[sustran] Re: On the politics of transportation -- and breaking gridlock

[Carlos F. Pardo]

Joao's email is interesting.

If I can use the black hat for a moment, I'd say that Joao is right but 
not 100%. Yes, political will is one of the great requirements of 
successful improvements in urban transport for a city. However, I'm not 
sure if it's the real first step, rather than local technical knowledge. 
For example, sometimes (seldom, but sometimes) you'll see a city where 
there is all the political will to improve the transport situation, but 
the technical expertise is not there and, in the rush to have something 
done to "improve" (and for the political figure to show that he or she 
has done something), you get pretty mediocre results which may end up 
worsening the situation.

The question is how to arrive at that political will. Some of us working 
on this have found that direct contact with policymakers with visual 
products (photos, videos) and key stats are useful to make politicians 
change their minds, at least in principle. High-ranking figures and 
institutions that present this information (e.g. the "Peñalosa effect") 
are also very (very very very!) effective. But then again, you need to 
also find a way to give the expertise to the locals. Otherwise, 80% of 
the budget will go to expensive consultants.

Best regards,

Carlos F. Pardo
Coordinador de Proyecto- Project Coordinator
GTZ - Proyecto de Transporte Sostenible (SUTP, SUTP-LAC)
Cl 93A # 14-17 of 708
Bogotá D.C., Colombia
Tel/fax:  +57 (1) 236 2309  Mobile: +57 (3) 15 296 0662
carlos.pardo at sutp.org   www.sutp.org 



Eric Britton (Commons) wrote:
> (The following note came in this morning from João Lacerda of Transporte
> Ativo n Rio de Janeiro. I am sure that these are familiar themes to many of
> you out there, but it is important that we keep them in mind.  Eric
> Britton.)
>
> Dear Eric,
>
> First of all thanks for your help concerning the Clinton Foundation
> activities here in Rio. But reading your draft about Paris and having
> Rio´s daily life (concerning mostly transportation) I see so much room
> for improvement here. The biggest problem is that we lack the most
> needed leadership to put simple and effective matters into place.
>
> Rio´s inhabitants (the Cariocas) live quite frightened and the car
> represents a lot. If I´m not mistaken, we are second to São Paulo in the
> biggest fleet of bullet proof cars. Those who can, protect themselves
> more and more, closing their eyes to city needs. With such a scared
> elite it is quite hard, politically, to implement the needed change in
> behavior. From what I can see, city planners here lack the daily
> knowledge of how the city works for those who don´t use the private car.
> In an informal conversation I once had with Enrique Peñalosa he told me
> the hardest part about implementing the BRT system in Bogotá was dealing
> with private bus owners. The complexity here is close to that, we have
> fewer bus operators, but still a very powerful group.
>
> Despite the difficulties, I tend to believe that, with political will,
> improvements in mega cities from the south are capable of reaching quite
> big goals.
>
> With all that in mind, I leave you a question that I can´t see any
> simple answer. How to build political will for the New Mobility? In our
> relationship with the city administration they seldom look down at our
> ideas for improvements in bicycle mobility, but it always seem to take
> anywhere from 2 to 10 years for ideas to become reality. Are there any
> good examples scattered around of "pressure in the fast lane" for better
> mobility in any world city?
>
> Last but not least, in case you might want to work on your Portuguese
> reading skills, one of Transporte Ativo´s members has recently made a
> brief cycling planning manual for his hometown.
> http://blog.transporteativo.org.br/2007/05/30/projeto-cicloviario/ or
> the full document in
> http://www.ta.org.br/site/banco/7manuais/arquivos3/plan_ciclo_moc.pdf
>
> Sorry for the quite long email. And if there is any objective need you
> think I might help, just let me know.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> João Guilherme Lacerda
> ----------------------
> Transporte Ativo - www.ta.org.br
> Membro do Fórum Brasileiro de Mobilidade por Bicicleta
> Prêmio ANTP-Abradibi de Estímulo ao Uso da Bicicleta 2005
> Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
> +55 (21) 9588 5618
> Skype: Dysprosio
>
> -------------------------------------------------------- 
> IMPORTANT NOTE to everyone who gets sustran-discuss messages via YAHOOGROUPS. 
>
> Please go to http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership rights. The yahoogroups version is only a mirror and 'members' there cannot post to the real sustran-discuss (even if the yahoogroups site makes it seem like you can). Apologies for the confusing arrangement.
>
> ================================================================
> SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). 
>
>