[sustran] "eternal vigilance".

[Eric Britton]

Dear Friends,

 

This (just below)  is an interesting letter which has come in this morning
in response to that mailing hear you received last week on New Mobility
Media.  It is of course encouraging to hear those good words about our
collaborative work, but it is that fourth paragraph to which I would
particularly draw your attention.

 

When we look around our troubled world in the hope of finding some
inspiration for ourselves in the form of cities that are getting it right,
there are certain number of examples which many of us look at with
appreciation -- and of course the city of Copenhagen is all it has
accomplished over the last four decades to create a sustainable city is one
of those right up at the top.  

 

But this word of caution is not just about Copenhagen. The point I think
that Aase makes in such a telling everyday manner here, is similar to
insider criticisms that come in over the last months from those who really
do care about and understand the complexities of sustainable cities in
sustainable transportation, but who also live in a place to which many in
the world look on as an example.  We have received similar critical
commentaries from insiders concerning current backsliding trends and actions
in Curitiba, Bilbao, and Portland, just to take three stellar examples out
of a hat.

 

What's the point?  Well the point is that clearly good ideas are not enough,
successful implementations are not enough.  It is quite one thing to get a
terrific project or program off the ground, and quite another for these
successes to be sustained year after year after year.  As we can see in city
after city, in case after case, after the first rounds of success it can be
so easy to backtrack and let slip even the best projects, policies and
actions.  What is called for in addition to all the great things that take
place to make the good project happen --  but this is perhaps something that
we are not so good  at, yet --  is no less than "eternal vigilance".
Citizens, groups, watchdogs, who do not accept complacency as their role,
but rather who understand that continuous attention to detail and
performance is vital if the city really is to be a sustainable place.  If I
were to see an analogy, would be very much that of the responsibility of
parents.

 

One of the underlying problems with the transportation sector wherever you
happen to be this morning is that it has such a long past and during much of
that decisions and actions have been focused for the most part on
"infrastructure", the physical rather than the human side of the sector.
This more or less magic word which is receiving a lot of attention in
transportation circles in the United States these days as the various
interests fight for what they believe is the correct path for the incoming
Obama administration, tends to equate mobility with construction and
hardware.   Many of the transportation experts are claiming that what we
need is more money for highways, roads and bridges, metros and rolling
stock, and in expanded deficit support for traditional public transit
operations.  This plus a "get the job done" attitude is insufficiently
attentive to what is actually going on at the people and actual performance
end, including in the long-term.  This is not, I maintain, the mindset that
is appropriate for 21st-century cities given the very large challenges and
constraints that surround our transportation and mobility choices.  We need
to do a lot better than that.

 

Which brings me back to Sujit Patwardhan's famous words to this forum of
almost a decade ago now: "we are in this for the long slog".  Well if we are
in this for the long slog we better be eternally vigilant too. Aase.  Thank
you

 

Eric Britton

- - - - 

 

From: Aase Harrekilde-Petersen [mailto:aase at harrekilde.dk] 
Sent: Monday, 15 December 2008 00:58



Dear Eric!

 

I got around to read the lot yesterday, and I must say - I am very impressed
by the huge amount of important work you have done in regard to the New
Mobility. In the middle of the reading it, I sort of got completely
sidetracked by finding myself getting involved with other videos as well -
like World Made by Hand, by James Howard Kunstler and the almost 30 minute
long speech by Stephen Petranek: 10 Ways the World Could End. I didn't know
of these two guys beforehand, and they both show (in the midst of their
serious matter)a peculiar sense of humour that I like!

 

But most of all, I was impressed of all that has been done in Paris! Both
the Velib/Velo Liberte idea and the Mobilien, would be of major importance
for any city world wide - if only the politicians could get their .. in gear
- so to speak, we could all benefit from it.

 

Really many years ago, I read about a politician, a mayor of a medium big
city in the Netherlands, who dared both his collages and the public by doing
the opposite of what they all expected from him: Instead of giving them the
second autobahn they wanted to and from the city, he declared: All busses
from the suburbs into the city and vice versa, will be free of charge! As a
result, they didn't have the need for an extra motor highway. Everybody
thought the mayor to be a bit of a nut, but at the end, they loved him!
Sorry I can't remember his name nor which city he came from.

 

We are struggling by massive problems by the car traffic from the suburbs
into Copenhagen every single morning - and of course the other way in the
after-work-hours-times. Still, they haven't done enough by lowering the
ticket price for a train ride or to ride the busses - rather the opposite!
Oh yes, Copenhagen was one of the first cities to make "walking streets"
which from day one have been extremely popular, but the traffic on our
roads, nope sir!

 

I admire the work you and your new mobility partners are doing, but I am not
doing much myself. Oh yes, I walk or bike to the supermarket though, and use
the car only when going the 100 -125 km from where I live to Copenhagen - or
when going north of the city - like maybe 4-5 times per year. I am involved
in a holistic non-profit association I was a co-founder of, back in 1995.

 

Best regards, from Aase (a Norwegian in Denmark)

 

 

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