from the bottom line are still spending their money in the wrong (old)
> way, such
> that the only real impact of all this is to provide a cover for not really
> attacking the problem at the root.
>
> Category 4.     Those who have decided explicitly to break with past
> practices
> and are starting to do long lists of good things. About these there are
> three
> important things to be said: First that they are an extremely small
> minority.
> Second, in every case I know, the basic bottom line traffic and
> environmental
> indicators continue to move in the wrong direction.  And finally when you
> look
> at the budgets they are still at the end of the day spending more on roads
> and
> parking than on the rest.
>
> Category 5.     Cities how have bought into the New Mobility Agenda and
> have
> adopted an aggressive integrated retrofit strategy for the sector with
> clearly
> defined, publicly available benchmarks and indicators of both micro and
> macro
> progress.  Who have radically revised their budgets in the transport and
> related
> sectors, and are spending more on the new measures and programs than on
> road
> building, etc.
>
> To close with three questions/requests.
>
> *       First to invite your comments, corrections, critical remarks,
> refinements etc on the above.
> *       Second, to ask you where in this rough ranking you would put the
> city or
> cities you know best.
> *       And finally, to ask if you can tell me one single city in the
> world who
> have made it to the final level --  one in which the move to
> sustainability is
> currently on track and, in being so, able to provide a shining example for
> the
> rest. (Though we have some great examples of cities that are real trying
> to dig
> in at Cat. 4, and that already is a wonderful start. After all, it's a big
> shift
> and we have to start somewhere.).
>
> Kind thanks.
>
>                 Eric Britton
>
>
>
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-- 
------------------------------------------------------
Sujit Patwardhan
sujit at vsnl.com
sujitjp at gmail.com

"Yamuna",
ICS Colony,
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Tel: 25537955
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