[sustran] UN "ambassador" for public transport?

Eric Britton eric.britton at ecoplan.org
Mon May 14 02:01:07 JST 2007


This is a splendid idea Lew, Lee and all, with one possible useful
adjustment:

The problem is that turgid phrase "public transport". I am quite sure that
we need to find a title that reaches well beyond those confines.

The phrase "public transport" has been around for a long time, and it
invariably conjures up visions of buses and rail cars. Kind of an 'old left'
vision of what it is needed to "fix" society, a variant of the ABC (Anything
But Cars) syndrome.  It also lacks sex appeal, and if you want proof of that
all you have to do is check out what the various groups around the world
that have 'public transport' in their title focus on, do, and how they do
it. Altogether far from sufficient from dealing with the mobility and
related life quality problem of people living and working (and trying to
breath) in Global South cities.

Of course those of you who know me are likely to guess that I will now
propose "New Mobility", and while it really would do the job there may well
be a problem with recognition. We do want a moniker that you don't have to
spend allday explaining to people. And as to "Sustainable Transport", well I
am afraid that we have all seen over the years that it has existed as a word
that it's a very hard concept to get across.  Recognizably is important here
too.

So may I suggest that the organizers of this great idea, and maybe some of
us as well, might do well to ponder a phrase that will do the job that needs
to be done.

Let me end with a story that elucidates a bit of all this. The other day
over at another group on gender and transport (www.gatnet.net) in which I
participate and which I much admire, one of the really very clever and good
members of the group advanced in our discussions of just this, the idea that
maybe since we were trying to sell a tough concept, we might want to
consider calling it "fashionable transport".  The arguments behind it were
really interesting and once you had worked your way through them really
close to bullet proof - but at the end of the day of course the adjective
just doesn't do the necessary job.

But it's good to keep thinking, and who better than all of us, eh?.

Eric Britton




On Behalf Of Lee Schipper
Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2007 6:15 PM

Enrique Penalosa?

Lee Schipper
Director of Research
EMBARQ, the WRI Center
for Sustainable Transport
10 G St. NE
Washington DC, 20002
+1202 729 7735
FAX +1202 7297775
www.embarq.wri.org

PS. Also to note: Bruntland was pressed into service recently, I think for
Climate.
The time I met her in Norway at a meeting her Volvo was kept outside
with the engine running the whole time!

On Behalf Of Lew Fulton

Hello all,

A UN colleague of mine is interested in exploring finding someone with star
power who is (or could logically be) an advocate for public transport and
might be interested in becoming a "UN Ambassador" on the topic.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Lew

Lew Fulton
Program Officer, Sustainable Transport
Division of GEF Coordination
UN Environment Programme
PO Box 30552-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
tel: +254 20 762 3257 (From Europe and N. America, you can dial via Italy,
often a better connection: +39 0831 24 3000, wait for voice then dial 124
3257)
fax: +254 20 762 4041/42
lew.fulton at unep.org
www.unep.org/gef




More information about the Sustran-discuss mailing list